dial-up ISPs

Can anyone recommend a dial-up ISP in the UK (specifically South-East England)?  I was under the impression that my MSN dial-up access would work, since MSN has a UK homepage (msn.co.uk), but customer service has told me that they don't have any dial-up access numbers for the UK.  So, I need to find another ISP to use to connect, then can still use my MSN account for e-mail, etc.  I'd like to keep my current e-mail address for a few months until we get settled and I can notify everyone of a new address.  I am on a free 3-month trial for MSN dial-up still.  Is AOL UK any good?  I saw that they offer a free trial, too.

Any suggestions would be most helpful.  I want to be able to access the internet on Friday when we arrive in Guildford, so if possible, would like to get set up before we depart.

Thanks so much,
Stephanie

AOL UK (www.aol.co.uk) has over 2M subscribers so I think they must be doing something right.  I personally would recommend them.  Their customer service and support are excellent.

And you can get a disk that will give up to 120 hours of trial hours (to be taken within a month I believe).  They can be found in most supermarkets.

..... Is AOL UK any good? ..... 

They have a good reputation, but unless you are hooked on AOL's own content, then you are going to be paying twice as much as you need to each month.

Phone companies all provide dial-up service, usually on a concessionary rate for their phone and/or cable customers - you shouldn't expect to pay more than £10 a month for dial-up ISP service.

I live in the southeast...and use freeserve.  You can get unlimited use for about £13.99 per month.  You do get disconnected every 2 hours, but heck,with AOL when I COULD get connected I was frequently disconnected any where from every 15-30 min.  :/

also, if you're an online gamer...aol is evil.  pure freaking evil.  :p

wench

I'll check out both AOL UK and Freeserve.  When we get into a house we'll arrange for DSL, but until mid-Nov. I'll use dial-up (if I have a phone line, if not...)

Do you think a UK ISP would accept a US credit card and no mailing address?  I suppose I could use the address of the rental guest house we'll be staying at for the next month.

Thanks for the info.  Once again I have gotten great help from the members of this forum.

Stephanie

I forgot to mention that I need to be able to dial-up from different places -- hotel, guest house, etc.  

Stephanie

Check out www.demon.co.uk. They have very reasonable rates for Britain, and we've never had a problem with them...

..... I'll check out both AOL UK and Freeserve. ......

Why not take advantage of AOL's initial offer of free time, and then hopefully you will be in a house in time to sign up with your phone company's ISP.  You shouldn't have to pay £14 for unlimited time.  

I had my phone and ISP connection through Telewest and got unlimited time for £10 a month (upto Nov 2001).  I used them for three and a half years, before I left the UK, and I doubt I was disconnected while on line more than once I month.

Also check: http://www.internet-magazine.com/isp/index.asp for a pretty comprehensive, and impartial, guide to ISPs in the UK

Thanks, Mr. Val, I think I will do the AOL free month offer.  I tried to sign up online, but they want an address to send the free software.  I will just look in the local grocery stores (Tesco and Asda, I assume) for the free CDs.  Are they near the entrance/exits, like in Target?  

Thanks,
Stephanie

Are they near the entrance/exits, like in Target?  

Yep, that is where they are.

Are they near the entrance/exits, like in Target?  

Yep, that is where they are.  You might however be disappointed because I believe, but could be wrong so try it, you still need to have a credit card registered in the UK as during the sign-up you need to provide your home and billing address as they assume you will continue after the trial period.  You can of course cancel during this period without charge.

Well, I can always use the address of the guest house where we are staying, or Bret's work address.  AOL here has UK access numbers, and I have that on my computer, but not yet installed, so I think I'll just install that and take advantage of the free trial while figuring out other ISP arrangements.

Stephanie

We have to make sure we have Internet access at any stage because our business relies so heavily on being able to get online. Because of this we're probably abit over-the-top as far as Net connections.

We have a Demon (http://www.demon.net/) dial-up and web space we use through ISDN. You can dial anywhere in the UK to reach them and they have certain deals with BT that may be cost-saving. That's pretty much back-up for us now as we browse through broadband, using Telewest (http://www.telewest.co.uk/athome/athome.html) and we're quite happy with this.

We use a mail client and more web space through a top-notch company in California. We can't praise them any higher, for service, speed, price and all the bells and whistles. Hurricane(http://www.he.net/) is fantastic and there's no problem with billing. Charged on our credit card each month. We know several people in the UK who use and swear by them.

We travel a lot for our business, many times Internationally. So we needed a dial-in account with a company that had local numbers just about any place we might happen to be. We use AOL for that. Not crazy about the prices and I certainly wouldn't use them for standard stuff, but they are great to have on the road.

...which has me wondering...
Do you have a US AOL account and a US credit card? Can you set up a US AOL account and use it here for the next month until you get settled?

Frankly, and this goes for general moving over here anyway, we have both US and UK credit cards and bank accounts. Makes life simpler for us. If you haven't cancelled everything already, why not hold onto the US accounts?

I know that you may have to cancel your credit card. I just happen to have a cc that allows you to live anywhere, but it's based in the states and uses US dollars. So...devious thought, but why not?...if you have not cancelled your US credit card yet, why not take out a free AOL trial account, using your address in the states. If you're going to cancel the AOL account anyway, they won't really care about the next month when you've cancelled your card and no longer live there. You can dial up AOL within the UK with this US account. You will probably have to pay local phone charges. But it's still a dial-in.

We travel a lot for our business, many times Internationally. So we needed a dial-in account with a company that had local numbers just about any place we might happen to be. We use AOL for that. Not crazy about the prices and I certainly wouldn't use them for standard stuff, but they are great to have on the road.

...which has me wondering...
Do you have a US AOL account and a US credit card? Can you set up a US AOL account and use it here for the next month until you get settled?

Frankly, and this goes for general moving over here anyway, we have both US and UK credit cards and bank accounts. Makes life simpler for us. If you haven't cancelled everything already, why not hold onto the US accounts?

I know that you may have to cancel your credit card. I just happen to have a cc that allows you to live anywhere, but it's based in the states and uses US dollars. So...devious thought, but why not?...if you have not cancelled your US credit card yet, why not take out a free AOL trial account, using your address in the states. If you're going to cancel the AOL account anyway, they won't really care about the next month when you've cancelled your card and no longer live there. You can dial up AOL within the UK with this US account. You will probably have to pay local phone charges. But it's still a dial-in.

Lisa, that's exactly what I'm going to do!  As I was staring at my computer screen today I noticed that I had an AOL icon.   Hmmm, what's this?  Opened it...well, what do you know?  I get a free 3 month membership with the purchase of my new Compaq computer (purchased a month ago)!  Well, I signed up and set up access numbers both for Minneapolis and Guildford.  The UK numbers are all Freephone -- both NTL and BT.  Now, what's the difference?  I know they are different companies, but other than that?  Is it like the US, all toll-free numbers are toll-free for anyone, regardless of the company that supplies their phone service?

So, I think I have this problem solved, at least for the near term.

Stephanie

Oh, I was going to add...

Yes, we are keeping our US credit cards and US bank accounts active.  I've called the CC companies to notify them that we are moving to the UK, so not to be alarmed when charges are made from the UK.  American Express even said that they would convert our cards to UK Pound Sterling AmEx cards once we have a billing address.  

Stephanie