Welcome to Lancaster Online ::A Local Community Guide::


Welcome to Lancaster Online ::A Local Community Guide::

Welcome • Launchpad • Contribute • Goldfish Twenty-Three Media •

Dial-Up 56k Internet Access
Broadband 512k - 2mb Internet Access

Dial-Up 56k Internet Access

When choosing a dial-up ISP you must consider whether you want a Pay As You Go service or Unmetered Access at a monthly or yearly fee.

If you only want basic access to the Internet, and will not be a heavy user, then a subscription-free Pay As You Go deal may suit you best as you will only need to pay for telephone call charges. If you are interested in making full use of the Internet and all it offers, you may wish to use an ISP to whom you pay a subscription and use an unmetered service which will not land you with a massive telephone bill!

If you decide to opt for a Pay As You Go dial-up service we would suggest that it is worth taking out accounts with more than one ISP so that if at any point there are any technical problems with one service you can bypass them by connecting to another ISP immediately at no extra cost.

See our suggestions below and please note all link open in a new window:

Virgin offers both a Pay As You Go dial-up service and Unmetered Access for a monthly fee of £13.49
Click here to view the different web packages available from Virgin.

We recommend:
and

Do you want to sign up with a company you are already familiar with? Why not use BT Openworld. Save £10 - try out BT Openworld Anytime for a month for £5.99 just click here: BT Openworld.

V Two One also offer a flat rate Unmetered Access service and they only charge £9.99 a month!

Broadband 512k - 2mb Internet Access

If you decide that you need something a little faster than 56k Dial-Up Internet Access then you should consider broadband. There are however a variety of ways to get broadband, some or all of which may or may not be available where you live.

ADSL

ADSL is an anacronym for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. It works by splitting your existing telephone line signal into two, one for voice and the other for data. ADSL technology can work at up to 8Mbps download. The most popular services in the UK at the moment are running at speeds of 512Kbps (approx. 9 times faster than a modem), although speeds of up to 2Mbps can be obtained. Upload speeds are 256Kbps on all products and hence this is why it is "asymmetric", because the download speed is different to the upload speed. If you have a BT Telephone Line and your property is located within 3.5 to 5.5 kilometres of an ADSL enabled exchange then you should have no problems getting ADSL. Kingston Communications customers may also be able to receive ADSL without the need for a BT telephone line.

It is a common misconception that "BT Openworld" is the only source of DSL service - in fact, "BT Openworld" is just one of many ISPs competing for your business.

BoltBlue Broadband

We recommend Nildram.

...and of course there's always BT .

DSL

DSL is an anachronm for Digital Subscriber Line. This is where the upload and the download capacities of the service are the same. This normally means that you can upload and download at 512k per second. This is only really useful if you are publishing or sharing large quantities of files on the internet.

Nildram offer this service.

Cable

Blueyonder offer the fastest broadband cable service. To find out more about their 2mb service click below:

Alternately to find out more about their ordinary cable broadband service click here: