Freeserve Hometime

Advantages: Fast, often connects first time, free email addresses
Disadvantages: Poor customer service, clearer installation instructions needed

Freeserve HomeTime has grown in popularity from the mega expensive ISP it once was. After the stories I heard about BT, I thought Freeserve was the one to go for.You can go on from 6pm-8am weekdays and all day saturday and sunday. *** Installation *** Freeserve is relatively easy to install. As long as you have a working modem. First you'll need to install the Freeserve standard 1p/minute package, then sign up to Hometime, and in about a week you'll ...
...connect and log in to Freeserve first time. The remaining times it usually takes a few attempts. Dialing and signing in time is nice and quick, and there are no ads, just a simple freeserve logo in the task tray. *** Speed *** Freeserve's speed is average, not exceptional and not slow, it's about the standard you'd expect from a typical ISP. Top speeds usually reach 3kb/sec, (Although I have seen speeds exceed 6kb/sec before!) *** Tech support ... Read review

Advantages: Cheap, good choice of packages, Easy to use.
Disadvantages: Sometimes have trouble sending and recieving e-mail

Firstly freeserve is not free, we have chosen B.T surftime combined with freeserve hometime this costs 8.99 and in return we get unlimited offpeak internet usage (6 pm - 8 am and all day Saturday and Sunday). We used to use freeserve before the offpeak version was brought out and we had a lot of trouble with it, most of the time it took at least 20 minutes to get through, I am very pleased with the improvement over the years, we never get engaged ...
...rare now. With Freeserve you get: ** Unlimited e-mail addresses and you can access your email's from anywhere in the world. ** 15 Megs of free webspace ** Free online technical support ** Technical support charged at 50p per minute We have used the technical support helpline and the service is quite good, I find it helps to have all your P.C information ready when you call as it can be quite expensive. There are three choices of packages with ... Read review

Advantages: Unlimited free e-mail addresses, 15Mb of personal web space, free between 8pm-6am monday to friday, and all weekend...
Disadvantages: ...but you can rarely get online to access any of it.

...the UK's number one. Freeserve were no exception, making their own bold claim on the front of the CD sleeve. I chose Freeserve because they have become a household name. I'd heard about bad experiences from a couple of people, but I thought I would try out their services for myself. I've been with two ISPs before - LineOne and Demon. Both of those were God-afwul to set up. The Freeserve disk got my system set up in less than 30 minutes (a far cry ...
...worked, I signed up for Freeserve HomeTime and BT Surf Together. Surf together costs £14.99, inclusive of BT line rental, and you pay a further £3.99 through your phone bill, which goes to Freeserve. I signed up and was told that I could expect an e-mail from Freeserve in 'around seven days' giving me instructions on how to set up my system. Exactly seven days later (to the hour!), I received said e-mail, followed the instructions, downloaded a ... Read review

Advantages: good connection rate when possible
Disadvantages: lack of servers, so you often cant get on if busy, put extra costs on and lie about them

...My first impressions of freeserve were nightmare.I went on to their website and completed the form with all my details. There was a section on there that you had to check whether your number was ready for freeserve. Unfortunately mine wasnt. The strange thing about it is that I live a couple of minutes away from the city and couldnt get on there. Whereas my boyfriend who lives in the valleys where mobile phone network is bad got on there no problems ...
...to connect through and a freeserve help icon aswell. It is recommended that you save these to a disk as if something happens to your computer they wont send you another one. After that you will be ready in 48 hours. It didnt happen for me that easily as my phone number was on a saver account with bt as my phone bill is low. So my dad had to change all that as they said freeserve couldnt work of that account. More expense again. When I first got ... Read review

Advantages: Great if you work all day!
Disadvantages: Not so great if your on holiday! also you need a BT line!

...line ISP's. 1) No Ties Freeserve No Ties gives you access to the Internet with calls charged at local standard rates. You do not need a BT line or credit card to join and the call charges appear on your standard telephone bill 2) HomeTime Freeserve HomeTime gives you all evening and weekend Internet calls for a monthly fee of £5.99 and at all other times, local rates apply. HomeTime requires a BT line. Evening calls are 6pm to 8am and weekend ...
...carry on with registering with freeserve (all of the stages can be completed from the internet via the freeserve website, it will automatically take you to the BT web site to sign up for surf time). It takes about a month for BT to upgrade your telephone package, so you have to wait about a month before you can complete stage two. I spent a few weeks after the set 28 days (which I was told by BT) phoning them up trying to find out whether my package ... Read review