Fingers crossed - it's worked so far (homechoice.co.uk/revolution/rev_home.html)

Member Name: Highwayman

Product:	homechoice.co.uk/revolution/rev_home.html
Date:	26/04/02 (94 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: very cheap, fast, 512k is promised.......soon...one day

Disadvantages: not great on Mac tech support

I signed up for Homechoice in March 2001. Before that I was a Globalnet client, complete will dial-up charges, and consequently, high telephone bills. I emailed Globalnet in Sept 2000 about the chances of getting ADSL (the website said it was in the pipeline). I still havent heard back.

I phoned Homechoice on a Thursday to make my enqiries, because £20 a month just seemed too low a price for continual access. There had to be a catch. ( There wasn't, but now I believe you have to take at least one pay service on the digital TV).

The next Tuesday, a BT ( and why haven't THEY changed names?) engineer arrived, changed my phone socket, checked the connection and left. 20 Minutes later, the Homechoice engineer arrived, installed the modem, handed over the user pack (useless pack, more like) and also was on his toes. The modem attaches via a fairly dodgy looking 9 pin serial adaptor to the back of the PC. Install and setup cost £80 (including them supplying the modem and set-top box)

Five minutes later I was online, and havent been offline since, apart from 2 service outages lasting a couple of hours.

I had some teething problems installing Outlook from the CD, which was fixed in 10 minutes in a FREE ( 0800) phone call to the helpline. I have always found their tech support useful - even to the point that if the person answering doesn't know the solution, they will get someonewho can help to phone back. I was amazed when 5 minutes after making my first call to tech support I received a phone call asking if it was working ok, and suggesting another possible solution. The service hasn't fallen off, either.

My bandwidth is usually 80 - 90 kbps ( using 2-wire) or 35 - 70kbps using yourspeed. Download speeds are usually in the 10 kbps range, but as usual that depends on the site I'm downloading from. Compared to the 1-2 kbps downloads I used to get on a 56k service, I'm happy. Using an FTP program (in thi
s case Leech) to upload my homepage I acheived 110kbps transfer speed. Bliss!!!

In March 2002 I decided to put my Apple G4 online. This was when the fun started! I bought a £14 USB hub and an £18 serial adaptor, plugged 'em in............and nothing. For some reason the MAC was allergic to the setup disk and fell over whenever I tried the setup. I swore a bit, phoned up tech support, but their Mac expertise ain't the best. In desperation, I clicked on the PPP connect button - and I was online. Don't ask me how....... Since then though, the Mac is offline and I'm using the PC again. The reason is simple - the Mac is used for real work, the PC is a toy ( but arent they all?). I've never had a virus in 5 years online - but sod's law dictates that if I DID get one it would destroy income producing files.

Now for the cons..................

The speed is "only" 112500kbps. This is fine, and a faster connection than most. My actual bandwidth is usually 87kbps. Most ADSL services are 512k, but at the time I signed up they were about £300 a month. The user boards are clogged up with people asking why they havent got 512k. The answer is simple, of course - they didnt BUY 512k - they went for the cheapo option of £20 a month.

I can't seem to get DCC sends to work in IRC ( not a problem, I hardly use it).

Mac tech support isnt really up to speed, but they WILL call back with an answer.

Tech support is from 08.00 to 22.00 7 days a week, rather than 24/7, but it is a free call.

The TV programming is............well - I don't use it. Who has time to watch TV with 24/7 web access??

So what have I got?? Exactly what I paid for. Ok- it isnt the fastest, but quite fankly all I need that speed for is downloads (usually peer to peer), and I'm faster than the people Im downloading from. I have only had 2 service outages in 12 months. I do
n't have to pay extravagent phone bills any more. I dont have to wait for a connection, or for slow dialup services. No more Martian noises from the modem. Best of all - it's alway there to use with no further bills.

Am I glad I changed from Globalnet?? You bet!!

Summary: