I was browsing the net and at some point i came an interesting port of linux on wireless routers. There are probably a few groups of people who did this but this is the place i came across: http://openwrt.org/ . Its interesting enough to read and can be useful for people who want to create cheap hotspots etc. I wont go through that but an other link which gives some good intructions is this: http://www.howtoforge.com/wireless_hotspot_howto
Enjoy and leave a comment
I am curius to find out how many people use private trackers and which? I use bitsoup.org, what about you? leave a comment
About 10 months ago i was moving houses and as a modern human being (and a computer science student) i need internet for purposes of communication, learning, and entertainment. In england things work in a different way than in cyprus. In Cyprus you first need to apply to CYTA, the local phone company (the only one i would say 
), and then get your line working. This usually takes weeks as you dont buy your own modem but a technician actually comes and brings you one and installs it for you. Thats all, just comes and installs it. I am amazed too. Well after than you pay them 30 pounds a month for that service and then you go and find an ISP. Now the phone company also happens to rent the fiber optic links that connect cyprus to the rest of the global village. So in other words which ever ISP you go for, its pretty much the same. The ones that claim to use satelite links are usually slow in response times.
In england things work differently. Once you apply, you wait for weeks until a BT (Like CYTA in Cyprus) technician ‘activates’ your line. Mean while you search for an ISP, get a 12 month contract ( in cyprus there is no binding contract). They will usually provide you with a usb modem, and if you want you buy your own. They dont really have issues with the modems they use in england, unlike cyprus. Well now comes the question of who to choose.
This is the moment when you need to ask your self why you need your internet connection for. Do you download anything you can find because you are addicted to the idea of downloading? Do you play games online? Or do you just browse from time to time?
One small comment here, Pay as you Go, no matter what it is for, is a ripoff. They are just trying to get you to go on a contract. Why? Because you keep paying them every month no matter if they offer a good service or not (now is the time to think why they dont offer a one month trials first.. ).
So we are going for a contract, but which one? There are around what? 50 companies? Well go to http://www.adslguide.org to find out how many. I Chose plus.net because they had a good reputation. The truth of the matter is that from july till september they were good. I was on the 15 pound a month deal which was brilliant. Then one day they change their service levels and contract terms. As you all know when we sign contracts, even online, we agree to the small letters in the end which say they can change their service to you, when ever they feel like it. Well these guys did. For the next few months i coudlnt download almost anything. Why?
Well with the new service group i was in the contention rate was much higher, and also ment a lot of filtering, which ment my downloading expiriance was reduced to anything found on an web server. This was fine, bittorrent seemed to be ok, even with the reduced speed i managed. Now one reason they offer more than one packages is simple, they are trying to sell you the most expensive one gradually, and then create new ones. If you have seen “SuperSize me” then its the same thing Mc Donnalds is doing.
Well in January i changed my package to the one that is good for dowloads.. Well this one had a 30GB limit from 4-12 at night, and from 12 to 4 in the afternoon it had 100GB of transfers. After that your account was managed. Getting this information was hard too, i had to search their website for a long time just to make sure. What they didnt say was that there was also other limits such as that if you passed a 20GB transfer your account was also managed from 8am to 12 midnight. These sort of cheap scams are what give companies bad names, its not their clients. Well now am stuch with my 1MB line and a bad server paying 15 pounds at the begining and now 21. I also pay 12 for the phone line rental.
Which ISP should you go for? Well if you are not a heavy user i would say a company like plus.net and their 15 pound package wouldnt be too bad. But then again can you trust them? Even their 30 pound package isnt unlimited. Companies such as PIPEX and AOL (have friends who are signed up with them, Frank and James) offer unlimited packages for around 30 a month, and they are unrestricted and unlimited packages. So getting a contract with either of them wouldnt be a bad idea, but make sure its unlimited and unrestricted at all times of the time. If they dont say it, and if you ask them and get no reply, then its not. A good ISP will not come any cheaper than the 30 pounds a month, which is cheaper than what you pay in Cyprus.
Please leave a comment if you want or ask a question
George