My parents have a holiday cottage which currently has only dial-up access. 
They are wanting a very cheap broadband connection. High speed isn't 
important: the lines will probably only support up to 500 KB/sec or 1 
MB/sec. They don't need email accounts or web space as they will use their 
existing ones from their home broadband provider.

All they need is a no frills connection which is faster than the 30-40 
KB.sec that they get with dial-up.

Which is the best provider to go for? It must allow access to POP and SMTP 
servers that are not owned by the ISP, so Orange/Wanadoo with its 
restrictions on only being able to use Orange's own servers is not 
acceptible. They also need to be able to access their own web space (FTP and 
Front Page Server Extensions).

One of the problems with researching this is that many providers publicise 
introductory offers and/or reduced rates for an exchange with competition 
from non-BT ISPs, but revert to something much greater (eg £5.99 increases 
to £11.99) after that.

Any suggestions for a cheap'n'cheerful broadband provider?

Mortimer wrote:
> My parents have a holiday cottage which currently has only dial-up 
> access. They are wanting a very cheap broadband connection. High speed 
> isn't important: the lines will probably only support up to 500 KB/sec 
> or 1 MB/sec. They don't need email accounts or web space as they will 
> use their existing ones from their home broadband provider.
> 
> All they need is a no frills connection which is faster than the 30-40 
> KB.sec that they get with dial-up.
> 
> Which is the best provider to go for? It must allow access to POP and 
> SMTP servers that are not owned by the ISP, so Orange/Wanadoo with its 
> restrictions on only being able to use Orange's own servers is not 
> acceptible. They also need to be able to access their own web space (FTP 
> and Front Page Server Extensions).
> 
> One of the problems with researching this is that many providers 
> publicise introductory offers and/or reduced rates for an exchange with 
> competition from non-BT ISPs, but revert to something much greater (eg 
> £5.99 increases to £11.99) after that.
> 
> Any suggestions for a cheap'n'cheerful broadband provider?

How about a mobile dongle from the likes of O2, Three or Vodaphone? 
Look at authsmtp.com or dyndns.com for sending email from anywhere.

Phil, London

Mortimer wrote:
> My parents have a holiday cottage which currently has only dial-up 
> access. They are wanting a very cheap broadband connection. High speed 
> isn't important: the lines will probably only support up to 500 KB/sec 
> or 1 MB/sec. They don't need email accounts or web space as they will 
> use their existing ones from their home broadband provider.
> 
> All they need is a no frills connection which is faster than the 30-40 
> KB.sec that they get with dial-up.
> 
> Which is the best provider to go for? It must allow access to POP and 
> SMTP servers that are not owned by the ISP, so Orange/Wanadoo with its 
> restrictions on only being able to use Orange's own servers is not 
> acceptible. They also need to be able to access their own web space (FTP 
> and Front Page Server Extensions).
> 
> One of the problems with researching this is that many providers 
> publicise introductory offers and/or reduced rates for an exchange with 
> competition from non-BT ISPs, but revert to something much greater (eg 
> £5.99 increases to £11.99) after that.
> 
> Any suggestions for a cheap'n'cheerful broadband provider?

If either has an O2 mobile phone contract then the basic option they 
offer for wired broadband is £7.34 per month, permanently as far as I'm 
aware.

-- 
[ste]

In article , 
me@privacy.net says...
> Which is the best provider to go for? It must allow access to POP and SMTP 
> servers that are not owned by the ISP, so Orange/Wanadoo with its 
> restrictions on only being able to use Orange's own servers is not 
> acceptible.

I use Orange broadband and use googlemail servers without issue, among 
others.

> Any suggestions for a cheap'n'cheerful broadband provider? 

