Hell with no DSL

[Ross-G]

Hi all

I live in an area with no broadband, so rely on dial up solutions.
I cannot find (and have looked) any way of staying permanently online.
All service providers seem to cut me off after 2 hours, or the service is unreliable.

I use a charting package which freezes if the line goes down and this is no good
for scalping and I can feel my life dripping away when I reconnect etc.

Does everyone here now use broadband or can anyone recommend a good reliable
dial up solution before I go out of my mind?
Budget is not an issue (within reason obviously). Thanks in advance.

 

[alliance]

Hi Ross:
BB only available here in last cpl of weeks so was on dial up for years...know the feeling well

Tho I am not a great fan of Aol, I used AOL dial up..unlimited use 24/7 cost £15.99 per month. Very very rarely got kicked off. No 2hr limits. Free Tech help. Once u lob their email , browser and the other stuff they try to impose on u they are ok

I would hasten to add that I only use them as an ISP....once connected I minimise AOL and use Outlook Express and Internet Explorer (or Mozilla since earlier 2night) as browser. I get my hotmail via OE as normal, and can now even download any AOL mail I do have via OE as well.

Someone on this site also recommended a service which speeds up (genuine) ur connection. Cant recall who it was or what prog was but it was something like £2 per month. Will try to locate that thread for u when I have time

HTH

 

[options]

I used to use aol without too many probs. 24/7. fixed fee.
In the early days they were terrible for trading. Improved of late though. Always had to use I. E. to download programs though as aol sometimes threw a wobbly.

You will always get the odd drop out. It might happen if someone tries to call you on that line. You might even have the settings on the comp set to shut down after a certain time.

It is annoying when it packs up, but it highlights the safety precaution of setting stops at the same time as placing the trade!

 

[Ross-G]

Hello there.
Thanks to all three of you for your replies.

I run both Metatrader and the GftForex charting package. The second being the main one as I tend to do my trades by right clicking on the little green and red boxes.

However, it does take aaaaaaaaages to load up chart data, and regardless of whether my line disconnects by itself or I do it myself , the package will freeze or throw error messages at me or say I can't relogin.

I do like to set little alarms at target entry points etc, and go do something else, running back into the room to do trades when I hear the sound of Geri Halliwell (I have replaced all the GFTForex sounds with Geri soundbites as the package allows you to do this and it lets me know exactly what is happening.)

This way, I need it always 'on'- so I place my trades when I choose, not just when the combination of GFT and my service provider happens to be tentatively holding itself together.

The satellite thing sounds interesting, haven't heard about this. Anyone used this?

Options how recently did you use AOL? I had bad time with them in 2003.

 

[options]

I was using aol quite happily until March of this year. Previously for about 2 years without too many problems. Before that time though I had all sorts of probs.

 

[Racer]

I used to use Eclipse for dial up before I got broadband (still with them for that) and they didn't disconnect me after 2 hours. Not sure if that service still available but worth asking them,

http://www.eclipse.net.uk/

 

[alliance]

Ross:
Do a search of TW2 threads for Broadband or Broadband Aternatives and u will get loads of info incl Satellite

 

[Racer]

BTW I am amazed I have actually been able to get broadband! People who come to my house are extremely surprised that I do!

 

[Racer]

Might be worth getting a group of people together because the limit is a lot lower now I think and that is how my exchange got enabled last June

 

[cloudbase]

Hi Ross
I was in the same sitiuation as yourself and changed to V21 a year ago and been v good.
They will cut you off after 5 hours but you get 77hrs/ week for £24.99, have a look on their
site for all the different packages. v21.co.uk
CB

 

[JJ]

Ross, onspeed is supposed to speed up the internet connection. I havn' t tryed them but they charge £1.99 per month and have a14 day money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. Their url is
http://www.onspeed.com/en/

 

[alliance]

Ross, onspeed is supposed to speed up the internet connection. I havn' t tryed them but they charge £1.99 per month and have a14 day money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. Their url is
http://www.onspeed.com/en/

Thanks JJ ~ thats the one I was trying to remember.
Ross:
The recommendation I got was that it was excellent.....unfortunately I only heard about it 3 weeks b4 my broadband was due so never got to try them out.

 

[JJ]

alliance, onspeed say on their web site that even broadband is speeded up.
Dailup 5x, Broadband 3x.

 

[alliance]

Yeah I read that just now JJ, but I took the top spec BB I could get from AOL and I am now (up to)20 times faster than dial up and a very very happy bunny

 

[Mornington Crescent]

Onspeed works by filtering and compacting the data you download and representing it to your modem in amended form.
So there might be a nominal delay for real time data.
Only speeds up downloading for certain types of files. -- you will need to check that out with them.

 

[Ross-G]

Looked up v21 on cloudbase's recommendation.

They do have what seems to be the perfect dial up 'always on' service.
It is however £120 per month.
A little excessive as their always on broadband is £24 per month???

Closest to that is their 'nethead' package on dial up, £25 per month.
Only eleven hours per day though. Better than most but still limited.

I did look up satellite on the 'broadband alternative' threads and it looks a mess.

Can I ask the AOL users if the connection stays on, even if they don't touch machine for a few hours?

 

[dageshi]

Possibility

If you can't get your exchange enabled for dsl (probably worth working towards in the long term) you could try getting two phone lines. There are bits of kit which will tie to lines together so that if one goes down the data goes through the second. This ought to help if one line goes.

Also take a look at demon internet, some of their dialup packages are good, and they don't have any kickoff times as far as I remember.

 

[alliance]

Can I ask the AOL users if the connection stays on, even if they don't touch machine for a few hours?

Wouldn't like to say for sure Ross! Due to phone being tied up I rarely left puter on when I wasn't actively using it for any great period of time. I do have a very vague recollection of an AOL screen message saying something about the fact that the machine was idle and did I want to stay on......perhaps options could better answer that question 4u.

So there might be a nominal delay for real time data.
Only speeds up downloading for certain types of files. -- you will need to check that out with them.

Double Six
You may well be correct.....but it was an active trader from these boards who was extolling it's virtues to me so I guess it must be ok for certain styles of trading.

 

[options]

"Can I ask the AOL users if the connection stays on, even if they don't touch machine for a few hours?"


Yes, that is the case for the most part. The odd time I used to get the aol idle message and find the connection had gone when away from machine.

They give a free trial, so if you give them a go you can see for yourself.

Having something 'moving' in the aol browser should keep the message away.

 

[philto37]

I'm in a rural area with no BB. I've tried the BT Satelite BB service - it's useless at live data. It's great for fast file downloads - if anyone wants all the hardware cheap give me a PM. I've got ISDN now & use one 64kps channel to run my IB data feed on one computer, & the other 64kps channel to run my E-signal feed that supplies other trading software on another computer. I use Clara net that only charge me for one digital number that supplies the two feeds costing £15 a month for 120 hours use (no call charges). my feeds are very stable with virtually no disruptions. HTH
Regards Phil