Broadband pricingMonthly Inc VAT. See VAT Exc.
| Up to: | 8Mb/s | 8Mb/s | 24Mb/s* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tariff | Std | Prem | ADSL2+ |
| A | £18.99 | £31.00 | £16.99 |
| C | £26.99 | £39.00 | £26.00 |
| D | £34.99 | £47.00 | £32.00 |
| E | £46.99 | £59.00 | £38.00 |
Setup £59.99 Full tariff list The package Max *ADSL2+ trial Extra charges
Availability
To check availability you can enter your full UK postcode, or the number of a line.
As a customer you may need to set up DNS resolver addresses on your router or computer system. Using an ADSL routers these can normally be left blank or 0.0.0.0 to be set up automatically. If you can use an automatic setup then this is best. However you can manually set the resolver addresses which are 217.169.20.20 and 217.169.20.21. IP6 users can also set 2001:8b0::2020 and 2001:8b0::2021.
Your ADSL service comes with a normal* UK domain name which you can use for email and web space (and anything else that you want to use it for). The DNS, email and webspace services associated with the UK domain are also included in the price. Additional domains or related services are charged at our normal rates on your regular ADSL bill. A domain name is a unique name in the internet, and a UK domain name is one that ends with .uk. When you see and email address, the bit after the @ symbol is a domain name. In a web page address the domain name (or host name) is the first part after http://. There are some guidelines for choosing a UK domain name at the end of this page. If you want a domain name for you and your family, a good choice is your surname .me.uk. The .uk part means it is a UK domain, and .me.uk is a relatively new subdomain which is intended for personal use. So, if you name is John Smith you might like to get smith.me.uk. Domains are allocated on a first come basis, and smith.me.uk has already gone, but we will use it as an example in this page. When we provide you with a domain name it is registered in your own name, and so belongs to you. You can take it with you to other ISPs in the future - so it is worth picking a good name as you may want to use it for a long time. You can use sub domains, e.g. fred.smith.me.uk, at no extra charge. If you want additional domains or relates services, these are available for a charge.
The free UK domain can be .co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk, .ltd.uk, .plc.uk, .sch.uk, subject to nominet rules. Some other UK domains may be available to some people such as .gov.uk or .ac.uk at extra cost. Please ask.
Important: the free domain is a domain ending in .uk, and services associated with that domain (registration, DNS, email, web space), and only up to 1GB storage (for email and web each). It is one free UK domain per login, even if that login is a multiple line installation. If all the lines on a login are ceased/migrated then the domain and services become chargable until you separately cease or migrate the domain.
We have two main web based control systems. One of them manages all of the operation aspects of your service, such as setting up passwords, email addresses, domain names, ADSL lines, etc. The other is our accounts and billing system. You can access both of these from http://control.aaisp.net.uk/ and from the billing system you can directly access the control system.
An email address is a name at your domain, for example john@smith.me.uk. The part after the @ is the domain name, but the bit before the @ is anything you like (within certain constraints, such as no spaces or @: or < or >). It is best to stick to letters, numbers, hyphen, and dot when picking an email address. You can have as many email addresses as you like within your domain. The besxt way to pick up your email is using IMAP. We have mail servers with sp[am and virus checking and IMAP mailboxes.
Using our management web pages you can set up mailboxes for your domain. Each mailbox is an email address, something before and @ sign and followed by your domain name. Each mailbox has a password that you set.
You collect mail using a mail program that uses IMAP. We recommend Thunderbird which is free, and available for windows, mac and linux.
You will need to tell it a mail server name, which is mail.your-domain, a user or mailbox name which is your email address, e.g. fred@your-domain. You will also need to specify the password you entered when setting up the mailbox.
Your mail program will then allow you to collect the email that is waiting. You can create mail folders and move mail between these.
With IMAP email, your mail program stays connected to our server and picks up new email as it arrives.
We also offer web mail. Just go to the web site mail.your-domain and log in using your mail box name (email address) and password.
