Avanti Broadband as a supplier?

[mistymaid]

Just had a browse through my diary and can give you a general idea of the reliability of my system and the time taken to repair.


It went off over Christmas (don't know the date) and was repaired on 7th January.

Off again 25th February and repaired 14th March.

Off again 22nd March and repaired 8th April.

Went on the blink, but not totally out, just extremely difficult to use so I had to pay for dial-up, between 18th April through to 1st May.

You can imagine the number of phone-calls/promises made.

I also emailed Avanti on the 27th April and finally got a response on 4th May.
So much for their response times.

... and now they expect us to pay for this mess!!!!

[kvz2000]

Hi,

I have had Avanti for almost a year now and initially it was okay but for the past 4 or 5 months my speeds have been shockingly slow, I pay £35-00 per month for the 1M package but on checking speeds tonight it is download of 149kbps and upload of 74kbps, I have continually emailed Avanti with little or no response,when I have got through to them they say eveything is fine or it could be a fault with my PC ( which is brand new ) I am seriously considering cancelling my D/D's but this would mean I would have no Broadband as I cannot get it through phone lines...what can be done about this very poor service.
What I dont understand is how they could provide faster speeds if I pay more yet they cannot or will not increase the speeds now.....


DN

[Mark.J]

Stick a review in for them here too kvz:
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/products/552.html

[escocia1]

I have just joined the Avanti system - not by choice but because BT doesn't seem to have a longest enough wire to connect me in my new home. I am not in the Highlands or Islands, but just under three miles from a cable system at my local council admin HQ!!
Yes Avanti is slower than ADSL and support is not 24/7, but how does one compare with traditional broadband? It is slower, but better than nothing, which is my option. It is quicker than the dial-up I tried a couple of weeks ago and much cheaper. I probably will have to ditch my Skype for the time being and I won't be watching iPlayer, but at least I can keep in touch with the rest of the world. I also have broadband in Portugal and that went down for four days two weeks ago with no support available - the phone line was also down, so dial-up wasn't even an option.
Yes the jury is out at present - I will wait for the worsening weather conditions and see what happens then.
I was, by the way, happy with the support I received when I couldn't connect the first day - I am on Applemac and although Avanti itself doesn't seem to be very helpful towards us Mac folk, certainly the operators I spoke to were able to assist.

[escocia1]

I only say the jury is out because I am superstitious of saying that I am pleased with my broadband satellite. But we have had the storms, the snow, the -16 degrees and my broadband has so far not let me down. My only problem is that I would like to connect via my wireless router so I don't have to sit huddled in the dining room all the time. I can connect the Avanti receiver to the Netgear router and see that the ISP address is correct on my Mac, but it will not connect to the internet. Any ideas would be appreciated - in fairly simple language please. I do see some suggestions, but none that are in the language I can understand - all assume a greater knowledge of how routers work. By the way I am on the cheapest speed.

[Lizzz]

We've had Avanti Satellite broadband for about a year now. On the whole, we've been happy. Obviously it's dearer than normal broadband, but we don't have that option where we live.
It has survived bad weather, but sometimes it has gone down. You phone Avanti, and after assuring them that there are clear blue skies outside, they realise there is a problem. Most of the time, the problem has been fixed at their end. On a couple of occasions, the satellite engineer has had to come to visit. This can sometimes take two or three weeks.
Basically, we are happy with it - let's face it, it is far better than tying up the phone line with dial-up.

Anyway, a question for anyone who knows - we have just purchased a lap-top, so want to go wireless. We bought a Netgear WNR3500. Now, when I read the box, I am having doubts. It says suitable for cable and DSL. Does this mean it's not suitable for satellite broadband connections? What should we be using to connect our iMac and our Macbook to the internet. Avanti don't offer anything on the way of helping with anything like this.

Thanks,
Liz

[escocia1]

Hi Liz, Can't wait for an answer to your query. I have the same problem - a MacBook with a Netgear DG834G. I had the router with ADSL before I moved, although would gladly purchase a new one if needed in order to go wireless, as the only place the Avanti receiver could be placed was in my dining room. I am about to contact Netgear to see if I can get an answer - perhaps you could try the same as you should still be getting support as it's a new router. I will post if I discover an answer and hopefully you will too.
Joy

[Lizzz]

Thanks Joy,

Hopefully we'll get this worked out.


I just phoned Netgear. Had to speak to someone who didn't really understand me (I really do talk quite clearly and don't have a broad Scottish accent!). Anyway, eventually after ten minutes of trying to talk to him, I finally got it from him that as long as there is a cable coming in from the antenna then the router is suitable.

I haven't actually installed it yet. I'll wait until my husband is here. Hopefully the Macbook will be arriving later today. Will get back to you on how we get on.

Liz

[Lizzz]

Joy, I have now installed the Netgear router and it works fine. The iMac is online in the living room and the Macbook is online through in the bedroom. The first time it didn't work, so then re-read the instructions. Everything had to get switched off, then back on in the right order. Thankfully it's working now. Have you had any luck with yours?

On a different subject about Avanti. I think they are maybe blocking some websites. Has anyone else found this? I use facebook and play Scrabble on it. A few weeks ago it stopped working and I checked everything it could possibly be, but could never get the page to load. I tried on both the iMac and Macbook. Today, I took the laptop down to somebody's house and used their broadband to see if it would load and it worked. So the problem obviously lies with the satellite broadband supply. I will be phoning them tomorrow about it. I know it may not be the end of the world not being able to play Scrabble, but we pay an awful lot of money every month for this broadband.

[Mark.J]

Lizzz you could try switching to OpenDNS.org for accessing websites, that might fix the problem because you'd avoid using Avanti's own DNS servers.