I have today received an e-mail from BT Openworld informing me that I am in breach of contract as I have been on-line, typically for more than 16 hours a day.

This, in itself, is hard to believe as I am on surf-time which means 6pm to 8am (14 hours !) during weekdays. Although I am on for longer periods at weekends their mail also mentions their 2 hour cut-off and accuses me of auto re-dialing.

You may be aware that BT have decided to limit access to all users to 12 hours in a 24 day period. If you exceed this, you will obviously receive a warning and your account will then be suspended.

So, BT users beware !!!

For info, you may mail them with a complaint (as I obviously did) at;

http://www.btopenworld.com/helpnb/contactus/complaints

I am sorry if I have breached any rules here but thought BT users should be aware. It seems obvious to me that BT are just pushing everyone onto broadband which is fine, but there are ways and means of doing it ! It also doesn't help if, like me, broadband is not yet available in your area !

That's it, moan over !!!

Bump for any BT users.

I also believe freeserve do this.


Roger

thank god NTL dont do this as i use my account for about 30 hours in every 24 hour period

I am with whsmithnet have to disconnect every 2 hours. Am generally on for bout 3 hours a nite and bout 6 a day on weekends and the only thing thay ever e-mail me about is when their new launcher is out and for the direct debit payment.

I'm with freeserve atm having moved from BT a while ago. I've not any probs with them and am usually online for about 12hrs a day, more at weekends.
Not having broadband in our area (will we ever get it?) I need this time online for the large downloads I undertake, hopefully freeserve wont change their policy on this or I'm screwed.

Yep, I'm on freeserve too like Ferret76. Online for a good 8-10 Hrs minimum most days and never had them warn me yet over the last two years.

im on bt openworld too, but i got broadband,is that different from you?

quite shocking really..

NLB, us broadband users can use the net as much as we want.


Roger

Ahhh....BT, the company we all love to hate. There's even a site called btsuck.org lol. I HATE BT! I'm a FORMER BT user. :) I switched to AOL coz BT suspended my account twice. I made sure I didn't use the Anytime thing for more than 16 hours each day but they suspended me for dialing in from two locations. I guess that was my bad but the 2 hour cut off thing was ridiculous. AOL cuts off pretty randomly but usually way more than 2 hours each time. And what was with the drop in transfer rate after an hour? It wasn't worth £15 a month. AOL charge the same but I'm much happier with the service.

I would get broadband but it's not available in my area yet (I tried). I read this was because of BT aswell slowing the market down or something. I'm done.

One thing I've thought of, I access my e-mail account from work. Is it possible that they are somehow logging this as 'on-line' time ?

They shouldn't do.

Is their broadband service any good? I'm sure tech support sucks.

BTs ADSL service is excellent. I recently got it and it's great. I haven't had a single problem and I can often leave it connected for several days in a row.


Roger

Not reached me yet unfortunately, £30 isn't it (at least £5 dearer than anyone else !!) ?

I'm waiting for freeserve to deliver my kit so i can get on this broadband. :D

strange thing is i applied with BT and failed the line check, when i went to freeserve i past! :)

Their adsl is ok. Would prefer cable if I had the choice.
Like virtually all tech supp they follow a script. Reboot your pc, reinstall your drivers... At least the broadband support isn't premium rate.

Originally posted by Roger Moore
BTs ADSL service is excellent. I recently got it and it's great. I haven't had a single problem and I can often leave it connected for several days in a row.

Roger It's not 'always on'?

Yeah it is always on but I have to reboot my computers once in a while.

I could leave it connected to BT forever but that just wouldn't be practical.


Roger

It's still dialup but it doesn't disconnect. I tend to connect when the pc boots & only disconnect when I shut it down.

So you have to dial in to use the service? I've had no experience with broadband so I'm not sure but not all broadband services need you to dial in right? What do they cap your bandwidth to? Is it ...500kb/s?

Yes you do have to dial in to use the service but its instant, no waiting.

Your capped at 64K/s download and 32K/s upload.


Roger

Thats 512 kbit download & 256 kbit upload.

You don't 'dial in' as such; when you switch on your PC it connects straight away, but you have to 'connect' as your PC needs to get permission, etc by entering your username & p/word, like any network.

to dmc. i'm on bt broadband and it's ok ...........but try and contact them.. and when you do, primary school suppport assistants are not much good.

Thanks guys, I'm glad this has developed into a discussion about broadband !!

I'm sure you'll all be pleased to know that BT haven't replied yet !! I shan't hold my breath.

Ummmm.....I just signed up with them:

http://www.f9.co.uk/index.html?Example_Session=c64c9694ba940b32c0cd264 3d7b7585e

I just really don't like BT LOL. The price seems good too.

Just had a unpleasant experience with B.T... I'd read about them cutting people off who were using the Anytime for over 12 hours per day for no reason.. Well, I'd downloaded GTA3 overnight ( took 10 hours for 128mb!! lol.. ) and I'd been on the net for quite a while that day too so I'd been on for well over 12 hours.. I never got cut off but was only able to connect at a piss poor 21.6 kbps for the next 3 days!! I questioned B.T about it and they said that instead of cutting me off they'd halved my bandwidth. Tossers. :( Now its back to normal! ordered Broadband a while ago by the way and so far... nothing.. lol... typical.

Mike ( Spagboll ) ... :)

Yep, it amazes me how they sell a so-called 'Anytime' product giving '24 hours a day unmetered access' and then limit access to 12 hours a day !

Again, as I said in my first post, follow the link and COMPLAIN !!!

I tried to make sure I was offline for at least 8 hours and I think that worked. Although the download rate always dropped to like 3kbytes/s after the first hour and there was the 2 hour cut off. What is with the damn premium rate tech support call charge? I say, if you can't get broadband, get AOL instead. Same price, no fixed disconnections (just sometimes random but a hella lot better than 2 hrs). Pity you need to have their software running but you don't need to use it. Transfer rates are pretty consistent.

Can someone educate me please.....

are there cut-off periods/download limits or other annoying disconnections involved with freeserve broadband?

i know some dial-up's do but i really want to know about freeserve broadband (as i've ordered it) i read there web site but it seems to only mention good points, and there HAS to be some bad points as BT are involved (there lines)

Spagboll could you tell me where to download GTA3 from, Iv'e just gotten DSL installed and I cant find anywhere to d/load from.Iv'e tried newsgroups using Forte Agent but when I try and decode the binary files it always says it can only find for example 4 files out of 45.

can anyone tell me how to get on with newsgroups or ftp sites.

I don't think you're supposed to ask here.

@ littlejack - Your download rate is likely to be capped to a certain amount......500kbits/s or something like that. You won't get cut-off with broadband, it's just the dialup unmetered ISP subscriptions.

Bad points....the more ppl down your street using, the slower it can be because you're actually sharing the bandwidth but it's unlikely that everyone's using all the bandwidth.

I think the distance from teh exchange can also affect the speed. That and the usual, time of day, etc.

Never had ne probs with AOL on it as long as I like each month. Download as long as I like without being cut off by them

I'm sure you'll all be delighted to know that I've received a reply from BT today and they've basically said that their servers have logged me as being an excessive user exceeding 16 hours access on a regular basis. If I want to see their logs I have to pay them £10 !!!

I have re-iterated that as a surf time user 6pm to 8am it is impossible to exceed 16 hours and that I want a copy of their logs for free as I am not guilty until I prove myself innocent !!

I re-iterate, if you are thinking of subscribing to any of BT's 'unmetered' services, think very seriously !

Originally posted by DMC
I tried to make sure I was offline for at least 8 hours and I think that worked. Although the download rate always dropped to like 3kbytes/s after the first hour and there was the 2 hour cut off. What is with the damn premium rate tech support call charge? I say, if you can't get broadband, get AOL instead. Same price, no fixed disconnections (just sometimes random but a hella lot better than 2 hrs). Pity you need to have their software running but you don't need to use it. Transfer rates are pretty consistent.

:laugh: @ DMC. You think AOL is better? They are so controling. Did you know they even block you from using any SMTP server but there's? They block certain ports purposely to restrict your use of other people's servers. Also, AOL is not compliant with like ANYTHING. And, lastly, it's soooooo slooooowww. I don't see how anyone could want AOL.

SonicBoom

which company can give you greater than 512?? (non-business) at an affordable price

Originally posted by DMC

Bad points....the more ppl down your street using, the slower it can be because you're actually sharing the bandwidth but it's unlikely that everyone's using all the bandwidth.



