A friend needs very lightweight internet connection solution

[Marcos]

I don't have enough knowledge on whats available at the moment, especially when it comes to lite usage.

I think it would be somewhere in the region of 1 hour a day in the evenings to check email and maybe look up other information.

Not sure what the cheapest way to do it would be? PAYG 56? Offpeak 56k? Or very lite ADSL connection?

I don't even know who provides 56k service anymore

[Kumagoro]

normally the cheapo things are less than 10 hours a month. The payg things that is.
Once you go over that then its as much as normal.

dial up wise you have say tesco or other unknown which will do unlimited for £5
or like plusnet dial up
http://www.plus.net/products/residen..._standard.html

i say go for 2 Mbit broadband with 30 GB data transfer a month for £15 inc vat and
modem and microfilters.

http://www.plus.net/residential/broa...and_plus.shtml

[Marcos]

Thanks for the reply, thats very cheap broadband

[eloquence]

You can get even cheaper than that - https://www.euro1net.com/cgi-bin/home.cgi - £10/month broadband... 1mbit and unlimited bandwidth... that's got to be a decent price...

[peterb]

UP to 1 meg - and its a promotional offer.... not read the really small print though

[eloquence]

All of the ADSL services are 'up to', since they have 1:50 or 1:20 contention ratios - you just hope that you have 49 light users so most of the time the bandwidth is going free...
Sure, it's a promotional offer... of more concern to some is that you're paying up front for 1 or 2 years service, which isn't great if they go bust or if you decide you want ADSL2+ or something 6 months later. For light users, though, it's a comparable price to unlimited dial-up services, which should make it fairly tempting.

[peterb]

All of the ADSL services are 'up to', since they have 1:50 or 1:20 contention ratios - you just hope that you have 49 light users so most of the time the bandwidth is going free...

Not quite... some services are maxed at 512 or 1 meg. Contention WILL affect download speed, although instances of true contention on the network are relatively rare. ADSL is predicated on the basis that most uses are using HTTP whete the traffic tends to be bursty in nature, and so lots of users are unlikely to be getting their bursts at the same time. The picure gets more complicated when using something like FTP or streaming, where there is a continuous data flow. Even then most of the core network can carry the traffic - there are few exchanges where contention is a real issue, and BT usually install more capacity when that is an issue. However, some ISPs may introduce contention if their 'centrals' (core connectivity) is heavily loaded, which they have to do in order to maximise revenue from the 'cheap' service. There is no such thing as a free lunch - ask why some ISPs are cheaper. The reason will be that their system is heavily loaded so the quality of service deteriorates, and/or their customer service is poor or limited. That isn't to say you should avoid them, but be aware of some of the downsides. But if they meet your requirements, go for it! You might want to look at metronet, btw.