Magnet broadband

bk · 14-07-2008 4:44pm

ruamire wrote: »

Anyone with experiences of Magnet in Dublin South City Centre? The speeds look good on paper but is it really zero contention? How do they manage that?!

Magnet are typically only available in specific new apartment developments that have been wired for Magnet from the start. So unless your in one of the following developments, you can't get it:

http://www.magnetentertainment.ie/working_home/index.htm

Magnet don't offer real zero contention (technically 1:1 contention), of course there is contention on their network, like all ISP's, however they probably actively manage the contention and keep it low enough so that it shouldn't normally be noticeable and you should be able to get the full speed most of the time.

Hank Scorpio · 14-07-2008 4:49pm

Bohrio wrote: »

I have them and their service is excellent... low latency and very good speeds too.

Pings inside ireland wont take longer than 2 ms on average, sometimes less.

Pings to UK no more than 6-7 ms depending on the day.

lol?
show me some dos pings to www.jolt.co.uk

www.kplay.de and www.utservers.nl

That sounds amazing! Thanks

bk · 14-07-2008 4:52pm

Bohrio wrote: »

If you have the option of FTTH (Fibre to the Home) I dont think you can get a better service here in Ireland, although I have never tested Smart's FTTB but all I can say is that its way better than ADSL2+, 3G and wireless, specially if you consider the total theoretical bandwidth (~1 gB)

I've Smart Vision service which is FTTB and I've used Magnets service and Magnets service is significantly better.

Both Smart and Magnet's service is Fibre To The Building, Magnet then use ethernet to distribute the BB to each apartment. Unfortunately despite there being ethernet running to each apartment, Smart instead use ADSL2+ DSLAMs in the building and run a standard telephone line to each apartment over the ethernet cable, thus limiting the max speed to 24mb/s (versus a potential max of 1gb/s with Magnet).

The maximum speed you can currently actually get from Smart is currently 4m/400k, versus 8m/8m from Magnet, also the latency (pings) aren't half as good as Magnet.

Finally Smart's TV service is awful, doesn't even include channels like Sky, Discovery, etc. Magnet's service is far better.

Bohrio · 14-07-2008 4:53pm

nuxxx wrote: »

lol?
show me some dos pings to www.jolt.co.uk

www.kplay.de and www.utservers.nl

That sounds amazing! Thanks

Sure, as soon as I get home

You dont want to see my pings from work... hideous!!! and I work for a Telecom company!!!!!!

Anyway I will post them later if I have the time

Magnet: Rory · 14-07-2008 4:53pm

Zero contention is possible through rewiring through Magnet ADSL2+ at the DSLAM at the exchange. Just remember Magnet, like smart and UPC is not available everywhere in the city, so dont turn any of ur stuff off just yet.

Bohrio · 14-07-2008 4:55pm

bk wrote: »

I've Smart Vision service which is FTTB and I've used Magnets service and Magnets service is significantly better.

Both Smart and Magnet's service is Fibre To The Building, Magnet then use ethernet to distribute the BB to each apartment. Unfortunately despite there being ethernet running to each apartment, Smart instead use ADSL2+ DSLAMs in the building and run a standard telephone line to each apartment over the ethernet cable, thus limiting the max speed to 24mb/s (versus a potential max of 1gb/s with Magnet).

Thanks, its very interesting I wasnt familiar with Smart's FTTB...

Magnet: Rory · 14-07-2008 4:58pm

Also remember Magnet (like Smart) are also available on LLU aswell as fibre, so they are available in a good deal of older areas.

bk · 14-07-2008 5:03pm

Rorser wrote: »

Also remember Magnet (like Smart) are also available on LLU aswell as fibre, so they are available in a good deal of older areas.

Magnet stopped selling their LLU products to residential customers to focus on FTTB developments.

Perhaps they will restart it again, I hope so, the more competition the better.

Magnet: Rory · 14-07-2008 5:07pm

Magnet do sell LLU to res customers, but its only one product. Here is the link.

http://www.magnetentertainment.ie/products/intro.htm

bk · 14-07-2008 5:20pm

Rorser wrote: »

Magnet do sell LLU to res customers, but its only one product. Here is the link.

http://www.magnetentertainment.ie/products/intro.htm

Fair enough, must be a recent development. Smart and UPC would be better value for money if available.

Magnet: Rory · 14-07-2008 5:21pm

that's quite a broad statement, can you qualify?

bk · 14-07-2008 5:41pm

Rorser wrote: »

that's quite a broad statement, can you qualify?

