A Personal Perspective

Broadband has come to Beacon Villages! Obviously, those of you in our area, who are reading this, are potential broadband customers. I have just finished getting my wireless network and broadband installation working and thought it may help anyone thinking of going that route, to hear of my experiences. There are no doubt many who have gone over to broadband with absolutely no trouble at all. They are either skilled, lucky or have had help/professional installers. If it does not actually help you, at least my tale may make you feel superior as it is always cheering to hear of those sillier than yourself!

One good thing was, strangely, paying for the new service. Firstly we were paying Sky £27 per month for a service we didn't watch, secondly we can discontinue our £17 per month existing dial up service and thirdly we can ditch our second telephone line at £10 per month. That's £54 saved against £25 per month for the broadband service - nearly £30 a month better off.

However, there was a capital outlay. If we take the two things separately. For broadband only you just need a modem and one micro filter (a sort of phone adaptor) for each phone plugged into your telephone line. Modems vary about £40 and micro filters about £10. We only needed one micro filter as our phone system is already 'wireless'. So, for us, £50.

Then, as we have several computers, we wanted to link them all together (to share files, printers, etc.) and link them all to the Internet. You can do this two ways (or a mix of each) - with cables (wires) or wireless (radio waves). There are several ways to achieve this but, for us, it meant getting a joining up thing (a router) which connects between the broadband modem and each computer. It also meant getting a network thing (adaptor) for each computer that didn't already have one installed. Now, if you are going to use cables then each machine needs an Ethernet facility. If you are going wireless then you need an Network Adaptor, preferably the same make as your router. One of our computers (the newest one) already had both Ethernet and wireless adaptors built in. We needed to buy two wireless network adaptors, one for each of our other two machines. That came to £66 (router) plus £80 (two network adaptors). Total £146

Finally, cost wise, there was a £50 one off fee, payable through your broadband provider to BT for converting your line. In all an outlay of about £250 against a saving of £30 per month so we should break even by next August!

About the service we chose. How do you chose from the many suppliers? How do you chose from the varying speeds that they offer (at varying prices)? I can only tell you what we did. I used the Internet to find sites that did (genuine) comparisons of Providers with feedback from users. I say genuine because I found that some sites were just 'selling' particular providers. I took into account our own probable use (although I am finding this changes as you get used to the new way of working) with regard to speed versus cost. I started intending to go for the fastest service (2Mbps)and ended up with nearly the slowest (500Kbps) but with the option to speed up at 9p per minute. We do not play on-line games, we do not download music or movies. In fact most of the time we are uploading not downloading and this (unless you are a business and can afford some astronomic sums) is limited to 250Kbps anyway. The difference in price between the 500Kbps and the 1Mbps service meant that we would need to speed up for over 67 hours a month (2 hours a day!) to make it pay and we could always upgrade the service at any time.

Some providers 'cap' the amount that you can download in a month. Having run foul of our dial up provider for over running a bar we didn't even know about, we didn't want this. Most providers will supply modems, routers, micro filters, sometimes for free! I was looking for the fastest and most powerful wireless system I could find (and afford) as I felt there was no point in having fast broadband if it was hampered by slow or weak wireless connection. I therefore wanted to choose for myself not take what any provider had to offer. So, in the end I made my choice and put in an order. I was later pleasantly surprised to find that the firm was Exeter based. The firm appeared very efficient (as my investigations had said). They promptly gave me a date for installation and a list of things that would happen in sequence for me to keep tabs on as they proceeded. And the date they set was for two weeks after my order.

I bought my modem, router, adapters and micro filters over the Internet at what I considered were very good prices and they were delivered promptly and without postal charges. I decided I would get the wireless network up and running while I was waiting for the broadband installation date. This was when things started to go wrong! I won't bore you with the details but I had over a week of absolute frustration. The network adapters installed fine, just a disk with a driver to install. The modem and the router both came with 'easy start up guides'. And they were. There were just two problems. First I couldn't connect to either machine despite being instructed just to open my browser and enter a numeric address. Secondly when I finally did get to connect (many e-mails and phone calls later), I followed the easy instructions (many times) but they didn't work!

No other industry gets away with selling you products that they have inadequately tested and documented. You don't buy a car and then have to refer to the FAQ page on their web site to find how to start it. I ended up asking one manufacturer if they ever wondered why it is called FAQ. Frequently asked questions. If the questions are asked that frequently it can only mean that they haven't provided the answers in the product documentation or taken away the need for the questions by making the product simpler. In all the hassle, e-mails, delays, phone calls, etc., to try and get both the broadband connection (via the modem) and the wireless network (via the router) working, I can honestly say that only one of the mistakes was my fault - I mis-typed an ID. Bad, but it still didn't work when I corrected it. In the end, the engineer from the router company said he would call me back but in the meantime, by trying many combinations, I got it working myself and I phoned him and told him how to do it.

I've been in computing since 1960. If you are not given all the instructions or they are in a language that you can't understand, you don't stand a chance. My advice would be that, unless you are experienced in telecommunications, chose a firm which will install and get it working for you. Start slow, you can always upgrade if you need to. Choose a service you can afford taking into account savings on your existing dial up usage.

Finally, the up side. It is great. An upgrade to Word that would have taken 4 hours dial up (and so never got upgraded) is down and installed in 25 minutes. The Beacon Villages Photo Album just splats the big photos across your screen with no waiting. Obviously everything is faster. But also, I don't have to ask Carol if she is off the net so that I can go on. I don't have to have a little warning software telling me I have been connected for 30 minutes (like a parking meter warning) and I don't have to worry i will be cut off in 2 hours with no warning. But, best of all, it changes the way you can work. While I have been typing this, I needed to check some figures. All I had to do was open my browser, click the address (in Favorites or Bookmark) and I get the information immediately and just go back to typing. No dial up, no waiting. Instant! In terms of value for money, compared with endless repeats of originally boring and banal TV, it's no contest!

Broadband is great!