High Bandwidth access for the masses

El_Presidente

LO

Roughly a year ago Cablelink announced that they were starting a cable modem service and that it would be well under way by the first quater of
this year. It never came and we later found out it was only a cynical marketing ploy , designed to boost their share price for
the buy off.

This annoyed me greatly as I had decided NOT to get ISDN because I was under the impresion that cable modems were just around the corner.
It seems NTL are slightly more serious then the old Cablelink owners ( Telecom ) but I still have to wonder how long it will take for the service
to reach me. I live in Leixlip, which is pretty deep into the suburbs of Dublin and although im sure if you lived or worked in the "Golden Square Mile"
of Dublin you would soon have full cable access I very much doubt the service will be avalible here for a number of years.

ADSL?? I really have no idea what this is or how much it costs or if it will ever really be available. If someone could tell me the odds of it ever really being introduced in this
country id be happy to hear from them but to be honest it sounds like just like cable modems, a pipe dream.

This leaves ISDN which is still quite expensive ( remember, im a student ) and is relitively slow compared to cable modems etc. I cant help but think that if I did get ISDN
then cable modems would instantly become availible and make me look like an idiot who just spent £300 pounds on a piece of crap.

So what should I do? Hold tight and get whipped around by LPBs on my modem and hope that Cablelink do get their act together, or just bite the bullet and get
an ISDN line? Maybe theres something im forgeting, Leased line maybe?

Opinions please.

El_Pres

Chaos

lexlip suburbs lol

Erm yes nice rant there el_pres
Get em isdn if u dotn wanna wait a year or more!

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www.gibworld.com/chaos
DK 0wns U

Hecate

wait.

ISDN is seriously overrated. I presume if you were to order it you would get 64k and most of us dont have the money for dual 128k. But think about it, whats the difference between a decent 56k modem and 64k isdn...is it really worth the extra 8k of bandwidth??. Sure youd get sub 100 pings but you dont really notice the difference, the only thing is its a lot more stable than a modem and you get fewer disses.

Wait for whatever comes next (believe me it will come) , ISDN is old news at this stage.

Dr_Teeth

Pres, just get an ISDN line. The most important things to have connection-wise for gaming are:

1. Low latency - ISDN gives you this.

2. Stability - ISDN is a LOT better than an analogue modem in this respect, no more dropped connections. (hopefully )

3. Quick connection - again, much better than a modem, which for me takes around 30 seconds to connect.

4. Low cost - lets face it, ISDN ain't bad, once it's in - basically the same as the cost of a modem but much improved performance. Who knows how much ADSL and Cable modems will cost, or what kind of nasty bandwidth limitations might be imposed if you go over an agreed monthly quota?

So what if ISDN is only 64kpbs, that doesn't matter for gaming at all - unless you want to spend all your time downloading warez and porn it's grand. You might as well get it now, this is Ireland remember - ADSL and Cable modems for the masses is a long way off..

Teeth.

TwoShedsJackson

I gots to agree with Teeth there - its not so much the extra 8k of bandwith as the (almost always) rock solid connection you get thats important for gaming. Download speeds are bout 7k a sec, which is twice as fast as many an analog connect. Installation IS stupidly expensive esp. once you consider that HomeHighway in the UK costs 130 to ut in, and theres 200 for a TA, but once its in yer paying no more than usual so thats grand

My greedy bast of a landlord is forcing me out of me current place with a ludicrous rent increase, so i shall soon be isdn-less, but with the money i save on rent in the first month in me new place (wherever that may be) i'll be able to have ISDN put in there

KinDreD

I prefer using a modem......when i loose i can blame my outlandish waterford node pings.......ISDN is over rated tho'.........

Jaden

ISDN stable? Only in theory. My ISDN average connect time, with dissing is about 10 mins, often it disses while still connecting. And that is assuming I go direct to Dublin. Local node ISDN access in Galway, (with Tinet, whom I think are the root of the problem) is WORSE than 33.6 anaolgue (300 pings, 60% PL.) This is not a Modem setting or just any old cheap modem, it's a USR courier I-Modem costing 350 bills, that gives excellent direct connects. (I've gotten over 7.5 K a sec). ISDN, when it works, is worth the money. But beware, there are horror stories.

Can't wait to try Indigo ISDN.

Hail To The King, Baby.

Jaden.

ButcherOfNog

Jaden, thats your local node, I and many others on the castleblaney node had exactly the same problems and we all went mental on the tinet.support ng. posting traceroutes with 80% pl etc

funny thing is, since all the ranting my node has suddenly become much more stable, and I can play quake on it, ok somedays are worse than others, but most weekdays its about a 50ms increase (thats 170ms rather than 120ms on dublin pop), perhaps 3 freezes every 30mins, but it is playable.

