$cf0                  Force 9 Internet Review - by Phil98
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After  Virgin  Net  upped  their  prices  to £12 per month, I was on the
lookout  for  another  cheap  ISP  with  X2  (56k  bps) connectivity.  I
eventually decided to try Force9, based in Sheffield.

I  believe  they did offer a free months a trial at one time but I'm not
sure  if thats still the case.  Anyway, you cant grumble at their prices
(all inc VAT - paid in advance)..

   £ 9.99 per month  + "one off" £5.88 startup fee
or £28.20 per quarter - no startup fee
or £52.88 per 6 month - ""          ""
or £98.70 per year    - ""          ""

What do you get for your money?

* Unlimited internet connection time. Local UK number. X2/K56 covered.
* 15 meg web space - can be password protected if required.
* Unlimited email adresses in the form: anything@username.force9.co.uk.
* Unrestricted newsgroup access.
* Access to Force9's Quake server.

One  good thing about Force9 is the fact you can subscribe on-line, just
by  filling  in  form and supplying your credit card number.  As soon as
you  have  completed and submitted the form, you're ready to dial in and
use  the  service - they give you all the necessary information on their
web page there and then.

Performance:
------------

Connecting:  Very few log-in failures to speak of but there arent enough
X2 modems, I frequently have to put up with 31200.  Having said that, my
fastest  connection  speed so far is 42,666 which is pretty good for BT.
I  have  been  disconnected  when  online a few times since I joined but
thats expected.

Email:  Has been dire!  Server failures, missing mail, unable to send or
receive..  This went on for abut 3 weeks and was alledgedly due to Force
9  relocating their entire outfit from London to Sheffield.  Despite one
or  two  further  hiccups,  lately  is  hasnt  been too bad, sending and
receiving both being quite fast and problem free.

The  Web:   Again  both  your  own web pages and the rest of the WWW are
accessed  in comparitively good speeds.  One problem I had was uploading
to  my  web page, WS_FTP wouldnt work even though it is supposed to.  An
email  to  tech  support  was ignored but a call to the helpline service
(freephone,  very  efficient)  sorted  it - I just had to use "Cute_FTP"
software instead.

Newsgroups:  A load of Force9 specific groups and unrestricted access to
everything  else.   Fairly  fast, but pretty unstable at peak times like
the weekend.

Problems:   You  cant  access  certain  chat  servers  at the moment (EG
EFNET),  I  can  get  on  DalNet,  Undernet, IRCnet, Ultranet no problem
though..

All in all, it seems you get what you pay for and as such, Force 9 is OK
in value for money terms.

end