Sure,

Magnet 4m/512k €50

UPC
20m/1.5m €40,
10m/1m €30,
3m/256k €20

Smart
4m/256k + free local and national calls €50.36
4m/256k €40.36
4m/1m €50.36

take your pick of whichever one suits you best, assuming these are available in your area, the UPC is vastly better value for money and Smart is slightly better value for money.

Bohrio · 14-07-2008 7:41pm

nuxxx wrote: »

lol?
show me some dos pings to www.jolt.co.uk

www.kplay.de and www.utservers.nl

That sounds amazing! Thanks

Hello there

Today the network seems a bit slow and bare in mind I am using the IPTV service and that slows things down, but still is quite alright...

Ping to jolt

Pinging jolt.co.uk [82.133.85.65] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=41

Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=41

Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=41

Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=41

Ping statistics for 82.133.85.65:

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

Minimum = 13ms, Maximum = 14ms, Average = 13ms

Ping to kplay

Pinging kplay.de [81.3.59.4] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 81.3.59.4: bytes=32 time=19ms TTL=41

Reply from 81.3.59.4: bytes=32 time=19ms TTL=41

Reply from 81.3.59.4: bytes=32 time=19ms TTL=41

Reply from 81.3.59.4: bytes=32 time=19ms TTL=41

Ping statistics for 81.3.59.4:

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

Minimum = 19ms, Maximum = 19ms, Average = 19ms

Tracert to Kplay

Tracing route to kplay.de [81.3.59.4]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 2 ms 5 ms 2 ms x.ptr.magnet.ie [87.198.47.1]

2 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms d-x-asr15.magnet.ie [87.198.75.66]

3 2 ms 2 ms 1 ms d-x-asr16.magnet.ie [87.198.75.70]

4 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms 87-198-75-73.ptr.magnet.ie [87.198.75.73]

5 3 ms 2 ms 2 ms 85.91.2.182

6 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms d-deg-core1a.magnet.ie [85.91.3.13]

7 3 ms 3 ms 2 ms d-deg-edge2.magnet.ie [85.91.2.42]

8 3 ms 3 ms 4 ms xe-0-1-0-208.dub20.ip.tiscali.net [213.200.67.165]

9 15 ms 15 ms 15 ms so-1-0-0.dus11.ip.tiscali.net [213.200.82.2]

10 15 ms 15 ms 15 ms so-4-0-0.core1.d.ip.nacamar.net [213.200.64.110]

11 19 ms 19 ms 19 ms ae0.core2.f.ip.nacamar.net [62.27.95.42]

12 19 ms 18 ms 18 ms ge-1-2.swi01.r206.f.ip.nacamar.net [62.27.92.137]

13 18 ms 18 ms 19 ms kate.krawall.de [81.3.59.4]

Trace complete.

Ping utservers

Pinging server1.utservers.nl [84.244.144.2] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 84.244.144.2: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=49

Reply from 84.244.144.2: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=49

Reply from 84.244.144.2: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=49

Reply from 84.244.144.2: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=49

Ping statistics for 84.244.144.2:

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

Minimum = 22ms, Maximum = 23ms, Average = 22ms

The speeds are more or less constant

But as I said today it feels a little bit lazy...

Last time I run a test I got

and

This is how a tracert looked like

Tracing route to rte.ie [89.207.56.94]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 87-198-x-1.ptr.magnet.ie [87.198.x.1]

2 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms d-xxxxxxc-asr15.magnet.ie [87.198.75.66]

3 1 ms 1 ms <1 ms d-xxxxxxc-asr16.magnet.ie [87.198.75.70]

4 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 87-198-75-73.ptr.magnet.ie [87.198.75.73]

5 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 85.91.2.182

6 2 ms 1 ms 2 ms d-deg-core1a.magnet.ie [85.91.3.13]

7 2 ms 1 ms 2 ms d-deg-edge2.magnet.ie [85.91.2.42]

8 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms deg-gw-2.rte.ie [194.88.240.17]

9 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms 89.207.56.94

Trace complete.

And a ping

Pinging rte.ie [89.207.56.94] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 89.207.56.94: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=56

Reply from 89.207.56.94: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=56

Reply from 89.207.56.94: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=56

Reply from 89.207.56.94: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=56

Ping statistics for 89.207.56.94:

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

Minimum = 2ms, Maximum = 2ms, Average = 2ms

Anyway still pretty decent...

Magnet: Rory · 14-07-2008 10:50pm

Value for money is an exceptionally broad church and one where a simple price and speed comparison simply does not stand up to scrutiny. Its simply not enough to say that speed and price are the only issues here.

There are other blazingly obvious issues such as customer service, contention, download limits, service reliability and ping speeds.

bk · 15-07-2008 12:46am

Rorser wrote: »

There are other blazingly obvious issues such as customer service, contention, download limits, service reliability and ping speeds.

Perhaps, but then Smart is supposed to have excellent customer support, no contention, no download limit, reliable service and similar ping speeds, so my point stand.

And UPC seems to have vastly improved in all these areas.

In fairness, Magnet seems to do a great job with it's FTTB services, I'm just saying that UPC and Smart offer better products then their LLU product, which they seem to barely sell anyway.

Magnet: Rory · 15-07-2008 9:39am

And UPC seems to have vastly improved in all these areas????

Firstly they cant improve on the contention they have, of the other issues....ill let the UPC forum rooms tell you that.

Price comparisons are a total red herring, even something as small as upload speed or a free wireless router or a free install can wipe out a €10 advantage. The sad fact is that monthly price and reported speed are no longer enough to justify decisions to go with providers, customers have to research the companies extensively before they buy.

The days of "I want the standard broadband" are truly gone for a huge portion of the population. No two offerings are the same anymore and every company out there has value for money with at least some section of the community.

bk · 15-07-2008 1:34pm

Rorser wrote: »

And UPC seems to have vastly improved in all these areas????

Firstly they cant improve on the contention they have, of the other issues....ill let the UPC forum rooms tell you that.

Prior to moving apartment and being forced to go with Smart, I had UPC 6m and it was excellent, always got the max speed, never any problems.

Also the number of complaints about UPC have vastly decreased over the last two years since UPC bought NTL and they seem to be heavily investing in and upgrading their network.

Looking at the UPC thread, the vast majority of the users seem to be getting the full 20m/1.5m speeds and seem to be delighted with their new service.

Rorser wrote: »

Price comparisons are a total red herring, even something as small as upload speed or a free wireless router or a free install can wipe out a €10 advantage. The sad fact is that monthly price and reported speed are no longer enough to justify decisions to go with providers, customers have to research the companies extensively before they buy.

The days of "I want the standard broadband" are truly gone for a huge portion of the population. No two offerings are the same anymore and every company out there has value for money with at least some section of the community.

Do you work for Magnet or something?

As I clearly pointed out both UPC and Smart offer better value for money in terms of specifications and roughly the same level of service, end of story, you can blather on about no two services being the same and comparable but it is a whole load of BS, I hear this sort of BS from sales and marketing people almost every day to justify the higher prices of their products, it is rarely true.

UPC offer a vastly faster service for less money and Smart offer the same or slightly better service for less money.

You are the one who asked me to clarify my point earlier, which I clearly did with factual information, comparing product specifications and prices. It is now up to you to point out a single scenario where a person would be better off getting this Magnet product then either UPC or Smart.

Magnet: Rory · 15-07-2008 2:41pm

This could go on forever.

My point is that no two ISP's are the same and slapping the tag of value for money isnt really applicable. For instance some customers will go with Smart because of fixed IP's and some will go with Clearwire cuz they can move with it from house to house.

Maybe i dragged out the point too much and used a limited number of examples (only using Smart, Magnet and UPC) but my emphasis was on getting away from the apples for apples comparison. I had the misfortune of falling into this trap before only to find out that my alarm system threw a spanner into the works.....

bk · 15-07-2008 4:29pm

Rorser wrote: »

Maybe i dragged out the point too much and used a limited number of examples (only using Smart, Magnet and UPC) but my emphasis was on getting away from the apples for apples comparison. I had the misfortune of falling into this trap before only to find out that my alarm system threw a spanner into the works.....

Yes, alarm systems are a pain, (and Sky Multiroom also), but the alarm thing can be worked around by getting a GSM dialler or voice activated alarm system.

Really alarm companies and Sky need to give up on the idea of everyone having a standard POTS telephone line. Increasingly many people have no phone line (just mobile) or have IPTV based phone services.

smerwickman · 21-07-2008 7:06pm

sainf wrote: »

need port forwading for sling and magnet wont allow unless you just use for house use then it is easy. but for port forwading or adding nat adress there is a way

Can you elaborate on how to set up the slingbox. I would be very interested it this.

smerwickman · 21-07-2008 7:07pm

Besides slingbox is there any other way to watch content on the Magnet box outside your house. Not talking about a wireless option but something over the internet. (ORB, etc....)

