Switching to Be

[notsobig]

I'm thinking of switching from BT to Be and I have some quick questions.

1) Is this Be Box modem they provide any good? Is it reliable or should I stick with what I have now?(DG834G)
2) How do I add email service to my online order?
3) I assume I can leave Be anytime if something wrong happenes, if I give them 3 months notice, am I right?
4) What is promotional code?
......and most importantly
5)Are you happy with thier service?

Thanks.

[McClane]

1) I tried using a DG834 when I first got my connection a couple of days ago. The first thing I had to do was go on Be's forum to find out the settings as the Be Box comes preconfigured (the interface is rubbish so no hope of finding the settings there) and the welcome pack doesn't contain any of the settings. Once I put the settings in the net started to work straight away. However, I was only getting 3mb.

After some research I found out that the DG834/DG834G isn't that great with ADSL2+. I have v2 of the DG834 and after a firmware upgrade it got me up to 10mb. I can't remember, but the v3 might be completely fine so I'd have a dig around on the net to find out. You might want to start at the unofficial Be forum here:
http://www.dontbethere.co.uk/forum/default.aspx

I decided to try the Be Box today and it synced at 18mb and I tried a speed test that gave a result of 15mb. So in terms of speed you are probably better off with the Be Box. I haven't really had a chance to try the it for a long period so no idea if it's any good in terms of wifi and reliability.

3) I think there could be a 12 month contract but I'm not entirely sure on this one. You're right about the 3months notice though.

5) I'm happy with the service so far (although I've only had it a couple of days). On the activation day I was still connected to Eclipse for some reason. I gave Be a call and I told the guy the net wasn't working. For some reason I didn't mention that the Eclipse was still connected. He asked me if I could try the router with the master socket and I told him how it would be pretty hard to do. So he said that I could leave that as a last resort and that he'd run some checks at their end first. Once I was off the phone there was a support ticket within 5mins and the checks had shown it was a mistake at the exchange. The problem was sorted out by the next day. All in all they were very helpful and wanted to make my life as easy as possible.



I hope that helps you out a bit

[notsobig]

You sure helped me a lot, thanks for your input McClane, I now have better idea how to setup my equipment for ADSL2+. I just hope my shift would be as smooth as yours. I just had hard time getting MAC code off BT. Anyway thanks again.

[adam1701]

dont use an isp email adress, if you leave the company they often make it difficult for you to keep it.

[notsobig]

Even after switching to Be, I still have to pay for BT Broadband for 2 months. I think they'll allow me to use their email service, won't they?

[IntaCepta]

Bethere have been great to me as well, the switch over was troubleless, I gave them my MAC code and the changeover was swift enough.

I've also got the same netgear router, but chose to just use the bethere box (I'm lazy, and 8mb is good for me as I'm using the lite version 4gb/month then £5/5gb thereafter).

I usually end up using about 9gigs per month which is 19£ anyways, cheaper than 24£ unlimited.

I recommend them, they let you know via email everything they plan to do/change etc.

[notsobig]

Thanks, that sounds very promising. I've just applied for an unlimited service. BT Total OP4 cost me £29.99 a month for 50G usage so still it's cheaper. Only downside is it seems they haven't started email service yet and I have to find alternative service provider. Any recommendations?

[Skinleech]

There's no contract with Be, you just need to give 3 months notice.

Have been with them for abour 6 weeks, am 1.55km from the exchange and getting about 1.6mb per sec downloads, so am nice and happy.

Can't help with the email thing, unless you want a googlemail invite, then set it up with whatever email prog you use?

[notsobig]

Ok thanks for the info, I now got my gmail account and I can now recieve emails using my favorite email application which is great, but how reliable is the service?... I mean what's the catch? there must be something, having this service for free is too good to be true. Do I have to login by web browser from time to time in order to keep this account alive or something like that?

[Skinleech]

Not as far as I know. I do log in via web interface sometimes though, but mostly check via Outlook.

[notsobig]

Thanks. That's nice. I think I 'm gonna take another spare account just in case

[notsobig]

Got Be-ed finally Sync speed isn't that much different from what I had with BT but actual speed feels at least 2times faster(maybe more) so I'm very happy. I wasn't sure if I get any improvement just by migrating to different provider who's basically using same old BT line, but there is a noticeable boost in speed so glad that I made this decision. I hope I can keep this speed during upcoming peak hour though, simply too many residential premises around this area who's sharing one small exchange. Fingers crossed.

[Skinleech]

Good stuff! They've been serving me well so far.

[notsobig]

I have one problem though. Everytime I reboot my pc I have to press "repair" button in order for my wireless adapter to connect to BeBox. I have set my wireless adapter to get IP automatically in Internet Protocol and I believe BeBox work as DHCP server doesn't it?(can't find any setting)So why am I getting 169.254.*.* address everytime instead of 192.168.*.* ones?

[notsobig]

Also what kind of detail do I need to setup my DG834G to work with Be? Configuring this BeBox is way too complicated for me..Netgear is much straight forward and easy to understand.

[MadduckUK]

to be honest the bebox is a little fiddley but once you get the hang its not too bad.

DHCP is at: home network -> interfaces -> local network