Internet Access in GB

This page has aged despite occasional updates, but still some of it's contents remains useful and worth following many of it's links.

Also see computing page.

Use long and strong passwords. Be safe online and and help make a Safer Internet.



I have used Andrews & Arnold Ltd (AAISP) for broadband as well as VoIP phone lines and I recommend them. They have good reviews and seem to know their stuff. Also Zen have a reputation for customer service if you also need a traditional phone line as well as internet. I am using them for full fibre (FTTP) broadband, although AAISP also offer FTTP. There referrer scheme did not work for me so don't bank on it, but you can try it via many referees some offering more than others (20, 25 and 40 pounds at time of this edit). Also well worth considering where fibre will come into property to get optimal position for internet hub. They may not be able to enter in same way as copper cable. Your Coop maybe worth looking into. Local projects I helped in past used their predecessor The Phone Coop.

On our home router, computers and some of mobiles we use, utilise Cloudflare's DNS lookup including their malware filtering. I am considering further filtering for adverts (a source of malware) as well as malware and fake website at the router. There are many reasons not to use DNS from your ISP depending on which one it is.

I have used on and off over years a cable internet connection including as second (backup) line. After much industry consolidation in UK for this there is only one supplier of ' Cable' internet in the UK. I would not recommend them myself nowadays as your primary internet connection, especially now you can get just as adequate fibre alternatives.


For alternative wireless networks try:

Consume


Idotz is what I have used most in recent year for top level domains.

I’ve in past obtained Top Level domains from joker.com.

and before that I previously used gandi.net but then found joker.com at the time to be cheaper and offered similar service. I may move back to using Gandi via Web Architechs.

I now mostly use Webarchitects for my .org.uk domain names but have also used Mythic Beasts but now moved many of them to Web Architechs.

For web hosting I use a virtual machine with full root access from Webarchitects Coop.


I originally back starting in May 1999 got web hosting from:

Positive Internet

who have a cool giraffe logo.

Giraffe Logo

Mathew of mjzhosting many years ago got in touch with me to suggest using his hosting over the budget hosting I was using then.


Web Browsing


For web browsing for a long time I have used and recommend Mozilla Firefox as a webbrowser, often under GNU/Linux in form of OpenSuSE, Kubuntu and PCLinuxOS with the KDE desktop.

For a search engine I use Duck Duck Go but turn off nags and advertisements in it's settings.

I remove ads and disrupt tracking from websites using browser plugin uBlock Origin which has versions of the plugin for Firefox, Chrome and Edge on Desktop. Also you can use plugin on mobile with Firefox and Chrome. Edge comes with Adblock Plus but you need to enable it including advance settings to fully enable rather than nobbled default of of allowing so called 'acceptable' ads which is more able how look rather than how scammy. If any thing ads that are not in your face are worse for shifting your outgoings.

Alt Apps and plugins for YouTube(TM)

Also I use Privacy Badger from the EFF

I have a Pretty Good Privacy key ; I use GPG (the new PGP).

Also do check out the Rise Up security pages including better web browsing.

For secure communication between mobiles consider using: Silent Circle 

Or consider buying a phone you can install GrapheneOS on, or PINE64

MS Virus detection

I no longer recommend FreeAV due to doggy practises selling your web history.

Heard reports that ClamAV is ok, but when I tested it only scaned rather than live detect.

Nowadays the building protections of MicroSoft Windows when kept up-to-date probably mean an additional antivirus product is not as critical as once was.

Security Now podcast


As I said for web browsing I use Mozilla Firefox on both desktop and mobile. On GNU/Linux I used Konqueror which comes with the KDE desktop as well as the very fast light dillo.

If there are still any users of Pre OSX macs (eg MacOS 9), as I once was when I originally created this webpage, then you may wish to try iCab.

Additional links:

Smoothwall.org

More internet links of interest:


Also see: phone, P2P, Audio & Video, computing page and web page design

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