Using 18866/1899 for internet

lipidicman

can you use 18866 or 1899 with the internet? I would guess not, but what stops you?

ashmit

I don't understand their reason, but no and no. Shame though innit?

student100

ISPs usually use 0844 or 0845 numbers, charged at usually 1-4p/min by BT. A fraction of those pennies goes to the ISP to actually pay for the service. 18866/1899 wouldn't be able to afford to pay the ISP even a fraction of a penny a minute seeing as how they only get 1p or 3p revenue for the entire call.

dag_2

ISPs usually use 0844 or 0845 numbers, charged at usually 1-4p/min by BT.

That's true - however, you can often find geographic numbers for ISP's from http://www.saynoto0870.com ; you can dial 18866 before these geographic numbers, and you will only be charged 1p no matter how long you stay online. Net4Nowt is also likely to have a list of geographic numbers for ISP's in their forums somewhere.

However - the geographic numbers tend to be unreliable, and change frequently.

But you needn't limit yourself to ISP's based in the UK. Now that 1899 is 0p/min for calls to USA, Canada and Germany, you can connect to ISP's in any of these countries for just 3p, no matter how long you stay online. I suggest http://www.metconnect.com and http://www.nocharge.com - unlike UK ISP's, you don't need to sign up with these - you can use Metconnect with any username and password, and you can use NoCharge with username "guest" and password "password".

They both have lots of access numbers, but you can't always get a connection first time. You may need to try each number in turn - however, this will cost you 3p a time with 1899, but only 1p with 18866. So it's a good idea to try each one in turn with 18866 until you get a connection - and when you do, hang up and redial the same number with 1899. Chances are you'll get a connection again - but if you don't, that's just unlucky, so carry on testing them with 18866.

I've found NoCharge to be more reliable than MetConnect. Maybe MetConnect have started blocking international caller ID's - I'm not sure.

andy88_2

=dag] ; you can dial 18866 before these geographic numbers, and you will only be charged 1p no matter how long you stay online. Net4Nowt is also likely to have a list of geographic numbers for ISP's in their forums somewhere.

However - the geographic numbers tend to be unreliable, and change frequently.

My ISP discontinued 2 London numbers in Oct/Nov that had been in use since before I joined. After a gap of a few weeks I found new ones on the website - at least 40. Some are better than others; the London one is always engaged; 2 or 3 others I tried cut off randomly; the present one is very stable

dag_2

My ISP discontinued 2 London numbers in Oct/Nov that had been in use since before I joined.

Very true, they tend to come and go. I'm not sure whether they're changing them more frequently, or if I'm just getting slower at keeping up with them. But some pay-as-you-go ISP's list geographic numbers purportedly for "international" internet access.

I wouldn't say that US free 56k ISP's are more reliable than UK 56k geographic numbers. However, UK ISP's usually insist on you registering for a username and password before dialling them. There's also a lot of duff information on the web about UK ISP geographic numbers - many no longer work. So you might spend ages online on an 0845 number, trying to register with ISP's with geographic numbers, only to discover that none of them work.

So - what should you do if the number you've been using has been cut off?

I think it's best to find as many geographic numbers for as many UK ISP's numbers as you can first. Then try dialling them manually from your phone. Chances are, some will give you modem noises, but a lot of them won't - or they'll be constantly engaged. Don't bother signing up with the ISP's whose numbers don't give you modem noises - only sign up for those that do.

If that fails - then the US ISP's is the next best thing. Although they're probably slightly more expensive than UK geographic numbers, they're a lot cheaper than 0845 numbers.

lipidicman

Wow, some great info here. Both about why it doesn't work on the standard number (I should have known that!) and how to make it work! thanks

daveoc22

Dag,

Great post and something I had never even thought of until you pointed it out..

I've been wanting a backup for my NTL broadband so I used18866, or the NTL 0808 version, to phone Nocharge and got a modem up first go.

I'm ready to set up a dial up connection but there's a couple of things I'm unsure about.

Firstly when I dial a number now I firstly put in the 0808 number and then the operator comes in to tell me to input the number I want.Obviously on a dial up connection there would be no break in the numbers---would that matter?

Secondly, when I've input all my numbers I have to end with a #.Can I put that at the end of my dial up connection number?

Any advise appreciated

Dave

andy88_2

2 things - 1899 will be cheaper than 18866 for either UK or USA (3p + 0p/min vs 1p + 0.5p/min)

- dialling number with a pause in the middle - experiment with a gap or a comma eg 08081707474 01... or 08081707474,001... maybe both

There are plenty of UK numbers to be found, but the US account might be interesting - maybe some internet offers are limited on country

irs101

I've got an old Eurobell/Telewest dial-up account, which has a geographic number. Now that I'm signed up with OneTel (free evenings & weekend) I've started using it again and it works - OneTel do let me dial-up for free.

But I've tried it through 18866 and I just get an engaged tone all the time. Voice calls work, so it isn't a capacity problem with 18866, and dialling up through onetel works first time everytime, so it isn't a capacity problem with Eurobell. I can only assume that 18866 have blocked the number - anyone else had any similar problems with geographic ISP numbers?

irs

pud1

im with bt internet and found via http://www.saynoto0870.com that the geographical telephone number for 0845 756 0000 is 0121 478 9300 so theoretically by using 18866 before dialling the 0121 number i should only pay a connection charge of 1p and be able to surf the web for no additional cost.has anyone tried this to see if it works or am i missing something as i was going to give it a go at the weekend