Topic: Good, cheap, reliable, Off Peak ISP

[Sandra]

Can anyone help me find a good, cheap and reliable Off Peak ISP for a friend who is just about to get her first pc ?
I have spent hours looking on ISPR and cant decide  
A personal reccommendation from someone using one or knowing someone using one would be handy, thanks  

Ps. Preferably not AOL or Freeserve as I will have to go round and show her how to use it and fix it when it breaks  

[Simon]

Not a personal recommendation, but Tesco do an off peak rate of £5.99 per month for access between 2am - 4pm, and NDO do one for £8.49, for "access between 7pm and 6am and all weekend for 175 online hours per month, that's about 6 hours per day".  What sort of times is she likely to be using it?

[Sandra]

I dont know yet Simon as I havent taken it round for her yet  
She hasnt a clue at the moment how much she will want to use it, if at all really  
I said she was better off with an off peak package for a few months until she learned how to use it and got some idea of how many hours she would need as it can get expensive being on PAYG, especially if its taking her 2 or 3 times as long to find stuff as it would when she became more familiar with surfing and didnt want her to be clock watching while she is learning  
She has another friend who she thought was on Tesco off peak, evenings and weekends for about £7-99 per month but when I looked it seems to have gone, along with a lot of other ISPs off peak deals.
The NDO one sounds quite good but I dont think the daytime Tesco package would be suitable for her :doggie:

[TR]

V21 lite  8)     Good during the day and late at night but crap in the early evening on the Lite at £9 99 because to many peeps on it because its cheap and its 24/7 so to speak.
I am on the next one up with V21 and I have in the last year had no problems with there service apart from the e mail at times.

Hookstar

[measter]

you could suggest blueyonder. the surf unlimited pack is £13 a month flat rate. but you need to be on a telewest phoneline.

[Simon]

The only thing that slightly worried me with the NDO deal, is that the evenings are usually some of the busiest times, when the 'cheapie' ISP generally suffer from congestion, as we all know, so I don't quite see how they can call those hours 'off peak'.  

[Sandra]

I was thinking of Fast 4 Hooky but apparently thats gone downhill and a friend was on V21 until recently and was having problems getting connected in the evenings, so I discounted V21 and its spinoffs even though I was happy with them in pre BB days  
Shes on a BT line Measter and really looking for something sub a tenner, thats why I thought of off peak, evenings and weekends, would be better for her.
Unfortunately a lot of ISPs seem to have abandoned off peak in preference to 24/7 but with restricted hours ,or night time packages or, like Tesco a daytime only one  

[chorleydave]

Hi, Sandra.  I've never used them myself so I can't comment on reliability etc. but while she is deciding on an ISP she could try MIP cards.  There is no contract, so even if it is a crappy service the most she can lose  is one tenner.

http://www.mipcards.com/html/mippass.asp

[DJ]

How about Force9 (or PlusNet their sister company).

I used to use the 1p a min anytime before I got broadband.

Along with the 1p a min option, they also have £4.99, £9.99 and £14.99 options and upgrading and downgrading is easy.

DJ