Query about Broadband/Ripwave

fifib

ok im at a very high risk of sounding stupid but im gona ask anyways. Got ripwave last night and tried to install it to get broadband on my laptop. first off the signal was very poor (Harolds Cross area) but to make matters worse i didnt realise you have to keep the box thingy connected to the laptop at all times! (am i correct in thinkn that? cos when i pulled out the ethernet cable i lost the connection)which means that im gona have to surf the net sitting on the ground beside the window in my living room/kitchen!! how stylish!
i was hoping to be wireless but im guessing with the aid of a wireless router this is possible or is it even worth it?
Neways i dont have alot of other options really cos im not gona be in the city after xmas and all other crowds have 12 months subscription etc.. and the no contract and no line connection suit me to the ground but in general the service is not great is it! So if anyone has any ideas maybe on gettn broadband to suit my needs (i.e only for few months etc) i would be glad to hear them

Sponge Bob

Ripwave is a dialup substitute which is fraudulently (to my mind) missold as Broadband.

As long as you only need dialup quality service its a good deal because its cheaper than line rental on its own.

It is not Broadband.

fifib

oh rite i see. do you think ill be able to use it for downloading music etc??

Cuddlesworth

not realisticly.

optiplexgx270

Its a browsing device with no other use than viewing web pages and downloading music painfully slowly

fifib

so basically id be better off just using dial-up cos there isnt dat much of a difference and would probably be cheaper!!??

Sponge Bob

read my first post slowly , word by word by word .

jor el

fifib wrote:

so basically id be better off just using dial-up cos there isnt dat much of a difference and would probably be cheaper!!??

Dial up will cost you €24 a month in line rental plus the per-minute cost of the call. You pay less than the line rental charge alone for Ripwave so no, you wouldn't be better on dial-up. On Ripwave there is also the remote possibility that the speed will increase above that of dial-up, maybe at 4 in the morning when everyone else is in bed.

Foxwood

Under optimal conditions, Ripwave will give you download speeds far in excess of dialup - I've used it to download at 400kbps on occassion (a year or two ago). If you have it in a location where you can get that sort of speed, it'll be ideal for downoading music.

But performance of Ripwave can be very variable. It'll work brilliantly for a week, and then performance will be in the pits. It'll work in one room, or one location in a room, but not work in the next room, or on the other side of the room.

As for being connected to the ripwave unit, it essentially converts a wireless broadband signal into a wired signal for you to connect to. You can plug a Wreless access point into the Ripwave unit if you want to, but it's not really worth it unless you have a consistently good signal. The Ripwave Coverage map on the IBB site for Dubin City shows that Harolds Cross does not have good Ripwave Coverge.

fifib

Thanks for all yer advice guys
You see there is a phone line (Eircom) in my flat but my housemates use it for receiving calls mainly. they dont mind me hooking up my laptop to it and of course i pay them for it...thats why i thought it would be cheaper cos i dont pay the line rental only the calls i make. but then again i wouldn't be on it for very long cos its not mine technically n i wouldn't take advantage of that. I would sign up to BT or other if i could but cos im goin to be leaving after xmas, well then the others would be left payn the bill and none of them have any use for broadband
As for Ripwave..i dont think ill ever get the best signal from it...bummer
Why's it so hard to just get online??? hehe

jor el

fifib wrote:

Why's it so hard to just get online???

This is the Republic of Banana after all.
Spineless regulator.
Gob****e of a communications minister.
Worthless successive governments.
Eircom monopoly.

Pick any or all of the above, unfortunately. There's probably a whole lot more too.

Foxwood

Sign up for BT 1MB. You can cancel it after 6 months. If your flatmates have no objection to switching their calls and line rental to BT, the BB will cost as little as €10/month. It'd be worth paying for the couple of months that you won't be using it, just for the convenience of having it.

fifib

ya i did look into this but from what ive ben reading it could be near xmas before i even get it. although i was just talking to my uncle and his came in 2 weeks!
i was also thinkn...see after xmas ill be moving back home to galway and if say i was with BT would i be able to transfer it to galway then for the time period that is left. ive checked the availability of my home number n it seems good to go for BT broadband. but there will probably be a massive charge to do this!

Foxwood

Unless the phoneline is in your name, I doubt you'd be able to transfer it. (You're talking about €120 for 6 months of broadband alone, without bundling - BTs setup overheads wouldn't make it economical to support a transfer, as they'd still have to pay eircom a new setup fee at the other address).