What Provider & What Package? Help Needed!

Cycrow

PlusNet is owned by BT and are just rebranded BT
other suppliers also use BT.

Essentially everyone but Virgin use BT lines, but some of the suppliers use LLU to offer their services.

As you mainly use your phone evenings and weekends, i would suggest going for a package that included that, then you will not have to pay for many/any phone calls

macman

Digital_Dan wrote: »

Well I'm confused.

According to the 'Sam Knows' link provided by macman; Plusnet and Tesco Broadband are not listed as being available via my exchange. Yet according to the availability checker on their websites; they are! :huh:

OK; a few more questions.

If I switch to another provider:

1: Can I use my existing router? It is a TP Link unit and is less than two years old.

2: If I can use my existing router; do I have to reconfigure it in any way?


3: If I have to reconfigure it; will I have to reconfigure all the Wi-Fi devices connected to it?


4: I currently have BT 'Premium Mail' - I presume I can still use my current BT e-mail address and access my existing web mail in the same way that I do now?


5: I presume that my BT land line number will remain the same?


Finally; I'm looking at Primus-Saver; PlusNet and Tesco Broadband.

How are they regarded? Are they any good or rubbish?


Many Thanks.

samknows does not list resellers, because they are available on every exchange in the country. It would be pointless. Only LLU providers are listed. PN is by far the best provider of the 3 you highlight.
Yes, you can use your own router, but it won't be supported, and of course you'll have to re-enter (at minimum) the username and password for your new ISP. Your wi-fi should not be affected. You can retain your BT email address, but they may charge you £1.60 a month, so its pointless-just switch to Gmail.
Changing ISP has no impact on your landline number.
180 calls per month is not 'light user'. If your daytime calls cost more than a fiver per month then you will be better off with any Anytime call package.

Digital_Dan

Cycrow wrote: »

PlusNet is owned by BT and are just rebranded BT
other suppliers also use BT.

Essentially everyone but Virgin use BT lines, but some of the suppliers use LLU to offer their services.

As you mainly use your phone evenings and weekends, i would suggest going for a package that included that, then you will not have to pay for many/any phone calls

Thanks.

I didn't know that PlusNet are a rebranded version of BT.

That being the case; I presume migration to them would possibly be easier with less chances of any problems?

Digital_Dan

Thanks.

macman wrote: »

samknows does not list resellers, because they are available on every exchange in the country. It would be pointless. Only LLU providers are listed. PN is by far the best provider of the 3 you highlight.

OK; I didn't really understand about the difference between resellers and LLU providers. I wronly assumed that those names listed would be the only ones available. Thanks for the clarification.

macman wrote: »

Yes, you can use your own router, but it won't be supported, and of course you'll have to re-enter (at minimum) the username and password for your new ISP. Your wi-fi should not be affected. You can retain your BT email address, but they may charge you £1.60 a month, so its pointless-just switch to Gmail.

OK; thank you for that information. Is entering your new ISP providers username and password into the router straight forward? I believe I got some one to do this for me previously.

If as Cycrow says, that PlusNet are a rebranded version of BT do you think that going to them will avoid the need for this proceedure?

macman wrote: »

Changing ISP has no impact on your landline number.
180 calls per month is not 'light user'. If your daytime calls cost more than a fiver per month then you will be better off with any Anytime call package.

Thanks for clarification re the landline number.

When I said about my usage:

Regarding my call usage; I consider myself a 'light' user. I would say that I make no more than five or six calls a day at most. Maybe a couple of them in the evening. Most of my calls are a few minutes long; obviously there is the odd exception to this.

I rarely make international calls. At most two a year.

I should have made it clear that my 'five or six calls a day' would be at the very most. I may make that number of calls one day; but then go several days without calling anyone. I would be surprised if I made more than fifty calls a month; probably a lot less. Sorry about the confusion.

macman

Plusnet is no more a 'rebranded' version of BT than any other BT reseller. PN are owned by BT Group, but still run independently. They're not an arm of BT Retail.
Therefore their commercial relationship with BT Wholesale is the same as any other BT reseller, such as Primus.
It doesn't really matter how many calls you make. If you are currently making more than a fiver's worth of daytime calls to landlines, then an Anytime package is a no-brainer.
If you switch ISP's then you will probably need to set up the router, or use the setup CD supplied. Is typing in your username and password really such a big problem?

Digital_Dan

macman wrote: »

Plusnet is no more a 'rebranded' version of BT than any other BT reseller. PN are owned by BT Group, but still run independently. They're not an arm of BT Retail.
Therefore their commercial relationship with BT Wholesale is the same as any other BT reseller, such as Primus.

Ok thanks for the clarification. I'm learning a lot here.

macman wrote: »

It doesn't really matter how many calls you make. If you are currently making more than a fiver's worth of daytime calls to landlines, then an Anytime package is a no-brainer.

Thanks; I will certainly look at Anytime packages.

macman wrote: »

If you switch ISP's then you will probably need to set up the router, or use the setup CD supplied. Is typing in your username and password really such a big problem?

As I said in my first post; I'm not at all technically minded with regard to PC's routers etc.

I'm pretty sure I could type my username and password in; but I'm afraid I don't know where I am supposed to type my name in....

You have to assume that I know nothing about this at all.

macman

All routers come with full set-up instructions. And you can ask advice on here. Why not cross that bridge when you come to it?

Digital_Dan

macman wrote: »

All routers come with full set-up instructions. And you can ask advice on here. Why not cross that bridge when you come to it?

I believe my TP link router just came with a very basic leaflet that just listed the unit's specifications. I will have to dig the box out from the loft to double check though. I certainly don't recall it covering the 'full set up'.

Unless; I've missed something staggeringly obvious (very likely!) - if I'm having problems setting up my router to work with my ISP; I won't be able to ask for advice here as I won't have an internet connection? :huh:

macman

Then why not just use the router that your ISP will supply and support? If you get any issues (which you probably won't), you can just call them up.
The info you need will come from your ISP, all you need to do is log into the router interface if necessary. And you can find out how to do that by going to the TP-Link support site and downloading the log- in info for your particular model now. It's usually something like this:
http://www.tp-link.com/en/article/?id=114

Digital_Dan

macman wrote: »

Then why not just use the router that your ISP will supply and support? If you get any issues (which you probably won't), you can just call them up.

As I said in an earlier post:

I have attempted to change a router in the past and it all went horribly wrong. I have a NAS device attached to my router and six media players plus two Blu-rays and a wireless tablet. I can imagine trying to set up a new network and configuring all those devices becoming a nightmare for me

A change of router will mean I have to go through setting all this up again. If I have no alternative to doing this I may well have to bite the bullet; but I would much rather not if I can avoid it.

macman wrote: »

The info you need will come from your ISP, all you need to do is log into the router interface if necessary. And you can find out how to do that by going to the TP-Link support site and downloading the log- in info for your particular model now. It's usually something like this:
http://www.tp-link.com/en/article/?id=114

Thank you very much for that link.

On the page linked to it says:

Open the web browser and type the LAN IP address of the router in the address bar, the default IP address of TP-LINK router is 192.168.1.1, and then press Enter.

I have just tried entering http://192.168.1.1 into my browser and I have gained access to my routers user interface. This is encouraging!

To be honest it’s all double dutch to me. The various settings - DNS, Sub-net masks etc. is an alien language that I simply do not understand.

I will however persevere with this and if it starts to make some sense; then I may well get enough confidence to switch providers..

Thank you