Have you ever run a Pub? You can add your pub history to the UK pub history site. You can contact the pub history site via my email : Kevan. There are over 10,500 images on the site and more than 47,000 pages of pub history - these numbers increase every day as I add new pub history research. The pub history site has now been evolving for more than ten years, with a significant number of additional pub history researchers who regularly update the site with historical detail and imagery, old and new.
This is a local search engine of the UK Pub history site. You can search by surname, street address, or public house name. The search engine updates weekly. If you are looking for a specific pub history listing, some of these can only be found in the sitemap - see the navigation bar on the left.
| site search by freefind |
Including TV Packages and Telephone costs
If you are thinking about which Broadband
provider to use in the UK, along with their TV, Phone and Broadband packages;
this is my entirely unbiased opinion. I have previously been a customer of Sky, Virgin and
I am now trying BT. I am happy to pay ANY reasonable price for a good service.
I spend a vast amount of my own time updating my Pubs History sites which are
hosted with ISP (Internet service providers) in the UK, mostly with eukhost.com. One day I will maybe
host this on my own server. I am a Computer Officer at a leading UK University, and am used to
100MB speeds through JaNET UK. I would like a similar service at home. Here are
some of my results, and here is some quality feedback, as at April 2011. Speeds are not everything, but important. If you are getting a high speed but
a bumpy ride; then I often wonder if the providers are cutting other services.
BT technical support tells me that my service changes / improves over the first
ten days - I doubt this. They had seven days to prove they are not conning me,
and YOU. After some months, I am now clear that BT are the 'Arthur Daleys' of
broadband. BT are actually offering a brilliant service, but sadly not providing
the service they promise. The service is very fast on speed tests, but crashes
regularly (all of the time); and especially at busy times (i.e. weekends).
If you want a reasonable service, and do not want to sign up for an 18 month
contract; do NOT sign up with BT - they offer a generally shit service; which
crashes several time a day. Broadband speeds - download & upload: The facts (after some testing): I can now confirm that BT Infinity regularly crashes, i.e. BT is
scamming you. There are two important broadband speeds, the download speed and the upload
speed. Virgin advertise 50 MB, the new BT Infinity
offers speeds up to 40 MB. I think BT are telling lies about the speeds they
actually deliver. Test results (MB): Tested using this
speedchecker (Day 1 - 4 ) 28th October 2010 - Virgin (Upload speed - 1.5, download speed 50.0)
; BT (upload speed 0.8 , download speed 5.8 ) Snore: - Virgin (Upload speed - 1.5, download speed 50.0)
; BT (upload speed 0.7 , download speed 5.3 ) I had a letter from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) today, stating
they have no control over companies telling lies on the web; and that they
cannot control BT and their advertising. Fair enough, I will contact my
Conservative MP who should put a stop to this. I happen to know that Andrew
Rosindell does respond to comments, as does Boris (London mayor), ;lets see if
they care about the big companies taking the 'P' out of their people. Actually
Andrew is no longer my MP due to boundary changes, but I have been promised a
response by Angel Wilkinson of Upminster. Today I called BT to cancel the service, as it is way below that expected. It
was mentioned that I should be getting at least 9MB download speeds, but unless
I could prove that the line was faulty; I would need to pay well in excess of
£200 in cancellation fees for the seven days of internet I had used! I requested
details of what my specific order was on their system, and apparently I was only
getting their ADSL package which offers speeds up to 20MB, of which I am getting
5.8MB; I queried about the new fibre optic service and it was suggested that I
may wish to sign up for this service rather than pay these ludicrously crooked
cancellation charges. The Infinity package uses fibre optic cable to the green cabinet near to a
home, and then uses copper cable. This speeds up connections incredibly; and it
was stated that I could get up to 33.6MB download speed and an incredible 8MB
upload speed. Then there was a whole list of reasons why I would probably not
achieve these speeds! I offered to swop over, but was unable as they were unable
to close the current contract, and asked to call back in a couple of days - more
to follow..... I telephoned BT today. I have signed up for an 18 month contract (with very
heavy cancellation charges of about £12 a month for 18 months). On offer is the
Infinity package which is purported to be available to me at 33.9 MB download
and an impressive 8.6 MB upload speed. The person I spoke to went through all
the details of this, and confirmed that the minimum would be only 2MB less than
the non-guaranteed top speed! I will use this if it is a pile of poo, like
the current service. The guy I spoke to today at BT was quite enthused by the service, and
reckoned my life was about to change; particularly the gaming experience of such
a major upload speed of up to 8 MB, minimum 6 MB. I look forward to this being a
reality, and hold my breath in the assumption that BT does in fact supply as
good a service as offered. It will cost them a fortune in getting it right due
to called out engineers charges if it is not working properly. I would not
bother with their ADSL service, though, it is generally rubbish. Tomorrow, the engineer is arriving to install the BT fibre optic 'Infinity'
package. I have been guaranteed 33.6MB download speeds maximum (not the 40MB
advertised) and 8.6MB upload speed (NOT 10 MB). The latter is still extremely
GOOD. The salesman promised I would NOT get less than 2 MB les than this, I will
wait and see - tomorrow. The biggest downside to BT is still the cancellation
charges which are not clarified correctly on their web sites, OR the clarity on
what you actually get in maximum (available) broadband speeds. I think this is
criminal. It's a bit like Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems promising zero tuition
fees as part of their manifesto, i.e. total lies to get your business. At least
you know that if you vote Conservatives into power that they will defend their
rich 'non-taxpayer' supporters at the expense of everyone else in the country
(and blame it on the Labour party). And then put a couple of million people on
'job seekers' allowance rather than employ them. BT Fibre Optic Broadband is now installed (November 2010). Test speeds are: Download - 37 MB, upload - 8.2 MB; this compares with Virgin at 50 and 1.5MB;
what does it mean? My personal interpretation is that Virgin is actually much slower, and I have
just cancelled this service. The upload speed with BT is over five times faster.
