XLN ----- finished?

zarazara

A friend has just rung me to say her internet provider "XLN has gone bust " along with 4 or 5 others; does anyone know anything about this? She says Tiscali has been i touch saying they've taken them [XLN] over.

NeilQuinn

Tell me about it. I use them for my office (phones & broadband). I suddenly couldn't send or receive emails and every time I tried to get on the net, I was diverted to a message from Tiscali. It appears that the parent company (186K) has gone bust...XLN are a company that sell their services. You can get a temporary password & username from Tiscali but it;s murder getting through. You also need a MAC code from XLN to switch to a new provider. Again...constantly engaged.

BlondeHeadOn

This is a worry, I never thought about the smaller ISPs going bust. My ISP is BT (which hopefully is okay!), but I also use a small web hosting company which could be vulnerable - this also does email forwarding for all my business emails. All okay so far, but I don't know how I would know if they are potentially in trouble... (before things stop working, that is).

This sort of problem could affect a lot of smaller businesses - is there any sensible steps that can be taken to minimise the risk?

Generali

BlondeHeadOn wrote: »

This is a worry, I never thought about the smaller ISPs going bust. My ISP is BT (which hopefully is okay!), but I also use a small web hosting company which could be vulnerable - this also does email forwarding for all my business emails. All okay so far, but I don't know how I would know if they are potentially in trouble... (before things stop working, that is).

This sort of problem could affect a lot of smaller businesses - is there any sensible steps that can be taken to minimise the risk?

1. Check the credit rating of companies before you use them
2. Have an alternative either already running or ready to go for 'mission critical' stuff
3. Keep data backed up locally as well as with the service provider.

Those are the main things I guess. Certainly at the hedge fund I wouldn't be happy if we only had one version of anything.

BlondeHeadOn

Generali wrote: »

1. Check the credit rating of companies before you use them
2. Have an alternative either already running or ready to go for 'mission critical' stuff
3. Keep data backed up locally as well as with the service provider.

Those are the main things I guess. Certainly at the hedge fund I wouldn't be happy if we only had one version of anything.

Thanks Generali. I've answered your checklist below:

1. Check credit rating - I did this when I took out a contract with the smaller hosting company, but that was over 9 years ago. Might be a bit out of date now - better check the current situation methinks!

2. Alternative ready - well, I do have this as I have my BT as main ISP and the hosting with a separate company. I guess I could always shift it all back to BT if push came to shove. I will check how to do this though, so if I need to do it in a hurry I can.

3. Data back-ups - I always do this locally anyway, so that's okay.

It's a useful exercise to think about it all though - I would be lost without my email and web usage, and I suspect many other small businesses are the same.

FraudBuster

Prepare for the Worst, Plan for the Best: Disaster Preparedness and Recovery for Small Businesses, 2nd Edition



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MrDT

I'm not affiliated with this company in any way, so hope a link isn't bad form. This may be of use to some people if their broadband provider goes boom:

http://www.freedialup.co.uk/

There are many similar services available, just google "free dialup". It'll be horribly slow, and you'll be charged per minute at local call rates, and it's generally not something you want to be using often - but it could be a lifesaver in an emergency

purch

I initially signed up my home line with a company called Blueleaf (when thanks to EU money the local exchange up here on the moors was enabled)

They went bust a year later and I was moved to EurISP

I got a letter last weekend telling me I was being moved to yet another provider (can't remember the name....some firm I've never heard of)

I've never wanted to change, so far because I always get a connection at about 6.5 meg and it's never dropped off yet, which is more than I can say for my much more expensive Zen connection on my other 'business' line.

Might think about changing that policy now......... (couldn't bear losing the connection on the domestic line..........what would I do if the kids couldn't play online COD5 and Halo ?!!!!? I might have to actually talk to the blighters !!!! :eek: )

purch

Data back-ups

????

Thats what the hardrive is for isn't it ????

BlondeHeadOn

I guess the other side to this is that I don't want to jump ship from my small hosting company just because they *might* go bust, because that may well make them more likely to go bust - if enough customers like me also get cold feet and move.

I'm a small business too, and I like to support other small businesses as much as I can.

I think Generali's suggestion of having a back-up contingency plan in place for if it all goes t!ts up is a good one - hopefully I won't need it, but if I do I have thought about it and I am prepared.

chunter

Before you all go jumping ship...
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/3843-186k-users-cut-off-in-commercial-dispute.html
"so rumours about 186k having ceased trading started to flow. The company has assured us that this is not the case and that this is nothing more than a commercial dispute between the two parties."
It looks like XLN isshifting it's broadband from Tiscali wholesale to BT wholesale.

If you do as instructed and change your broadband username, you should be ok.
You may need to reboot your router.