O2 Broadband (merged)

chilli_dog

Is it possible O2 could be a victim of their own success?

They seem to be getting a name as a good ISP, soon everyone will be subscribing, eventually leading over another oversubscribed ISP?

By the way i join them on Wednesday!!

magyar

chilli_dog wrote: »

Is it possible O2 could be a victim of their own success?

They seem to be getting a name as a good ISP, soon everyone will be subscribing, eventually leading over another oversubscribed ISP?

Quite probably, in which case I'm sure they'll be replaced by someone equally as good!

bother_2

I too have found the service to be good, especially during the migration process, and the speeds I've acheived have been better than my previous supplier (Eclipse) who I also rated highly....however....

My connection drops out for a few minutes pretty regularly, i.e. several times per day. Whilst not terminal as it always comes back up, it's very annoying. I never had this issue whilst using the Eclipse service with a Netgear router so I don't know if it's the service or the router that's the issue.

Anyone else had this problem and more interestingly, managed to fix it?

magyar

bother wrote: »

Anyone else had this problem and more interestingly, managed to fix it?

Yes, I've got this problem too. It's not hugely problematical because it does reconnect in a few seconds, but annoying all the same. Never seemed worth spending time on the phone fixing.

I had an email from O2 saying that there are going to be upgrades this weekend, so maybe it will improve. If not then I will call them.

(Out of interest, one of VERY few companies who has a freephone technical support - very impressive, O2)

allan2006

its interesting the different speeds you get depending how far u live from the exchange, i live in luton and am about 2.5miles from the local exchange and i get 3500kbs download speed from O2 basic package.

im perfectly happy with this really as its a lot quicker than the 1000kbs i was getting on aol for 15quid a month, i think its a bit wrong though these broadband companies advertising speeds **upto**

bother_2

magyar wrote: »

Yes, I've got this problem too. It's not hugely problematical because it does reconnect in a few seconds, but annoying all the same. Never seemed worth spending time on the phone fixing.

I had an email from O2 saying that there are going to be upgrades this weekend, so maybe it will improve. If not then I will call them.

(Out of interest, one of VERY few companies who has a freephone technical support - very impressive, O2)

I got the same email. Will be interesting to see if it makes any difference.

As you say, it's difficult to get too annoyed about it as the rest of the package (i.e. price, service, speed etc) is so good! Shame that there is this niggling issue.

erb

Thinking of moving to O2 but just wondered:

1) Will my Netgear adaptors on my PCs work with the O2 wireless box?

2) What security features does the O2 wireless box have i.e. WPA encryption, hide network name and restrict access to designated PCs only? My Netgear router has all of these so I would like to have them on the O2 box.

3) Alternativley could I use my existing Netgear router DG834G v3 with the O2 service?

Appreciate it if anybody knows the answers to the above before I make the switch to O2 from AOL.

magyar

erb wrote: »

Thinking of moving to O2 but just wondered:

1) Will my Netgear adaptors on my PCs work with the O2 wireless box?

Yes, they (or any wireless adaptor) should work fine.

2) What security features does the O2 wireless box have i.e. WPA encryption, hide network name and restrict access to designated PCs only? My Netgear router has all of these so I would like to have them on the O2 box.

WPA and WEP. I don't think you can hide the network name nor restrict access to specific PCs though. Having said that, it might be possible - ring O2 and check if it's important.

Interestingly, the O2 box was set to WEP encryption by default which I thought unusual since I was under the impressions WPA was stronger. I've left it on WEP since I'm not too worried about being cracked into in my little village but I might think otherwise if I was living in a large town.

3) Alternativley could I use my existing Netgear router DG834G v3 with the O2 service?

Yes. Although of course O2 may not be able to provide technical support.

Appreciate it if anybody knows the answers to the above before I make the switch to O2 from AOL.

If you're happy with your router I would stick with it. In practice, although O2 won't officially support a different one, they will if they can. All other ISPs I've been with have helped me irrespective of the router I've chosen.

Having said that, the O2 Wireless Box is fine for me, so I stuck with it.

allan2006

hi

not sure if this helps but an o2 wireless box is infact a rebranded thomson speedtouch st 780wl.

the website with the specs are at
http://www.thomson-broadband.co.uk/products/Details.asp?ProductID=528

O2 do actually only loan you the box for the duration you remain a broadband customer, and its in the terms and conditions that you must return it once you cease to be a customer or else pay 50 quid or something, so if you dont use it dont flog it or give it to anyone

i switched from aol and i couldnt be happyier being an o2 customer, and if its relevant aol email addresses still work once you cancel your broadband.

erb

allan 2006

Those specs answered my questions:

Wireless

• IEEE 802.11g and IEEE 802.11b
• Data Rate:
  • 54, 48, 36, 24, 18, 12, 9, 6 Mb/s for 802.11g
    11, 5.5, 2, 1 Mb/s for 802.11b
• Supports WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) mechanism with 64-bit or 128-bit key length
• Supports 802.1x, WPA and WPA2 Yes WPA
• Supports the Access Control function: only registered WLAN clients can be allowed to associate to this IAD. Yes restrict access to stated PCs.
• SSID can be hidden for added security. Hides network name.