Broadband - How to get connected from scratch?

damiennolan

Hello,

I am a total noob to broadband and I'd like to get broadband in my apartment but I dont know where to start.
I live in the Harolds Cross area but as i'm in an apartment i can't mount a dish - so that option is out. Ripwave (aka the irish broadband dildo) is also out as it is not covered in my area.

So that leaves the phone line. The previous tenants had a phone line so i know it is setup but it is not activated.

From my understanding i need to get this activated through eircom. How does this work, what does it cost etc.

I am thinking of going with BT given that line rental only costs 10 euro as opposed to 20 ex VAT with eircom.

Can someone explain clearly how all this works?

All advice is greatly appreciated as i am pretty clueless!

motormouthmable

DAY ONE
- plug in a phone into the socket and dial 199000 - it will tell you automatically your phone number (without the leading 0 ["zero"] for the prefix)
- order an eircom phone line online and quote that given phone number in the appropriate field (this will safe you a LOT of money)

DAY TWO
- check if you can make outgoing calls, if yes: your line is active, if no: wait another day
- if phone line is active ring the eircom customer service 1901 and ask the lady then for your account number. she will reply that she is unable to tell you this over the phone but she will be happy to post it to your address. agree with that
- wait for your account number. in the meanwhile go and check all BB suppliers with their number checker if your phone line is BB enabled for their service

DAYS THREE, FOUR AND FIVE
- make some outgoing calls and give all your friends your new number
- go to PC world and get the Eircom wireless router for only 29.99 from their special offer. you need to give your number at the checkout - but hey, you might have forgotten your correct number and by accident you're giving a wrong number to the clerk?!

DAY SIX
- now that you have recieved a paper slip from eircom with your account number go and order BB from the provider of your choice
- be impatient and play with the settings of your new wireless BB modem router. do a line test at least 3 times a day to see if there is any change

damiennolan

thanks motormouthmable!

just one question,

can i get eircom to activate my line but not get my line rental from them ie get it from BT instead?
How much would activation alone cost? How would I order it?

motormouthmable

you first need to go to eircom because they physically own the lines (afaik) and then you can totally switch over to a different company for both lines (phone and BB). or you stay with your phone line at eircom and pay there the base line rental and get your BB from a 2nd company. as far as i know there are no BB companies that do BB via phone line without an activated phone (voice) service.
except you go wireless like IBB or metro. then you dont need a phone line. you'll get an antenna on the roof.

damiennolan

ok, so just to confirm,

I have to activate via eircom and pay the monthly rental fee initially. I can then decide to change over to another provider as necessary?

motormouthmable

yes. you have to pay eircom at least once.
and as you always pay in advance you probably will get some money back from €ircom as soon as you have switched over to a different provider

for all the nit-pickers out there: this is my personal experience. all happened to me as described above. nothing added, nothing taken away!

damiennolan

cheers for that motormouthmable

If anyone else would like to add anything or share their experiences, please do!!

Sponge Bob

better hurry the free connection (if you get a number talked back on 199000) ends 28th november , also note they will try to swindle you for a connection fee anyway so do not lose that number or the name of the operative who signs you up .

see

http://www.eircom.ie/About/Activities/internet_special_offer.pdf

in situ and pre cabled offer

damiennolan

If i order a phone line online via the eircom site it should be free, hopefully!!

http://www.eircom.ie/cgi-bin/bvsm/bveircom/bladerunner/showContent.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1179959610.1162917292@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccccaddjflegjgmcefeceiedffndffj.0&cid=PhoneLinesRes&site=Res&chanId=-536882387&storeChanId=-536882387&clickIdAction=addClickID_gateway&clickIdTo=/bveircom/bladerunner/showContent.jsp&clickFrom=/bveircom/bladerunner/showContent.jsp&clickFromCID=PhonesAndModemsRes2&clickFromCategory=null

motormouthmable

if it is "your first eircom residential telephone line" (quote eircom) then it should be a free connection as advertised. No need to tell them if you have moved and you previously had a phone line

dub45

Do a search on here for the woes of being with BT or even attempting to sign up with them - caveat emptor!!!!!!!!!

dathiultaigh

Hey don't forget Cable Broadband done by NTL (dont know of any other providers like this). I think they may be doing a special on new accounts. Plus you dont pay phone rental.

damiennolan

NTL is not available in my area

damiennolan

OK, the phone line is ordered. now i just need to decide on a provider.

Suggestions and experiences please!

dathiultaigh

Smart - I have never had a connection with them but the feedback on boards is mostly positive. Dont know if they are still taking on new customer though.

Eircom - As much as I detest them for the state they have placed this countries broadband service I still don't see alot of negative eircom complaints/rants on boards about individual customers expierences.

If it was my choice on priciple I would not sign up with Eircom ... but thats me

good luck

Sponge Bob

motormouthmable wrote:

vice

DAYS THREE, FOUR AND FIVE
- make some outgoing calls and give all your friends your new number
- go to PC world and get the Eircom wireless router for only 29.99 from their special offer. you need to give your number at the checkout - but hey, you might have forgotten your correct number and by accident you're giving a wrong number to the clerk?!

Now only €24,99 for a perfectly functional wireless DSL netoopia router.

Will work with any eircom reseller once you put the correct username and password into it.

hook up the ethernet cable betwen your pc and the gizmo, lights appear.

• Open your browser (eg. Internet Explorer or Firefox) if it has not already done so.
• In the address bar, type in 192.168.1.254 and click Go or press Enter on the keyboard.

eircom for the username and broadband1

now you are in to administration for the €24.99 gizmo

you need not change the admin username and password (eircom and broadband1)

The username and password you change are further down in the

Expert Mode

Configure

Connection

change username to something like mickeyboy@btbb or jonjohohoo@bb.digiweb.ie (BT or another carrier will give it to you or agree it with you or you give it to them eneter it exactly )

change password to passwordblahblah (BT or another carrier will give teh passsword to you or agree it with you or you give it to them )

change DNS to a DNS (usueally 2 of them) the other carrier gives to you or its high on their support page, every carrier has a different and unique username password and dns

save these settings .

now the €24.99 eircom wireless modem is ready to work on that other carrier instead .

Liam Byrne

Cable Broadband done by NTL (dont know of any other providers like this).

Chorus also offer this in many parts of the country.

watty

Same company

Liam Byrne

watty wrote:

Same company

Same parent company and heading that way, yeah, but currently UPC haven't actually done anything to link the two in the minds of the general public.

Coverage areas, basic channel offerings and a few other things are different, and while they're apparently due to be aligned properly sometime next year (:) Setanta Sports for free ?), I'd say there's a good chance that the two company names might be kept, due to brand awareness, goodwill, etc.

If a poster wasn't in an NTL area (AFAIK that's Waterford, Galway and Dublin ?), they mightn't know that Chorus were offering the service to their area - hence my post.

rahtkennades

damiennolan wrote:

OK, the phone line is ordered. now i just need to decide on a provider.

Suggestions and experiences please!

Hi All,
I'm in a somewhat similar situation. I ordered a connection late last week. I rang eircom and gave the address. They said the line was in place and could be activated for free. I hung up and ordered on the internet to get the free deal.
I hadn't actually checked the physical connection in the apartment (have just moved in).
After a search around the apartment, I finally located some twisted pair in the hot-press, with one pair connected to some class of a plastic frame. I'm guessing this is the phone line, but there's no proper NTU in the house.
I have a spare termination unit which I was going to wire in myself, but I'm afraid that if I do, then they activate the line, that it may fail the broadband test.

I guess my question is this. Am I best to leave it as is and play dumb till a technician calls out, or install the ntu myself and ask for a repair if the broadband fails?

Cheers
des