Hands0n
21st April 2007, 07:28 PM
Loosely associated with 3g - wholly so with Orange.
Now most of us will probably know that 3GSU is an Orange Broadband Unlimited consumer - that is, he pays Orange £35 a month for a mobile contract (18 mths) and has taken their Orange Broadband Unlimited service - the one that supplies an upto 8Mbps ADSL service and a home wireless router and VoIP box - Orange call it the Livebox (http://freebb.orange.co.uk/offerinfo/livebox/index.htm?bbProduct=unlimited). The VoIP provides you with an Orange-supplied dialtone (0845 number) which you can use to call free around most of Europe and other parts of the world! Full details for those interested on the Orange website (http://freebb.orange.co.uk/offerinfo/bbunlimited.cfm).......
One of my disconnected friends decided that she finally wanted t'Internet and asked me for help. After a brief analysis of what they want of it, what services they already have, how much they wanted to pay (£0.00 was the answer!) I decided to guide them in the direction of Orange Broadband Unlimited. This was a prudent decision as they already had a £30 18-month contract on the go for a few months. The only proviso was that the contract would re-start in order to take on Orange Broadband Unlimited. They were happy enough with that, and she is paying the £5 extra that the Unlimited costs over the "Free Broadband" you can get inclusive with the £30 contract.
Okay - so thats the background. What is the service actually like to install and operate?
The Package
Soon after the order a letter of confirmation and details arrives from Orange. This gives you information about your account number, email account, ADSL username but ...... no password information. The letter helpfully tells you that your ADSL and email passwords (the same) will be sent to you by ..... wait for it ...... email! WTF? Who thought up that crazy workflow? It was only because I took along my 3G phone and laptop that I was able to access the Internet to log into their email account via Orange webmail and retrieve the all-important password information email! Imagine someone who does not have prior or independent Internet/email access ... what are they supposed to do?
Subsequently, a neat Orange-black box arrives with the entire Unlimited kit inside. This is accompanied with a CD and getting-started sheet, a pair of ADSL filters and a stubby cable to plug a phone into the Livebox.
Setting Up
Physically setting it up is a piece of cake - the printed instructions are straightforward. Then I decided to do as I was told and pop the CD into the PC, following which an even more feature-rich set of install guidance flowed. This led the way to entering Username and Password for the ADSL service where the next problem occurred. In the letter this was described as.orangehome.co.uk@fs@fs - which seemed strange to me, but what the hey! A call to Orange for help revealed that the second "@fs" a printing mistake (what? they've not got that kind of detail sorted out yet?). So, back to the config routine and re-enter the username and password which resulted in a very satisfying OK message on the utility.
When trying to access the Internet though the browser reported that there was no connectivity! The Livebox was displaying the recommended slow-flashing link light. Everything should be okay, but clearly was not.
At this point the Network Guy in me arose - I browsed to http://192.168.1.1 (the Livebox) and tried a few username and password combinations before I got in - it is "admin" and "admin" if you want to know :D
The status menu said that the ADSL line was there but that the login had not been validated. Pressing the Validate button gave the same result over and over. This menu also showed the Username and a dotted-out password. Seeing and I'd had trouble with the Username earlier I scrolled through the Username being shown now and sure enough the @fs@fs was in there. Once edited out to be a single @fs pressing Validate got us logged into Orange Internet.
Job done - we were cooking on gas. And very fast it was too as she lives less than a mile from the local exchange.
Conclusion
For sure the Orange Broadband and Broadband Unlimited with Livebox is a rather tantalising offering. Orange's delivery and successful activation of the ADSL was effective and on time. The opening experience was almost perfect. I say almost.
The big letdown was the need for some technical knowledge and savvy that, perhaps, the average buyer will not have. My gripes therefore are:-
No way should the user be required to read an email with their account details when they [in all liklihood] do not have Internet access. That information should have been in the written letter of acknowledgement.
The CD-based set-up routine should have correctly replaced the Username in the Livebox when it was changed - it didn't. A end-user should not be expected to edit configuration information in the Livebox (no doubt that would have been the talk-through had we called Orange yet again).
VoIP was not activated at start-up, the client had to call Orange to have the VoIP activated separately. This is not covered in any of the instructions.
I would, however, heartily recommend the Orange Broadband Unlimited package to anyone spending £35 a month on their existing contract and who either needs Broadband or is paying separately for Broadband from another ADSL supplier.
