Line now passing.. but which BB service?

c0y0te

OK - so the good news is that my line is now passing (according to eircon, although no one can tell me why it wasn't passing the test until now).

Anyways - long story short, I can now go order BB from someone. Based on the implementations to date, and your own experiences of the speed, customer service, caps, cost etc.... Which option do you guys recommend I take (e.g. UTV, IOLBB, Eircon etc.)

Thanks in advance for all info.

c0y0te

rymus

dont expect miracles coyote, I started a thread like this a few weeks back and nobody bothered to shed any pearls of wisdom.

(having said that... someone will probably reply now just to make me look like a raving lunatic)

tomk

c0y0te - here's my thoughts - hope they're useful.

I've been on UTV BB for nearly a month now, and the service is good. There were a couple of hiccups in getting it set up, which delayed my modem delivery by a week, but overall it took a month from order to completion, which is a lot better than some people around here, both UTV users and others.

I was a UTVip customer previously, and I wanted to stay with them if possible, but because they were later to market, I almost went with IOL back in June. At that stage, even getting information out of IOL was difficult, and it took a good few phone calls and emails to even get hold of an application form.By the time it came, UTV were up and running.

The speed is variable, but more than enough for my purposes - I download a bit, I don't game, and the rest is general surfing, email etc. for the moment. My impression of UTV's customer service remains good, although their standards have dropped since they first entered the Irish market - I think they've had trouble coping with the increase in demand. The cap has not been an issue for me so far, but in less than a month, that's probably not surprising. I've sent an email to them to see if they'll consider increasing it like IOL - hopefully the response will be good. As for cost, it's the cheapest monthly available, and if you go with your own router, the cheapest self-install. I couldn't afford my own gear, so I took the ZyXEL modem, which is adequate - it would have been better to have an ethernet option, but you can't have everything, I suppose.

This has been a lot longer than I intended, but if you get anything out of it, all to the good.

rabbitinlights

I know most people dont want to hear this but that poxy rat has provided me with the most perfect supply of broadband i could (currently) wish for!
I bought my own ethernet modem from marx (€155) and about 10-12 days after ordering I-stream (first day) that beautiful little green sync light stayed on!!

Since then ive never had any down time and never experenced any real drop in speed (might just be my exchange - shantalla)
Combine that with good-great pings on CS, i cant complain one bit about eircom i-stream.

Every month since then ive also smashed my Cap (Avg = 9-12Gb)
And ive never heard a thing from them so again im very happy!

And when they drop the price to 39.99, ill be laughing!

Good luck with your choice.

Rabbit

flamegrill

Originally posted by rabbitinlights
And when they drop the price to 39.99, ill be laughing!

Rabbit

they are not dropping the price.

They will have a promo out that will cover new sign-ups only.

Paul

Repli

I'd go with IOL
-Good customer service
-Free connection+modem
-Better cap (8gb) than eircom(4gb)/utv(5gb)
-Good download speeds/pings

c0y0te

Repli...

When u say 'good download speeds/pings'.. can you give me some examples please?

I'm hoping to use this for the usual surfing and downloading, but also for online gaming, where the ping is king. So can you give me some idea of the typical download rates and pings to Irish or UK servers please? Thanks a mil.

c0y0te

ps - I assume you are on the 512/128k setup?

rymus

Originally posted by rymus
(having said that... someone will probably reply now just to make me look like a raving lunatic)

See...

ken90

I have had IolBB for 3 weeks, it was ok but stuck on some links and would do nothing.
It broke down last Thursday early and despite many phone calls to Tech Support has not worked since, You get Sales in 10 seconds, expect to wait 10=30 minutes to talk to Tech support, They then promise to get Eircom to flick a switch "tomorrow", but forget tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
I have now asked them to cancel my contract but they say that they wont unless they cant reconnect me. I wonder how long that will take?
Why am I saying "them"?
Because the email is signed "Esat Customer Service".

I'm dealing wtth a computer, am I?

BE WARNED

They are now not even acknowledeing my emails


PS the cap is 5 or 6 gig.
they now have a took so you can measure it.

I'm currently back tp Indigo, 6 years and never a X word

Calman

Originally posted by tomk
I took the ZyXEL modem, which is adequate - it would have been better to have an ethernet option

Why are ethernet modems better than usb?

Frank Grimes

Originally posted by Calman
Why are ethernet modems better than usb?

They're OS independent (for non Windows/Mac people that's a big plus) and they're less resource intensive. Also I've found there's none of the weirdness that goes with USB modems i.e. driver's messing up (no drivers at all for ethernet modems!), conflicts with other devices/programs etc. etc.

Supercell

If your on one of esat enabled exchanges..go with netsource..., if not, choose anyone from the rest..they all sell the same thing at consumer leval.

tomk

Originally posted by Frank_Grimes
They're OS independent (for non Windows/Mac people that's a big plus) and they're less resource intensive. Also I've found there's none of the weirdness that goes with USB modems i.e. driver's messing up (no drivers at all for ethernet modems!), conflicts with other devices/programs etc. etc.

Couldn't have put it better myself. I have a mixed-OS network - Windows & Linux - and the supplied USB modem will only connect to Windows. There is a guy writing Linux drivers, but he's at pre-alpha, so I'm not thinking of trying them anytime soon.

If I had an ethernet modem, on the other hand, this issue would disappear, as Frank describes.