Good DSL Provider

Phill

Trainee

Posts: 78

Date of registration: May 30th 2006

Location: Atlanta, GA, USA

Occupation: Exotic Dancer

1

Sunday, June 25th 2006, 9:49pm

I'm moving to Germany in September and I need to find a good DSL provider. The best offer I have seen so far is from Freenet.de:

DSL 16.000 Anschluss; Flatrate DSL; Flatrate Telefon; ungefähr 35/Monat

Other companies offer similar packages:

T-Online DSL 6.000; Flatrate DSL; Flatrate Telefon; 45/Monat

GMX DSL 6.000; Flatrate DSL; Flatrate Telefon; 35/Monat

usw.

So, what companies would you recommend? What companies should I absolutely avoid? Is Freenet.de a good company?

Thanks!
Phillip

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Dot

Senior Schreiberling

Posts: 618

Date of registration: Feb 3rd 2003

Location: Ex-Europameisterland

Occupation: 4TheScience

2

Sunday, June 25th 2006, 10:44pm

arcor is very well

C:\reality.sys has errors - Reboot the universe? (Y/N)

Real programmers don't comment their code.
It was hard to write, it should be hard to understand

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Shadow

... mit bunten Sternchen und so

Posts: 838

Date of registration: Dec 21st 2001

Location: Hamburg

3

Sunday, June 25th 2006, 10:57pm

Hi Phill,

First of all: Welcome to Germany.

The prices you found out are for the DSL/Internet access only. Sadly, you can't get an ADSL line without having a phone line, so you have to add at least another 16 Euro for that.

In my oppinion, freenet is not a good choice, as they are said to not really care about customer service. I have no own experience with freenet, but serveral of my friends do. Many of them now don't have freenet any more.

My DSL and phone line comes from Arcor, who are completely independant of Deutsche Telekom and not just resellers like freenet, GMX and T-Online are.

What you definitely need is broadband internet access and a flatrate for that, but do you really need a phone flatrate? How often do you think you will do national calls in Germany?

A resonable alternative to a fixed phone line and a ADSL line could be cable internet, which is available in some parts of Hannover, in combination with a "Genion" cellular plan from O2. You get a so called "home zone" in which you can call and be called for the price of a fixed line national or local call, but also have a true cell phone which works nearly everywhere in Germany.

Regards,
Jens

"Man hält die Erzeugung von Information für ein Zeichen von Intelligenz, während in Wirklichkeit das Gegenteil richtig ist: Die Reduktion, die Auswahl der Information ist die viel höhere Leistung."
-- Heinz Zemanek

This post has been edited 2 times, last edit by "Shadow" (Jun 25th 2006, 11:00pm)

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Phill

Trainee

Posts: 78

Date of registration: May 30th 2006

Location: Atlanta, GA, USA

Occupation: Exotic Dancer

4

Sunday, June 25th 2006, 11:18pm

Quoted

Original von Shadow
Hi Phill,

First of all: Welcome to Germany.

The prices you found out are for the DSL/Internet access only. Sadly, you can't get an ADSL line without having a phone line, so you have to add at least another 16 Euro for that.

Hmmm... that sucks. I'll have to look over them again to see what I can afford.

Quoted

In my oppinion, freenet is not a good choice, as they are said to not really care about customer service. I have no own experience with freenet, but serveral of my friends do. Many of them now don't have freenet any more.

Since they were so much cheaper, I thought there was probably a catch.

Quoted

My DSL and phone line comes from Arcor, who are completely independant of Deutsche Telekom and not just resellers like freenet, GMX and T-Online are.

I just checked their website, and they cost about 45/Monat. Do you think that that's also without a phoneline?

Quoted

What you definitely need is broadband internet access and a flatrate for that, but do you really need a phone flatrate? How often do you think you will do national calls in Germany?

I still haven't decided on the flatrate for telephone access, but I'm going to be sharing an apartment with a german girl who will probaby be using the phone enough to justify the flatrate.

Quoted

A resonable alternative to a fixed phone line and a ADSL line could be cable internet, which is available in some parts of Hannover, in combination with a "Genion" cellular plan from O2. You get a so called "home zone" in which you can call and be called for the price of a fixed line national or local call, but also have a true cell phone which works nearly everywhere in Germany.

I'll have to look into that. However, I'm not sure about cable internet. I haven't read about it much recently, but a few years ago I remember reading that the quality of cable internet can be as bad as dialup if there is alot of traffic in your neighborhood, because they're set up like a lan. Of course, this may have been a problem with the American cable companies or the fact that the technology was so new.

Thanks for the info!

