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Watch clips below to see highlights of whats available with the BT Vision box
© All Rights ReservedBT Vision gives you access to Freeview digital tv channels, radio channels and a great range of on demand entertainment.
There are a range of prices for BT Vision packages to suit everyone. Visit our website to find out more.
BT Phone line
BT Total Broadband
A TV and aerial
Freeview coverage
Want to see how fast your line is with a broadband speed check? Enter your telephone number or postcode in our broadband postcode checker below. You will need a minimum of 2MB speed to be able to get BT Vision.
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Use our free broadband comparison tool to compare BT Broadband against other broadband services.
Feb 2020 To see how far Britain is behind France regarding broadband speed see this example I had from a friend in Paris. And the average speed in France is now 17 Meg. And that is down telephone lines not cable. Amazing !

An advantage with Broadband is the fact that you do not need an extra line in order to use the telephone at the same time as being on line. This can be quite a saving and should be taken into account when calculating the total cost.
To see offers of Broadband go to http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/
Broadband
Genie provides a place on the web where consumers can learn about
broadband and how to compare broadband providers in an unbiased,
independent, plain-English environment. Regular updates showing the
best deals.
Want to see how fast your Broadband connection is ? Have a go at http://www.adslguide.org/tools/speedtest.asp. You may be surprised at how slow your 'upstream' speed is. That is why it may seem to take an age to send a video file or large picture to someone but why downloading things is much faster. My downloading was correct at nearly 2Meg. (As against 45k on dialup). But uploading was a mere 127k - in other words, less than a TENTH of the speed of downloading. Other sites which does this is http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/ and http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/
N.B. You may be disappointed that your broadband speed is nothing like what you are paying for. This can be down to more than one factor. The first is (in the case of BT telephone line based broadband) the distance from the nearest digital exchange. In the case of cable it can be down to the 'contention level', meaning the number of people in your area competing for the line. But another factor seems to be rearing its head. One contact (using cable) had complained he was not getting the very fast speeds he was paying for. He decided to replace his expensive Norton Internet Security Suite with free software, such as AVG and Zone alarm. Suddenly the speeds on ALL of his connections (he has four) increased dramatically. So, it does seem likely that security software can slow things up by spending time checking everything that goes on.
Want to change from one ISP to another ? These days is should
be
comparatively easy, although you should check the small print to see if
you
have any 'tie in' with your current provider. With Broadband, as
they
often supply equipment and software there is often a 1 year contract.
Having sorted that out what you need from your current ISP is a
MAC
address. That is nothing to do with those pretty computer often
favoured
by designers. It stands for Migration Authorisation Code. Once you have
this
it should be comparatively easy to change. Internet Providers have an
Association. See www.ispa.org.uk,
especially
if you have a complaint against one that you cannot resolve.
You can get useful information from places such as Internet
Magazine,
which lists ISP's and how well they are doing
SkyDSL is promising broadband downloads (via satellite) anywhere in
Europe
from £4.57 a month and can provide up to 16 megabits per second
for
£33. However, you require a dish and a dialup connection
to
your own ISP, too, which takes the shine off that rather.
****************
One of the main things to look for in an ISP these days is how they
handle
Spam and, even more important, how they deal with Viruses.
For instance, whilst I was using AOL I did not receive any
attempted
virus for months, whilst others are getting them almost daily. AOL also
effectively blocks Spam and Popups. When you hit the 'Report Spam'
section
they are deleted and a copy is sent to AOL who block future spam from
that
address (if they get a few reports). This system helps but can be
rather
draconian. AOL (version 9) has a Spam folder. Sometimes things
get
in there that shouldn't, so check. Generally it won't stop emails
providing
you have the address already in your address book so, if you WANT a
particular
advert, make sure you do this. My alternative e-mail address,
especially
useful when I am away from base, is with Googlemail. It, too, has a
Report
Spam and Report Phishing facility. So, if you are being bothered by
either
you might consider changing your ISP or getting a Googlemail address.
What if you have Broadband and also have a laptop or
second computer which
you would like connected to the same system ? The answer is a
small
local network. This can be achieved by connecting the two machines via
a
cable but the popular way these days is a Wireless connection.
For
this you will need each machine to have a wireless gadget. Modern
laptops
usually include this on board. Earlier models will need a
wireless
PC card adapter or, possibly, a USB2 wireless adapter. The main
machine
will need either a wireless card or a USB2 Adapter. I must stress
that
the faster USB2 is needed to cope with the Broadband connection.
Lastly,
it is preferred (I found essential) to have an additional gadget called
a
Router, which sorts out the various connections to Broadband. This will
have
tiny aerials on top and will sit on the PC or on your desk. This will
be
connected to the PC via a USB2 cable or, in the case of Cable Broadband
(e.g.
NTL, Telewest etc) you will need an Ethernet cable connection (NOT USB)
Although it is possible for connections to be made between Windows 98
and
ME machines it is easier and preferable if they are all using Windows
XP
(SP2) I would also recommend that all the equipment is by the same
manufacturer.
The big names are Linksys, Belkin, Netgear and BT
To settle complaints about ISP's you can look at the following sites www.ispa.org.uk (Association of ISP's) www.otelo.org.uk (Office of the Telecommunications Ombudsman), www.cisas.org.uk (Internet Services Adjudication Scheme)
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