April 16, 2000 - April 20, 2000

News - April 20,2000

Intensive Networks Join Unmetered!

By:zeon @ 10:30:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Intensive Networks have sent us an e-mail about their new Unmetered Packages:

"We have introduced the new tariffs for Unmetered access on Intensive Networks. This URL leads to the Page regarding the access and also has links to the tariffs and such. Click Here"

The Tariffs are:

1. Evening and Weekend (3 Hour drop). £11.25/month.
2. Evening and Weekend (no drop). £17.74/month.
3. 24/7 Unmetered (1 Hour Drop). £28.81/month.
4. 24/7 Unmetered (2 Hour Drop). £37.62/month.
5. 24/7 Unmetered (4 Hour Drop). £39.97/month.
6. 24/7 Unmetered (no Drop). £114.00/month.

The service supports 64k ISDN and 56k modem. Its through the BT Surftime package so some of the charge will be paid on your BT bill and some goes to Intensive Networks.

A full FAQ can be found HERE and a list of services HERE.

This is a good quality ISP and some of the options are quite good value although £114 is a bit on the expensive side but it is a cheap way to get a leased line.

Cable Inet Update

By:Daniel @ 9:54:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As you know i am on Cableinet and at first the speeds was terrible but now they are finally picking up. The following quote comes from their announce newsgroup.

"we will be adding a further 2500 modems in the next week to our
network, along with the other modem capacity we have been adding over the last two months.

All our modem cards nationwide have had their code and configuration checked and where necessary corrected so that everything is now standardised and easier to monitor and configure in future."

Nice to hear they are sorting out their problems.

BT Surftime Update

By:mark @ 7:02:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Looks like BTSurftimes official release date has finally been announced, but get ready because it's a long wait as this E-Mail from them we just got explains =(:

"Thank you for registering your interest in SurfTime, the new way to get unlimited calls to the Net for a single monthly fee.

SurfTime will be launched from 1st June, and subject to availability you will then be able to order the product. We will contact you after this date, to let you know when you can reap the benefits of worry free surfing.

You can keep up with the latest SurfTime news & developments on http://www.bt.com/netgeneration.

Regards,

The SurfTime team"

Ok so June 1st isn't that far off and a couple of ISPs are already using surftime privately under beta. Personally I'm holding out for my satellite connection to be installed next month.

World Online/Localtel Issues

By:zeon @ 6:43:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Readers of The Scream and the NG's have brought a couple of issues to our attention.

World Online/Localtel now only offer a 24/7 service, which users have to pay another £5 for. Some people don't want 24/7 because they work (9-5). Now a while ago the UK CEO of World Online said:

"The Localtel expertise will help us refine our free subscription and free access model, thereby ensuring that we have a portfolio to suit every individual consumer."

Well this clearly isn't the case as there is one choice and that is Freedom 24, which is £5 more than the old off-peak package that will end on June 30th. Around a month ago I sent an e-mail asking:

"As world online now own Localtel. Is there a chance in the future that the current free off-peak calls to Sceaming.Net will have a charge per month?"

And received a reply simply saying "NO". They have clearly gone back on their word. The questions we sent them a couple of days ago contained all this information and as you can see the answer didn't really make much sense.

When customers found this out and wanted to leave they are being charged £18, which also isn’t right, Trading Standards are looking into this.

The lack of info on WOL web pages is also worrying and the only way people can find out any information is to visit The Scream, The NG's and other sites like ISPr. Feel free to post any comments....

Source: The Scream, The Register

Redhotant Report....

By:Ashley @ 5:57:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

I am planning to make a report on redhotant, in order to outline all the problems people are facing using the service, and this will hopefully lead to their problems being solved.

In order to compile this report, I am looking for all users of redhotant to email me with their comments and views on the ISP, and I will therefore compile it based on all the views of the ISPreview visitors. I, myself, also use redhotant, so I have a head-on perspective of the problems faced.

When contacting me, please include as much information as you can about your internet connection, such as Network Provider, Location, etc...

Email me your comments and views here

BT Surftime Slammed...

By:Ashley @ 5:34:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BT have been informed that they are guilty of anti-competitive behaviour by Oftel, as reported by ZDNet. The ZDNet article said:

"In its draft direction, Oftel makes it clear that BT must roll out a wholesale version of Surftime with a "pricing methodology that is reasonable" by June 1st."

"AOL has long campaigned for cheaper unmetered access and greater competition and believes Oftel has acted correctly. "Oftel has come good and reflected the concerns of the telecoms and Internet industries," says an AOL spokesman. "This is a very significant step forward for every ISP in this country and enables consumers to have true diversity and choice."

