Broadband / firewalls / anti-virus?

[thoras_herd]

OK - my Macbook is on it's way so I need to gte set up with broadband. Any recommendations? Looking for minimum 8mb speed and don't want to spend more than £20 a month (medium user). I was thinking of BT or Zen internet.

Also - does the Macbook have it's own firewall or do I need to get an ISP that has anti-virus/firewalls/anti-spam or should I buy Norton or similar? I have no idea about security for Macs.

Thanks,

 

[James]

OS X has a firewall built into it that will probably be all you need in that department. Not familiar with ips in the UK so can't help there. A good router properly set up will also give you a lot of protection.

At this time there really isn't that much out for the Mac so you really don't have to worry about a virus program. There are a couple programs out there though if you would have more peace of mind about it. I woud NOT recommend Norton.

 

[Alexis]

Try www.madasafish.com

£11.99 for 6 months, and then £17.99. 8 meg, 5 gig a month (£1 per extra gig).

Sign up with my referral number 4030908 and you get £10 off, and I get £20 off my bill.

I've been with them for 18 months - they are a great ISP, although not many people have heard of them.

OS X is 99.9% immune to any spyware or viruses, all of which are written for Windows. You don't need any programs such as Norton. That's the great thing about Macs!

 

[Ginger Pilot]

If you have SKY TV you could get free Broadband. I've had it for 5 months now and it works fine, I know they've had some bad press but that was mainly with their help desk, but I only needed to ring them once for the POP and SMTP details. SKY is free for up 2GB, £5 for 40GB and £10 for unlimited, but you must subscribe to SKY.

 

[thoras_herd]

thanks - i don't have sky - was thinking perhaps of getting it as my parents have sky broadband and have had no problems at all. the one thing that puts me off is the fact i would have to have a dish (not cable). i really don't like them :-(

 

[Alexis]

Don't do it! My colleague spent about three weeks trying to get it activated. They lost details and he had to speak to about 6 different people at their Indian call centre. Each time it took about half an hour to get through.

Eventually it was activated but runs at a terrible speed. He can't get through to anyone to sort it out or to cancel.

 

[Miffle]

It doesn't exactly offer what you're looking for but Virgin Media works great for me, I was with telewest/blueyonder before they joined with virgin

The service is great, prices are a little higher than some others but in about 3 years of service I have had no problems. Now that you can combine virgin media deals with TV and phone etc its apparently a great bargin but I don't go in for all of that.

OS X has a built in firewall, i've never had a problem with it but akin to windows firewalls some people belive they need tweaking. You can find guides on how to improve the built in firewall on the web.. As far as I know you won't need them too much.

 

[Ginger Pilot]

Alexis,

I think everybody can give a bad experience with just about any ISP, I had a NIGHTMARE with Pipex which always features as one of the better ISP's. Also as it's ADSL you can still be at the mercy of BT.

All I can tell you is my Sky Broadband works, the speed is good and that's with three of us using it and it is Very Cheap compared with my previous ISP's. I agree though the one time I had to ring for the SMTP and POP details for the E-mail settings the guy was more than useless.

GP

 

[D3v1L80Y]

Sticky: The Official Mac AntiVirus and Firewall FAQ

 

[laimonas.s]

my Orange broadband seems to work pretty well. if you have an orange contract phone then you get it free/or pay 5 pounds a month for unlimited 8mb access

 

[thoras_herd]

thanks for the anti-virus sticky - have you got one for recommended UK ISPs?