Alternatives ?

[oswald]

I've been having a look though the links listed on this site, they all all appear to be very "cottage industry" & resellers of somebody elses product ?

Has anybody got these system in place, did they look like a proper co. when they installed rather than a scuff bag with a set of ladders ?

Do you think they have the resources in place to support it ?

The reason I ask is that the complete lack of prestation of one of these co.s website makes me think of bloke writting the contact details on the bag of a fag packet on the kitchen table rather than a bussiness....

[richardmyers]

NexGenus seemed professional, don't expect a fleet of branded vans etc as they're still growing. In my view though they know their stuff, with all the new providers appearing only time will tell. If you're willing to take a chance it will, in my view, pay dividends.

[oswald]

NexGenus seemed professional,

really ?

http://www.nextgenus.net/

my pet hates is no contact details without a full address & phone no. I assume they have something to hide, also site design appear to have been done by small blind child.....

[richardmyers]

Look at air net, i designed better when I was using wax crayons! Both sites are awful, my comment was based on what I have seen from Simon and the team. The focus at present seems to be on getting it right for those signed up before adding more customers - the easy way out would have been to load up the network and ignore their customers (cough Karoo cough). Airnet seem the same to abpn extent, ensuring those newly added are a-ok before proceeding.

Edit - im sure hullnet would say the same regarding airnet site design, so far our comments are purely based on installation and the service received.

As I've said previously I am very happy with NextGenUs so far, any help ive needed has been there.

[GarethG]

http://nextgenus.blogspot.com/ That is another of their websites.

Don't forget they are only soft launching at the minute and is not realy meant for public knowledge as it is. The people who are signing up after hearing about them from this forum are few and far between, test bed stages still.

I expect they will have a proper corporate website once they are fully integrated. The website that you're pointing to is more of a placeholder i'd say

Needless to say, some people are signed up and running on their services and provided the results. What more can you need? Pretty sure they won't polish your boots, although you could ask

[richardmyers]

I didn't think to ask, I have a pair of grubby boots too!

[oswald]

for example the other month had an alarm put in, local firm, an employee turned up in a lettered up van & did a tidy job.

even though they came recommend, I checked their website which had full contact details & even used google street view to see where they are, okay it don't look like its been done by a web designer, www.advancedalarms.co.uk, but appears honest?

you'd think a firm with links to IT would have made a greater effort ?

[Hígh Treason]

May I further back up the alternative providers by pointing out that when I moved into this house it had the original 1930's telephone wires and KCom would not use those for obvious reasons.

The man that came to install the new line would not place the socket where I asked, so I have to run about 20 feet of cable under my carpet (I had no carpet then and the carpet men cut through that and my etherenet cable in four places, but that's another story) he also did not know how to set up his ladders and lost his temper - kicking, screaming and using foul language - in the front garden. He narrowly avoided hitting an electrical cable when he drilled into the wall, he also failed to wire the socket correctly meaning that I later had to open that up and fix the thing myself.

It just goes to show that appearing professional isn't everything. I think we should look at, for example, NextGenUs as a "Whitebox" company right now (you know, like Maplin Whitebox or a no-frills brand), they might be small with little money and poor presentation, but the service is very good (from what I hear) - I certainly intend to take the risk of using them - even though I will have to buy a new server, it can't be any worse than KC charging me over £60 a month for a service that rarely works.

[GarethG]

Haha that was an amusing story, would have loved to been there. I had a similar thing (albeit not with an angry installer) where they wouldnt put the master socked in my bedroom and it had to be downstairs in the front room. From there he installed proper extension cabling to another socket in my room, the cable ran around the outside of the house tacked onto the wall.

He installed the bell wire in the sockets aswell which seems strange to me, so I took that out myself. Didn't make as much difference as id hoped in the end.

Not realy sure if NextGenUs are are small or large organisation as they have other things going on outside of Hull. They are doing alot of experiments at the moment with NGA (Next Generation Access). I believe, could be wrong, that it was NGU that did the fibre installations to the flats in hull as an experiment not so long back. From what I have seen their main objective is to get rural areas up to speed as it were with the latest broadband, i.e. fibre or close to it.

Either way all I can suggest is that you keep reading what people are saying on these forums to get some idea of what they are like.

[oswald]

any of the subscribers to these new airnet type service fancy posting some piccys of the kit the co. installs ?

eg router end ?

[Adrian]

any of the subscribers to these new airnet type service fancy posting some piccys of the kit the co. installs ?

eg router end ?

Don't worry, I'm sure they won't ruin your old victorian chimney!

[richardmyers]

any of the subscribers to these new airnet type service fancy posting some piccys of the kit the co. installs ?

eg router end ?

I'm not sure about Airnet but NextGenUs have a small device which you plug in a cat5/ethernet cable into, then into a router or access point (which they can provide).

A few pages back in the NextGenUs thread you can see the equipment on my chimney.

[dylan]

I wonder if it's worth creating seperate 'subforums' for Airnet and NextGenUs so that AN & NGU customers can talk (a little bit like they do here already with Karoo, but hopefully with more positive experiences!)?

[richardmyers]

I wonder if it's worth creating seperate 'subforums' for Airnet and NextGenUs so that AN & NGU customers can talk (a little bit like they do here already with Karoo, but hopefully with more positive experiences!)?

That'd be cool Dylan

[hullnet]

In my Experience more forums just dilute the activity to a point where people stop using them, I reckon it should stay the way it is, maybe the suppliers should create their own customer forums?

I wonder if it's worth creating seperate 'subforums' for Airnet and NextGenUs so that AN & NGU customers can talk (a little bit like they do here already with Karoo, but hopefully with more positive experiences!)?

That'd be cool Dylan