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So after 20+ years it's Bye-Bye Zen

RogerS

RogerS

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And off to pastures new
Not that we've had a hissy fit, just that where we are moving to...the deserted icefields of rural Somerset from the balmy moors of Northumberland, Zen have no presence.

It's a two stage move. So I need something that is either movable or cancellable without penalty. Ideally it's vanilla ADSL for a temporary 4 month rental and then ideally fibre at the new place (wherever that is).

Any suggestions ?
 
Duncan A said:
If you've got a good signal, it may be easier to use an unlimited data SIM
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That's what I did when me and Mrs M2098 went on a months canal cruise. I checked the signals for the main providers and bought an unlimited SIM and used it with a little gubbins that wified in the boat, then cancelled the SIM when we got home.

I think the gubbins was a Kuma.
 
TrimTheKing said:
Check Starlink coverage/usability, buy a second hand setup on ebay, monthly contract which you can cancel at the end and sell the kit.
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That’s a cracking idea thanks Mark. Their router modem presumably.

But I did have another thought. Can’t I simply use an old phone, stick a SIM card in and use it as a mobile hotspot.? Mind you not sure how to then Mesh it
 
Be aware Rog that the mobile phone solution works, but will probably be 4G and slow, and you will need the phone close to the computer. It will become tiresome pretty quickly I suspect.
 
Hi Roger
I’m currently in rural Somerset renovating a very old property, the mobile signal is extremely poor here, ( fairly near to Yeovil) so I got Starlink over a year ago, it is extremely good and it’s fairly mobile, I took it to France for a couple of months and it worked perfectly.
As Mark said its month to month and you can cancel anytime.
 
AJB Temple said:
Be aware Rog that the mobile phone solution works, but will probably be 4G and slow, and you will need the phone close to the computer. It will become tiresome pretty quickly I suspect.
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It depends very much as to the speed, Adrian. Just checked and got 30MBs down but only 1MBs up. Phone only needs to be close to the router since you use External Tethering on the mobile. Simply get a USB C to ethernet adapter cable, one end into the phone, t'other into the WAN connection on the router. Thereafter you are using the Mesh capabilities of the router and any repeaters.
 
Vodafone do something called a Gigacube, which is a SIM based Wi-Fi router for home use, could be worth a look, I'm sure the other providers will do similar.

I still think the second hand or even new and rented Starlink is the best option though.
 
TrimTheKing said:
Vodafone do something called a Gigacube, which is a SIM based Wi-Fi router for home use, could be worth a look, I'm sure the other providers will do similar.

I still think the second hand or even new and rented Starlink is the best option though.
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I agree that a secondhand Starlink is a god idea and I didn't realise you could get them. The monthly charge is the killer. All my solution has cost me is £7.98 for the USB-ethernet adapter. Giffgaff unlimited is £24 a month. No contract


Monday will be the time to have a very interesting telephone conversation with Zen as they have sent two invoices ....Your Unlimited Fibre 1 service has been cancelled on Tuesday 01-Apr-2025, before the contract end date ie double charging us for the last month. They seem to have forgotten that we started with them when they started and there were no contracts as such. So no contract date. Lifetime contract - no fee increase. Also along the lines of "We're moving house but you won't provide a service at our new home. We would have been very happy to continue but you made that impossible and now you're going to fine us for the privilege"
 
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I am being a Total Muppet. Giffgaff ain't going to work beecause they are nt an ISP. Just the RF equivalent of a piece of copper wire. And since all ISP's insist on a 24 month contract or you pay £453 for a 4 month temporary ISP then it's Starlink for me.

Mark, looking at the secondhand prices they aren't that far off the mark for new. So I'll go down that route (I think). Looking at their coverage map, I see they're not taking on anymore customers in much of the SE. Still making a 'congestion charge' aka RipOff for Somerset !
 
It's been a while since I did mine but I think you don't even need to buy it now, I think you can go down the rental route and just rent the kit, then hand it back when you're done. If you're looking at only a few months then that might be a better option.

EDIT : Ignore that, that was an option but now looks like it's back to buying, £199 for the kit and £75pm. Or even buy a second hand 'mobile' kit then you can take it with you wherever you go, for emergencies. Just cancel the sub, keep the kit then you've got it for instant renewal if need be.
 
If you're looking for a DSL option for the short term, A&A do monthly rolling contracts with no minimum term - the only tradeoff being an increased installation fee if you don't lock in. They're not the cheapest but are very good.
 
spb said:
If you're looking for a DSL option for the short term, A&A do monthly rolling contracts with no minimum term - the only tradeoff being an increased installation fee if you don't lock in. They're not the cheapest but are very good.
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Ooooh....thanks for that...looks promising

EDIT: 10 working day leadtime. Means we'd be without theinternet for all that time. So Starlink it is.


Questions re Starlink: We have an elderly but stylish B&O cordless handset with seperate base station.

How do we get a 'telephone number' ?

Are there gizmos that plug into the router and convert VOIP or DECT what-have-you to something that our B&O can work with ?
 
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You'll need an ATA to convert the analogue phone to VoIP, then you'll need a VoIP contract with a provider to give you a number. I've no experience of these from a consumer perspective though so you'll need to spend some time Googling I'm afraid.
 
TrimTheKing said:
You'll need an ATA to convert the analogue phone to VoIP, then you'll need a VoIP contract with a provider to give you a number. I've no experience of these from a consumer perspective though so you'll need to spend some time Googling I'm afraid.
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Thanks Mark. I'd never heard of an ATA before now.
 
When we were recommended by Rog to go for Zen (fandabby outfit btw) we opted to do away with the land line completely, so it's nil, nada, gorn. We rarely get any 'fone calls these days as most of our comms is done through the ubiquitous WotsAp - Rob
 
spb said:
If you're looking for a DSL option for the short term, A&A do monthly rolling contracts with no minimum term - the only tradeoff being an increased installation fee if you don't lock in. They're not the cheapest but are very good.
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Another vote for A&A. If you phone tech support, you get through to a bloke at a desk who know the internet inside out. The sort who plays Dungeons and Dragons, and paints lead figures on weekends. Exactly what you want.

Previously, with BT, I’d phone tech support and find that I knew more than they did. They’re just sales people following a script.
 
As I type this, I'm connecting to the Internet via my AVM ex-Zen router (using wifi) which is conected via an Ethernet adapter to a very tatty Samsung mobile with a scratched screen which is connecting via my GiffGaff SIM. And not a touch of Zen to be seen.

Many thanks to all and espcially Mark
 
can I put then in language I can understand, sorry. You are using mobile phone on , I presume at least 4gb data, to hard connect via Ethernet cable to a router which is providing Wifi around the house? Why not just set the phone up as a mobile hotspot?
We barely get 3g data over mobile here.
 
AndyP said:
can I put then in language I can understand, sorry. You are using mobile phone on , I presume at least 4gb data, to hard connect via Ethernet cable to a router which is providing Wifi around the house? Why not just set the phone up as a mobile hotspot?
We barely get 3g data over mobile here.
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Because it's a big house and the phone wouldn't cover everything.

The one thing I have noticed with mobile data is that download speed seems proportional to sigla strength and I can't really get my head round that one. Unless there's an awful lot of error correction going on at low signal strengths.
 
Fair enough.
Interweb crawls along on H+ data here. Hope you have decent signal strength where you are going .
 
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