In the latest 2008 ISPA Awards Eclipse internet has won both Best Business Isp and Best Business Email awards. Eclipse’s head of sales and marketing had the following to say about their double win.
“We are delighted that our growing reputation as the ISP of choice for businesses has been recognised by the industry through the achievement of not one but two business ISPA awards. But ultimately, it’s customer satisfaction that we strive for above all else, and to this end, we’ll keep investing in the type of services and the level of customer and technical support that businesses want.”
Eclipse have a range of business internet options suitable from a single teleworker up to a larged sized wireless office - packages start from £16.99. To complement their business broadband packages there is also a range of business email / security and ecommerce solutions available.
Please visit Eclipse Broadband for more information on their packages
If any of you have Sky broadband you will know that the bundled netgear router is shipped out with wireless security turned on as default and a network key is issued to allow you to connect to it.
This all sounds great in theory but it turns out that the default security setup has a major flaw. The network key can be worked potentially giving hackers access to your network. Sky’s network keys are generated via an algorithm calculation on the routers MAC address.
For a hacker to get the routers MAC address would be childs play and the algorithm’s to generate the network key is far from unbreakable.
Whats the moral of story? well if you are one of the 1 million or so sky broadband customers and have used the default security setup then its time to change your network key to something “random” if your need help doing this try here
After the success of our broadband speed tester we have have just finished a new feature on the site. An interactive broadband download calculator , to help user get a rough idea of the monthly download limit they will need when choosing a new broadband package.
To use the calculator read the questions about your internet activities then slide the sliders to answer, the total monthly usage will be updated after moving each slider. If you find any bugs please let us know in our forum
O2 broadband has officially launched today and we were pleased to see the addition of a 100 day money back guarantee allowing potential customers to make sure they are happy with the service before being locked into a lengthy contract - as we said previously the O2 packages are a great deal for o2 contract customers but if you dont already have an mobile contract then there is better deals out there, but the 100 day money back guarantee should make this package alot more acttractive than some of its rivals
here is more details of the packages available from O2 broadband
up to 8 meg unlimted broadband - £7.50
up to 16 meg unlimited broadband - £10
up to 20 meg (1.6meg upload speed) unlimited broadband - £20
if you are not a O2 mobile pay monthly customer then there is an extra charge of £10 on each package -
all packages come with a wireless router free connection and 0800 support line
We have been eagerly awaiting O2 late arrival into the broadband market and today O2 have confirmed the 15th of October as launch day, they also confirmed leaked information about is forthcoming broadband packages
They will come in two formats; discounted (not free!) for o2 contract customers and full price for pay as you go and and non O2 customers .
The discounted rates for O2 customers are detailed below
£7.50 a month for up to 8mb Unlimited broadband
£10 for up to 16mb Unlimited broadband
£15 for up to 20mb Unlimited broadband
Non o2 contract customers will have to pay an extra £10 on top of each package.
At a first glance these do look good deals but only if you are an existing O2 contract customer and we are disappointed to see that no free broadband is being offered like orange do with their contract customers.
It is also worth noting that Be Broadband who O2 now own offer better deals for non O2 customers than its parent company - £17.50 for O2’s 8mb unlimited service and £14 for be’s equivelant. So in our opinion you should only go for these deals if you can benefit from the £10 a month discount for O2 contract customers
Last month we reported on news surfacing that Sky were set to release a range of broadband services for users particualry for households outside of their LLU reach, well today Sky has officially announced the launch of their “Picnic” brand which will be run as a separate company and offers users not just broadband but telephone and Digital Terrestrial TV to appeal to customers without a sky dish and give SKY complete UK TV coverage.
Exact details are still a bit sketchy and we will will bring you more info when its available but here is some more details from Sky’s press release
- TV, broadband and telephony
- Choose 1, 2 or 3 services in any combination
- Transparent prices and great value
- Fast broadband access with up to 16 Mbps download speeds
- Money-saving call packages
- Instant access to improved TV choice through an aerial
- Popular channels including Sky Sports 1, Sky Movies, Sky One, a children’s channel and a factual channel.
- Access to Freeview channels
Customers will access the Picnic TV service through a new generation of digital set-top boxes. The new boxes will help to lead future innovations on the digital terrestrial television (DTT) platform such as the adoption of MPEG-4 compression standards, which allow viewers to benefit from an increased choice of channels. The Picnic TV service will initially consist of 3 MPEG-2 video streams but, subject to approval by Ofcom, Picnic aims to move to MPEG-4 and add a fourth channel dedicated to Sky News.
To find out more and register your interest in “Picnic” visit their website
As we reported recently more than half of broadband users receive broadband speeds more than 50% slower than advertised according to results of a recent national survery.
In light of the discrepancies between the speed advertised and the actual speeds achieved by end users. Computeractive have launched a petition urging the prime minister to enforce the broadband regulator Ofcom to stop allowing Providers to advertise theoretical “up to ” maximum speeds and instead show the typical speed user can expect to receive.
We are all for this move at Broadband Org as we regulary get mail from frustrated users not achieving speeds they were led to believe they could get.
If you would like to show your support for this petition please visit the downing street website
Rumors are surfacing on the internet that Sky are set to launch a broadband service separate from its Satellite TV packages in November -to allow users to sign up with out having to get Sky TV.
Sky currently offer up to 16 Mb broadband for
Its seems like we have been waiting ages for O2’s entrance into the broadband market after several delays and its is thought to be kicking off around september / October but the latest news suggests that O2 have reduced plans to roll out its LLU network nationwide and instead they are going concentrate on selling its broadband via O2 retail shops in areas where there network is already running - they have signed a deal with BT Wholesale and this will help supply customers outside the reach of their network , but there is no word as of yet if the pricing structure will be the same as for LLU user,
In a recent report, consumer group Which? surveyed 300 users with typical “up to 8Mbps” broadband packages and found out that the difference between the 8Mbps they could be expecting and what they actually got was huge.
The average speed of the customers surveyed was just 2.7Mbps and the worst was a mere 0.9Mbps
Despite this massive difference in speeds the advertising standards agency (ASA) has deemed that the ads comply with the advertisers code as they use the “up to” clause , while Which? believes customers are being mislead .
There is many factors that effect the speed of broadband you can actually receive the major one being the distance from your BT exchange if you would like to check this out and see what maximum speed you could expect to receive try our Broadband Speed & Availablity Postcode Checker