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
On Tue, 12 Jun, 2001 at 14:46 +0900, Joss Winn wrote:
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?
It isn't available. According to NTL, it will be available in 'early 2001', 'Easter', 'May', 'June', and now 'later this year'. Don't hold your breath.
In the mean time, your best option is a BT phone line with their 24/7 FRIACO package, which gets you a free (0808) dialup connection (although it will kick you off every 2 hours and you'll need to redial). The cost of this is a minimum of about 25 pounds given to BT and around 10-15 a month given to whichever ISP you choose.
Not great, but half the price you're paying at the moment with no limit to connections. Hopefully by the time you get here, ADSL or cable modems will finally be available. Watch this space.
Andrew.
Andrew Savory wrote:
On Tue, 12 Jun, 2001 at 14:46 +0900, Joss Winn wrote:
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?
It isn't available. According to NTL, it will be available in 'early 2001', 'Easter', 'May', 'June', and now 'later this year'. Don't hold your breath.
In the mean time, your best option is a BT phone line with their 24/7 FRIACO package, which gets you a free (0808) dialup connection (although it will kick you off every 2 hours and you'll need to redial). The cost of this is a minimum of about 25 pounds given to BT and around 10-15 a month given to whichever ISP you choose.
Not great, but half the price you're paying at the moment with no limit to connections. Hopefully by the time you get here, ADSL or cable modems will finally be available. Watch this space.
Thanks Andrew,
So is this BT deal, just a 56k dialup? Has 128K ISDN taken off in the UK? It's all the rage here in Japan.
Sorry for my ignorance. I have been away for five years and much has happened online since then... :-) I am much more used to hearing about North American and Japanese services. Quite different it seems.
cheers Joss
Joss Winn wrote:
Thanks Andrew,
So is this BT deal, just a 56k dialup? Has 128K ISDN taken off in the UK? It's all the rage here in Japan.
You can get an ISDN package with BT as well. I would have thought Norwich had ISDN, if my little village does ;)
I'm on the 24/7 surftime deal which costs (I think) 40 quid a month to BT plus an extra tenner/month to my ISP (Demon). I think I worked out once it would be 160 quid per quarter but the details have gone fuzzy now...
Jo
On Tue, 12 Jun, 2001 at 16:45 +0900, Joss Winn wrote:
So is this BT deal, just a 56k dialup? Has 128K ISDN taken off in the UK? It's all the rage here in Japan.
In theory it's for all kinds of dialup, including ISDN. In practice, BT are having problems with dealing with ISDN. If they haven't resolved it by the time you get here, you may be able to bludgeon a backup number out of them.
Andrew.
BT home highway 39.00 per month inc 13.00 voice calls Freeserve Anytime 12.99 per month 24/7 2hr kick
Home highway gives you 2 64k isdn and 2 analog lines but you can only use 2 simultaniously setup/connection from a BT line is a one off 49.95
Cheers, BJ
-----Original Message----- From: alug-admin@stu.uea.ac.uk [mailto:alug-admin@stu.uea.ac.uk]On Behalf Of Andrew Savory Sent: 12 June 2001 09:39 To: Joss Winn Cc: alug@stu.uea.ac.uk Subject: Re: [Alug] online services in Norwich question
On Tue, 12 Jun, 2001 at 16:45 +0900, Joss Winn wrote:
So is this BT deal, just a 56k dialup? Has 128K ISDN taken off in the UK? It's all the rage here in Japan.
In theory it's for all kinds of dialup, including ISDN. In practice, BT are having problems with dealing with ISDN. If they haven't resolved it by the time you get here, you may be able to bludgeon a backup number out of them.
Andrew.
-- a.savory@btinternet.com All views are my own, who else would want them?
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John Woodard wrote:
BT home highway 39.00 per month inc 13.00 voice calls Freeserve Anytime 12.99 per month 24/7 2hr kick
If the 2hr kick is a problem, Demon don't do it, I can sit online 24/7 if I want to :) I don't know of any other ISP's that allow this, although that doesn't mean there aren't any.
Jo
On Tue, 12 Jun 2001, Joss Winn wrote:
So is this BT deal, just a 56k dialup? Has 128K ISDN taken off in the UK? It's all the rage here in Japan.
I havn't heard of any FRIACO ISP's that allow 128k ISDN? is this now available?, there are now other FRIACO deals where some ISP's are allocating a fixed amount of time online for a fixed fee. This is what I am using at the moment and I don't get kicked after 2 hours (but I havn't found out what happens if I use more than my allocated time yet).
If you are in a NTL Cable serviced area and want cable tv and take NTL's package you should automagically get two telephone lines and free dial-up with NTL World, this would give you a 2 hour kick off but I do know someone at work who is using this with automatic recconection for over a year to get free 24/7 access. I don't know if this applys in Norwich though as it is an old C&W serviced area, although the Digital tv has just been launched there which means Cable Modems should not be to far behind.
Oh yeah and if NTL release Cable modems in Norwich you will probably find BT will magically offer ADSL about a week after launch, and the reverse of that statement is also probably true. :)
hmm, still seems dial-up in the UK isn't cheap, you just pay loads upfront now for a fixed time online...
Adam
And when ADSL comes to Norwich, I'll just bet whoever is offering ADSL services in the area will be using the USB Speedtouch modems. Mandrake 8.0 pretty much supports these straight out of the box, with the only exception is the download of the management application. I even remember there being a PPPoATM PPPd daemon included :)
All other distributions will require the relavent kernel patches, the PPPoATM patch for PPPd and the management application.
Mind you, when it all works together, it's a marvellous thing to behold :)
Regards,
Martyn
-----Original Message----- From: alug-admin@stu.uea.ac.uk [mailto:alug-admin@stu.uea.ac.uk]On Behalf Of Adam Bower Sent: 12 June 2001 11:40 To: Joss Winn Cc: Andrew Savory; alug@stu.uea.ac.uk Subject: Re: [Alug] online services in Norwich question
On Tue, 12 Jun 2001, Joss Winn wrote:
So is this BT deal, just a 56k dialup? Has 128K ISDN taken off in the UK? It's all the rage here in Japan.
I havn't heard of any FRIACO ISP's that allow 128k ISDN? is this now available?, there are now other FRIACO deals where some ISP's are allocating a fixed amount of time online for a fixed fee. This is what I am using at the moment and I don't get kicked after 2 hours (but I havn't found out what happens if I use more than my allocated time yet).
If you are in a NTL Cable serviced area and want cable tv and take NTL's package you should automagically get two telephone lines and free dial-up with NTL World, this would give you a 2 hour kick off but I do know someone at work who is using this with automatic recconection for over a year to get free 24/7 access. I don't know if this applys in Norwich though as it is an old C&W serviced area, although the Digital tv has just been launched there which means Cable Modems should not be to far behind.
Oh yeah and if NTL release Cable modems in Norwich you will probably find BT will magically offer ADSL about a week after launch, and the reverse of that statement is also probably true. :)
hmm, still seems dial-up in the UK isn't cheap, you just pay loads upfront now for a fixed time online...
Adam -- This message is Copyleft - all rights reversed Adam
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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
alug, the Anglian Linux User Group list Send list replies to alug@stu.uea.ac.uk http://www.anglian.lug.org.uk/ http://rabbit.stu.uea.ac.uk/cgi-bin/listinfo/alug See the website for instructions on digest or unsub!
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On Tue, Jun 12, 2001 at 04:42:12AM -0700, David Freeman wrote:
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]
Now I like the sound of that! ;-)
Thanks for your advice, everyone. Much appreciated.
Joss
--- Joss Winn joss@josswinn.org wrote:
On Tue, Jun 12, 2001 at 04:42:12AM -0700, David Freeman wrote:
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]
Now I like the sound of that! ;-)
Well I will be doing a demo of the kit on sunday, and if people are interested I will see If I can help anyone get stuff working and also source the stuff. The kit I am using is Cisco kit, which, IMHO is the best you can get.
Let me know if your interested.
Thanks
D
PS The price ain't bad either, can be as little as �150 an end
Thanks for your advice, everyone. Much appreciated.
Joss
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Adam Bower -
Andrew Savory -
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Joss Winn -
Martyn Drake