The news of this report should be a big blow to BT, and this will hopefully make them change the pricing rates of Surf Time, and make it much more user orientated. For the full news article at ZDNet, please click here

Blueyonder Delays

By:zeon @ 1:27:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The launch of Blueyonders high-speed Internet service has been delayed according a report on The Register. The installation of the service is being slowed down by "technical teething problems". But anyone who been inconvenienced by this latest problem will have their installation fee waived.

Source: The Register

C.U.Ts AGM

By:mark @ 9:36:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

After the Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications (C.U.T) recently had their annual general meeting, a lot of new strategies and ideas were formed:

"This past year has seen remarkable progress in achieving unmetered telecommunications in the UK, but I believe our work is far from finished. We will be focussing on the following issues in the year ahead:

-campaigning for a reasonably priced unmetered narrowband offering that can be taken up by any organisation willing to provide services. BT Surftime, when and if implemented, is an important step in the right direction, but BT's rates remain too high and are uncompetitive. The best solution would be an unmetered voice and data tariff or tariffs similar to those offered by Kingston Communications;

-monitoring the deployment of ADSL and cable modem broadband services in the UK and campaigning for reasonable pricing;

-supporting and monitoring local loop unbundling in the UK;

-assisting in the reform of OFTEL whose regulatory structure is sadly out of date;

-participating in the development of a regulatory structure for telecommunications in the UK which will provide a workable framework and consumers alike."

It all certainly sounds encouraging and we hope that their new strategy pays off and helps us all have cheaper calls and net access. You can read the rest HERE

EzeSurf Update

By:mark @ 9:31:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We noticed a rather large number of posts from people unable to connect to EzeSurf itself, their helpdesk, through E-Mail, their newsgroups and now even the website. Thankfully while the support department @ EzeSurf is having some obvious troubles (shortage of staff), almost all other problems have now been resolved.

Eze have finally managed to upload a slightly newer webpage HERE and also added a SurfSaver link to the website which can be visited HERE. Sadly most of the domain links, including the one we just mentioned for Surfsaver, don't seem to work at the time of writting.

The Eze are working very hard with limited numbers so give them some credit for that, perhaps a few more staff though guys?

News - April 19,2000

SupaFree CLI

By:zeon @ 9:16:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Some users have complained that they were still unable to access the Supafree Trial even when it was not a busy time. All the trialests have been sent e-mails telling them to make sure they dial from the number they registered with for the trial. If you are dialling from a different number you can give them a ring on 01254 611169 (normal rate no.) to change the number you can dial the trial on.

ClaraNet Update

By:mark @ 6:51:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We've been busy reading what Clara's own users have had to say on their various newsgroups, most people are finally starting to accept the £9.99 Freetime package. However the GamerZone one (£50) is still causing some trouble. Most probably because for £50 you could have ADSL or even a Cable Modem on very stable 24/7 =), it's just not competitive. One Clara user post this:

"Any chance of reducing the gamezone £49.99 package?

Maybe to about £30.00 a month? especially as the hours are cut.

£49.99 seems expensive to single people living alone like me, I play games alot, as well as the web, icq, irc. Also as a game player I have Home Highway, so the cheaper the phone bills the better as I changed to HH because I like gaming.

Thanks
Shirl"

This post was followed by a great deal of agreement and we have to say that such a price would at least help and make it as even as the current price on a relitive scale. To that our technical support friend Steve gave a firm and somewhat unforgiving reply:

"None. Trust me, nobody is getting ripped off (seriously).

steve

--
Steve Rawlinson
Claranet Ltd"

It's hard to know what to say really, it's clear that Clara are unwilling to discuss and form a new agreement with the consent of their customers. True a lot of current 24/7 unmetered ISPs aren't perfect, but most 'including' RedHotAnt do have excellent service if a little lacking in support/terminal adaptors =).

The most important thing to remember is that ClaraNet is NOT offering a 24/7 package, almost all the standard Evening and Weekend FreeCall ones are currently going pretty well and half of them are totally free =). We wish Clara the best of luck in the future and hope that they will at least TRY to work with their customers, they are a good ISP and we'd hate to see them go down the pipe from the 2nd May. Post your comments.

Help ADSL Rollout

By:mark @ 6:30:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We know a lot of you like ourselves who live in less 'built up areas' are worried that ASDL could take far to long before it reaches us. I was quite amazed to find how few of you knew exactly how ADSL is being rolled out and so I’m posting this. The main point is that areas outside the major cities are having ADSL fitted on an 'interest' basis.

Basically the more people interested in any one area then the more likely those areas will be on the next ADSL update in a couple of months. You can register your interest HERE, it's not a sign-up or order, it's just taking some basic details.

If you even remotely consider ADSL for now or the future then sign-up anyway and help those that want it ASAP =) yet can't have it.

Virgin £15 Unmetered

By:zeon @ 4:18:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Register has reported that the Virgin package will be called Stop-The-Clock. It will cost £15 and the service is going to be initially trialed with some 10,000 subscribers. Virgin users will be contacted in the next few days.

General Complaints

By:mark @ 9:19:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Another day and yet more complaints so for the second time we'll summarise all the little bits and bobs we have been receiving from people recently:

-RedHotAnt Still giving a lot of connection problems.
-EzeSurfs Customer Support E-Mail and Phone number seem to be as unresponsive as a stone.
-Telewest SurfUnlimiteds service is apparently getting a lot slower again.
-LineOne/Quip billing issues and 'charges' for calls that should be free still seems to be a small factor for some people.

That's really about it, we can only print about the complaints we actually get in any number. One complaint won't constitute a mention, three or four might. We can't get through to RedHotAnt and their most recent service update is about the service itself and not the logging in issues, we'll keep trying.

EzeSurf seem to have a problem with tech support staff according to a couple of posts on their support group, so perhaps it's wise to wait a week or two before signing up. As for the other two, we just know what our readers have been telling us.

News - April 18,2000

World Online - E-Mail Interview

By:zeon @ 7:15:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We have managed to get World Online to answer a few questions by e-mail.

Its a bit big to post on the main news, so you can find it HERE

ISPreview Update

By:mark @ 7:09:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It's a long shot but if there's anybody out there who could scan our 'Sunday Times' article and send it in then please do. An even longer shot, if there's anybody out there that just happened to video this mornings news with us on and have VCR > PC converting systems, then can they send us over a video file =)?

Also due to the recent surge in E-Mails we have been getting from ISPs, readers and the like then we are going to add some more order to the chaos. We will be introducing a system for ISPs to submit their details for Listings and or Review and a new E-Mail for ISP complaints. Looks like I'll hold off the new ISPreview main page design until this is done, most likely AFTER the server upgrade.

Also, the three hours downtime we just came out of has caused E-Mail to go AWOL, please Re-Send if you sent something during the last three hours.

Thanks

Mark - Editor-In-Chief

RedHotAnt Problems - Update

By:mark @ 7:00:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We have just heard from some readers about how they simply couldn't take the connection problems @ RedHotAnt anymore and wanted to cancel. All fair and well you might say, yes but then that's not until they tell you that in order to cancel you HAVE to send a FAX!? Now we know a lot of modems and ISDN TA's have fax systems but not everybody does and those that do don't always know how to use them.

It seems a might unfair to us that if a user wishes to cancel, that he or she may only have one method of doing so. Your comments are welcome on this subject so please post away and correct us if we are wrong.

Freedom To Surf

By:Daniel @ 1:35:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

There are four products which are connected via ADSL to the Freedom to SurfInternet backbone.

Launch packages are:

* Home User package - 512K download, 256K upload - contention ratio 50:1 -
USB interface - £160 install and £40 month

* Professional package 1 - 512K download, 256K upload - contention ratio:
20:1 - £270 install and £75 month

* Professional package 2 - 1Mbit download, 256K upload - contention ratio:
20:1 - £270 install and £100 month

* Professional package 3 - 2Mbits download, 256K upload - contention ratio:
20:1 - £270 install and £130 month

Click here to go to Freedom to surf's web page

Source:Nutcracker

MCI Worldcom Surftime

By:zeon @ 1:25:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

MCI Worldcom is to launch its own version of surftime. It has recently complained to the telecoms watchdog Oftel about the how BT's Surftime is "anti-competitive".

Oftel ruled that BT had failed to offer a wholesale version of Surftime and that it did not allow MCI Worldcom to compete on an equal basis. A Worldcom spokesman said:

"We are very pleased. It tells BT that we will have a simultaneous launch of a wholesale variant of Surftime"

More competition for BT can only be good for the consumer.

Source: Yahoo!

EzeSurf Support Problems

By:mark @ 11:50:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Just to say that if you're having trouble getting through to EzeSurfs Support number or E-Mails then you're not alone. A lot of posts today reporting the same thing, hopefully it's just temporary like usual. EzeSurf is a top ISP and we love them, not literally of course.. no because that'd be sick wouldn't it =)

RedHotAnt Problems

By:mark @ 11:24:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

While most people seem content with RedHotAnts actual unmetered service (24/7 FreeCall ISP for a one off Annual fee), if asked, most would say there is a problem with logging on. We are currently in the middle of testing the service ourselves for review and have now noticed it ourselves.

To save some rambling here's a direct list of the problems we get and others have told us about:

1) Infrequent engaged tones.
2) Starts to make a connection and then drops you out.
3) Lets you login, yet you find websites and other services can't resolve (DNS TimeOut issue - commonplace).
4) When you try to login after recently being disconnected then it drops you complaining your password is incorrect (Server isn't clearing its connected log).

The service quality itself is good with modem and ISDN users receiving acceptable speeds, however if you can't get connected then you can't have those speeds can you =). No advice at this time but you can be assured we are investigating, on a side note ISDN users would be advised to avoid 128Kbps multilinking. This often causes connections to drop under RHA when logging in. More news soon..

Server Upgrade

By:mark @ 10:53:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Just a quick note, all our servers are being upgraded to P3-500 systems and MySQL/Frontpage2000 support is being added/upgraded. On top of that we should also be getting PHP4 support in the near future. To clarify what this means, twice as fast servers for better all round performance and up to date software. For those that don't know all the buzz words, it just means we'll be better and able to bring you more services =).

Because we have a clever server admin, the chances this will result in downtime of any duration is unlikely.

BBC Breakfast News @ 6:45am

By:mark @ 10:36:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Not content with being in the Sunday Times on well.. Sunday, ISPreview hit the big time this morning when the BBC News @ 6:45am mentioned us =). Yes that's TV for all those that might otherwise live in a small hole deep underground labelled 'nature loving hippies' hehe. So to date we've been in 4 popular magazines (PC Gamer, PC Format among others), two papers (Sunday Times - most recent) and now TV twice.

TV Twice you say? Yes we were on some 12Midnight silly Cyber Internet type program or something as well once. Not to bad for a site that started in September last year as a project that was biting its own tail. Or in plain English, What's the point in an ISP Review site if you have to be on-line to read the reviews and info anyway =) Well we pulled away, added more content and continue to do so.

Words can't express how pleased we are, not only with ourselves but also with all our readers [specifically the guys from day-one] who helped us make it this far. It just goes to show what one man with a unique idea and perspective on a situation can do. Not to mention my dedicated deputy editor 'Richard' and the other news monkeys like Ashley and Daniel. Still no rest just because we've been on BBC News, back to work..

SupaFree Trial - Slow

By:zeon @ 7:25:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The reason for the slowness of the trial was a routing problem meaning the dialup platform wasn't able to communicate with the web but to solve this problem "www.supanet.com" can be used as a proxy server.

The other problem with engaged tones comes from a problem with BT only allowing 700 simultaneous connections to the 0800 number although this isn't officially confirmed it might explain some of the problem.

Source: The Matrix

UPDATE: After getting on the service (got my trial pack this morning) it seems quite fast and multiplayer pings are acceptable.

UPDATE2: Now seems to be engaged again. The official response from Supanet is that there are limited lines so when 1000 people try to dial in only a number of them get through!

Lineone\Quip Old Deal Confusion - Apology

By:zeon @ 7:09:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Sorry about the post before. The 500/1000 deal is an old one and does not offer unmetered access but that deal had disappeared on March 31st and everyone who has signed up to the Free Internet deal with Lineone\Quip should have unmetered access if they started using the service after March 31st.

News - April 17,2000

ClaraNets Blocked Ports

By:mark @ 7:32:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to Steve from Clara for getting the correct 'port' details to us, the new Freetime Unlimited package costing £9.99 will BLOCK all the connection (port types) not mentioned below:

daytime 13/tcp
daytime 13/udp
ftp-data 20/tcp
ftp-data 20/udp
ftp 21/tcp
ftp 21/udp
smtp 25/tcp
smtp 25/udp
time 37/tcp
time 37/udp
nicname 43/tcp
nicname 43/udp
re-mail-ck 50/tcp
re-mail-ck 50/udp
xns-time 52/tcp
xns-time 52/udp
domain 53/tcp
domain 53/udp
gopher 70/tcp
gopher 70/udp
finger 79/tcp
finger 79/udp
http 80/tcp
http 80/udp
kerberos-sec 88/tcp
kerberos-sec 88/udp
pop3 110/tcp
pop3 110/udp
auth 113/tcp
auth 113/udp
nntp 119/tcp
Protocol
nntp 119/udp
Protocol
imap 143/tcp
v2
imap 143/udp
v2
imap3 220/tcp
imap3 220/udp
https 443/tcp
https 443/udp
utime 519/tcp
utime 519/udp
nntps 563/tcp
nntps 563/udp
imap4-ssl 585/tcp
imap4-ssl 585/udp
http-alt 591/tcp
http-alt 591/udp
imaps 993/tcp
pop3s 995/tcp
2064/tcp
3128/tcp
8080/tcp

We cut out all the descriptions due to space, however the above list generally means WWW, E-Mail, FTP and associated. We can't be sure but certain chat systems, ICQ and possibly multiplayer may not work under the new package. We don't recognise all the ports listed down here so if we are wrong then please correct us. Anything NOT here will not be allowed, I would have thought multiplayer and ICQ etc. would have been =(

ISPr Hits 800Mhz

By:mark @ 12:54:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Received my new Athlon650 today with its swanky 0.18Micron core, clocked it to 800Mhz using a 115Mhz FSB (230Mhz Dual) and Ram @ 133Mhz Async. For those overclockers out there, set your FreeSpeed Pro card or other device to multiply for 700Mhz, then use a voltage of 1.8 with some serious cooling and set the FSB accordingly.

It's all now perfectly stable and runs faster than a normal 800Mhz Athlon because of the FSB increase. Funny thing is, it barely managed to boot by using a simple clock multiplier to give it 800Mhz, yet the FSB changes made it work fine when it should be much more unstable. Ah well, speed!!!

For those that don't have the slightest clue what I'm on about, then don't bother =).

SupaFree Trial

By:zeon @ 9:51:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The SupaFree Trial has started the lucky people who have been chosen are being sent details this morning, on how to access the service.

Our ISP Listings

By:mark @ 8:25:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

With all the extra attention we are getting I have had around x3 the normal amount of E-Mail we usually get. One thing I have noticed is that people want to know why this or that is not or incorrectly listed in our 'ISP Listings'. These are not likely to be regular readers as we post weekly updates and almost always mention the listings. So for the benefit of those E-Mailing us about ISP's not being in the list and such:

"There are around 1,000 commercial and free ISPs existing in the UK and ISPreview has only managed to list 300 so far. It takes around 5minutes to catalogue a single ISP and it's details and then update to the listings. As such we would never be able to update if we spent our time doing the list 24/7.

However we have mentioned this many times in the past, but work as recently resumed on updating the listings and three of us (two atm) are actively involved in doing the work. By the end of 2000 the listings should be completed but we have to prioritise and they are often not top of the list."

Hope that has explained it.. now back to work.

News - April 16,2000

ISPreview ULTRA STATS

By:mark @ 7:15:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

I couldn't believe it when richard told me our stats so far for today, it's a record breaker =). Before I let you know, the first thing I should say is that earlier in the week we broke 4,000Hits in one day (7,000 Pageviews odd). Now we haven't even ended today and a combination of new news and 'The Sunday Times' article has given us 15,000 Page Views!

Truly insane I think you'll agree, it's going so fast that our live counter can't keep up =). We estimate the actual hits to be around 7,000 - far in excess of what we believed ISPreview would hit even two years from now. Who knows how many there might be at 12Midnight, 17K? That's a tough record to beat.

ISPreviews Objective

By:mark @ 6:55:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Whilst talking with ClaraNet today I decided to mention our main goals for ISPreview, it suddenly occurred to me that a lot of you might not actually know the and so I'll quote:

The main goal of ISPreview is to provide the UKs biggest on-line ISP information source, so far we have pretty much done that but we also have some more internal goals:

1) We'd like to see ISPs that listen to their customers more and react properly to the market, customers don't want to be constantly shifting around ISPs because a single provider gets it right and then wrong again.

2) We'd like to see ISPs put FULL and properly updated System status pages on-line (no matter how technical they have to be) [NetcomUK is the best example of getting this right].

3) We'd like to see ISPs put taps on new registrants if it means that the service drops below and highest of quality, always upgrade first in other words. BTI have broken the rules on this one, yet EzeSurf got it right.

4) We'd like to see ISPs that make their intentions clear for any one service before launch and not after, terms and conditions for changing services and forcing people onto another service as examples. [GreatXscape is guilty of this one, so is EzeSurf].

