Anyone tried CrossCountryBroadband.com?

A

AlastairSC

Registered User
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Anyone any experience of this company? Seems you just replace the gizmo on the end of the Sky dish....

As part of our installation package we will send you a new "quad" LNB. It will be necessary for you to remove the existing LNB (one screw) and replace it with the quad LNB. The quad LNB will have four connections but you will only use two of them - one for the cable for the existing satellite decoder unit and the other for broadband. You may use one or two of the remaining connections to run satellite television to other rooms in the house or broadband to a computer in another room if you so require. Because of the fact that the dish is already aligned with the satellite you do not have to get involved with setting up the dish's alignment. You merely have to remove one screw from the end of the arm and put a new LNB in place.The fitting on the new LNB is a universal fitting and will snap into place very easily.

and thread a new cable to your computer. Entry package speed is about 512mbps and you need to keep your dialup (and costs). Price is E28.50 pm after paying E285 for the gizmo, connectors and cabling, assuming you install yourself. No contract - a month's notice if you want to stop.

I'm tempted by cost and reasonable speed (existing dialup is 45.5mbps here in rural Kilkenny with no ISDN or other possibilities under E40 pm) but would be glad to know if there are any pitfalls. The website, [broken link removed] seems very upfront. Advice welcome.

TIA
 
the gizmo connectors and cabling cost about €120 and are

1 x Quad LNB for about €40 (ebay , 0.3db or 0.2db and no higher than 0.5db)
1 x technitrend skystar card €60 try dvbshop.net

10m Cable and some F Connectors and stuff about €10

allow another 10 for delivery costs .

then you can go to any one way sat provider operating off astra 2 of which there are many . cpsat , netsystem , silvermead etc etc
 
Thanks Clubman - I did mean kpbs!

Etel - thanks a million. You are obviously au fait with this sort of thing. I'll try to find what you mention. What do I say to the one-way satellite companies? What sort of money might I expect to pay?
 
Looking at their while FAQ they do say they are not trying to compete on price, they then go on to say they are not dearer than Eircom and give this as their example:

"As far as price is concerned let us make a like for like comparison. Let us assume that at the moment you are paying something in the order of 50 euro per month for your internet useage. Our broadband service will be ,on average, 20 times faster than your existing dial up therefore, using broadband you will only incur a cost of 2.50 euro for the exact same amount of surfing and download. You will therefore save 47.50 euro by using broadband and this will more than cover for the costs involved."

I think this is misleading as unless you are referring to a straight download having a connection speed which is 20 times faster does not result in 1/20th of the time online. Browsing webpages while they will load faster there will be idle time while you read them during which time presumably your dial remains connected racking up charges.
 

What are the "other possibilities" over E40 pm? I think with the added costs to retain your dialup and the upfront capital cost of the equipment something around the E40pm mark is competitive with their offering and probably of better quality.
 
Like you AlastairSC, we were also looking at Cross country Broadband, then I came across these guys: http://www.broadband4ireland.net/order/index.html which appear to be cheaper again.
We are currently on 14.4bps in Co. Dublin but too far off the beaten track to get broadband any other way.
Problem is that I don't entirely understand how satellite works, as in, upload and down load speeds, do we have to always be connected the land line to simply surf (I understand that u do for sending emails)?
Bottom line: Is it possible to get a package that allows you a fast surfing for 10 or so hours a week, for less than €40/mth including ISP costs.
I don't mean to sound lazy on the research side, but I’m reluctant to fork out a couple of hundred euro on equipment without a recommendation that it does work..
 
KimWilde said:
We are currently on 14.4bps in Co. Dublin
Click to expand...
I hope you meant 14.4Kbps or else you might be better of having the information posted to you!
 
KimWilde said:
We are currently on 14.4bps in Co. Dublin but too far off the beaten track to get broadband any other way.
Click to expand...
North Dublin has a few wireless operators like ICE Communications and Net1 and Digiweb if thats any help . I recommend anything but satellite .
 
Yep, Kbps Clubman. The post is at least consistant!
Tks Etel, we have tried all the wireless operators and have even had a site visit from ICE, but to avail. What do you mean you ''recommend anything but satellite''?
Im getting that impression from a few people who seem to know what their talking about, but don't understand why..
Many thanks.
 
It might help if you think of Internet access as water running through a pipe.

The flow rate of the water is more or less constant (speed of light).

Broadband gives you a fatter (high-bandwidth) pipe, so you can get a greater volume of water (more data) in the same amount of time.

One problem with satellite is that the pipe is very long, stretching all the way to that satellite in the sky (high network latency.).
With dial-up or DSL or wireless, the pipe is much shorter.

With a long pipe, every time you turn on the tap, it will take a while for the water to reach you.
You'll notice this when web-surfing -- each time you click on a link, it will take a while for any new data to appear.

If you mostly download large files, the long pipe won't bother you as much; once the first bit of water reaches you,
you can make full use of the wide pipe.


The other problem with satellite is that (with most providers) water can only flow in one direction, from the satellite to you.

If you want to pump water out (e.g. send email), you have to use an additional pipe (such as dialup).

Also, the satellite doesn't know when you want water.
You have to pump some water first (click on a web-page) before it will start to pump water at you (send you the web-page.).
So you will still need a separate pipe (dial-up) even when web-surfing.

Hope that helps (waiting for the plumbers to correct the analogy!).
 
Brilliant MugsGame, thanks for the analogy!

You have to pump some water first (click on a web-page) before it will start to pump water at you (send you the web-page.).
So you will still need a separate pipe (dial-up) even when web-surfing.
Click to expand...

This is what I was looking for..


 
MugsGame - this water powered internet sounds very interesting? Where can I get it?
 
Well, it's common knowledge that the ESB have been trialing Broadband Over Powerline technology.

Recently the Swedes have adapted this to give [broken link removed]. So it's probably not too long before we have Broadband Over Plumbing, using the Leaky Bucket algorithm, of course!

In the meantime, there are many wireless alternatives.
 
MugsGame said:
Well, it's common knowledge that the ESB have been trialing Broadband Over Powerline technology.
Click to expand...
Very near me that, they shut it down quietly in the recent past and will not trial it again said my person in there . The ESB will be fibre only in future for data.
 
I live outside Westport with no chance of any other type of Broadband in the near future , my biggest problem with crosscountry broadband so far is the length of time it takes them to install their system .I've been waiting since the 13th of October and this is now the 10th of January .THREE MONTHS LATER !!!!!.Its getting to be very annoying because i have them paid up for the dish and installation and they are also getting a monthly fee in advance ,WITHOUT ANY SERVICE AND STILL NOT A PEEP OUT OF THEM AS TO WHEN I'LL GET SORTED . When i contacted them after the first payment ,they said that they aim to have a person installed with their system within 4 weeks . I could start complaining now but i'm going to wait until 4 weeks has turned into 4 months and then i'm going to town on them .
Can anyone tell me how long they can leave me paying in advance without any service ?
 
You should get a refund of any monthly charges you've paid if you're not up and running yet. Upfront once-off charges are different, of course, but you could point out that you haven't had the period of time you've paid for and ask them to extend it at the other end so you get your full whack time-wise out.

As the OP, I feel I should update the many members who are doubtless dying to know our outcome : we are now on Perlico's Broadband Lite as an add-on to our Perlico Talk Anytime package. Free local and national calls and line rental for E29.99 per month, 20 anytime hours bb for E9.99 extra. We are considering upgrading to always-on for an extra E8 p.m.

Looking back over this thread it looks like bb has dropped a lot in price and increased availability!
 
paddy_fa,
I ordered BB from them as well, but (a few months) later decided to cancel the order due to 3G being available. I did not pay them anything upfront, nor should you according to their website. You pay installation when you see it working.
 
From Paddy fa , thanks for the info fellas .I havn't been on crosscountrybroadband's site since last November but i'm fairly sure they now insist on an upfront payment .Maybe they made changes unless i'm mistaken .Must investigate there again a.sa.p. If so then it could be into my barrow for again .
 
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