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neweb

Erfahrener Schreiberling

Posts: 496

Date of registration: Jun 16th 2006

Location: Hannover

5

Sunday, June 25th 2006, 11:23pm

Quoted

My DSL and phone line comes from Arcor, who are completely independant of Deutsche Telekom and not just resellers like freenet, GMX and T-Online are.

What you definitely need is broadband internet access and a flatrate for that, but do you really need a phone flatrate? How often do you think you will do national calls in Germany?

The greatest problem of arcor may be a long queue time, because the lack of dsl-ports they provide. So it could take up to three month (worst case) until you get your phone and dls-line. But if you also need a phone flat (only national calls, no natel) arcor would be the best choice (I do not definitely know, but I think arcor offers a european phone flat too).
But I also advise you to use Freenet or GMX because of the bad customer service. An other solution may be htp as a local provider in Hannover, but I do not know how the network quality and the costs are.

Das Wesen der Dinge ist es, dass sie plötzlich verschwinden und dann unerwartet an einem ganz anderen Ort wieder auftauchen.

http://gadgetweb.de

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neweb

Erfahrener Schreiberling

Posts: 496

Date of registration: Jun 16th 2006

Location: Hannover

6

Sunday, June 25th 2006, 11:26pm

Quoted

Original von Phill

I just checked their website, and they cost about 45/Monat. Do you think that that's also without a phoneline?

No, the costs include a phone line and a phone-flatrate. They also include the dsl-flatrate.

Das Wesen der Dinge ist es, dass sie plötzlich verschwinden und dann unerwartet an einem ganz anderen Ort wieder auftauchen.

http://gadgetweb.de

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Phill

Trainee

Posts: 78

Date of registration: May 30th 2006

Location: Atlanta, GA, USA

Occupation: Exotic Dancer

7

Sunday, June 25th 2006, 11:32pm

Quoted

Original von neweb

Quoted

Original von Phill

I just checked their website, and they cost about 45/Monat. Do you think that that's also without a phoneline?

No, the costs include a phone line and a phone-flatrate. They also include the dsl-flatrate.

So, if I get the 45 Euro package from Arcor, I won't have to pay any other fees?

How can I tell which services require an additional phone line fee? I notice Freenet mentions that you need a "T-Com Anschluss." Does that mean I have to have a basic T-Com phone package, then add the price from Freenet? I saw that earlier, but I wasn't clear what exactly was meant by "Anschluss."

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Shadow

... mit bunten Sternchen und so

Posts: 838

Date of registration: Dec 21st 2001

Location: Hamburg

8

Sunday, June 25th 2006, 11:33pm

Quoted

Original von Phill

Quoted

My DSL and phone line comes from Arcor, who are completely independant of Deutsche Telekom and not just resellers like freenet, GMX and T-Online are.

I just checked their website, and they cost about 45/Monat. Do you think that that's also without a phoneline?

As they are independant of Deutsche Telekom, Arcor provide telephone access themselves, and their offer includes it. In fact Arcor only sell ISDN lines which give you two independant lines and three phone numbers, so you both can place or receive calls at the same time without blocking each other. Additionally the 45 Euro include a telephone flatrate for local and national calls.

From my point of view this is a very resonable offer.

"Man hält die Erzeugung von Information für ein Zeichen von Intelligenz, während in Wirklichkeit das Gegenteil richtig ist: Die Reduktion, die Auswahl der Information ist die viel höhere Leistung."
-- Heinz Zemanek

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neweb

Erfahrener Schreiberling

Posts: 496

Date of registration: Jun 16th 2006

Location: Hannover

9

Sunday, June 25th 2006, 11:38pm

Quoted

Original von Phill
How can I tell which services require an additional phone line fee? I notice Freenet mentions that you need a "T-Com Anschluss." Does that mean I have to have a basic T-Com phone package, then add the price from Freenet? I saw that earlier, but I wasn't clear what exactly was meant by "Anschluss."

"Anschluss" just means connection. So you would neet a phone and dsl connection provided by the "T-Com". You would also need this for the most DLS-Services. I only know aol, htp and arcor as independent services. There may be other services, but I think they are more expensive. Services that depend on "T-Com" are GMX, Lycos, 1&1, Strato, tiscali and so on.

Das Wesen der Dinge ist es, dass sie plötzlich verschwinden und dann unerwartet an einem ganz anderen Ort wieder auftauchen.

http://gadgetweb.de

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neweb

Erfahrener Schreiberling

Posts: 496

Date of registration: Jun 16th 2006

Location: Hannover

10

Sunday, June 25th 2006, 11:40pm

Quoted

Original von Shadow
In fact Arcor only sell ISDN lines which give you two independant lines and three phone numbers[...]

They actually offer up to ten phone numbers. (I think you would have to pay above 10 for more numbers)

Das Wesen der Dinge ist es, dass sie plötzlich verschwinden und dann unerwartet an einem ganz anderen Ort wieder auftauchen.

http://gadgetweb.de

This post has been edited 1 times, last edit by "neweb" (Jun 25th 2006, 11:42pm)

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Shadow

... mit bunten Sternchen und so

Posts: 838

Date of registration: Dec 21st 2001

Location: Hamburg

11

Sunday, June 25th 2006, 11:46pm

Quoted

Original von Phill
So, if I get the 45 Euro package from Arcor, I won't have to pay any other fees?

You have to pay extra for international calls, calls to mobile networks and so-called "service calls", with the prefixes 0900, 0137, 018x, etc. As a rule of thumb you can say: Calls to numbers with prefixes 02 to 09 (except for 0900) are not carged with a telephone flatrate as they are German national prefixes.

Quoted

How can I tell which services require an additional phone line fee? I notice Freenet mentions that you need a "T-Com Anschluss." Does that mean I have to have a basic T-Com phone package, then add the price from Freenet? I saw that earlier, but I wasn't clear what exactly was meant by "Anschluss."

"Anschluss" means "line". All ADSL-Providers with the exceptions of Arcor and htp are resellers of Deutsche Telekom lines, which means you have to have (and pay for) a Deutsche Telekom T-Net (analog) or T-ISDN (digital) line.

"Man hält die Erzeugung von Information für ein Zeichen von Intelligenz, während in Wirklichkeit das Gegenteil richtig ist: Die Reduktion, die Auswahl der Information ist die viel höhere Leistung."
-- Heinz Zemanek

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Phill

Trainee

Posts: 78

Date of registration: May 30th 2006

Location: Atlanta, GA, USA

Occupation: Exotic Dancer

12

Sunday, June 25th 2006, 11:48pm

Quoted

Original von Shadow

Quoted

Original von Phill

Quoted

My DSL and phone line comes from Arcor, who are completely independant of Deutsche Telekom and not just resellers like freenet, GMX and T-Online are.

I just checked their website, and they cost about 45/Monat. Do you think that that's also without a phoneline?

As they are independant of Deutsche Telekom, Arcor provide telephone access themselves, and their offer includes it. In fact Arcor only sell ISDN lines which give you two independant lines and three phone numbers, so you both can place or receive calls at the same time without blocking each other. Additionally the 45 Euro include a telephone flatrate for local and national calls.

From my point of view this is a very resonable offer.

So, I guess that's also why T-Online charges 45 Euro, since their prices also include the necessary T-Com phone service. I think I understand now.

I agree that 45 is a reasonable offer. Here in America, we are paying $30 for 256K DSL service, and another $50 or so for our telephone service. I think I can live with paying half of that for a 2MB DSL line and telephone

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Phill

Trainee

Posts: 78

Date of registration: May 30th 2006

Location: Atlanta, GA, USA

Occupation: Exotic Dancer

13

Monday, June 26th 2006, 12:02am

I think I have all of the DSL stuff figured out, so, now let's get TV figured out!

What are some good cable TV providers in Hannover?

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Shadow

... mit bunten Sternchen und so

Posts: 838

Date of registration: Dec 21st 2001

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14

Monday, June 26th 2006, 12:11am

In Germany there is only one cable TV provider per region. In Hannover this is Kabel Deutschland. Usually there are two possibilities: You have a cable TV connection included in your rent, or you don't want to get one, as it is too expensive.

If your landlord (is this the right word?) allows you to, you can mount a sattelite dish and receive hundreds of programmes for free. The alternative in Hannover is DVB-T, which is terrestrial digital TV. The only problem for you could be that you won't be able to receive any English language programme.

"Man hält die Erzeugung von Information für ein Zeichen von Intelligenz, während in Wirklichkeit das Gegenteil richtig ist: Die Reduktion, die Auswahl der Information ist die viel höhere Leistung."
-- Heinz Zemanek

This post has been edited 1 times, last edit by "Shadow" (Jun 26th 2006, 12:12am)

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Phill

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Posts: 78

Date of registration: May 30th 2006

Location: Atlanta, GA, USA

Occupation: Exotic Dancer

15

Monday, June 26th 2006, 12:28am

Quoted

Original von Shadow
In Germany there is only one cable TV provider per region. In Hannover this is Kabel Deutschland. Usually there are two possibilities: You have a cable TV connection included in your rent, or you don't want to get one, as it is too expensive.

Ok. I already found Kabel Deutschland.

Quoted

If your landlord (is this the right word?)

That's right.

Quoted

allows you to, you can mount a sattelite dish and receive hundreds of programmes for free. The alternative in Hannover is DVB-T, which is terrestrial digital TV. The only problem for you could be that you won't be able to receive any English language programme.

Das ist mir egal. Das Masterstudium wäre ziemlich schwierig, wenn man nur Englisch könnte

Weil ich auch Deutsch als Hauptfach an der Uni studiert habe, interessiere ich mich ebenso für deutsches Fernsehen.

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maffe

Unregistered

16

Monday, June 26th 2006, 12:44am

Ah

Ich wollte nur noch Congster erwähnen, die bieten auch relativ günstigen DSL-Zugang an (bin da auch Kunde). Telefonanschluss der Telekom/T-Com ist aber auch hier Voraussetzung.

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denial

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17

Monday, June 26th 2006, 12:46am

You should really consider HTP as an alternative to Arcor.
They have cheaper packages in case you don't need ISDN or >1MBit/s.
Also they are very fast at connecting your line.
See here for an overview of their telephone/DSL/flatrate packages.

If you want cable TV, there is only KMG Hannover (I'm not shure they belong to Kabel Deutschland but they are definately part of Tele Columbus) providing 35 analog TV channels. It's 12 euro/month. Their digital channels are not worth the money.
If you are allowed to install a satellite dish, get DVB-S and point the dish at ASTRA (and hope the good channels don't switch to encryption in 2007).
DVB-T in Hannover provides about 23 channels..

Keep in mind that you might (depending on your income) have to pay 17,03 euro/month to the GEZ if you own a tv to subsidize some of the IMHO boring channels. 2007 extends this fee to internet connected computers.

Btw.:

Quoted

DSL 16.000 Anschluss; Flatrate DSL; Flatrate Telefon; ungefähr 35/Monat

The telephone flatrate included in some packages (Freenet is one of those) is VoIP although they require a T-DSL line which in turn requires a regular Deutsche Telekom phoneline.

This post has been edited 1 times, last edit by "denial" (Jun 26th 2006, 12:57am)

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Phill

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Posts: 78

Date of registration: May 30th 2006

Location: Atlanta, GA, USA

Occupation: Exotic Dancer

18

Monday, June 26th 2006, 8:54am

I was confused by the difference between T-Com and T-Online, and there seemed to be a sizable price difference between the two. I then read this at the bottom of the page at T-Online:

"Paketangebot ist in vielen Anschlussbereichen verfügbar, setzt einen Telefonanschluss der Deutschen Telekom AG voraus und kann von denjenigen bestellt werden, die in den letzten 3 Monaten keinen T-Online DSL Anschluss hatten."

So, apparently T-Online does NOT include the basic phone connection in its prices... or am I misunderstanding?

If I'm understanding that correctly, then it seems like the T-Online DSL 6.000 with double flat rate and an analog connection from T-Com will cost 60+ Euro. (~45 T-Online, ~16 T-Com). And if I go through T-Com, it i will cost about 60 Euro PLUS 45 Euro for some kind of upgrade charge since the girl I'm sharing the apartment with already has a basic T-Net account.

So, after looking at the prices at Arcor, HTP and Alice, do you agree that I should probably have my friend to go ahead and cancel her T-Com service? (She has to give them 3 months notice, and we'll be getting an apartment in October)

Thanks

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Phill

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Posts: 78

Date of registration: May 30th 2006

Location: Atlanta, GA, USA

Occupation: Exotic Dancer

19

Monday, June 26th 2006, 8:58am

Quoted

Original von denial
If you are allowed to install a satellite dish, get DVB-S and point the dish at ASTRA (and hope the good channels don't switch to encryption in 2007).

So, all i have to do is purchase the dish and a receiver up front, and then it's free? There's no monthly charge?

Quoted

DVB-T in Hannover provides about 23 channels..

I just read up on this, and it seems to have plenty of channels for me and the receivers are pretty cheap. I'll probably be going with this instead of satellite or cable.

This post has been edited 1 times, last edit by "Phill" (Jun 26th 2006, 8:59am)

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yv

Junior Schreiberling

Posts: 229

Date of registration: Dec 11th 2001

20

Monday, June 26th 2006, 11:23am

GEZ for DVB-T

Hi Phill,

unfortunately, there is an organization called GEZ (Gebühreneinzugszentrale) wich is allowed to charge 17 €/Month from you for watching TV (no matter if its cable, sattelite or dvb-t) and listening to radio. When I moved here, they send me a letter and I did not dare to refuse paying. But there are many people who cloaim they don´t have any TV or radio when asked by the GEZ and therefore can watch TV for free. So if you buy a receiver and you have an antenna, you can actually watch tv by dvb-t without any monthly fee.

My DSL- ( and Phone) Provider is HTP and I can only recommend HTP. It´s cheap and astoundingly they never kick me (not even after 24 hour online) :-)

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Fachrat Informatik - Forum

Good DSL Provider

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GEZ for DVB-T