On 17/11/2023 20:50, Woody wrote:
<snip>
> Add to that I am paying £42/m (inc discount!) for
> 50/5 (Interweb and a phone we never use)

<snip>
>
> I wouldn't mind staying with VM, after all it is very reliable, but
> their charges are just getting silly.
>
That's where I got to and started playing with 4G routers [1] with the
thought of jumping ship (CableTel > NTL > VM) as we were getting fibre soon.

Rang VM c/s, told them I could get better for less and they dropped my
bill from ~£42 to £23. ;-)

In the meantime I'm migrating all my ntlworld email accounts to my own
domain emails. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[1] I currently have a little Huawei B311 4G router here on Smarty
unlimited for £18/m as a backup / experimental BB service that I can
stream video on and daughter has dumped her Plusnet ADSL for Smarty 4G+
on my TP-Link MR600 and finds it faster, cheaper and more reliable.

(Still looking to see if I can use the Ethernet port on the B311 for LAN
so I can use the B311 as a wired alternative gateway, as I did the MR600).

snip

> >>
> >> Likewise, I’ve used A&A at another property for 16 years and have
> >> never suffered a price rise. Their reassuringly expensive rates are
> >> becoming reassuringly close to everyone else as time goes by. When
> >> VM wanted more than A&A it was time to look elsewhere. Happily
> >> CityFibre turned up at the right moment.
> >>
> >
> > My Zen rates (landline and ADSL) have never increased, since I
> > started with them in 2010, and they speak Lancashire English on the
> > 'phone. On the few occasions that I have had to ask for help, it
> > has been quick and accurate. My downloads have no monthly limit.
> > I have no reason to contemplate leaving an excellent supplier.
> >
>
> Ah, but you are a long standing customer. They changed their MO a
> while back. For new customers:-
> They no longer keep the same prices as long as you stay with them;
> They no longer provide an email service.
>
>

It just goes to show how I got it right when I subscribed to them in
2010, then. We came back here from living abroad, and I asked people
here (East Anglia) who to use or who to avoid for an ISP. The universal
response was to avoid BT at all costs. I looked at who was available,
and Zen seemed to be good value. I do not regret the choice.
I don't use Zen's e-mail service anyway, although I think that, as an
existing customer, it might still be available to me.

For once, loyalty pays off, unlike with car insurance. I will happily
stay with them, based on my experience with them.

--
Davey.

On 18 Nov 2023 19:18:51 GMT, Tim+ <tim.downie@gmail.com> wrote:

>Just looked at IDNet and they undercut all the other ISPs that provide
>fibre via OpenReach that I’ve found so far, but, my Zen rate FTTP is fixed
>at about the same level and supposedly won’t increase.
>

I've been with Zen for just over 18 months, starting just before they
stopped the lifetime no price increase offer.
When the initial 18 month contract expired I upgraded the broadband
speed and was surprised that the no price increase was carried over.
(I appear to have both webspace and email on this account but I have
made no attempt to use either.)

On Sun, 19 Nov 2023 13:21:32 +0000, Peter Johnson
<peter@parksidewood.nospam> wrote:

>On 18 Nov 2023 19:18:51 GMT, Tim+ <tim.downie@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>>Just looked at IDNet and they undercut all the other ISPs that provide
>>fibre via OpenReach that I’ve found so far, but, my Zen rate FTTP is fixed
>>at about the same level and supposedly won’t increase.
>>
>
>I've been with Zen for just over 18 months, starting just before they
>stopped the lifetime no price increase offer.
>When the initial 18 month contract expired I upgraded the broadband
>speed and was surprised that the no price increase was carried over.
>(I appear to have both webspace and email on this account but I have
>made no attempt to use either.)

Having been with Zen for years, I decided to upgrade to fibre if it
wouldn't be too expensive, so I enquired about this on what turned out
to be the last day of the 'price for life' deal, so I ordered it
straight away in the same phone call. They honoured the deal, and
because I'm paying the same for fibre internet as for VDSL, and their
VOIP service costs less than the line rental, I'm now actually paying
slightly less for about four times the downstream speed.

Rod.

Reading this thread has made me realise how lucky I am to live in the
Hampshire, Surrey, Dorset area. My 900 Mbps synchronous service with
Toob is on an 18 month contract at £25 (inc. VAT) per month, with no
in-contract price rises, increasing to £29 at the end of the initial
period. I've only had one outage when a neighbours tree fell in a storm
and broke the overhead cable which was replaced very quickly.

They don't offer a telephony service, e-mail etc. just a vanilla 900
Mbps (no other speed choices available) internet connection which suits
me fine but may not be everybody's kettle of fish.

Malcolm

Peter Johnson wrote:

[snip]

> I've been with Zen for just over 18 months, starting just before they
> stopped the lifetime no price increase offer.
> When the initial 18 month contract expired I upgraded the broadband
> speed and was surprised that the no price increase was carried over.
> (I appear to have both webspace and email on this account but I have
> made no attempt to use either.)
I ordered a new FTTP service from Zen, which was installed on 6 March.

Their Customer Portal appears to show that I have webspace, FTP server,
and email; but this is in fact not true. When I challenged them they
admitted that this was an error and that these services had not been
provided automatically to new users for a year or more. However, they
enabled the email service using the parameters shown on their Portal,
for which I was pleased. I have no need for the webspace or FTP server.

For historical reasons I already had an account on their Customer Portal
- it may be that this also is a service that is not provided to new users.

--
Graham J

Malcolm Loades <devnull@loades.net> wrote:
> Reading this thread has made me realise how lucky I am to live in the
> Hampshire, Surrey, Dorset area. My 900 Mbps synchronous service with
> Toob is on an 18 month contract at £25 (inc. VAT) per month, with no
> in-contract price rises, increasing to £29 at the end of the initial
> period. I've only had one outage when a neighbours tree fell in a storm
> and broke the overhead cable which was replaced very quickly.
>
> They don't offer a telephony service, e-mail etc. just a vanilla 900
> Mbps (no other speed choices available) internet connection which suits
> me fine but may not be everybody's kettle of fish.
>
> Malcolm
>

Sounds good value. I’ve read they offer CGNAT by default and you have to
pay £8/month extra to get a routeable WAN address. Is this the case with
you?

On 19/11/2023 17:14, Tweed wrote:
> Malcolm Loades <devnull@loades.net> wrote:
>> Reading this thread has made me realise how lucky I am to live in the
>> Hampshire, Surrey, Dorset area. My 900 Mbps synchronous service with
>> Toob is on an 18 month contract at £25 (inc. VAT) per month, with no
>> in-contract price rises, increasing to £29 at the end of the initial
>> period. I've only had one outage when a neighbours tree fell in a storm
>> and broke the overhead cable which was replaced very quickly.
>>
>> They don't offer a telephony service, e-mail etc. just a vanilla 900
>> Mbps (no other speed choices available) internet connection which suits
>> me fine but may not be everybody's kettle of fish.
>>
>> Malcolm
>>
>
> Sounds good value. I’ve read they offer CGNAT by default and you have to
> pay £8/month extra to get a routeable WAN address. Is this the case with
> you?
>
Yes, it's true they use GNAT and a static IP is an extra £8 per month
which would make the monthly cost £33 which to me is still reasonable.
But it does appear dear at an extra 32%!

I run my own mailserver but only for outgoing mail (I think of it as
sending everything as tracked and signed for). My GNAT IP has not
changed since the day I joined Toob so it's included in my SPF record etc.

Malcolm