JCDublin · 02-08-2008 7:17pm

Hi guys,

I have two unrelated questions on Magnet, which I have been unable to clarify here so far. I am in an apartment block with Magnet Fibre To The Home, and am considering signing up to the Magnet 50MB service for BB, TV and phone.

(1) I have read that Magnet supply you with a wireless modem (and router?) and that they are not keen to allow you to tinker with it. Will I be able to add my own Apple Extreme Base Station (which I used at my las addresss with my UPC-supplied modem for very satisfactory wireless surfing on my Apple Laptop)?

(2) To what extent does the Magnet IPTV affect the quality of Broadband? Is it only affected when the TV is switched on? Is the IPTV quality high enough to get good pictures on a Full HD Plasma TV? (I used to have excellent picture quality from a UPC Digital Box but am not clear if IPTV is as good!). Sorry that this question is slightly off-topic!

Grateful for any advice you can give! Thanks a lot.

Brendan MacBrid · 19-09-2008 2:01pm

Hey,

I have a slingbox aswell and have magnet internet, but no joy...I thinks its the public IP that screws it up, so i bought a new modem+router today from Belkin, but when you plug in the DSL cable, it disconnects the house phone, nightmare....I called magent for the VCI, VPI and encapsulation info but they said i couldnt have it and didnt need it...nice guys...

Has anyone been able to use a slingbox with magnet, or do you need to swap over to smart broadband? feel free to email to brendan.macbride@gmail.com if you want to....

Vunderground · 19-09-2008 3:59pm

I wonder can anybody tell me how reliable the Magnet 10/24Mbs services are given the major problems with BT/UTV/Eircom?

Thanks!

Magnet: Rory · 19-09-2008 4:10pm

It totally depends on the line itself and how you measure reliablity, what is it about your former providers that got your back up?

Vunderground · 19-09-2008 4:24pm

I'm on the BT 24Mbs package and live about two hundred yards from the exchange.

Statistics Downstream Upstream
Line Rate 16771 Kbps 1019 Kbps
Noise Margin 15.7 dB 11.3 dB
Line Attenuation 23.0 dB 10.2 dB

I was getting consistent speeds of 1900Mbs plus...now I'm getting 8Mbs and the connection drops frequently. A Magnet sales guy has just told me I should be getting the full 24Mbs, but I'd be well happy with what I had 19Mbs and a solid connection. No point in signing up to a year of the same, but with a different provider. BT don't seem to have a clue except to confirm that my line is capable of 24Mbs and up! Thanks for any help...

Magnet: Rory · 19-09-2008 4:30pm

To my recollection BT would have a higher contention on the line than Magnet but the last time i tried to confirm this with BT they seemed a lil fuzzy and i honestly now dont know their contention ratio.

If the line is poor then there is very little hope of getting the full 24mb and theres no dobt in my head that one cannot get any higher than 24mb with bt on a residential pack on copper.

Vunderground · 19-09-2008 4:42pm

Sorry
The 'or over 24Mbs' was thrown in just to emphasise the fact that the line is good for 24Mbs as confirmed by techs from both BT and Eircom. But are they having the same problems that BT currently are and seem to have no idea of how to solve.

Magnet: Rory · 19-09-2008 4:51pm

Hmmmm......sounds bad...sounds like they don't know where the problem is. The problem here is that it could be in your house, on the line or in the exchange and i don't know if they would spend too much time sniffing around for it.

Have you had a engineer out?

Praetor · 19-09-2008 5:08pm

Vunderground wrote: »

I'm on the BT 24Mbs package and live about two hundred yards from the exchange.

Statistics Downstream Upstream
Line Rate 16771 Kbps 1019 Kbps
Noise Margin 15.7 dB 11.3 dB
Line Attenuation 23.0 dB 10.2 dB

I was getting consistent speeds of 1900Mbs plus...now I'm getting 8Mbs and the connection drops frequently. A Magnet sales guy has just told me I should be getting the full 24Mbs, but I'd be well happy with what I had 19Mbs and a solid connection. No point in signing up to a year of the same, but with a different provider. BT don't seem to have a clue except to confirm that my line is capable of 24Mbs and up! Thanks for any help...

All I can say is that if you really are 200 meters away from the exchange your attenuation should be much lower.... might be worth calling them and point this out to them...

Magnet broadband

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