Broadband question

P

piggy

Guest
Hi,

Can someone enlighten me on this please?
I'm looking to get broadband in the new gaff. Wanted to get NTL because I have NTL digital and no phone line yet.
Also, the main reason for choosing NTL was the unlimited downloads and uploads. Unfortunately I was told I'd have to wait about 6 months for broadband with NTL.

I'm wary of wireless because people have so many issues with it. It'll either be great or utterly disastrous.

Eircom's broadband is pretty naf I think. 8Gb download limit is their best offer.

Can anyone advise on 'phone line' broadband that has unlimited uploading and downloading capability?

Thanks.
 
Thanks Clubman, hadn't seen the government broadband site. Very helpful.

Actually, I think it may have sort of answered my question. As far as I can gather all phone-line providers put download caps on their service. NTL and Wireless don't.

I suppose it comes down to the infrastructure they're using.

Maybe I'll opt for the wireless option and hope to be one of the lucky ones.
 
ntl

piggy, was the reason NTL werent able to provide BB for 6 months due to the fact they havent rolled out to your area yet?
I ordered it off them 4 weeks ago and had it installed in 7 days.
As for download caps. I was told 1 gb per day with NTL, but Ive gone over that a couple times and havent had anything said to me.

I would also like to comment that Ive found their level of service to be refreshingly excellent. Had to ring them twice, had 1 matter resolved with the digi box by a callout within 3 days and another question answered by a call back from tech support within a 1/2 hour.
Seems like theyve turned whatever corner that needed turning.
 
Re: ntl

piggy, was the reason NTL werent able to provide BB for 6 months due to the fact they havent rolled out to your area yet?

Yeah. It's a new estate and our section just doesn't have it yet. The new phase is very new and we're one of the first in the place so far. Your man in NTL said maybe february, maybe March...or maybe longer. I'm not waiting that long.
I do think their product looks pretty good though - especially the fact that it's a 1.5mb line and the 1gb a day is quite acceptable too.

The Breeze lite gets mixed reviews but I'm near the Three Rock mast and think I have a reasonable line of sight so think I will try that. What I'd really like to know is if anyone else near me has tried it. Boards is a bit hit and miss and I don't have the patience for trawling through all those posts to find someone living near me and their experiences with it.
What I'm worried about though is forking out for it and ending up with dial-up speeds.
 
Re: ntl

I was told 1 gb per day with NTL, but Ive gone over that a couple times and havent had anything said to me.

Yeah - I've heard that the download cap is nominally 1GB per day but that they haven't actually charged people for breaching it so far. There was also a rumour that they were to have all of Dublin covered by the end of the year but I have my doubts about that coming to pass to be honest.
 
bb

I think the 1gb is really to stop people using it in a business environment. So if you go over every now and again they wont worry but continually do it and Id say youd see some sort of action from them.
The reasons I think this, is that they really stressed the point to me that I wasnt to use their BB line in a business env. and they would not support it if I did so (I hadnt even asked them in the first place).
Also note when I asked do they support any wireless router in particular that they said they expressly do not, and in keeping with their non-business usage policy, if they find out that I am using their BB service with a wireless router that they would be within their rights to suspend my service. Probably just scare tactics to stop neighbourhood sharing, but Im posting the warning in case anyone rings up to complain about problems with their service with any wireless hardware you may have.
Im saying nothing as to whether Im using a wireless router now.
Lets just call it handsfree instead. :lol
 
Re: bb

Would any of the more hardware techie guys know if there's any issues sharing between a pc and a G3 via wireless router in a home environment?
 
Re: bb

Can't see why there would be assuming that standard 802.11a/b/g gear is used. I presume that the Mac WiFi (Airport?) gear is standard 802.11? We have some PCs using wireless and sharing our Irish Broadband (Breeze not Ripwave) connection and it works fine. I presume that there's no clash (e.g. in terms of frequency/channels) between the Ripwave device and standard 802.11 gear? boards.ie has a lot on this sort of stuff.
 
Re: bb

Thanks Clubman. Very helpful indeed.

