Was with Freeserve/Wanadoo/Orange for four years - no probs. until they said they were closing Anytime down and for the same money I could have free Broadband. The set up package arrived and I downloaded the stuff from disk and connected my speedtouch box and two filters. First I got 1 constant light and 1 flashing ADSL light. After a few days got two constant lights. I cant be on broadband yet cos I cant receive phonecalls at same time. You cant e.mail Orange cos they want you to 'speak one to one' on a helpline which costs 50p per min and may last an hour. Tried for a few minutes and realised guy from India was going thru a list. I am desperate b.cos I was quite happy with Anytime and as I am a pensioner I cant afford to go on the expensive helplines. Went on an 0870 helpline and guy called Thomas advised me to swap the filters over and he wud send me nu filter. Arrived day after. Made no difference. Rang same 0870 number today - got Rachel!!! she said it was my own fault for signing up to something that I cudnt afford. I said 'well I didnt want to - but it said it was the same price for better service. I can afford that price cos it hasnt changed." Rachel said very nastily "Well you shouldnt have signed up if you cant afford to pay the 50 p per minute helpline charges"
Really feel cheated and quite upset. Really worried about this and losing sleep. What shud have been a doddle turned out to be a nightmare,.
What do you advise. I have apparently accepted the terms and conditions when I installed the disk. That was 24/10/07. Is there a 'cooling off' period.
Tried my connection earlier and connected to i/net. Tried Google and it loaded quickly and I got dial tone on my phone. BUT cudnt access my MSN messages or get Sheff Forum.
Oh dear wot a muddle. Am obviously still connected (and paying for) Orange Anytime so can use internet - but am not always on Broadband 2mg . Sorry this is a marathon - just a stream of conscious (worried) thought. Please help.

Sounds like a bit of (understandable) confusion.

When you tell your browser (eg Internet Explorer) to connect to the internet, you get the window pop up as before to dial... does the machine make the dialing noises (I assume) it used to?

EDIT:
If you live at the S6 end of Sheffield, I don't mind popping over to have a quick look if that would help?

If I go on the Orange icon the dial up connex comes up and I press connect. Nothing seems to happen (no dial up noise at all) then I get the Orange home page. If I access 'favourites' and press say 'Google' or 'L.T.S.' in no time at all I am connected (so think must be online and on broadband and working etc) However, if click on Sheff Forum it takes ages and then disappears and goes back to Orange Page. Likewise if I try to access MSN icon at bottom of screen it comes up with the homepage and then takes ages and then disappears or freezes. I know I got a lot of junk on my computer (windows 98) but I not a techie - just an ole biddy who loves browsing, searching etc etc. Should I be wiping sumfin off - eg the old Anytime connection - but then mayb e I couldnt go on internet at all then. Oh dear!

ooops . shud read I on windows 98 (I know - sad innit? but I like it) live S.8 unfortunately

Sounds like the connection may be working properly after all, but maybe a problem with the computer itself.

The behavior you mention about failing to load SF and returning to Orange seems rather odd, I'm not sure I could say for sure what's going on there with poking ti a bit I'm afraid :(

The usual piece of advice I give to people at this stage is to clear your cache.

Assuming you're using Internet Explorer 7:

Tools->Internet Options->Delete Temporary Files

This will remove any Web pages that are temporarily stored on your PC.

This will sometimes help with some problems.

Also, are you running any Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware software?

...and you can be sure you're using broadband (and not dialup) by making sure the old phone line cable isn't in the back of the PC like it used to be. (You should instead have a phone line going into a new external ADSL modem - and then a USB or ethernet cable into the PC)


.

Thnx for your time - I appreciate it. Have deleted temp files as you suggested. Yes, I have AVG free edition anti virus. Have checked the phone line setup - there is filter on both phone line and extension line to computer and they are plugged in to correct places.