I spoke to Virgin, and mentioned this, and there was no response. My verdict: If you want decent broadband, and are prepared to sign up for an
18 month contract with very high cancellation charges, select BT Infinity (if it
is available). If the BT Infinity package is NOT available, I would definitely
not use their ADSL service as it can be moronically and painfully slow. Just for an update, BT broadband is slowing down a lot tonight - it is the
weekend and I have been asked to monitor over seven days; and therefore I am not
entirely concerned, as of yet. Virgin supply their service through cable services. They do not promise a
perfect service any longer, and I have to say that I was upset with their
service and the support available. The 50MB download speed does exist, but if
you are doing anything other than surfing the web, their service is very
sub-standard. I should point out that this page is from my own personal tests on BT and
Virgin. It is not biased by any advertising, just plain facts. The other plain
fact is that SKY offer similar services and are generally a scum company to deal
with. Do not touch SKY. I am currently updating using an BT Broadband connection. This is less than a
few hours old. The connection speeds are as follows 5MB download speed, and
0.835 MB upload speed (day 0). These are considerably lower than the Virgin tests. I
spent a while chatting to to the BT engineers in India (sounds like), and they
guaranteed me speeds of 40MB download, although they would NOT send me an email
to confirm the same. They did state that their speeds would increase after about
10 days, although part of their guarantee runs out after ten days - spooky.
Today is the 26th October 2010! I intend to ride this problem out at whatever
cost, just to clarify whether BT are also conning people with their Grand offer
of 40MB download, and 10MB upload. I feel an copmplaint to the Advertising
Standards Authority is forthcoming. Let's do it now, as it is already discussing
this matter of
internet speed. Complaint submitted to the ASA - I doubt that will make any
difference, but this web page will be in the search engines by tomorrow. My analogy is sliding down a hill at the same speed. One hill is a sheet of
clear ice, the other is a sheet of broken glass. You are moving at the same
speed, you bottom is getting shredded on the broken glass (this is called
attenuation). It basically refers to the resistance, and collisions, that is
being met whilst this speed is being attained. For this reason, I am not yet
clear whether the 50MB speed which is offered by Virgin from their cable
service, and the much lower speeds attained by BT are relevant in comparison. I
need to find an alternative comparison. [Just to clarify why I am NOT including SKY in this comparison is the fact
that their broadband and Telephone uses BT lines; whilst their TV transmission
is totally corrupted by air turbulence and trees. I would never use SKY unless
you want an inferior service - there are a host of other reasons I would never
use SKY, mainly related to their selling practises, which are particularly
scummy] The other reason I will not use SKY is because the company has a policy about
contacting current subscribers to sell them a whole load of additional services.
Basically, Sky are skunks, which links them nicely to Barclays who are similarly
branded. A whole host of skunks.
As an example, Virgin Media advertise and sell 50MB broadband, this is a total
con and not always relevant. The upload speeds can be as little as 1.5 MB for this
same service (absolute maximum).
If the broadband speed test suggests that you are getting 50MB, which is really
very fast – and something is wrong with their service, it is normally caused by
their upload speeds
being virtually zero, and their total lack of interest in their
customers views.
In the old days, I also had a service with AOL, and also freeserve. These are no longer in contention. YAWN.