Chief

All i can suggest is that we save oour pennies and move to HUn-land somewhere to get a cable or xDSL connect... ive been on this dual & single (Damn Tinet) ISDN in werk now (nethouse) for ages and its just a pain in the ballix all the time... thats the way i see it...

But there is no other way out for us poor people ..leased line would be yummy but where we gonna get the cash? I think were stuck wif **** connects for the next 6 months at least...

*****to it eh?

|Chief|

3=O]

Coyote

ADSL last quarter 99 or first quarter 2000 this is from the head of the ADSL triles in Ireland the con will be 2mb on line 24 hours a day and you need to within a raides of 15 miles of the phone exchange as that is the limit with of ADSL at that speed.
the triles of it are going on in dublin at this time in a number of areas

Kegser

If you give me a tenner I'll get you a new string for your modem. Better sound conducting! Less echo! 30 bytes a second!!

SeP

ye, gimme 2!



Seppy [got new machine head album] McNugget

Blade

Castor Troy Wrote:

My greedy bast of a landlord is forcing me out of me current place with a ludicrous rent increase, so i shall soon be isdn-less, but with the money i save on rent in the first month in me new place (wherever that may be) i'll be able to have ISDN put in there

There is a way to get Telecom to move your existing ISDN from one premises to another free of charge, look into it, you might have to sleep with Bubbles or something but it is possible.

Blade

TwoShedsJackson

Any idea where in Telecom to try this Blade? I've rang two diff times so far and both times i was told that it cant just be transferred from one place to another, it just has to be shut off here, and then they install a line at the new place.

mobius

I recently saw an add for a cable ISP,
and was shocked by their limit of 40MB's of download per month.
I go through about 15MB's per day, just playing Quake and the internet.
What's the point of all that bandwidth if the stupid phuckers won't let you take advantage of it?
And besides, most cable set-ups need your phone line for outgoing data.
I can't see Dual-Cable gear coming out over here for ages.
Just stick with your modem and spend that 300 quid on clothes and beer.

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They only come out at night.
http://drive.to/mobius

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Hecate

I will just give the two fingers to any telecoms company's that start putting limits on what traffic goes through your line, or charging you for it, no matter how fast it is. I think most ppl feel like this.

mobius

Well Put...

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They only come out at night.
http://drive.to/mobius

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Draco

Okay - I was sussing out Cable Modems during the week.

CableNet (http://www.cablenet.ie) are doing trials in Malihide and Swords and *claim* that they will soon be offering the service elsewhere. Installion cost £150 if you're signed up to CMI already, £250 otherwise. They have a limit of 100megs a month and then it's £2 for every 10 after.

Draco

SeP

i go thru 100+ a day at times ffs

wtf is the point??!!!

lets see....100 megs first day
30 other days x 100 megs
20 quid (100 megs) x 30 = 600 quid

roll on the ****ing floor laughing
whats the point if u cant leech mp3s/play quake all day?!?!

and sh!t if im doing 100 megs on modem, wtf am i gonna do on cable!!!

sep (if it doesnt make sense, disregard it!) py

Hecate

whats the point if u cant leech mp3s/play quake all day?!?!

Exactly

creative

I know a chappie who is on an ASDL trial in dublin.....don't know what way their gonna bill when it comes out but he was downloading the other night and was getting 2.5 megs/s.

Now wouldn't that be nice!!!

m1ke

The cable modem people in malahide said that when they expand to the rest of the city they plan to "significantly" increase the bandwidth per month. How much is the question, 2gigs would be the minimum i'd take up on an offer like that.

TwoShedsJackson

2.5 megs a second, bloody hell as for bandwidth a month, Krash has a good figure there, it would need to be on the order of 2 gigs. if you play q2 for a couple of hours yer talking 20 megs or so, so that'd be around 1-1.3 gigs a month in total for most regular players.

With other general downloads, surfing and all, mp3s, an even higher amount would probably be needed. Consider the UK scene, a UK lpb that plays for HIV is soon going SLPB by getting ADSL, he'll be paying under 100 quid a month for it (less than my current phonebill) and he didnt say owt about download charges.

MoSeS_.

after reviewing this page and using some of those figures

Let's say you only get 3k/s download with your modem

3 X 60 = 180 k per min
180 * 15
which is over 2.5 megs per evening and weekend unit time

100 megs is 40 times that much
so at 12p a pop that is under a fiver
even at 1/2 k sec it's the same price per month
and then there's the 150 set up cost

all those sums are on the pessimistic side and I think they're right (maybe)

direct quote from cablenet's page

There is a once-off connection fee of £150 for existing CMI Cable subscribers which includes the supply and installation of a speed cable modem. If you are not already connected to CMI, installation is £250. The monthly subscription cost is just £30 (£40 for non-TV subscribers) which includes up to 100MB free download. Additional download costs just £2 per 10MB.
There is no cost for using the service.

fast maybe
cheap no way
, I had great hopes

(Taz, where u at ? I've got ur money )