Cheapest wireless broadband in Cork?

Rozie

I'm living near the railway station and looking for very cheap, basic, wireless boradband. I don't care how slow it is as long as it's a few times faster than dialup. I have internet access where I'm living but the firewall is a complete nazi, it even blocks out the UCC timetable just because it's on a different port. Want to play online games and crap.

Illkillya

Rozie, cheap basic wireless broadband won't be much good for playing online games. I was going to recommend Ripwave, which is brutal and slow and unreliable and it generally sucks all-round, but for someone in your situation it is very handy since there is no minimum contract, and it doesn't require any installation. If you want to play games and you insist on wireless, you could try Digiweb or Nova Networks.

Jack B. Badd

I have Ripwave...the fact that it connects to the interweb at all scares me o.O Seriously though, you'll never play games on it. You don't have a phone line, no?

embraer170

I'm out in Glasheen and also looking for a wireless connection.

Don't really care about games... just need a connection for browsing/MSN etc.

Any ideas?

Jack B. Badd

Ripwave does actually work for that...ish.

embraer170

But I didn't think there was Ripwave coverage in Glasheen?

And when you say "ish" what does that mean?

Jack B. Badd

Its not as slow as dial-up where I am but its still slow. Streaming videos and the like are a no-no. I can download at a speed that is...reasonable, for want of a better word, and I can post here and chat on irc no problem. If that's all you're looking for you could be ok - depending on your area :rolleyes: It's very hit and miss from what I've heard...

Rozie

How slow is slow though? Can you measure your average download speed?

You usually don't need that good a connection for online games actually - there's only so much data being Transmitted. Something like Quake or UT doesn't transmit much data, and MMORPGs hardly have to be that fast.

Jack B. Badd

According to Irish ISP speed test: My download speed is 29.7 kbps and upload is 31.1 kbps...Ouch!

trixter

I have smart telecoms citywide wifi service, which at 35EUR isnt horrible, however their mesh network is poorly designed, and that leads to problems where you have excellent signal to smart telecom, but still cant do anything. It works generally for chat/email/etc. Is ok for browsing (their proxy server occasionally breaks things a reload generally fixes it sometimes it takes a few reloads).

I had to tweak properties of my network connection that you generally cant tweak just to get to this level of service. They also dont appear to like you staying connected 24/7 - while they dont block you, their equipment has timers in it which seem to go bonkers if you are connected for a long time.

If you transfer large quantities of data to the internet they appear to have a rate limiter which slows you down to a crawl fast.

I have learned how I can use it, and how to make it generally better while using it, and that has enabled me to get done what I need. As I am in temporary housing I cant really get anything else other than dialup. I think that generally I made the right choice.

They dont have coverage everywhere, they claim citywide but even patricks street has a bunch of dead zones

Rozie

Jack B. Badd wrote:

According to Irish ISP speed test: My download speed is 29.7 kbps and upload is 31.1 kbps...Ouch!

That's not too bad at all. Considerring this is Ireland. I'd be fine with those speeds; it's about what you'd expect with basic broadband. It's about 5 times faster than the ISDN I have back at home anyway. Why is your upload faster than your download?

Jack B. Badd

Dunno. I'm getting 2.57 KBps using the test on eircom.net but that's with IE because FF seems to have an issue with it. I'm gonna close IE now...it dirties up my scumpooter

trixter

Rozie wrote:

That's not too bad at all. Considerring this is Ireland. I'd be fine with those speeds; it's about what you'd expect with basic broadband. It's about 5 times faster than the ISDN I have back at home anyway. Why is your upload faster than your download?

That is odd, most want the download to be faster for a financial reason. Anytime larger internet providers connect to each other they have some form of agreement that talks about usage. If provider A sends more data to B than B sends to A, B sends a bill to A for that difference. This bill is quite small in terms of the total bandwidth since they arent really charging each other for that. Some providers enter into 'bill and keep' arrangements but these often change over if one sends a lot more than they receive.

When you download you generate credits for your ISP. When you upload to someone that is not on the same provider you generate cost. providers like it when you download a lot more than you upload, and try to encourage that by the speeds they offer.

The reality is that with most technologies they can create a symmetric data flow, they just choose not to because its far more profitable that way.

The only thing I can think of is that the test wasnt local, as such its gotta fight not only its way across the specific provider but also through a peering point to the other provider that it ends up on. This contention for network resources can cause nearly symmetric or possibly even backwards rates.

Illkillya

Rozie wrote:

That's not too bad at all. Considerring this is Ireland. I'd be fine with those speeds; it's about what you'd expect with basic broadband. It's about 5 times faster than the ISDN I have back at home anyway. Why is your upload faster than your download?

I think he means that is the bandwidth available to him according to Irish ISP Test... i.e, with your ISDN it would show up as 64k download. His connection would be extremely slow and very bad value for money. If he was getting 30kb/s download and upload speeds I agree, that would be good.

hunnymonster

I'd also like to figure out the best way to connect to the internet in Cobh. I don't want to put a phone into the house (moral objection to paying eircom rental). I'll only really need it to quickly check e-mails when I'm too lazy to go into the office but want to stay in touch. My mobile is with O2 if that is a possibility?

Fysh

If you have GPRS internet access available through your mobile, are able to connect your mobile to your computer (Infra-red, bluetooth or data cable) and are willing to pay the typically-extortionate rates for GPRS browsing, that might be your easiest solution. For the price, GPRS internet access is slow and generally crap, but it doesn't have strings attached like most other forms of access. (If you're interested, check out your handset manufacturer's site, they should have software you can download and install to get things set up. You'll probably also need to contact O2 to find details like their APN and, if they've bothered with them, the passwords required to authenticate on the service).

hunnymonster

Thanks Fysh, VIa mobile does seem the easiest way to go.

el Bastardo

Hunnymonster (the threadjacker), there's also wireless BB in your area, isn't there? (e.g. amocom).

hunnymonster

appologies for the fred-jacking.


Dunno. Only moved in properly last week (still working in Dublin) so laptop going down tonight to look for signal.

Raskolnikov

http://www.novanetworks.ie/home/index.asp

If you do a search for thread on Ireland Offline board, Nova Networks' product seems to get decent praise.

omahony99

In case people are avoiding telephone line based broadband so that they don't have to pay Eircom line rental, remember most of these providers such as Magnet don't require you to pay any line rental.
Also, for the people who are asking for wireless broadband, the telephone line based broadband is actually wireless broadband as well because it comes with a wireless router.