Our mail servers also allow mail collection by POP3. This means email is collected by your mail program and transferred to your computer. With IMAP the mail stays on our servers and you can access from may different computers and see the same mail and folders. With POP3, once collected, the email normally moves to your computer and cannot then be accessed from another computer, IMAP or webmail.
You can also have emailed delivered by SMTP to your own mail server. SMTP is the protocol used to send email. You will use SMTP for your outgoing mail (using the server smtp.aaisp.net.uk), but we can also deliver mail to you, to your own mail server, using SMTP if you like. For normal email we will try delivering for over a month, and if undelivered for 3 days we will send the originator a warning that the email has not been sent. Mail marked urgent has shorter timescales.
To use SMTP you must have a mail server. You need to add a DNS entry for the mail server with an A record for its IP address, e.g. mail.smith.me.uk. A 217.169.0.1 You must also add an MX record, e.g. MX 10, sending email to your mail server. e.g. smith.me.uk. MX 10 mail.smith.me.uk. You should leave the MX 20 record pointing to our server tertiary-mx.co.uk as this will hold email and relay it to you if your mail server is unavailable. This is set up by default.
Note that if you run your own DNS rather than using ours you need to use your-domain.incoming-mail.co.uk instead.
Please see the email page for inforamtion on the tertiary-mx.co.uk mail relay.
We provide mail servers to relay your outgoing mail. This is smtp.aaisp.net.uk. You do not need any username or password to use this server from your connection with us. However you can use your mailbox (email address) and mail password for authenticated email if you wish even from other IP addresses. You can also use TLS and mail submission port 587, which is useful when using a roaming PC. You can also send using SSL. Outgoing mail may be rejected if it contains a virus or matches known spam signatures.
If you need to send email while you are on the move, etc, you can use the same outgoing mail server via another internet connection using an authenticated connection. Use the same details you have set up for incoming mail.
Email that reaches our server can be rewritten. This can be found in the Setup for your domain on our management pages. Sometimes this is just to have several names come to the same place, e.g. j@smith.me.uk may be re-written to john@smith.me.uk, etc. Sometimes this is to send email to somewhere else, e.g. a hotmail account, etc. Selecting the Email link against your domain allows you to manage the mail filters. You can either add a recipient, or send mail to a specific recipient. This allows you to set up copies of email if you need, etc.
It is important to realise that this only applies to email reaching our server. If you have SMTP mail delivery, email will only reach our server if yours cannot be reached.
You should set up email for postmaster@ your domain to go somewhere.
Your web space is normally connected to a host name that is www followed by your domain name, e.g. www.smith.me.uk. To use the web space a DNS record will have been set up automatically to set this to our server, e.g. www.smith.me.uk.. CNAME www-server.co.uk. You do not need to change this.
To load your web pages on you your web space, you use ftp (File Transfer Protocol). There are many ftp programs available. To use this you need a password. Add an FTP password to the domain entry from our control pages. This is then used to upload pages.
The server name is your web page host name, e.g. www.smith.me.uk The login to use is also the web page host name, e.g. www.smith.me.uk The password is the one you have set.
The pages you upload are whatever you want. You can also make directories. The index page should be called index.html
There are a number of other things you can do with the web space, including logs, password protected areas, redirects, and scripts. These are all described in our web technical pages.
Using the internet you normally use names, such as web site addresses, email addresses, etc. The internet itself works on IP addresses, and the system to translate from names to addresses is called Domain Name Service (DNS).
This is a service that is normally accessed by your PC whenever you need to look up a name to an address (such as going to a web site), and this is done automatically. Your machine will have a defined DNS server address which is used to perform the lookup for you. This is specified on the cover page of this document.
Being permanently connected to the internet you can run your own DNS server for your own domain(s). This is not a simple matter to configure and you should read a good book on the subject (such as DNS & Bind, O'Reilly, ISBN 1-56592-236-0).
