Freeserve Off-Peak - It Has Got Better (Freeserve)

Member Name: tybalt

Product:	Freeserve
Date:	25/10/01 (218 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 1st time connections

Disadvantages: read on

When I first joined the Freeserve Off-Peak (now called HomeTime) I experienced a lot of problems with connecting to the service, but first I?d like to start with the signup process.

I first joined Freeserve about 2-3 years ago and used them as a standard ?Pay-As-You-Go? ISP (Internet Service Provider, but then you already knew that) and they were as good as any other ISP at the time. I didn?t have any trouble with them in this period mainly because I hadn?t found DooYoo at this stage and I hardly used the internet other than research.

Then they released the Off-Peak service, and I had been waiting for something like this for ages. In case you don?t already know the package is based on the BT SurfTime (now called SurfTogether) package. I heard of the package in April 1999 and I had to wait until September 1999 before my local telephone exchange was upgraded to be able to use the package. As you can guess I got a bit annoyed because living in Northern Ireland you always get things later than anywhere else.

Once the service was available I was straight over to Freeserve?s site to see if I could join up, just to find that I had to go over to BT?s site and join up with Surftime first. This was OK because I didn?t mind. You basically pay BT for the package any way. There was no set-up charge and I only had to £6/7 a month, I can?t remember which. You then go back over to the Freeserve site and connect to their service. You are required to already be a Freeserve member to do this, but I was. You give them your details and at the time I joined, they were going to pay £1 a month to my BT account as part of the deal. I am sad to say it but things have now changed, you now need to pay Freeserve extra to use the service. The total price is now £9 I think.

After you give them your detail it takes a couple of days and then they email you with details on how to connect to the service. You have to go to their site and download some software to u
se the service. The software basically just puts a mask over the standard dial-up networking software that comes with Windows. The software has one nice feature though, instead of having to remember the two different numbers to dial, one for Off-Peak and one for Peak. There is a sort of Phone Book which stores both numbers for you to choose between. This is how I signed up to the service; it might have changed by now.

I downloaded the software and installed expecting to connect to the service first time. Then I thought ? I never have that much luck with computers. Of course I was right, the download of the software had failed, and I needed to connect on the old connection and download the software again (argh!). The good thing was that when I downloaded it again it did connect first time.

The system very soon became very crowded and it was taking usually over 10 attempts to get connected to the service. Luckily I?m a fairly patient person (some of the time) and I managed to live with it. I couldn?t really expect much speed wise from the service though because at the time I was plodding along on an old 28.8Kbps modem. I also had a DACS 2 box to split the line in two, so really I had half a line and a 28.8Kbps connection.

Recently things have all changed though, I got a new 56Kbps modem and I got BT to remove the DACS box and install a full second line, which I know that I should have had when they first installed the line. I didn?t bother complaining though - I was getting it fixed.

One other thing about how things have changed, recently (the last couple of months) I have been connecting to Freeserve usually first time anytime. With speeds of around 45Kbps, which isn?t bad for all I do on the internet.

There are a couple of catches with the service though, you are required to have a BT line in order to use the service, and I have heard of reports of people being thrown off the service for using it too much. Personally I h
aven?t had any problems with it. Lately the service has been pretty rock solid for me.

I would advise this package to anyone who connect to internet at off-peak rates, and who doesn?t require a broadband connection. This service has suited my needs well, but I have recently found an even better deal elsewhere (but that?s another opinion).

I know that a lot of people have been having trouble with Freeserve, but they have recently cleaned up their act. I have had a few problems with the internet lately, but few of the problems have been related to Freeserve. The only thing that I wasn?t too happy about was the price being increased without them emailing me. I hope this helps you out.

David

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