If Only It Was Free Service (Freeserve)

Member Name: katgoddess23

Product:	Freeserve
Date:	11/09/02 (129 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheaper than BT

Disadvantages: Difficult to get set up

Well I signed up with Freeserve in desperation. BT had just suspended my account for ?Unattended Usage?, and I needed internet access fast. (I?ll try not to rant on about that too much. If you want more details see my updated BT op) A few of my friends are happy with their Freeserve Anytime package so I thought I?d join them.

Signing up was easy enough. I went to the freeserve.co.uk website and clicked on the ?Join Freeserve? link. I signed up with a months free trial, and a chance to win £100,000. (I wish.)

The Freeserve Anytime package basically gives you free internet access 24/7. It costs £13.99 a month and apparently gives me ?the freedom to do whatever you want to do on the Internet.? So hopefully no suspending my account for misuse this time. The only catch is they will disconnect you every two hours, but you can reconnect straight away. The technical helpdesk is a premium number and costs 50p a minute. I also have no commitment beyond a month so when I finally get the broadband I?m so desperately dreaming of, it should be easy to cancel the account. To subscribe to Anytime you need a BT telephone account, IE4.0 or above, and a credit or debit card (except solo or electron).

After accepting the terms and conditions you have to fill out your details. Name, address, date of birth, mothers maiden name, the usual stuff. Then you have to choose an account name, which also doubles up as an email address. I had to use my surname with my date of birth after it, because I have such a common name. Freeserve then double checks that you have a BT account by asking for your telephone number. All that?s left then is to give them your credit card number, and to install the software.

Freeserve doesn?t have a direct dialler like BT has. After clicking the download button it just changes the settings for internet explorer. When you load up the computer it starts dialling automatically. Which is rather annoying when you
just want to use Microsoft Word. One way I got around this was to go to the Dial Up Networking in the control panel, and create a short cut on the desktop.

Now for actually using Freeserve. The first two days of me using Freeserve were a nightmare. It would connect me to the internet perfectly, and then disconnect itself after a few minutes. I would reconnect, and it would then disconnect me after a few minutes. It was random amounts of time as well. Other times it would say it was connected, but when I tried to go to a different web page it came up with the ?Server Not Found? error page, and messenger said I wasn?t connected to the internet. Oddly enough, these two problems disappeared after two days. Maybe its an endurance test to see if people really want to be their customers?

Thankfully I now have the normal internet connection that I?m used to. Although it still disconnects at random sometimes. The speed varies between 44K and 46K and I haven?t had any problems with busy lines so far. After a few teething problems I?m very happy with Freeserve. I?m hoping to get NTL broadband very soon so I?ll come back and update If I have any more problems.

Summary: