Bulldog broadband - any experiences?
Discussion
The "Unlimited" 8 meg deal looks tempting... reasonable price, decent upload speed, more download speed than I need.
www.bulldogbroadband.com/residential/products/broadband/index.asp
Lots of stuff on Google saying their customer service is shit... not too much of a worry as long as the service itself works, which AFAICT it does. Can't seem to find anything that will give a definitive answer to the questions that are important to me though...
1) Does "Unlimited" really mean unlimited? No caps, no throttling, no being hit with extra charges? Found a few references to different ISPs whose "unlimited" claims turn out to be a lie.
2) Are they completely free of port blocking? It's reasonably clear that they don't block P2P ports - isn't it? But do they block ports 25 and/or 80? I need these open for incoming connections and I can't find anything to specifically confirm or refute this.
3) They say they can provide one static IP. There is no information about multiple IPs. I'm after a block of four.
4) Do they offer a purely manual method of payment? An address to send cheques to, ideally, or at the very least card payment on the website with a cast-iron guarantee that the card details will not be stored and used to take payments automatically? I will not accept any payment method that doesn't require my personal individual authorisation for each individual transaction.
Currently I'm with Metronet, who are 100% for 2, 3 and 4, but only part way there on 1.
Any Bulldog customers here able to clue me in?
www.bulldogbroadband.com/residential/products/broadband/index.asp
Lots of stuff on Google saying their customer service is shit... not too much of a worry as long as the service itself works, which AFAICT it does. Can't seem to find anything that will give a definitive answer to the questions that are important to me though...
1) Does "Unlimited" really mean unlimited? No caps, no throttling, no being hit with extra charges? Found a few references to different ISPs whose "unlimited" claims turn out to be a lie.
2) Are they completely free of port blocking? It's reasonably clear that they don't block P2P ports - isn't it? But do they block ports 25 and/or 80? I need these open for incoming connections and I can't find anything to specifically confirm or refute this.
3) They say they can provide one static IP. There is no information about multiple IPs. I'm after a block of four.
4) Do they offer a purely manual method of payment? An address to send cheques to, ideally, or at the very least card payment on the website with a cast-iron guarantee that the card details will not be stored and used to take payments automatically? I will not accept any payment method that doesn't require my personal individual authorisation for each individual transaction.
Currently I'm with Metronet, who are 100% for 2, 3 and 4, but only part way there on 1.
Any Bulldog customers here able to clue me in?
Caveat empor !
www.adslguide.org
Bulldog are known to have issues, some were so bad that they just avoided being sent to ofcom for a smacking.
Please check out the forums on the site and dont subject yourself to 12 months of hell just because it is cheap
It might work wonders for you, but get bulldog forum to check out first
www.adslguide.org
Bulldog are known to have issues, some were so bad that they just avoided being sent to ofcom for a smacking.
Please check out the forums on the site and dont subject yourself to 12 months of hell just because it is cheap
It might work wonders for you, but get bulldog forum to check out first
never really had any problems, my limited contact with customer ervice indicates they are hopeless at most things, taking ages to respond to emails and phone lines in india or somewhere, but once it's working it works fine. I download a TON of stuff, and a lot of online gaming and uploading, P2P etc, never encountered any limits whatsoever.
Their payment methods are fairly limited I think, I think it's card or direct debit only which is a bit annoying but most others are the same from what I can see.
Their payment methods are fairly limited I think, I think it's card or direct debit only which is a bit annoying but most others are the same from what I can see.
OK, thanks for the responses so far... you weeks-to-set-up guys, were you moving from dialup or another broadband provider? Did it leave you without internet access for weeks or could you hang on to your previous connection right up to the point where Bulldog was activated?
Yeah, most but not all, main reason why I chose Metronet originally... Card is OK if I have to authorise each transaction individually but not if they store the details and take it automatically.
Anyone know about the port blocking or multiple IPs?
r988 said:
Their payment methods are fairly limited I think, I think it's card or direct debit only which is a bit annoying but most others are the same from what I can see.
Yeah, most but not all, main reason why I chose Metronet originally... Card is OK if I have to authorise each transaction individually but not if they store the details and take it automatically.
Anyone know about the port blocking or multiple IPs?
Pigeon said:
OK, thanks for the responses so far... you weeks-to-set-up guys, were you moving from dialup or another broadband provider? Did it leave you without internet access for weeks or could you hang on to your previous connection right up to the point where Bulldog was activated?
Transferring from another broadband provider (Pipex in this case). There is no way to hang onto your connection. From what I was told they need the line to be clear of ADSL (i.e. you have no connection) before they put the order into BT. From there it should be a week or so to get service back, could be longer.
robbieduncan said:It was at this point they told me I actually COULDN'T have the service I had asked for so I had to pay a connection charge to move to a proper ISP - Nildram. If I'd just migrated to Nildram it would have been free so those useless Bull*** feckers cost me £60!
There is no way to hang onto your connection. From what I was told they need the line to be clear of ADSL (i.e. you have no connection) before they put the order into BT. From there it should be a week or so to get service back, could be longer.
In contrast, on the odd occassion I have had reason to call customer services at Nildram, a couple of days later I've had follow up calls to check that my problem was sorted.
Heard bad things from a friend at work who had Bulldog. It didn't work, they wouldn't release him so he couldn't get another ADSL ISP.... charged him when they shouldn't and so on.
Thumbs up for Nildram though, we used them for 2 years or so. Other than equipment issues our end the thing never died.
Thumbs up for Nildram though, we used them for 2 years or so. Other than equipment issues our end the thing never died.
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