Questions on IOL Broadband.

ozt9vdujny3srf

I have had a browse through the BB forum and cant seem to find any answers for the following questions :

• What kind of modem comes with IOLBB, is it ethernet or usb or do you have a choice (personally i would much rather an ethernet modem)
• What kind of pings do you get, in particular to cs gaming servers.
• How strict are they regarding the 8GB download cap
• How reliable is the connection (i.e. do the d/l speeds reduce dramatically at times or the ping times increase dramatically at times)
• Also, if you are of the opinion that IOLBB is rubbish and think i shouldnt touch it with a barge pole, who do ye think i should go with?
• Do IOL care if you are sharing your connection between 2 pc's (and possibly a laptop aswell)?

^pt^

• Zyxel Prestige 630 USB Modem.. extremely basic small blue box. I asked about ethernet but I got the run around from both Esat and the engineer, I'm pretty sure they just don't offer it. Maybe they didn't know what "ethernet" meant.
• I'm not really sure about pings, since IOL block all ICMP traffic and you can't ping, traceroute, etc from a dos prompt. It doesn't really affect anything though, and you still see a response time in games (which I haven't looked at recently).
• I'm not really sure about this since I've never gone all that much over 8gb. I've never been charged for the half gig or so I might have gone over though.
• I think I'm fairly close to an exchange and I always get max speeds and normal response times, no matter what. I imagine there aren't many people on this exchange though, fairly retired neighbourhood. I've never been unable to connect or had other problems.
• I'm happy enough with IOL, I've had no problems. Cheaper than netsource and eircom, bigger cap than eircom and equal cap to UTV. Don't have to switch your phone calls to Esat like you do with UTV, which is probably why I put up with Esat's incompetent staff and billing system.
• I have a router with two computers connected, previously I had internet connection sharing. They don't know and don't care it seems. It's probably just their way of making sure they don't have to do the extra tech support for it. (Blocking ICMP seems to cause some problems with internet connection sharing, but you can use a software alternative or a router.)

Hope that helps!

BigMoose

If they block ICMP traffic, how come I can : :cool:

Pinging www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.240.110] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 212.58.240.110: bytes=32 time=178ms TTL=248
Reply from 212.58.240.110: bytes=32 time=151ms TTL=248
Reply from 212.58.240.110: bytes=32 time=271ms TTL=248
Reply from 212.58.240.110: bytes=32 time=112ms TTL=248

Ping statistics for 212.58.240.110:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 112ms, Maximum = 271ms, Average = 178ms


If there's a particular server you want me to ping then let me know...

Before I singed up I asked them about ethernet modems and sharing the connection and they said that I could buy and use my own modem etc but they would not support it if I had problems and that they will ship the Zyxel USB thing regardless of whether I wanted to use it or not. I have an ethernet modem and wireless router for 3 PCs with no bother.

There are many many threads here about the cap - I've not gone over it myself, but ^pt^ and others have by not a lot and are ok, there are other threads here where people claim to be cut off after consistantly going over by some margin...

Totally agree with the incompetant billing but I do get charged something fairly close to what I should be once in a while...

^pt^

Woah! They finally stopped blocking it. They were doing it for months, but I guess something changed their mind. I suppose it shows how vital it is if I didn't even notice the difference.

ozt9vdujny3srf

Thanks ^pt^ and Bigmoose , btw BigMoose are those dsl ping times,? they seem very very high.

Ripwave

Originally posted by Truckle
What kind of modem comes with IOLBB, is it ethernet or usb or do you have a choice (personally i would much rather an ethernet modem)

According to a number of recent posts, IOLBB have been providing the Zyxel Prestige 623 for the last month or so, which has ethernet and USB ports.

BigMoose

Those were IOL BB ping times - but they were going through a Netgear router and ADSL modem - not that I know what real difference the router makes. It was from a wired port and not wiress if that makes any differnece either... So that answer probably wasnt much help! I also picked a host that I knew existed, which happened to be in the UK...:dunno:

Gummy Panda

Here is my ping on IOLBB to www.jolt.co.uk

Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=32ms TTL=57
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=32ms TTL=57
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=32ms TTL=57
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=32ms TTL=57

Ping statistics for 195.149.21.11:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 32ms, Maximum = 32ms, Average = 32ms

BigMoose

Here's mine to the same server:

Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=57
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=57
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=57
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=57

Ping statistics for 195.149.21.11:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 39ms, Maximum = 44ms, Average = 40ms

Maybe the slight difference is the router? Better than it was to the BBC though!

Cal

It's just that BBC server that sucks.

Here is another Jolt ping on IOL


Pinging clarity.jolt.co.uk [195.149.21.11] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=56
Reply from 195.149.21.11: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=56

Ping statistics for 195.149.21.11:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 31ms, Maximum = 33ms, Average = 32ms


Oh yea and I get a rock solid 54.8KB p/s download.

Cal.

ozt9vdujny3srf

Very nice i am swung on iol BB, gonna order it tomorrow .

bbbbb

I've been using IOL BB since mid-Nov and I'm very happy with the service. I was worried about contention but seem to get the 512K (server permitting). I have seen a thread of where a user who claimed he went marginally over the 8G limit (9G) had the service removed by IOL (either on boards.ie or askaboutmoney.com).

Also because the still use dial-up technology (PPPoE), you do still have a dial up icon as before, with user/password and a dummy phone no. Occasionally this fails for me, but usually works 5 sec later. However I've seen threads where this seems to be a big problem for others.
(in case you've missed it)
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=138579

HTH

Placebo

What kind of pings do you get, in particular to cs gaming servers.

How strict are they regarding the 8GB download cap

How reliable is the connection (i.e. do the d/l speeds reduce dramatically at times or the ping times increase dramatically at times)

CS games, i get a ping of 45- if you go on decent servers, you usually would be on 35 or so. pING DOESNT increase dramatically .

Download speeds, from a decent server is basically 50-55. Lowest youd get would be 35 kb per sec.

kida

How strict are they regarding the 8GB download cap

They cut you off for the rest of the month if you go over. I was only just under 10GB last month and was cut off.

Iago

The modem supplied is a Prestige 623 dual ethernet and USB, unfortunately I signed up in the early stages and just got the basic USB model which they won't exchange without me paying an extra €50!

They enforce the 8GB religiously as mentioned above! if you go over the limit your account is suspended for the rest of the month

Reliability is generally quite good, with the exception of this weekend when things seemed to go haywire across the DSL product with IOL, UTV and IBB all down..