EIRCOM Broadband Problems - Easter Weekend ...

aidanodr

Hi Lads,

I am speechless - I live in Carrigaline. I have been involved in the computer business for to many years. I own a small Web Design / Internet Consultancy company. The reason for saying this - I have a good idea of systems and broadband and that.

Since last Wednesday / Thursday I have noticed a considerable slowdown in browsing on the internet. Thursday night late I was checkin mail and a few sites to find, though my router was indicating Broadband on the line, I could not do anything online. No email, Browsing etc. Now this is fine - it tallied with a maintenance announcement at the Eircom Broadband Service pages that a Home Starter Pack upgrade was going on.

Well, after all this the fun begins. I tried loading usual pages that I go to like - www.cgtalk.com - a 3D site. Usually loads quick enough. This time about 3-4 minutes. It was loading line by line - shudder - back to the days of the 56k Modem. Other sites would not appear at all, refresh then they would appera - slowly. I also spend time at the Realsoft3D IRC, only to find - since last thursday - I am getting disconnected regularly.

So ENOUGH of this. Today I had time and the courage to ring EIRCOM Broadband Support. 3 times to be precise. The first time I explained my problem - this was a short call, they would look into it - but they had not got any reports of problems in my area. Next I got a call from my brother in law - who lives across the town from me - he was having the same problem. I also got a call from a friend of mine in BALLINCOLLIG [ west of Cork City ], he too having the same problems since mid week last week.

I rang EIRCOM again, explained in the interim that I had got calls from two people in different areas - all having the same problems. What I got back - "Sorry, but we only can deal with your problem" - effectively, these other people will have to ring in themselves. Eluding to tha fact that I should ring each of them and TELL them to complain seperately. What would have been nice is - "Can you give me their numbers we will ring them and check this out". But no.

This second call was for about an hour - we went through cables, routers, ipconfig, pinging ... blah blah. I had already done all of this countless times and explained so, only to be told basically - do it again. FINALLY after much patience on my behalf - it was agreed that a problem was afoot. It would be 'Raised' to troubleshoot status BUT an engineer may want to call to my house next week AND if it was a problem with my system - I WOULD BE CHARGED. Second session finished.

I then said - sod this and did something I had forgotten - I loaded up a trace route program [ traces the path your site request takes over the net ]. I did a trace of the www.eircom.net site to find that the average packet loss across the whole route was 40/45%. Well, their is the problem I said. Rang EIRCOM once more. Yet another chap came to the phone. Finally he said - " Yes Sir, we are aware of problems in your area, we will be checking this. However as it is a HOLIDAY WEEKEND, the issue will not be resolved until Monday Evening or Tuesday".

NOW I AM SPEECHLESS. This is just not acceptable. We are paying about €40 a month for THIS??? Also I ended up paying EIRCOM to tell them they have problems. Should a refund be in order? I will leave it to your imagination what I think of this company .... Baaah!

What more can I say. Least of all this will alert anyone else who is having slow broadband this weekend. It would be interesting to hear other areas with this problem. Carrigaline and Ballincollig so far. As an aside I have noticed that Eircom recently changed there Home Starter DNS server addresses, could this be it. Bad DNS, bad / No site load.

Cheers
Aidan O DRiscoll

watty

I was amazed to discover our Local Dairygold Co-op open all weekend. The guy I was talking to is havving his holiday the following week.

When I was doing commercial work I was amazed to that if you had home subscription accout you could ring Eircom for free, but for a business account paying 3000 pa for various services, to even report a fault was 2.50 a minute! No phone in the client's server room, just my mobile. It took TWENTY minutes to explain THEIR fault to THEM and I got that 2.50 a minute billed to my mobile.

Now since changing to another supplier for BB, I can no longer access my Eircom Website as it is only accessible for WEB or FTP upload from their IP ranges or Irish IP ranges (they claim my Irish IP is not Irish, when whoIs etc claims it's Irish).

It took FIVE years to get them to fix my faulty line an I'm 900m from exchange..

Get a different ISP using LLU or wireless. They (Eircom) will not g'tee any QOS to bitstream resellers AFAIK.


You have my sympathy.

daveyjoe

Cheers Aidan, at least now I know that I'm not the only one experiencing this crazy slow down! it's wrecking my head, I can't get anything done.

I'm with UTV in Carrigaline.

aidanodr

Hi Lads,

Latest on this - was onto eircom again, about this. Turns out that this is affecting the whole 021 area. Its a random thing. AND it has something to do with the lines. They are dealing with the issue case by case, trying to track the problem. No date as to when it will be resolved.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT to get on to Eircom Broadband support and report this issue. The more that do the better chance of a resolution - 1890260260

Cheers
Aidan O Driscoll - Carrigaline. Co. Cork

ladida

I'm also in Carrigaline but with EsatBT plus for broadband. I haven't noticed any slow down at all. I'd even go as far as sayin it's never been better

Looks as if €ircon are up to their usual. Unless you're bound to contract, I'd leave them and their pathetic service. Although I'm fairly happy with EsatBT, their support isn't the best either. I'm thankful that I've had almost no problems with the service and haven't needed to spend hours on the phone to get nowhere.

I hope Magnet and Smart make the effort in this part of Cork. These guys seem the way forward.

Best of luck with €ircon!

aidanodr

Hi,

Iadida, you may notice above that Daveyjoe, who is with UTV is also suffering from the same issue. I got a call from a customer in Montenotte earlier today who is with Smart and has noticed the same thing.

The problem at the moment is to do with the LINES, the copper cable. AND its random in the 021 area. So you might be OK, but a neighbour with the same provider may have a problem. This is what I understood from the calls I have made to Eircom Tech Support.

SO, It does concern all of us - because, no matter what provider you are with - unfortunately - most if not all are using the same physical cable buried under the ground which "€ircon" owns. If their are problems with that then we all suffer. Maybe Esat has its own cable infrastructure, but I have not heard this. No matter who you are with you cannot get away from "€ircon" until this underlying cable structure is wrenched from "€ircon" which is highly unlikely as it is about to be all sold onto an Aus company in a while anyway.

True competitive packages will only be possible if the copper cable system is 'released' from any one company owning it. As long as it remains with an outfit like Eircom - as the old saying goes - swapping from one provider to another will be like moving the deckchairs around the titanic [ I think thats the way that phrase goes anyway ]. I realise price etc will differ but Quality of Service will be dictated essentially by the quality ofthe underlying cable infrastructure currently owned by Eircom.

Of course I may have a lot of facts wrong up above, if so I apologise and stand corrected AND look forward to any 'edits' to what I have said.

Cheers
Aidan

techie

Aidan,

When Eircon recently upgraded everyone with higher speeds for their Internet, a lot of people have now got broadband that comes and goes i.e. Sync light on routers going on and off, this is as a direct result of the fact that the copper wires that Eircon have run are not up to the job in some areas, obviously they won't admit this in public

daveyjoe

techie wrote:

Aidan,

When Eircon recently upgraded everyone with higher speeds for their Internet, a lot of people have now got broadband that comes and goes i.e. Sync light on routers going on and off, this is as a direct result of the fact that the copper wires that Eircon have run are not up to the job in some areas, obviously they won't admit this in public

I don't see your point??

This has started happening this weekend, it is nothing to do with the recent speed increases.

techie

Aidan brought up the point about the copper that Eircom own , I was just giving my recent experience with customers that are having grief also with Eircom broadband.

daveyjoe

Has anybody got any updates on the situation?

aidanodr

Hi daveyjoe,

I hope ye all appreciate that it takes about 4 or 5 refreshes and 3 minute waits and all that for me to reply Grrr ...

No real news - only that each day I get calls from others in the same boat regardless of provider. Also down here in Carrigaline it seems - as of this morning that all the Lotto Machines are on go slow too - whether this is the same thing or not Im not sure. This phenomenon happened with the lotto machines a few weeks back here too.

I would suggest ye all have a go off of a trace route app like PINGPLOTTER - www.pingplotter.com About 900k download. When installed put eircom.net in as an addy to trace, give it about 3 minutes and watch and wonder at the packet loss. Typically mine is about 30 to 50% on all 5 hops. As Techie pointed out to me the CHF in the DNS Names is Churchfield, the 159 ip addys are Dublin. Last night this went to 100% packet loss a good few times.

I also sent a mail to the Examiner - to the tech section. The email addresses are: business@examiner.ie and technology@examiner.ie - we will see if anything comes of it - maybe email these guys your experiences too.

Cheers
Aidan

daveyjoe

Here's some info which may or may not be helpful (from Carl on the UTV newsgroup)...

