Hi J.M.Wasilewski, on Wed, 30 Aug 2000 14:05:53 +0100 you wrote...
> Does anyone in NTL's UK-coverage area have any experience of switching from
> BT or whatever to NTL's cable-service?
> For everyone's information, I believe that NTL offers a service comprising:
> 1. cable-TV
> 2. Cable-telecoms
> 3. 56k modem-compliant internet connection
Correct, plus also cable "modems" in some areas.
> 1) the cable-TV service includes several free channels
> and an option to subscribe to many more, but with
> no obligation to take any of the subscription channels.
Correct.
> 2) the cable-telecoms service is a telephone service
> to replace BT (or whomever), with call charges
> working out significantly less than BT's charges.
Correct.
> 3) although NTL uses OPTICAL FIBRE cables, not
> telephone wires, the sonic signals generated by
> a modem and emitted as an analogue stream of
> electrical impulses for feeding directly into the
> telephone socket are converted by an NTL
> box into an optical signal stream
> (�20 or �40 instalation charge for the converter).
What is this all about? This is rubbish. NTL may or may not have fibres
linking up their "green boxes", but the wires coming into my home from NTL are
most definitely not optical. They are just standard 6-core telephone wire
(only 2 cores actually used, at the point of entry into your house). There is
no need for any "converters" or suchlike.
Pay them �25 installation and you get a standard telephone line same as BT.
Box on the wall, plug your modem in and go.
Of course, you may be getting confused with their cable modem service. I don't
have this, so I can't give details but I believe it uses coax cable (like the
cable TV). It gives you a permanent asymmetric Internet connection, 512kbps
download for around �40/month in selected areas.
> 4) Internet access is 24-hour free and unmetered.
Correct. It's on an 0800 number and is a good service, although disconnects
you every two hours.
> 5) Apart from the initial installation charge, the whole
> of the above can be had for �9.50 pm line
> rental, which is less than BT even without the
> unmetered Internet calls.
Correct. Alternatively, instead of cable TV and phone, you can have two phone
lines for the same price (which is what I have).
> AFAIK also, the only snag is that one has to switch from BT to NTL as the
> telephone service straight away (which is not a snag because NTL is cheaper
> than BT)
Correct.
> and there is a waiting list of several weeks before NTL's ISP
> connection becomes available to new subscribers.
Correct.
> I already believe all of the above to be correct
nearly :)
> ARE THERE ANY MAJOR PROBLEMS FOR AMIGA USERS?
Can't give you too much advice I'm afraid as although I sometimes use an Amiga
on it, it's indirectly connected via a PC running Linux.
However, some people have mentioned on the Netconnect list that they get
strange Genesis gurus when using the NTL dialup.
> One minor problem I do envisage is having to use a pee cee to complete NTL's
> initial ISP setup. What I am assuming is that, once it IS all set up, it
> will simply be a case of transferring a few settings manually to the Amiga.
> Can anyone tell me if this is so? Are there any other problems? Can they
> be overcome?
You are quite correct again, that it's pretty simple. In fact I didn't even
use Windows to sign up. All you need is a signup number/username/password, a
serial number that is with the signup CD, and a signup URL to go to. I
probably have all these kicking around somewhere but I posted them to the
Netconnect list a couple of months ago so check the archives for that.
If you look on the Netconnect list you will also find some people who attempted
to sign up with an Amiga; I can't remember if any were successful (I think
someone managed it, maybe with AWeb).
Hope that helps,
Tim
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