F2S ADSL - Broadband at its Best. (freedom2surf.net)

Member Name: Genki_dama

Product:	freedom2surf.net
Date:	01/07/03 (902 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fast, cheap, reliable

Disadvantages: .., .., ...

FREEDOM2SURF ? 512k ?PURE? IP HOME CONNECTION

Most of you out here know the pain of dial-up internet connections. I, for one, had to suffer it for far too long a time. Not only that, but with Freeserve. Two hour disconnections, random disconnections at any time of the day (no matter how long I had been connected for) and worst of all the painfully slow speeds for both surfing and downloading.

Imagine my delight my phone exchange was enabled for broadband. I was literally jumping for joy. No more slow speeds, no more 2 hour cut offs. No more Freeserve. However, it was not that easy, most of the "big" broadband ISP's charge A LOT of money, both monthly and initially. I spent many an hour looking around adslguide.org.uk (great website, have a look) searching for an ISP that I could afford and wasn't regarded as, well, poo. Freedom2surf [F2S] was the answer.

For those of you that aren?t ?technologically inclined? I?ll explain a bit about broadband here and in particular, ADSL.

ADSL Broadband is an internet connection that runs through a normal BT phone line. In order for this to happen, the phone line itself (and the phone exchange it runs through) has to be enabled to carry the extra signal required. With ADSL the connection speed is increased dramatically, in normal circumstances up to 10 times. Not only that, but with this connection, you can use the phone at the same time. No more waiting, no more engaged lines.

ADSL is Bliss.

Both on ADSLguide and the F2S support websites F2S had great reviews, and I heard a lot of good things. More than that though, they charged significantly less than BT and other Broadband ISP's do.

--- THE PRICES---

Not surprisingly, Broadband internet (ADSL in this case) costs more than normal dial up 56k service, and for obvious reason. However the difference between my Freeserve account and my Freedom2Surf account is a matter of pounds. The Month
ly fee of £22.50 is about £5 more than most ?anytime? dial up ISP?s.

Erm, that?s more or less it, Sort of. Freedom2Surf is free to Activate (that is to convert your phone line to one that can carry a broadband signal) this alone usually costs £50 or £60 with other ISP?s.

Then you have the price of buying a modem or a router. These, again, range dramatically, you can get a cheap PCI [internal] modem for as little as £25, and of course you need to know what you are doing in order to install it. You can also get USB modems, there are usually more expensive, around £60 - £100. And then for those of you that run a network over a series of PC, there is a router, this ?splits? the connection. These also range from around £100.

In F2S?s case, they offer you to supply you with a FUJITSU FDX310 USB modem for £69.99. However, these can be bought cheaper form other places. I bought mine from eBay [brand new and sealed] for £35, and there are plenty of them on there.

That means the total cost for getting ADSL broadband with Freedom2Surf cost me £35 and then £5 more a month. For the sheer convenience of being able to surf and use the phone at the same time, it is well worth it.

---SIGN UP PROCESS---

The easiest way to sign up for Freedom2Surf is through there website, www.freedom2surf.com, the sign up process is easy and only takes a few minutes. Everything is set out clearly and each field have a set of ?instructions? telling you what you need to enter. Believe me, it might sound a bit patronising, but some of it requires a bit of thinking (phone number etc) Payment is also very easy, simply an online form to fill in. The monthly payment can be paid with any credit/debit card, and it only takes a few minutes to sign up with, and that is the initial sign up done. You get sent a confirmation and a welcome message as well.

The sign up process with F2S takes about the same amount of time as with any other ISP, simply be
cause they all have to go through the same process, the whole thingy, from order to activation, should take from 10 days to two weeks.

The first stage is ?awaiting line test results? ? this is simply a check to make sure your phone line can handle a broadband signal. In my case this took 3 days. On the 4th day I was sent another email with my activation date and my account details.

Then, I had to wait it out? no easy thing I must say?.

Being the eager beaver that I am, I installed my modem the day before my date, and too my shock, it connected :) Again, I was jumping for joy?the difference between 56k and a 576k ADSL connection cannot be described, especially for you ?file sharing? people ;)

---CONNECTION---

From the start, my connection has also been around the same. From running speed test from various sites, I normally get between 450k - 480k download, 220k -230k upload. And despite what F2S told me, a 512k (initial) connection wasn?t there, it was 576!

Bit of an explanation again. When you first connect to the internet, you can view your speed (normally by double clicking the little ?2 PC?s? icon) this speed is the initial connection. And it alters, it will never stay the same, it goes up and down every second, same with dial up, same with cable.

Since I was connection, I have had ONE random disconnection, yes, just one in the months I have been online with F2S. In my book, that is great.

DOWNLOAD SPEEDS

Now, I like to ?share? files through certain p2p networks, I am sure most of you do. But what I started downloading at shocked me. I always new your maximum download speed was your connection divided by 8. So, for a 512k connection like F2S told me I would get, the maximum download is 65kb/sec. However, I connected at 576k, so I could get up to 72kb/sec, and amazingly, I did! The very first files I downloaded, I get 70kb/sec on. Going from 3kb/sec on a 56k, to 70kb/sec on ADSL is li
ke going from a Lada to an F1 car.

UPLOAD SPEEDS

Now I am a nice guy, I like to share things I download with my friends, so I set up my PC as a server and let my friends got some files, I was amazed again, my friends were downloading of me at 30kb/sec. Now getting that from a PC as crap as mine, through a connection not meant for it, it is extremely good.

---FREEBIES---

Like most ISP these days, you get some ?free? stuff. In this case, it?s web space and email.

WEBSPACE/HOSTING

With F2S members get 20mb of web space and an .f2s.com domain name. Their servers are also fast (not like free host such as geocities and angelfire). There isn?t that much else I can write here I suppose.

As well as normal web space, you can also get a MySQL database, and a PHP enable host, for free again. Now those of you who know what these are, will realise it is good. Those of you who don?t know what it means. Basically, it?s good, and it is rare with a basically free host.

EMAILS

Well, not that much to say here, you get 20 email addresses and a good tutorial of how to set them up through Outlook Express, but you can also use ?web mail?, which is simply an I.E based version.

I.P ADDRESS

With F2S?s standard 512k ?pure? account, you get a static I.P. Meaning no matter how many times you connect and disconnect from the internet, you will always have the same I.P address. This can be very handy if you like to use your PC for other things, such as setting up an FTP, or hosting games, even hosting a website, you can e lot easier.

SOFTWARE

Unlike most ISP?s these days, with Freedom2surf you don?t need to install ANY software onto your computer (except the drivers for your modem but that doesn?t count).

You simply connect through a windows dial up prompt.

However, this does have a ?downside?. With some other ISP?s your internet connection with establish without yo
u even knowing (normally during the very beginning off your PC?s start up) However, with F2S you have to open a Dial up Prompt. However, it connects almost instantly, and I would rather have that than having 1GB + of AOL software engraved onto my hard drive :P

---CUSTOMER SERVICE---

I actually don?t have much experience here, not having a problem yet. However, I can say there is a great site and forum at www.freedom2support.com where most things are sorted out without having to phone up F2S themselves.

The only time I have ever contacted F2s customer support was once, via email, to request my main email address be changed. This was done quickly and easily.

---ANYTHUING ELSE? ---

The only thing I haven?t mentioned won?t really matter to most people, but might to some. Freedom2surf block NO ports on the connection. Meaning nothing is blocked. You CAN run a webserver for a website through this connection. This is normally blocked with most ISP?s because of the possible bandwidth problem it can entail.

---OVERVIEW---

Freedom2surf = great, cheap, reliable.

TOTALLY RECOMMEND!


---UPDATE---

Just trying to get the "?" gone ;)

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