Our support guys have reported multiple cases of this to Eircom.
Apparently they have a global fault ticket open, and are currently
ignoring individual cases. We've also had a few premature fix
notifications as this is still outstanding.

There's not much you can do at the moment. This is issue is affecting
all BB users in the area, including Eircom's

aidanodr

Heres another thread about this with more detail. Doesnt look good:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054919735

cheers
aidan

Raskolnikov

I'm with BT, have had zero connectivity since Wednesday. Gave technical support another call asking if they had any idea when the issue would be resovled. He said he didn't know, told me to hang on until Monday :eek: Is there any course of action I can take over this?

aidanodr

Raskolnikov,

Yes you can do something. Start contacting the powers that be. Your local Fianna Fail TD for example. I have contacted and emailed Noel O Flynn for example - he was on RTE today showing serious misgivings about this Eircom Takeover. All have websites OR the Fianna Fail website - Noel o Flynns site is: http://www.noeloflynn.ie

Any contacts in Radio etc? I have emailed and rang the Technology and Business Section in the Examiner Newspaper - they were delighted that I did and are looking into this. Use the net to find contacts and make people aware. The more it gets out there the less Eircom will like it and may be forced into action.

I for one cannot afford to wait 9 months for this to be resolved. Its would wreck my business [ Web Design and internet - www.netactivesolutions.net ]

Cheers
Aidan

Sponge Bob

Pat Kenny program

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/todaywithpatkenny/

dub45

and what about the Eircom CEO phil.nolan@eircom.ie

dimerocks

Broadbadn Billing is 1800 200670
I just got of the phone to them again and they said that it is a port issue but to be honest they have said so many things to so many people that I don't have a clue if they even know. He couldn't give me and exact time for it to be fixed but said that in his experience at worst he thinks the end of next week. So what service providers can we all change to??
I have had 100% packet loss for the last few minutes. I guess if this posts then its up a bit at least.

aidanodr

Hi Guys,

Day 11 - [ for me ] - with slow OR without effective use of Broadband.

Lotto machines all over town on a slowdown also. Buddies of mine talking to Churchfield Engineers - they are not aware of problems in this area. One wonders then - if anything is being done to the Carrigaline Exchange to fix these problems. As far as I know all goes through Churchfield then onto Dublin

The one fear I have is that with this Babcock and Brown takeover thing - that Eircom right now will not invest further in infrastructure. That is - nothing will be done until the deal goes through. God knows how long this will take. To be honest - this dependance on the Eircom underlying Copper Cable system - the LLU [ the last mile ] - is crazy. The folly of this can now be seen here in Carrigaline. Unfortunately all the alternatives ALSO rely on this cable system - so competition, well I would not call it that, unless maybe slight price differences.


Cheers
Aidan

aidanodr

I do believe we may be coming out of the Dark Period we were in It is now Day 13, but after 12 Midnight. I can now FTP and everything seems faster.

Fingers crossed - have we been delivered?

Aidan

aidanodr

Hi Guys,

It ia now 10.08am - 25th April. I have now got full service back. The packet loss seems to have sorted itself- 0% at the moment. If ye are still having problems - I would suggest one thing. RESTART your Router. Turn it off, leave it off for about 30 seconds, turn it back on, after about 2 minutes re logon [ If you are with Eircom - Username is eircom, Password is broadband1 ] to the Broadband again and see how ye are getting on.

I am with EIRCOM Broadband direct - are ye? Maybe this is taken care of first, not sure. Are ye with BT, UTV?

Hope this helps,

Oh Yes, my broadband bill just dropped in the door - now the battle begins with Eircom Accounts

Keep us posted, I will pop up any other observations,

Cheers
Aidan
www.netactivesolutions.net

solidgear

well, i'm living in tivoli folks & my broadband is home starter. download speeds have been shockingly slow yesterday & today, using both ethernet & wireless. rang eircome to no joy. anyone else in the neighborhood suffering. I heard they sorted carigaline out, have they just dumped the problem on us a different area of cork, so as to retain carigaline customer satisfaction?

aidanodr

Sorry to hear your troubles Solid Gear. I had to put up with same in Carrigaline for the last few weeks. Seems to be a prob thats moving around. According to Eircom Broadband announcements their is another Major Maintenance tomorrow for Churchfield and Dungarvan, maybe this will sort things.

Meanwhile post here also:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054919735

Alot more activity here,

Cheers
Aidan