This is true with cable where there is only 1 coax cable down the road.
Shouldn't do with ADSL. The cables to your house are yours alone. The only lines you share are from the exchange to the servers & onwards & these will probably be fibre anyway.

ntl have 1mb for £50/month

@ DMC. You think AOL is better? They are so controling. Did you know they even block you from using any SMTP server but there's? They block certain ports purposely to restrict your use of other people's servers. Also, AOL is not compliant with like ANYTHING. And, lastly, it's soooooo slooooowww. I don't see how anyone could want AOL.

HAHA. I know. Can't even access newsgroups with third party software BUT............you go with BT for a year, you'd like AOL too. lol

It's faster than BT, they don't cut you off so often, etc, etc. The company said I can get ADSL as my line's suitable and everything so I probably won't be with AOL long. :)

I ordered BT Openworld Broaband and it got cancelled because the person I spoke to took my postcode down wrong. Called up the same day and got it sorted. Then got another cancellation mail because they still hadn't updated the system. Anyway 2 weeks later and I still didn't have a modem to use on my line because nobody updated the system (after 7 calls, 3 of which I spoke to a 'supervisor'.)

In total 3 modems were ordered for me and 1 finally turned up yesterday. I was on the internet for 3 hours when my account got disabled because the order was still cancelled. I now have to wait 24-48 hours to have my account re-activated.

This is true with cable where there is only 1 coax cable down the road.
Shouldn't do with ADSL. The cables to your house are yours alone. The only lines you share are from the exchange to the servers & onwards & these will probably be fibre anyway.Ooops....got 'em mixed up there.

Don't forget Go online Friday 6pm you can only stay on for 12 hours !

then you must wait until 24 hours are up then logon again !!

Out of sixty hours you can only get 30 hours online !!!


Had my bum spacked by BT to !!?!?!?

OK, final response from our friends at BT (edited highlights !);

'I am sorry to learn of your continuing concerns.

As mentioned previously each time you connect to our servers the time and length of your connection is logged. These logs are then used to determine if your usage pattern constitutes unattended or excessive usage of the service.

Regrettably neither our Technical nor Customer Service Teams have access to your account usage statistics due to the Data Protection Act, therefore should you require this information it is necessary to contact the Data Subject Access Manager as described in our previous correspondence.

With regards to the 16 hour limit, your account will have been highlighted for overuse if a connection has been maintained for 16 hours or more in any 24-hour period, during any two days in a seven-day period.

From your email you mention that it is unlikely that such a level of usage could have occurred during weekday evenings, as the Surftime unmetered period is only 14 hours in length. At weekends however the Surftime period runs from 6pm Friday until 8am Monday. During this time is clearly possible to connect using the unmetered number for more than 16 hours in any 24.

If you believe that you have not been connected for such a length of time during one day, please also bear in mind that your usage in measured during a rolling 24-hour period, therefore if you are connected for more than 16 hours in any 24 hour period, your account will be highlighted.

With regards to your comments relating to checking your emails while at work, such connections would count towards your usage total as the same username and password would be being used to connect, irrespective of the telephone number you use to connect.

I hope that above information has helped to further clarify the situation. '

So there you go, when does unmetered access not mean unmetered access....when you're with BT !!!!!

hey if i where you i would get a new online service provider

Yep, moving house soon so cable here we come !!!

6pm Friday to 8 am Monday, 62 hours free time....actually allowed, no more than 24 !!!

When I was on BT dial up I was on 24 hours a day! When they cut me off my pc auto redialed and continued with the downloads (i was downloading 24/7).

They never said anything to me and I didn't have any problems, they must have changed the rules...


Roger

Hi guys
i no som1 that works at btow , if you use the net for more than 12 hours within a 24hrs uu account will be ceased and not reinstated , you can apeal against it but the chance of you gettin ur account back is slim
also if more than 1 user logs onto the net at the same time useing ur account details you will get barred , you get 3 lifes and once they are up then ur account gets ceased , if you miss a payment on ur credit card then ur account gets temp barred untill u call them up and make the payment , but if you dont call them when the next billing date comes round it will try and take the missed payment and then the payment for that month so really u paying for a month that u aint even used , the list goes on and on lol
basicly dont use btow go somwhere else!!!!