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thinkbroadband FAQ

Can I link to thinkbroadband?

Yes - Please visit this page before you do.

What are the 'titles' like newbie, etc. on the forums?

These are assigned to users based on the number of posts they have made. Certain users (e.g. thinkbroadband staff & moderators, ISP representatives and a few others) have 'special' titles which indicate their status.

The standard titles are:

0       newbie
25      learned
50      regular
100     member
250     committed
500     experienced
1000    fountain of knowledge
2000    knowledge is power
5000    eat-sleep-adslguide

The rest await your exploration..

Can I help thinkbroadband?

Firstly, please do not e-mail us and offer to host our website on some spare webspace you have on your hosting account. We get these now and again and whilst many of them mean well, they are ignorant of the cost of running such a service.

Secondly, don't ask to become a moderator, as we don't take applications.

If you want to help us, then play an active part on the site and contribute on the forums. If you think there's something missing and we should know about it, talk to us.

What hardware/software do you use?

Our main site (www.thinkbroadband.com) runs on a Dual Intel Xeon 3.0Ghz Dual Core based server with 2GB of memory and 4 SAS 15 krpm drives participating in a RAID10 array with 2 hot spares. The front and back-end interfaces have been written by us and exclusively for our use.

Our forums/message boards run on two Dell PowerEdge servers, the frontend a single Xeon 2.8GHz processor with 1.5GB of RAM. The backend database is run on a dual Xeon 2.8GHz processor, 3GB of RAM and two SATA HDD's in RAID1. The forum software is based on a package now sold as UBB.threads by Infopop.com although we have heavily modified it to make it suitable for our use including writing in load balancing support. We have no plans to change it.

We also have other servers for speedtests, monitoring and gaming.

How can I get a forum for my ISP?

We only have dedicated forums for ISPs who are listed on our site. Ask them to be listed. Alternatively, use the Unlisted Providers forum.

How do I contact thinkbroadband?

Visit our about page for more information about contacting us.

How can I become a moderator on the Message Boards?

Unfortunately we do not accept requests to become a moderator at this time. From time to time we investigate who has been making a great contribution to the message boards (in the form of helpful replies to users problems) and will ask if he/she would like to become a moderator.

How much commission do you make if I sign up through thinkbroadband?

None. You can't sign up "through" thinkbroadband. We just provide a list of providers and services which you can use to help you select a broadband provider. To purchase a service, you would need to visit the provider's website. thinkbroadband makes no commission if you click through to a provider's website via a link on our ISP list or news.

How do I list my ISP on thinkbroadband.com?

Visit our ISP additions page for details about the information we require.

Why is my ISP not listed in the speed tester / rate my ISP?

The only ISPs that you can rate your ISP for, or submit data on the speed tester are those that are currently listed in our ISP list. We do not collate data for other providers. If you want to be able to submit such data, please advise your ISP to visit our additions page.

Why don't you list resellers?

Firstly, our definition of a "reseller" in this context is a company that does not have a direct contract with the telecommunications operator. In most cases, this means you must have a BT Central Pipe, but there are other possiblities if you provide a Local Loop Unbundled (LLU) service.

Secondly, the reasons we don't list resellers (or "virtual ISPs" / vISPs as they can sometimes be called) are numerous. One of the main problems is that we do not have the resources nor the wish to list every start-up ISP with half a dozen customers, and it is very difficult to draw a line--Listing only large ISPs would be unfair to small ISPs. We established a policy of only listing those ISPs with their own central pipe fairly early on and it has so far been quite successful. thinkbroadband.com isn't intended to be a free marketing tool for middle-men to make money. We do believe resellers can provide a superior service by adding value to it, but we do not list these value-added services, merely ADSL internet connectivity. Finally, we are also engaging in several statistical testing of ADSL connections and it would be a waste of our resources to test a single service more than once as the performance will be the same.

We are looking into a separate section for a more basic listing of resellers