Stung again (nutshell.net)

Member Name: GraWar

Product:	nutshell.net
Date:	14/11/01 (100 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: decent price

Disadvantages: closed down, authentication problems

Im currently going through a stage in my life that all internet users seem to go through sooner or later. I'm sure a large number of you are familiar with this phase, it's quite simple. You splash out on an internet provider only for them to let you down completely. So you try another one. This is good until this one lets you down. I'm afraid to report that Net in a Nutshell has become the 3rd in a current row of 4 to let me down.

I signed up to Net in a Nutshell after being let down by the collapse of BigBlueSky and then by 08002go. The offer looked reasonably tempting. £9-99 a month for free phone internet access whenever you wanted it, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

After the dissapointments of BBS and 08002go, I put a little more research into my choice this time, enrolling in the reliable advice of ISP website, ispreview.com. The one that stood out to me happened to be Net in a Nutshell and in fact this is where I first heard of it. The offer seemed fairly straight forward, £9-99 a month for totally free internet access whenever you wanted it. This fitted the criteria for what I was looking for and so I proceeded to read up on some of the users comments on the ISPreview website. Everyone seemed to place a reasonable amount of praise on the service and so I jumped in and visited their website to sign up.

Upon arriving at their site it looked pretty impressive and professionally done. Alot of the ISP's websites or the smaller ones anyway can look quite shoddy and don't really give a good impression or much confidence making you want to sign up. It has a good news section on it and minimal advertising. There were easy links for horoscopes, weather, sport and entertainment. Also a comprehensive detailed information section with regards to the Nutshell service.

All was ok, and so I decided to sign up. The sign up process was completed and sorted out with no problems at all. However the problems were never far a
way from this point onwards. Although I had certainly had a lot worse, even from the start there was a few problems with engaged tones. However I put up with this as when a connection was obtained (it was easy enough to get a connection within about 10 attempts) it was a solid one and one at a reasonable connection speed.

After about a week or so and the more major problems started to occur. The engaged tones continued although as I said before it wasn't this that was a major problem. Authentication problems were now starting to kick in and although I was able to dial the number, it was impossible to get connected because the service wasn't accepting my password. The problems continued on and off and it came as no suprise after approximately 3 weeks of me using the service, they pulled the plug. The excuse was that they were in dispute with their provider, Cable and Wireless and due to the dispute, C&W had pulled the plug on Nutshell being able to continue the service.

Nothing has changed as far as I am aware, Nutshell are still in dispute with C&W and the link on their website to sign up to the service is not working, so whether we will see a ressurection is doubtful and even if there was one, I wouldn't sign up again.

Summary: