Reliable but uninspiring (ukonline.co.uk)

Member Name: benbriscoe

Product:	ukonline.co.uk
Date:	15/09/00 (53 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Reliabilty, speeds, pings

Disadvantages: No unmetered, bad dial-ins

After being realtively late to join the Internet bandwagon, and initially joining the pinoneering Freeserve, UKOnline was by first long term experience of an Internet Service Provider and without the advent of freecall, I'd still be with them now.

Offering subscription free 0845 access, UKOnline cater for every type of computer users. Connections upto 128kbs are supported, as well as the usual offers of e-mail and newsgroup access. They even have game servers on offer for the Internet gamer, with good communities of players making it a nice environment. The most startling part of UKonline's offer is the free unlimited webspace unaccessable from any dial-up. this is brilliant for unmetered users who have non-existent or poor quality services from their existing suppliers.

Performance is reliable and competes with the best of the bunch. Downloads should be over 5K a sec at all times and web access is fast and efficient. They, like any other ISP, have their bad patches but normally they are more than adequate. Game pings are low and lag is minimal, making for quality gaming only beaten by the game specific ISPs.

Support on the is pretty expensive but from their subscription background it is pretty effective. E-mails are replied to quickly, normally answering your query without too much trouble.

Disadavantages range from the fact that they fail to offer unmetered access to the fact that, from a personal experience, there was frequently bad dials in (at 14,400 bps). With this costing 5 pence a time it was an annoying bug.

For anyone that uses the net infrequently, or is not worried about their phone bills, I would recommend UKOnline. For reliabilty it is top notch, but without unmetered access, they may be deserted within the next few months.

Summary: