Joss, The situation with broadband access in the uk is as such:
BT has the technologie and ability to role out ADSL to everyone, except it costs so much to do. OFTEL wont let us loss lead the excersise to allow us to get lots of penetration into the market. A such we have roled it out to the few metropolises, but it is expensive and not being well taken up. Also the bandwidth contention ratio is interesting (sorry I con't go into any detail cos I work for BT). NTL offer cable modems in some areas and these are cost effective but there is a heavy contention ratio and also the bandwidth is shared. I would be scepticaly about NTL as well, because at my dads (who has NTL tv and phone) the TV drops a bit when a call is incoming, so I don't know what would happen with data as well!
I think Jo is right about ISDN being the cheapest solution.
ANother solution you may want to consider, and one few people in ipswich and north london are using is:
Find a place with an always on connection (i.e. UEA) and then put a 802.11b base station with highpower antenna up on the roof, directed at your house, then put a base station and attenna up at home pointing at the other end. In Ipswich we have had over 13 miles of distance, complete with some intersting tricks to make it go round corners! The result is high speed net access at home! You can get upto 11MBps but 5.5Mbps is more realistic. And the best part is its completely legal and secure![1]
Thanks
D
[1] I would run IPSec ontop if you are very paranoid. --- Joss Winn joss@josswinn.org wrote:
Hello,
I will be returning to the UK in six weeks and will begin an MA at UEA in September. I received information about accomodation at the University residences yesterday and am hoping list members in Norwhich can advise me on a couple of things regarding networking and accomodation in the area.
The University accomodation doesn't look that attractive after living in my own house for the last few years, although I don't mind the sound of some of the networked rooms available. However it is unlikely I will be offered one.
Assuming I will look for shared accomodation or a studio flat, can anybody tell me about the availability of cable or DSL in the area? Am I likely to find it, how much will it cost? It is quite a high priority of mine to be on a 24/7 connection, and would influence my choice of accomodation while in Norwich for the year. I have spent the last three years on a crappy dial-up connection paying way, way too much money for it (over 100 quid a month) and would really like to get the connection I've been dreaming of all this time, once I begin at UEA.
If anyone has _any_ advice at all regarding accomodation and computing for a post-grad student, I'd be very grateful.
thanks. Looking forward to meeting you all. please cc me if it is not too much trouble. Joss
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