It'll be Breeze after all. Am in between transmitters for Ripwave :(
 
Re: bb

I've seen some of the negative reports about Irish Broadband's service, from people who can't get a good (or any!) connection using Ripwave to those who experience variable throughput on Breeze. I have noticed that the throughput on Breeze can vary significantly for no obvious reason. Thankfully we've never had a complete outage since it was installed to replace our much more expensive and lower bandwidth 128Kbps leased line. We found their installation people good to deal with and their follow-up support service good to OK. I would take the service at home too only I don't really want an antenna stuck on my roof for various reasons. If I could get Ripwave or ntl: cable broadband I'd take it and get rid of my landline but unfortunately they are not available in my area at the moment. :\
 
Re: bb

I have noticed that the throughput on Breeze can vary significantly for no obvious reason. Thankfully we've never had a complete outage since it was installed to replace our much more expensive and lower bandwidth 128Kbps leased line. We found their installation people good to deal with and their follow-up support service good to OK

It's good to hear feedback like this. After talking to one of Irish Broadband's sales guys for a second time he freely admitted that there are problems with Ripwave but that they rarely have complaints about Breeze. In essence a one megabit line between 2 users is serious overkill so even if it does vary a bit I hope we won't really notice it that much.

I'd rather NTL broadband myself or Ripwave (as it's cheaper). Don't have a phone line yet and don't really want one either.
 
Re: bb

Hi

Can someone explain the difference between ripwave and breeze. I'm aware that ripwave is cheaper but is it less reliable? For conistency and quality would I be better choosing breeze?

This would be for home use. My telephone line doesn't support DSL.

Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
Re: bb

explains the differences. Basically Ripwave uses an indoor device and is currently only available in restricted areas of the southside as far as I know (within range of Three Rock as far as I know) and offers a nominal data rate of up to 512Kbps. Breeze requires an external roof or wall mounted antenna and seems to start at 1Mbps these days (they used to offer 512Kbps). There are anecdotal reports of Ripwave being less reliable than Breeze but I don't know of any authoritative tests that prove this to be the case. For what it's worth I've recently been using somebody's home UTV Internet ADSL connection (asymmetric 512Kbps download/128-256Kbps upload) and compared to the Breeze link (symmetric 512Kbps download and upload) that I was using up to recently it seems much faster! I seemed to be getting up to up to c. 30KBps throughput on Breeze but often a lot less whereas I am reliably getting c. 50KBps on the ADSL link. If you are considering wireless broadband then see if you can get a trial period or at least a short initial contract period in order to evaluate it first. Alternatively is cable broadband an option?
 
1 kb/s for €99.- per month

I haven't tried them yet,they are new in the market:
[broken link removed]
They are operating via the astra satellite system,a company called SES.In the Netherlands they offer twice the service for less money.Compare them with [broken link removed]
 
Re: 1 kb/s for €99.- per month

Thanks for the replies.

Although I live in Dundrum, the Eircom lines on my street are incapable (at the moment anyway) of supportinf DSL. I'm fairly near to Sandyford, so I imagine that both ripwave and breeze would be an option. Ripwave is available at 29.99 a month (no minimum contract) with a once-off installation fee of of 99 euro.

I wasn't aware that cable was an option, but if it involves going through NTL, I'd rather use it as a last resort.
 
Re: 1 kb/s for €99.- per month

Be aware that there may be some quirks about satellite broadband - e.g. high latencies (which do not suit gamers and other multimedia users) sometimes attributable to proxy server side compression of data as well as simply the delay in getting data to/from the satellite. Some satellite broadband services may also require a phone line for the back channel (i.e. for sending data from your PC to the net). Again if you can get a trial or short term contract for evaluation purposes all the better.

Don't dismiss cable broadband just because it's ntl: - €25 p.m. for up to 300kbps down/64Kbps up is not to be sniffed at and I haven't heard as many anecdotal negative reports about it compared to IBB's offerings for what that's worth. There's more information about ntl:'s offerings [broken link removed].
 
Re: 1 kb/s for €99.- per month

Clubman

Thanks for your very informative repy.

I'll consider the options. Broadband access would be for home business use mostly. The gaming issue wouldn't arise. Essentially, I just want to do what I do on the dial-up connection but at a speed that prevents my mind drifting between pages.

Thanks again.

B
 
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