We can also provide registration and DNS services for your domains for a small fee. One UK domain is included in the price of your service - please ask for details. We provide web based DNS editing facilities on our DNS servers.
It we are running your DNS for you, then you can log in to http://control.aaisp.net.uk/ to set up any details. Ask for a password when you need to do this.
If you are running your own DNS, you will need a secondary. You can use secondary-dns.co.uk which is configured to try and automatically secondary any new domain that a customer uses.
Using our secondary name server is normally automatic if you are using BIND-8/9. To make it pick up a domain automatically you have to change the top level delegation to list your name server and secondary-dns.co.uk, and then have bind send a notify from your primary. Our name server checks the delegation first and then adds the zone, loading from your primary servers IP. If you later change the IP of your primary, then the old IP must return that it is not authoritative in order to clear the zone allowing it to reload from the new primary. If you encounter any difficulties, please contact technical support, who can make changes manually if necessary.
Reverse DNS is the system by which you can give a name to each of your IP addresses. Normally DNS gives an IP address to a name, but reverse DNS is the other way around. Sometimes it is necessary to have a name associated with an IP address, and then have that IP address correctly associated with a name. This is because some systems and tools on the internet will check the address (e.g. some ftp servers and some email servers). You should only set reverse DNS to domain names you control.
The way this works is that the IP address is turned in to a domain, e.g. 217.169.0.1 would be turned in to 1.0.169.217.in-addr.arpa. Any machine wanting to know the name for 217.169.0.1 would look up the PTR DNS record on 1.0.169.217.in-addr.arpa.
We are delegated the address blocks we control by RIPE, e.g. we manage 0.169.217.in-addr.arpa. (and many others). If you had, for example, a block of addresses from 217.169.0.0 to 217.169.0.3 then you might want to give names to those addresses.
This may sound rather complicated, but we have several ways to manage your reverse DNS as follows.
If you have a domain with us, you can create entries in the domain tagged as A+reverse rather than just A. This tells our DNS server to automatically fill in a PTR record the other way around. This is the simplest way to set specific names for each IP on your network.
By default we create a reverse entry and a matching forward DNS entry so that your IP has a name associated with it. This is set up in our control pages as auto reverse DNS.
We can delegate the reverse DNS for each of your addresses. This means you would have a zone file for each IP, e.g. 0.0.169.217.in-addr.arpa., 1.0.169.217.in-addr.arpa., 2.0.169.217.in-addr.arpa., 3.0.169.217.in-addr.arpa. each of which would contain one PTR record identifying the name of the machine. Remember that you also have a WAN address which may be completely different from your other addresses, and the reverse DNS is also delegated to your name servers for this too.
To do this, simply put one or two name servers in the settings under http://control.aaisp.net.uk/ for your ADSL RADIUS settings, and select the NS option.
We can also delegate the reverse DNS using CNAME records. This allows you to manage your DNS using only one zone file instead of one for each IP address. In the above example this would mean we have a CNAME record pointing 0.0.169.217.in-addr.arpa. to 0.0-3.0.169.217.in-addr.arpa., and 1.0.169.217.in-addr.arpa. to 1.0-3.0.169.217.in-addr.arpa. and so on. We then delegate 0-3.0.169.217.in-addr.arpa. as a zone to you and you can create PTR records for 0, 1, 2 and 3 within that zone.
Your WAN address and any other single addresses are still individually delegated as their own zone as above.
To do this, simply put one or two name servers in the settings under http://control.aaisp.net.uk/ for your ADSL RADIUS settings, and select the CNAME option.
If you have a block of 256 addresses or more, then reverse DNS delegation is done at the /24 level and setting CNAME or NS has the same effect. This means you are responsible for an entire reverse zone without the need for special CNAME entries, etc. Most people do not have such a large block of addresses.
Using the CNAME method above we can create reverse DNS zone on our primary DNS server. We can set this up with a password in the same way as any other domain, allowing you to edit the zone using the web based control pages at http://control.aaisp.net.uk/ . This way you don't need to run your own DNS servers.
To do this, ask technical support to set up the domain for you and provide a password.
If you have an IP6 assignment from us then you can set up reverse DNS in the same way. You can create forward entries that are AAAA+reverse which will automatically create reverse DNS entries in the same was as A+reverse as shown above. We can also delegate reverse DNS to you.
Delegation uses nibble format under ip6.int and ip6.arpa. It is recommended that you set up both zones the same. If you have the block 2001:8b0:1234::/48 then you should create a zone for 4.3.2.1.0.b.8.0.1.0.0.2.ip6.arpa and 4.3.2.1.0.b.8.0.1.0.0.2.ip6.int which contain the necessary PTR records. Set the DNS server names for your DNS server using the web based control pages at http://control.aaisp.net.uk/ .
In addition we also create all AAAA+reverse and NS delegations in bitstring ip6.arpa format, but this is currently experimental in the internet and not delegated by the top level name servers. In the above example you could create a zone for \[x200108b01234/48].ip6.arpa if you wanted to be ready for bitstring format.
A domain ending in .uk is included in the price of your service (contact us to choose a domain), and we provide SMTP and IMAP/POP3 mail handling for the domain as you require. If you have not already chosen a UK domain then this may be useful as a guide to what domains are available and what they mean.
Firstly, it is important to realise a domain can only contain letters a-z numbers 0-9 or hyphens, and no part can end or start with a hyphen. Also, domains that are only 2 letters (e.g. aa.co.uk) or one character are not valid (except the few that are currently registered). You should use a sensible name and not one that is someone else's trademark as there are procedures for domains to be challenged.
| .co.uk | This is probably the most well know. It is intended for companies although there is no formal restriction or checking to stop you registering it for personal use. |
| .org.uk | This is intended for non profit organisations. Again, there are no formal restrictions - but using an org.uk would give the message that you are a non profit organisation. Some people will register an org.uk the same as their co.uk to avoid confusion, redirecting web traffic and email for the .org.uk to the .co.uk and not publishing the org.uk domain itself. |
| .me.uk | This is intended for personal use, and is typically yourname.me.uk or yoursurname.me.uk. Remember, if you get your surname then you can create subdomains for no charge, e.g. firstname.surname.me.uk and set up mail, e.g. firstname@surname.me.uk. As such .me.uk is ideal for personal use. Being quite new there are many names available. Businesses should not register .me.uk domains as there are specific rules that make such registrations "abusive" and could mean your domain is challenged. |
| .ltd.uk | This is specifically for UK limited companies (not plc's) and the domain has to exactly match your company name at companies house. Invalid characters such as spaces and brackets can be ignored or have a hyphen instead. However the domain is manually checked before it is registered and the rules strictly applied. |
| .plc.uk | As ltd.uk for plc's. |
| .net.uk | This is only available to ISPs. Unlike .net where it is intended for ISPs but there is no formal checking, .net.uk is specifically for ISPs and applications are checked. You need an AS number or an LIR tag to register (if you don't know what these are then you are not an ISP). You also have to convince nominet that you are genuinley an ISP. |
| .ac.uk | This is for colleges and universities. The rules are a bit complex and we can submit a request if you are a university or a college. Some societies which do training and education qualify. |
| .sch.uk | This is for UK schools only and the name is picked for you by the LEA. We provide .sch.uk domains to schools free anyway. |
| .police.uk | Forget it unless you are a police force |
| .gov.uk | Goverment bodies |
| .mod.uk | You can guess this one I am sure |
| .nhs.uk | And this one |
| .parliament.uk | And this one |
| .nic.uk | Nominet (who manage the .uk name space) |
You can check any UK name availability at http://www.nic.uk/ and if it is free, ask us to register. A name reported as "DETAGGED" is not available, it must be not found.