5) We'd like to see better customer communication, weekly E-Mails about services and previous/current problems, even if there's nothing to report. ISPs don't seem to understand that customers want to know what's going on even if it doesn't make sense; it's a security thing (personal wise).

6) Finally We'd like to see ISPs that allow you to fiddle with everything about your ISP account on-line. For example if you travel and own a Laptop then you can't use ClaraNet because you have to keep phoning up to get the FreeTime CLI change and them some places don't allow CLI. It'd be nice if you could change that number on-line, along with E-Mail stuff (primary address included) and all the other bits and bobs. Some ISPs do have this but you'd be surprised how few.

There's more than that but the rest are just smaller things, please take note that we haven't gone over this like a normal news post, it's a direct copy and paste so there might be errors.

ISPreview in Sunday Times

By:zeon @ 5:25:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

ISPreview was featured in the Sunday Times this week. The mention is in the Don't Panic part of Doors in the Culture Section (9). I'm not exactly sure of the page number but, the page can also be found HERE.

Visual Depth

By:zeon @ 4:26:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Net4Nowt had a chat, with one of the people from Visual Depth. They have now gathered a bit more information about the service:

"There will be an annual payment of £74.99 plus an initial set-up fee of £24.99. Although the annual payment is a bit higher than first expected, they do provide 128K ISDN connections for no extra charge.

The launch date is 25th April and online sign-up will be available. They will be accepting credit cards, cheques and debit cards with a minimum contract period of 12 months. They will be providing a money back guarantee for which certain terms will apply.

The service from Visual Depth, which is also available to business users, will provide customers with newsgroup access, 20MB of web space and 5 email addresses. It will also allow up to 20 simultaneous connections, which will be beneficial for businesses.

Customers of any telephone company will be able to join. There will also be no cut-off period, as long as you remain active, as you will be disconnected after 20 minutes. They also say they will be a 99.9% first time connection."

Source: Net4Nowt

Sharkhunt for ££

By:mark @ 11:41:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

If you are in any way offended by those annoying 'Get Paid To Surf' campaigns then don't waste your time reading this and move on.

A new system called Sharkhunt is due to go live in two months and it promises that even one person can earn £20 a month (more than AA). Details below:

How much will I earn?
Your earnings potential depends on the amount of time you spend on the Internet and the number of friends you refer to Sharkhunt.com. When you keep the Adbar open you will be paid 25p for every hour it is open. When you refer members you get paid 10p for every hour they keep the Adbar open. For every member they refer you get 5p, for every member they refer you get 5p and finally for every member they refer you get 5p. There is no limit to the amount you can earn on referrals. Initially we will set a total limit of £20 per month to the amount you can earn, but we may increase this in the future.

They won't launch for another couple of months but you can pre-signup under them HERE through us (Ref: ispreview). Or join AllAdvantage (Ref: GUI-645) and or CashSurfers (Ref: mark99), both of which we support, although Alladvantage still remains the best for the UK.

The only reason we have advertised SharkHunt is because you don't have to get refs in order to make £20 a month, something that's otherwise not so easy to do. We don't actually like ANY of the Paid To Surf systems but use them because a few extra ££ is nice to have in anybody’s account.

ISPreview Weekly Update

By:mark @ 10:50:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Another week of confused customers and sketchy ISPs passes us by as we get ready for yet more of the same. Ah well, that's life and it's just another walk in the sea of confusion for us. So what's been going on this week at ISPreview you ask? We've mostly been busy dealing with customer complaints and problems and have had very little time for anything else.

The new 'main index' design (this page) is underway but will take a little while before it's ready. We are going for a less complicated and more news friendly look so as to cut page loading in half yet again. I have the layout pretty much sorted but just need to finish it up and run a few tests before I'm content, however it looks fine.

Other than that our ever-dedicated staff, specifically Richard (Zeon) and Daniel, are working on updating our dated ISP Listings. There's a lot to add but right now we also have to update all the old ones as 80% of it is still in 'template form'. Good luck to them and I hope to help out the moment my tasks are completed.

Then we have 'ISPreview On-Line', a service which I can now announce we are in partnership with Vispa Internet on. FreeCalls will also arrive in the future, but right now we are customising the system ready for launch (when new index is done) and hope to offer you something else over the normal Vispa.

After all that is completed I'll run a complete page overhaul on all the sections of the site in an effort to streamline the design a bit more. All of the above shouldn't take to long to do but at the end of it ISPreview itself should finally be finished after months of work and effort. The launch for the new 'index' could happen tomorrow or it could happen in two weeks, but soon.. ish.