Uh Oh! Gigabyte help please

meerustar

To cut a long story short ... I have been on AOL for 5 years (dial up) and recently purchased a new laptop and wanted to get broadband and go wireless. I checked the best deal / package / price for me and opted for BT / Yahoo braodband. Laptop came 2 weeks ago, Broadband came last week (I paid a one off payment for a wireless box thing).

Anyway, it's all up and running so I phoned AOL this morning to cancel my account (I wanted to wait before I did this incase I couldn't set up my broadband wirelessy, etc etc)

I spoke to AOL guy, told him I wanted to cancel and he started to go on about how I had been there 5 years, offered me reduction in bb prices and I still said I wanted to cancel and never considered AOL BB as I wanted to go wireless and you couldnt go wireless with the silver package they offered (I can only get speeds of 10x at the mo, as I'm far from an exchange), so he offered me gold and I said no .....He asked out of curiosity who I had gone with and I told him BT BB. He said did I know they had restrictions on this that you have a 2gb usage allowance and I said yes, and he said I used 180 hrs per month on AOL and 2gb wasn't enough for me ...

..this is where I got lost ... I thought that you could 'download 2gb worth' per month but AOL guy said it means that even when I am browsing on, say, eBay, that each time the page loads or I search its all using up my allowance.

Is this right???? I am online a hell of a lot searching for information for my courses, kids play games on cbeebies and stuff etc, but I don't download that much. Have I made a huge mistake in my choice as I am online more or less all the time????

Please help me out, I think I've messed up big time. TIA

mr_fishbulb

Everything going down or up your broadband connection (e.g. surfing this site, emailing photos, anything) will use some of your allowance.

T4i

So if you do lots of online gaming.........bah!

Omertron

meerustar wrote:

Is this right???? I am online a hell of a lot searching for information for my courses, kids play games on cbeebies and stuff etc, but I don't download that much. Have I made a huge mistake in my choice as I am online more or less all the time????

Please help me out, I think I've messed up big time. TIA

Everything that you do online takes up some of your usage allowance, so yes, that's web pages as well as any game demos you download.

I wouldn't worry about it though as most people will exceed their usage allowance at some point and BT have only just got around to warning 3,000 of their users (See BBC News story).

If you exceed the usage allowance, BT will no doubt contact you and try and upsell you to a product with a larger usage allowance. You might want to download a free usage monitor to see how much you are using.

meerustar

Thanks,

Where could I download a usage monitor??

Relic_2

there are a few around, but a lot are starting to charge. Also the accuracy rate on them changes, heres a free one:

WatchWan - http://www.newfreedownloads.com/Internet/Dial-up-Connectivity/WatchWAN.html

With the ISP you go with, in account information they should have a summary of how much bandwidth you have used. (although not all IPS's do this).
Another quick point, to go wireless has nothing to do with the ISP, thats the configuration you choose to have in your house, the distance from the exchange to your house will just affect the max speeds at which you can download/upload.

(An example of a marketing gimmick is NTL's package saying including xbox live feature, that has nothing to do with NTL, if you have internet you can have XB live, nothing to do with extra features)

Lob_Rockster

a) AOL .... you'll be happy to be rid
b) look for an "unmetered" BB service.

nickmack

meerustar wrote:

He said did I know they had restrictions on this that you have a 2gb usage allowance and I said yes, and he said I used 180 hrs per month on AOL and 2gb wasn't enough for me ...

..this is where I got lost ... I thought that you could 'download 2gb worth' per month but AOL guy said it means that even when I am browsing on, say, eBay, that each time the page loads or I search its all using up my allowance.

He is correct. All data uploaded and downloaded counts towards your allowance.

I am online a hell of a lot searching for information for my courses, kids play games on cbeebies and stuff etc, but I don't download that much. Have I made a huge mistake in my choice as I am online more or less all the time????

I would suprised if you used much more than 2Gb a month from general web browsing and email. Best to see how you get on and monitor your usage.

I use Netmeter which is an excellent little tool.

T4i

Lob_Rockster wrote:

a) AOL .... you'll be happy to be rid
b) look for an "unmetered" BB service.

I second this....tell AOL where to go and never look back!

paul10mm

Aol as normal are talking rot! You could have used your laptop on a wireless link with AOL silver i use 3pcs on a wireless router and my son and i even play games against each other on our own Lan(local area network)i dont like AOL but no download limits at all is the only reason we stay with them plus i can pay by direct debit!Aol dont "support"wireless on Silver that just means they dont help you if you have a problem!!But god if you have ever asked Aol for help you know its pointless last time i had a problem i was told by the guy do you think you know more than me?and i so enjoyed saying yes!! im cissco and A+ certified! sort of took the wind from his sales

T4i

AOL upgraded my m8 to 1mb i think from 512mb and he has nothing but drops now......when he rings AOL up they wont downgrade him....so basically they took his money, put him on a new contract and now he has problems they stick V's up. Hows that for customer satisfaction. The 'A' in AOL is the biggest putoff!

rofffffle!