Broadband for Mac Users

K_Man_3

Hello


I haven't read all the postings here but I have read a good few and nobody mentions whether they're a Mac or PC user so I thought I'd add my experience for the few of us who have good taste and own a grown ups machine :rotfl:
[without wanting to spark the whole PC/Mac debate]

Anyway, with regard to Broadband for Mac users, there has to be some other considerations when looking at ISP's be they ADSL, DSL or SDSL/LLU for business users. The main 2 are obviously Cost closely followed by Service.
Personally, I recommend all my customers to look at the Service issue first and then cost. You need to make sure that you'll get the support you need as a Mac user first and then look at the costings.

From my experience there are many ISP's whose products WILL work for Mac users if you have the right kit (usually not what they provide as part of their package) and when you need some Tech Support you'll hear the imortal line, "...I'm sorry sir/madam, we do not support Apple Mac. Please Contact Apple for further asistance". Can you imagine how many variables there would be if the tables were turned? How many vendors would be on that list for you PC Freeks to contact?

Anyway, my engineers are out in the field configuring between 2 and 3 customers each per day for Broadband connection with Routers & Wireless Routers, so from our experience the most reliable ISP's for Mac Users are as follows and in no particlular order of preference or service:

Telewest/NTL (now owned by Virgin), Bulldog, Freedom2Surf, Demon, Pipex, Virgin, Toucan & Madasafish.

Now the following suppliers can work with Apple Macs but it is important that you understand (with exception of BT's new HUB which is basically a glorified Router) you will have to supply your own Router/Modem at an additional cost of between £49 - £99 on average in order for their services to work:

AOL, BT, Orange, Tiscali, TalkTalk, eClipse and be.

Now there are so many more ISP's that I haven't listed but that's mainly because I haven't had any experience with them so I cannot say one way or the other. For us as an Apple Mac Support company based in the South London/Surrey borders the biggest and most awkward problems we have experienced have been from AOL, Orange, Tiscali & TalkTalk - so much so that we advise our clients to terminate their contracts if they can (which usually can be uncontested as no service of any worth usually gets provided by these ISP's for Mac users) and we recommend the best ISP for them in their area based on budget and usage.

I am sure there will be acceptions to the rule as Mac Users tend to be very savvy and will find work arounds in order to get what they want.

This post is written as a technicl and practical piece of field advise to be used in conjuction with all the great and fantastic money saving tips. Just remember cheapest is not always the best. Look at all the variables and then make an informed decision based on service AND cost.

Good Luck

:beer:

espresso

Do these "grown ups" machines have an Ethernet port? If they do, most of what you have said is factually incorrect and should not be taken seriously!

:rotfl:

K_Man_3

espresso wrote:

...... most of what you have said is factually incorrect and should not be taken seriously!

:rotfl:

Dude, what bit are you refereing to when you say "most" ?? Please be specific

And you know Macs have ethernet - don't be a silly boy!! :mad:

Are you dealing with Apple Macs every day? Are you being booked by customers who cannot get Broadband to work on their Mac everyday?

I don't know but I'm not going to guess, surmise or presume.

What I do know from my experience is that what I have said is pretty accurate. In most instances it is more beneficial for customers to have the easiest to manage and simplistic service they can with good customer support.

Do AOL support Mac OS?
Do BT support Mac OS?
Do Orange support Mac OS?
Do Tiscali support Mac OS?

No, no, no and er......NO!! :cool:

Will Macs work on these ISP's? More than likely yes with additional kit - NOT with what gets supplied as standard - and users will need to connect to their router [192.168.2.1 - unless otherwise stated] and alter their settings manually as any software provide will most likely be useless.

Hows that? Hows the headaches?

Dude, drink more water and buy a Mac - you can run XP on the same machine as OS X. Step ya game up son.

Forget about Vista for at least a year and Office 2007 for that matter, leave the dark side and enter the light - be everything you wanted to be.......be a Mac user, you know it's your destiny!!!:T

Good Morrow

:j

K_Man_3

Ultimately, my original posting was not intended for PC users full stop. Nor was it intended for Mac users who already have Broadband and are happy with their existing service.

The posting was/is meant for Mac users who were either thinking of upgrading to Broadband or changing from an existing ISP where they are less than happy. Believe it or not their are people who still use dial up as well as people who have been fooled by ISP's who say their "service" will work on a Mac (which it will). Sadly, when it comes to any Tech Support for configuring their OS with the kit that gets supplied (that 9/10 times is useless anyway or where customers will need to buy a router of some description in order to receive the service they have been paying for) they ARE told that Mac OS is NOT supported.

I AM hearing this from my customers almost every day - it is not being made up to scaremonger. If you are technically competent then no doubt you will be able to figure it out for yourself, but most Mac users just want to use their machines to work and aren't that bothered about how things work and why things work as they are used to the user friendly plug and playability that Apple adopted from all it's previous OS's and legacy machines.

Like 'em or not that's your choice. However with the advent of all the recent developments like the Intel processor which allows dual platform booting via BootCamp and Parrallels along side with the domination of the Mp3 player [ iPod ] market and iTunes Apple have changed the Global market that was a 5% market share in favour of PC users is fast approaching a projected 12% for the end of 2008. Things Like the iPhone and AppleTV are bringing Apple into the foerfront of the home and not just as a Lifestyle or Kudos item, although it has always had the Kudos of great design and fantastic looks, something that many PC builders have "tried" to copy - rather unsuccessfully.

By the way, what is Spyware and this other thing I keep hearing about called a ....er...... oh yeah that's it..... a virus?? What's a virus??



Happy Nirvana

:rotfl: