When every other company was plugging their "free" internet service where you only paid for the phone calls, freenetname went on better. They charge no monthly fee, local dial in costs and then threw in a domain name!
Ease To Install:
I didn't have any problems installing/setting up ... Read review
Advantages: Free Domain Name Disadvantages: Only access through dial up
...paid for the phone calls, freenetname went on better. They charge no monthly fee, local dial in costs and then threw in a domain name!
Ease To Install:
I didn't have any problems installing/setting up the connection. Mind you, it has to be said that I work with computers all day, so I would hope that I don't have any problems with something like setting up an internet connection. But it all looked pretty simple to me. ...etc, etc. I like freenetname as they made all this info really easy to find. (Before now I have had to download the install program and then read through the configuration fine by hand - yuk!)
Connection speed:
I've been very happy with the connection speed (for a dial up connection). I think that freenetname pride themselves on giving a good quality connection. They even stopped taking new subscriptions when they were ... more
When every other company was plugging their "free" internet service where you only paid for the phone calls, freenetname went on better. They charge no monthly fee, local dial in costs and then threw in a domain name!
Ease To Install:
I didn't have any problems installing/setting up the connection. Mind you, it has to be said that I work with computers all day, so I would hope that I don't have any problems with something like setting up an internet connection. But it all looked pretty simple to me.
Knowing what you connect to:
I always like to know all the individual settings, what the mail servers name is, any proxy settings etc, etc. I like freenetname as they made all this info really easy to find. (Before now I have had to download the install program and then read through the configuration fine by hand - yuk!)
Connection speed:
I've been very happy with the connection speed (for a dial up connection). I think that freenetname pride themselves on giving a good quality connection. They even stopped taking new subscriptions when they were under threat of being over subscribed for their server power.
Keeping it live:
As with everything there is always a catch. In order to keep your account, you have to use it. So you need to make sure you dial in at least once a month, or your account it deleted.
External Access:
It is a little annoying (but not at all surprising) that you can not access you account in any other way other than dialling in through the phone number supplied. It would have nice to have had something like a limited web interface to read your mail, but I suppose then they wouldn't make any money!
Domain Name:
The choice of Domain name is limited to a set of .uk values including org.uk and co.uk. So you can't have .com unless you want to pay them extra. One down site is that you can never change your domain name once you have set it. You are not even given the chance to when it comes for them to renew it.
Web Space:
They do give you about 20mb of web space, which has proved enough space for me at the moment. Again you can only upload anything through the local rate phone number, but transfer speed isn't too bad. Access to the web site from other servers is actually pretty good, they haven't just dumped peoples web site on a slow server that can't cope, it does actually load pretty fast.
E-mail:
With the free domain name it follows that you can also have an unlimited number of E-mail addresses (myname@mydomain.co.uk). This is great as you can use pretty much anything, allowing you to put different categories of E-mail into different inbox's. e.g. get all your Ciao! messages going to ciao@mydomain.co.uk
freenetname web site:
The freenetname web site has quite a bit of info on configurations and problem solving. This is great as it means that you don't have to ring them up on a premium number if you have a problem. I haven't used any of the other stuff on their site, so I can't comment on their news sections etc.
Customer Service:
I'd do my best to avoid ringing customer service as the charges are high (Premium phone number). However, they do reply very quickly to E-mail (which cost nothing) and for my one communication they were very helpful.
I've noticed reasonably recently the addition of the following 2 services:
1) Free phone (unlimited) access - This looks much the same as the normal dial in, but this time you pay a flat fee (about £15.00 at the moment - but this may change) and can stay connected as long as you like. Again you get all the previous perks, but you know the cost upfront rather than seeing it on your phone bill. (Note, this is currently only available if you are already signed up for freenetname standard account)
2) Broadband - This is a very recent addition. Again you get the domain name and all the other perks. But you pay about £30.00 for the broadband version. (This is open to new, as well as existing, customers)
Advantages: Free domain name with 20mb of web space. Disadvantages: £94 to transfer your domain name.
...Unfortunately for quite a while Freenetname was little more than just a free domain name but that is changing as recently they have joined forces with Infospace who now provide their specialist content. Sport, finance, entertainment, news and all the other general things you would to expect to find are now covered via Infospace.
The web site is quite well laid out but resembles a web portal as most of the links are external. There is a directory ... ...no reason to sign-up with Freenetname as anyone can access these pages.
The biggest benefit of joining Freenetname is that you can choose your own free domain name plus you receive 20 megabytes of web space to host your site. The free web hosting is aimed at personal use though you can sign-up for their business hosting package but this costs.
While common gateway interface (CGI) or server slide include (SSI) is not included Freenetname does allow ...
theimp 26.10.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Freenetname
Advantages: Free .co.uk domain name, 20mb web space, technical support Disadvantages: Slow webspace
Before I even begin to express my opinion I must make it clear that if you want to know how many email addresses and webspace you get from freenetname.co.uk then I suggest you visit their website. I will let you know what I would want to know about them. Basically, as most ISPs (Internet Service Providers) do tend to offer the same in terms of fundamental features (e.g. local call rate access, x number of email addresses, etc.) it sometimes takes ... ...crowd. This is precisely, in my opinion, what Freenetname.co.uk has managed to achieve. The advantages of this ISP is that you get the chance to register a “.co.uk” internet domain name. This means that if your name was Ron Seal then you could register www.ronseal.co.uk - if it isn’t already a valid domain name. I think it’s a smashing marketing ploy to offer ‘free’ domain names. A lot of people are wary about investing in a domain name and so this ...
JRW 19.08.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Freenetname
Advantages: Free, Free Domain, Quick, Reliable Disadvantages: Must use their dial-up for a lot of services
Mostly freenetname is known for the fact that they offer you a free domain, however, the service does go beyond that. As far as I have tried, freenetname is the most reliable and quickest free ISP I have ever used. The reiability is good and disconnects are rare. Connection lags are also very rare and download speeds are brilliant for a free ISP (they are as fast as most pay-for-ISP's). They also offer you a free domain (registration + hosting). ...
KingWaz 27.07.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Freenetname
Advantages: fast, free, you get a web domain Disadvantages: have to be using their dial ups to check mail.
Freenetname are an exellent ISP. They provide a reasonably fast connection, e-mail, a free .co.uk or .org.uk web domain, and redirect it to their servers where you can build your own website about whatever you like. Freenetname are nearly always in operation, in the last 6 months I have only known them to be offline on one occasion, which is much better than many other ISP's. Freenetnames newsgroup facility is exellent, providing many more groups ... ...who need a website, as freenetname refrain from filling your website with advertising banners. The only downside to freenetname is that you have to be using their dial up connection before you can upload websites or check e-mail. This is annoying if you are using an 0800 dial up to connect to the internet, as you have to waste time switcing connections.
Overall, a top ISP, everyone should use it. ...
spacedonkey 17.07.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Freenetname
Advantages: FREE domain name Disadvantages: cannot access emails externally, cost of transferring domain name to another host
...(.co.uk) attracted me to using Freenetname as my ISP. And if you are an individual or a small business who wants a standard website of text and pictures then they offer you plenty of server space. Their customer support is good and I have never experienced an engaged tone when dialing them up. Their speeds seem pretty normal / good too.
The only disadvantages I can see are if you want to transfer your domain name to another host it will cost you, ... ...office.
So generally speaking Freenetname is a great Free ISP. However I have recently discovered that domain names have come crashing down in price. So if the disadvantages I have listed above are going to affect you then buy a .co.uk for £9.99 for two years or a .com for £35 for two years and get a FREE .co.uk from Easily and they offer free web and email forwarding. Then choose a Free ISP that offers everything you want and forward your new domain ...
redhorse 24.08.2000 (16.03.2008)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Freenetname
0800 access on weekends for no subscription charge, never engaged
slow, no newsgroup access, few e-mails, little webspace, homepage is poor, need to use gofree dialling software, expensive support, poor e-mail suppor (*)