My mum is on plusnet, seems to do the job nively, no frills etc but 
solid connection.
-- 
Regards
Jon

Mortimer wrote:
> My parents have a holiday cottage which currently has only dial-up
> access. They are wanting a very cheap broadband connection. High speed
> isn't important: the lines will probably only support up to 500 KB/sec
> or 1 MB/sec. They don't need email accounts or web space as they will
> use their existing ones from their home broadband provider.
> 
> All they need is a no frills connection which is faster than the 30-40
> KB.sec that they get with dial-up.
> 
> Which is the best provider to go for? It must allow access to POP and
> SMTP servers that are not owned by the ISP, so Orange/Wanadoo with its
> restrictions on only being able to use Orange's own servers is not
> acceptible. They also need to be able to access their own web space (FTP
> and Front Page Server Extensions).
> 
> One of the problems with researching this is that many providers
> publicise introductory offers and/or reduced rates for an exchange with
> competition from non-BT ISPs, but revert to something much greater (eg
> £5.99 increases to £11.99) after that.
> 
> Any suggestions for a cheap'n'cheerful broadband provider?

If the exchange is "low cost" (info available on Plusnet website), then
the Plusnet Value would be fine (I assume that's the 5.99/11.99 referred
to :-) ).

-- 
PeeGee

"Nothing should be able to load itself onto a computer without the
knowledge or consent of the computer user. Software should also be able
to be removed from a computer easily."
Peter Cullen, Microsoft Chief Privacy Strategist (Computing 18 Aug 05)

"PeeGee"  wrote in message 
news:cLedneoHwO_sr9bXnZ2dnUVZ8kOdnZ2d@brightview.co.uk...
> Mortimer wrote:
>> My parents have a holiday cottage which currently has only dial-up
>> access. They are wanting a very cheap broadband connection. High speed
>> isn't important: the lines will probably only support up to 500 KB/sec
>> or 1 MB/sec. They don't need email accounts or web space as they will
>> use their existing ones from their home broadband provider.
>>
>> All they need is a no frills connection which is faster than the 30-40
>> KB.sec that they get with dial-up.
>>
>> Which is the best provider to go for? It must allow access to POP and
>> SMTP servers that are not owned by the ISP, so Orange/Wanadoo with its
>> restrictions on only being able to use Orange's own servers is not
>> acceptible. They also need to be able to access their own web space (FTP
>> and Front Page Server Extensions).
>>
>> One of the problems with researching this is that many providers
>> publicise introductory offers and/or reduced rates for an exchange with
>> competition from non-BT ISPs, but revert to something much greater (eg
>> £5.99 increases to £11.99) after that.
>>
>> Any suggestions for a cheap'n'cheerful broadband provider?
>
> If the exchange is "low cost" (info available on Plusnet website), then
> the Plusnet Value would be fine (I assume that's the 5.99/11.99 referred
> to :-) ).

Sadly they don't have a low-cost exchange. It seems that you need to live 
within range of a large urban exchange to get the benefit; a smaller rural 
exchange serving a few outlying villages seems always to be high-cost.

So the cost of PN is £11.99 (ignoring the introductory discount). They're 
with PN for their home connection, so another PN connection at the cottage 
would be the simplest solution because there would be guaranteed access to 
PN's POP, SMTP, FTP and FP servers.

But I wondered whether there were any cheaper broadband deals. Maybe PN's 
£11.99 is among the cheapest you can get.

Mortimer wrote:
> 
> But I wondered whether there were any cheaper broadband deals. Maybe 
> PN's £11.99 is among the cheapest you can get.

Is there a Sky satellite dish on this cottage?

-- 
Adrian C

"Adrian C" <email@here.invalid> wrote in message 
news:7b0r18F207pq3U1@mid.individual.net...
> Mortimer wrote:
>>
>> But I wondered whether there were any cheaper broadband deals. Maybe PN's 
>> £11.99 is among the cheapest you can get.
>
> Is there a Sky satellite dish on this cottage?

No. However unless the signal strength of the DTTV multiplexes from their 
transmitter increases dramatically when analogue is switched off, there's 
going to be very poor Freeview coverage so satellite might become the only 
viable alternative in a few years...