[Gram123]

Hi guys.

Way back in March, in one of my very first posts, I griped about the free ISPs available in the UK.
The only completely free one (i.e. no call charges, no subscription) is NTL World.
When I say free, you have to be a NTL customer to get free access and that means having them as your telephone company (and/or digital TV) too.

"Well," you'll be saying, "if it's free it's not going to be brilliant is it?"
Indeed.

Apart from the splash screen when you switch the PC on, NTL also boots you out after 2 hours online. I can live with this (and have done for a while now), just about, although it can be a pain when you're in the middle of something.
However, it seems to be getting considerably worse. If I type anything, like this here post, it has taken to logging me out, I guess cos it assumes if I'm typing there's no need for all that free online time to go to waste - it's like leaving the taps running when you pop down the shops. In fact, while I was typing that last bit, as if Mr. NTL is reading what I write, it's booted me out!
Now, I'm a pretty quick typer (typist) "for a man" (so I've been told), but really, 50 or so words and I'm booted.
It's maddening!

The worst part comes when you've typed a long message and forgot to hit CTRL+C before hitting "Submit". It decides that then would be a good time to tell you you're no longer connected, but because you've already hit "Submit", the page has expired and you're logged out of the web site. The message/thread/reply is gone and you have to type the whole bloody thing in again.

This is only a recent development. Well, actually no, it's always happened, just nowhere near as quickly. I know it's free and that means more people will take it up, but the time it takes to access a page or download a file has not noticably increased in that time. I think it may be a rather underhand way of making more people sign up for profit-making broadband access when they don't really need it or can't afford it, similar to the phasing out of the old analog cable tv and offering the more expensive (and being NTL, pretty crappy) digital service.

Ah well, just wanted a rant. I know there's nothing that can be done about it and I shouldn't complain, cos I've still got something for free, but it does seem indicative of the future of the internet.

Right then, CTRL+A,
CTRL+C
Connect
Log In
Navigate to forum
New thread
Paste
Check I'm still connected, and
Submit

Gram