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Bulldog Broadband / Wireless

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
OK, so after having NTL broadband since I can remember and surprisingly never having a problem with it, my Dad decides to throw a wobbler on the phone to them (something to do with the shitty tv service) and cancels the subscription.

We're now waiting for Bulldog to come and install a phoneline and sfuff... then we're planning on going wireless.

So really, I want to know if anyone had Bulldog and what they think of it? Or maybe you had it and it's a pile of dog dirt?

Also, anybody know what kind of spec I should be looking at when it comes to wireless routers/pci/usb cards etc?

Thanks in advance... I'm rubbish at this stuff!

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I have NTL myself but i know a few people who are on Bulldog and they've not had any problems. As for specs on wireless, i find that Netgear offer the best stuff for wireless routers and PC cards. Plus i've always found them really easy to setup.

    How many PC's do you have in the house?
    Will they all be on wireless or only a couple?

    Personally i would buy a wireless router that also has a 4 port switch in it. so if you wireless does play silly buggers you can always plug in a network cable to get yourself up and running.

    If you have any questions send me a PM (do this stuff all the time at work)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Bulldog did have a spate of problems when they were offering their broadband really cheap - apparantly so many people took it up, they couldn't cope with demand! Hopefully things are better now, though.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    bulldog are fine if you don't mind waiting over an hour to get through to someone who's completely clueless.

    I've been with them for over a year now. I had my first problem with them when I moved house. Their contracts are issued per address, so if you move house before your contract is up you need to pay a cancellation fee of £50, even if you plan to continue their service at your new address, as you've breached your contract. Which is fine...I guess, but they then tried to continue to charge me for that account even tho it had been cancelled. I'm just glad I cancelled the direct debit at the bank! It took 6months for them to eventually stop trying to charge me and at least 24hours of time on the phone to them.

    I remember once phoning up to enquire about this situation and they claimed that I had never EVER had an account with them. If so, why on earth were they trying to charge me? All I got in responce was "Sorry, Ma'dam but you never had an account with us" <hangs up>
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Youngbull wrote:
    As for specs on wireless, i find that Netgear offer the best stuff for wireless routers and PC cards. Plus i've always found them really easy to setup.

    How many PC's do you have in the house?
    Will they all be on wireless or only a couple?

    I've been looking at Netgear, so it's good to know I'm going in the right direction! We've only got one PC, but it lives in my bedroom and the connection has to be downstairs. Saying that, my brother might be getting a PC in the near future so it just seems the best option.

    Thanks for your help - I'll drop you a pm if I get stuck again!!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    madraykin wrote:
    bulldog are fine if you don't mind waiting over an hour to get through to someone who's completely clueless.

    I've been with them for over a year now. I had my first problem with them when I moved house. Their contracts are issued per address, so if you move house before your contract is up you need to pay a cancellation fee of £50, even if you plan to continue their service at your new address, as you've breached your contract. Which is fine...I guess, but they then tried to continue to charge me for that account even tho it had been cancelled. I'm just glad I cancelled the direct debit at the bank! It took 6months for them to eventually stop trying to charge me and at least 24hours of time on the phone to them.

    I remember once phoning up to enquire about this situation and they claimed that I had never EVER had an account with them. If so, why on earth were they trying to charge me? All I got in responce was "Sorry, Ma'dam but you never had an account with us" <hangs up>

    Woah, you have had some problems. Hopefully that's a one-off! I mean, no offence to you having to go through all that, seems a right hassle! But I'm not moving house so *hopefully* it should be pretty trouble-free.

    And you're still with them though, right? So the internet itself must be alright?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'm I read somewhere that they were offering 8mb unlimited broadband for £10 a month or something, but I didn't have time to look it up.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Be sure to secure your wireless network.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    well we are on Bulldog Unlimited but we never ever get speeds of more than 4meg (From a supposed up to 8meg and we are not THAT far from the exchange!!!)

    But it suits us as its a monlthy contract so we dont have to be tied to the company for 12 months

    4meg is just about enough although poushing it as me and my housemates d/l a LOT! if you dont d/l much it wont really affect you.

    I am getting quite annoyed at how often the net seems to cut out though!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Fiend_85 wrote:
    Be sure to secure your wireless network.
    found the easiest way to secure wireless networks is to enable the MAC addressing. So the router will only let wireless devices on the network, that you have entered and saved the MAC addresses of.

    As the MAC address is a coded to the network card itself, no one can spoof the address. Or at least i've not heard of a way they can do this.

    I dont bother with wep and wap encoding on my one, i just use the mac addressing, and not had any problem yet
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I use none and get no probs :p my log shows that no 'alien' mac ip addresses have been connecting, so all's good. I live ina quiet village though.. so that could be why.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Fiend_85 wrote:
    Be sure to secure your wireless network.

    i was just gonna add that, sooooo many people don't its untrue
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    O_o wrote:
    i was just gonna add that, sooooo many people don't its untrue

    Yep. The people next door to us haven't ;)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    OK, so after having NTL broadband since I can remember and surprisingly never having a problem with it, my Dad decides to throw a wobbler on the phone to them (something to do with the shitty tv service) and cancels the subscription.

    We're now waiting for Bulldog to come and install a phoneline and sfuff... then we're planning on going wireless.

    So really, I want to know if anyone had Bulldog and what they think of it? Or maybe you had it and it's a pile of dog dirt?

    Also, anybody know what kind of spec I should be looking at when it comes to wireless routers/pci/usb cards etc?

    Thanks in advance... I'm rubbish at this stuff!


    Isn't Bulldog owned by NTL? :chin:
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    its owned by cable and wireless isnt it?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It's owned by Cable and Wireless - NTL and C&W are different companies. As far as I know.

    How do I 'protect' my wireless network?
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