Back to Dial-up?

Gordon_Hose

Even if the broadband was cheap you would still need to pay for line rental of between £17 and £18 per month.

With Broadband at say £2.50 (Plusnet) you're looking at ~£20 a month.

d70cw6

believe virgin is the only company to offer BB without line rental....though saying that they charge enough to make it cost the same regardless.

macman

If I understand correctly, the OP will be keeping the existing landline anyway for calls, so line rental is an unavoidable cost. You can do much better than £13 per month for a 12m deal, like the PN deal above for £2.50.
No mobile signal in the area-what about other networks? Any 3G?

Kernow666

SailorSam wrote: »

When i first got my computer i looked at the payg thing. 1p a minute. I'd never used a computer and thought there can't be much on it that would interest me. I didn't go down that line, i splashed with Virgin getting a contract including my phone.
I dread to think how many pennies i'd be paying now.

ahh the good old 1p a minute

AndyPK

For dial up, you would need an old fashioned modem!

Far better to look at a sim dongle which you can take to wherever you are staying.

alderpoint

Vernier wrote: »

I'd still like to find the answer to my original question. Is it OK using a non-password connection for security-sensitive purposes?

There is absolutely no difference.

Whatever means you use to connect to the ISP, when you go to ebay you'll be using https and the connection is encrypted between your browser and ebay and as such is secure regardless of how you authenticated with the ISP.

absolutereturn

The only times I tried using a PAYG dial-up service I lived to regret it because it was charged by the minute and when you are used to being online all the time it's easy to forget to disconnect so I ended up with around £90-£100 each time. :eek:

Also it can take a lot longer to do things on a slow connection and you pay for the time rather than the volume of data. I only used it once in 2004 and then again in 2005, when most websites were still designed to be usable on dial-up connections. The loading speed wasn't that bad but the bills certainly were! :mad:

Vernier

macman wrote: »

If I understand correctly, the OP will be keeping the existing landline anyway for calls, so line rental is an unavoidable cost.

Correct. That's not an issue. It just seems stupid to be paying for broadband I'm hardly using. I haven't even needed to go online from home for 5 or 6 weeks now.

AndyPK wrote: »

For dial up, you would need an old fashioned modem!

No problem. I never throw anything away!

alderpoint wrote: »

There is absolutely no difference.

Whatever means you use to connect to the ISP, when you go to ebay you'll be using https and the connection is encrypted between your browser and ebay and as such is secure regardless of how you authenticated with the ISP.

Thanks! That's what I needed to know.

Call me pig-headed, but I'll give dial-up a go. I think, since my object is only to save a few quid a month, buying a Smartphone (for which I have no other use) and a dongle is NOT the way to go!

notbritishgas

Be aware that call costs to 0844 and 0845 numbers have changed since the old days of dial up.
You now have to pay an access charge to your landline provider as well as the 1 p ? Per minute to the dial up provider.
This access charge can be quite high eg 9p per minute.

Vernier

Thanks for that information. The 'access charge' is a new one on me.

If I am reading BT_PhoneTarif_Residential.pdf correctly, it does make the dial-up idea a non-starter.

Perhaps a really cheap broadband might be a better prospect. Looked at Plusnet, and its only cheap the first year, plus their adverts make me want to chuck a brick at the TV!