NB: This offer is not for Cable customers - the financial economies of changing to an ADSL provider may not pan out. It is worth doing the math first.
Now most of us will probably know that 3GSU is an Orange Broadband Unlimited consumer - that is, he pays Orange £35 a month for a mobile contract (18 mths) and has taken their Orange Broadband Unlimited service - the one that supplies an upto 8Mbps ADSL service and a home wireless router and VoIP box - Orange call it the Livebox (http://freebb.orange.co.uk/offerinfo/livebox/index.htm?bbProduct=unlimited). The VoIP provides you with an Orange-supplied dialtone (0845 number) which you can use to call free around most of Europe and other parts of the world! Full details for those interested on the Orange website (http://freebb.orange.co.uk/offerinfo/bbunlimited.cfm).......
One of my disconnected friends decided that she finally wanted t'Internet and asked me for help. After a brief analysis of what they want of it, what services they already have, how much they wanted to pay (£0.00 was the answer!) I decided to guide them in the direction of Orange Broadband Unlimited. This was a prudent decision as they already had a £30 18-month contract on the go for a few months. The only proviso was that the contract would re-start in order to take on Orange Broadband Unlimited. They were happy enough with that, and she is paying the £5 extra that the Unlimited costs over the "Free Broadband" you can get inclusive with the £30 contract.
Okay - so thats the background. What is the service actually like to install and operate?
The Package
Soon after the order a letter of confirmation and details arrives from Orange. This gives you information about your account number, email account, ADSL username but ...... no password information. The letter helpfully tells you that your ADSL and email passwords (the same) will be sent to you by ..... wait for it ...... email! WTF? Who thought up that crazy workflow? It was only because I took along my 3G phone and laptop that I was able to access the Internet to log into their email account via Orange webmail and retrieve the all-important password information email! Imagine someone who does not have prior or independent Internet/email access ... what are they supposed to do?
Subsequently, a neat Orange-black box arrives with the entire Unlimited kit inside. This is accompanied with a CD and getting-started sheet, a pair of ADSL filters and a stubby cable to plug a phone into the Livebox.
Setting Up
Physically setting it up is a piece of cake - the printed instructions are straightforward. Then I decided to do as I was told and pop the CD into the PC, following which an even more feature-rich set of install guidance flowed. This led the way to entering Username and Password for the ADSL service where the next problem occurred. In the letter this was described as
When trying to access the Internet though the browser reported that there was no connectivity! The Livebox was displaying the recommended slow-flashing link light. Everything should be okay, but clearly was not.
At this point the Network Guy in me arose - I browsed to http://192.168.1.1 (the Livebox) and tried a few username and password combinations before I got in - it is "admin" and "admin" if you want to know :D
The status menu said that the ADSL line was there but that the login had not been validated. Pressing the Validate button gave the same result over and over. This menu also showed the Username and a dotted-out password. Seeing and I'd had trouble with the Username earlier I scrolled through the Username being shown now and sure enough the @fs@fs was in there. Once edited out to be a single @fs pressing Validate got us logged into Orange Internet.
Job done - we were cooking on gas. And very fast it was too as she lives less than a mile from the local exchange.
Conclusion
For sure the Orange Broadband and Broadband Unlimited with Livebox is a rather tantalising offering. Orange's delivery and successful activation of the ADSL was effective and on time. The opening experience was almost perfect. I say almost.
The big letdown was the need for some technical knowledge and savvy that, perhaps, the average buyer will not have. My gripes therefore are:-
No way should the user be required to read an email with their account details when they [in all liklihood] do not have Internet access. That information should have been in the written letter of acknowledgement.
The CD-based set-up routine should have correctly replaced the Username in the Livebox when it was changed - it didn't. A end-user should not be expected to edit configuration information in the Livebox (no doubt that would have been the talk-through had we called Orange yet again).
VoIP was not activated at start-up, the client had to call Orange to have the VoIP activated separately. This is not covered in any of the instructions.
I would, however, heartily recommend the Orange Broadband Unlimited package to anyone spending £35 a month on their existing contract and who either needs Broadband or is paying separately for Broadband from another ADSL supplier.
NB: This offer is not for Cable customers - the financial economies of changing to an ADSL provider may not pan out. It is worth doing the math first.