Kilmessan Broadband (Again)

Slaanesh

Not my usual rant ...

Some ****er in my village has eircom broadband.
He is an eircom engineer. I've only found out through someone else.
His phone number fails the test just like mine. I got a friend to check to see if broadband was actually on that number and he said it was eircom broadband.

It could be some experiment to see if lines in Kilmessan can handle DSL being 6 miles(ish) away from the exchange in Tara. I might call up to where the guy lives and hold him at gun point(maybe knife, no gun) and ask him how he got it.

There could be hope yet.

crawler

Metro MAY be available in Kilmessan - let me check and get back to you

Slaanesh

crawler wrote:

Metro MAY be available in Kilmessan - let me check and get back to you

hehe doubt it, unless you have a mast on tara hill.

crawler

Coverage map for kilmessan and Tara not 100% but indicative.

Slaanesh

wtf?

Are you telling me that Kilmessan is covered and I didn't know? Where is the mast, I can't see how Kilmessan would be covered.

Cheers for the info.

crawler

Will PM you - not fair to do the whole commercial thingy on this forum

zugvogel

Hi Crawler,
Do digiweb plan to have any coverage in the Nurney area of Kildare. I see you're in Naas, and Athy. What sort of range has your wireless service got? I'd be interested in the phone and broadband package.

Cheers,
Zug

watty

Up to the Comreg Limit of 10km. Line of sight (At least a small pole on your Chimney has to see the mast)

rahtkennades

watty wrote:

Up to the Comreg Limit of 10km. Line of sight (At least a small pole on your Chimney has to see the mast)

The digiweb q&a says not more than 4km from the mast. Is this overkill to ensure good service or something?

crawler

rahtkennades wrote:

The digiweb q&a says not more than 4km from the mast. Is this overkill to ensure good service or something?

4km is for our other wireless system (Airspan) - Metro will work up to 10km with good line of sight, more if license conditions change or are modified.

Have to go now. Mods might get cross

lucernarian

Using Airspan equipment here at a bit over 9 km:)

crawler

That is coz you are special!

With perfect LOS 9km is possible on airspan - with partial it's 4km or less.

We tend not to over promise...

Slaanesh

Incredibly fast installation time by digiweb. Ordered yesterday, attempted install today. Unfortunately no line of site to Kilmessan, even though I knew the chances were slim i'm totally gutted.

Oh well

crawler

Me too

Altreab

Slaanesh wrote:

Incredibly fast installation time by digiweb. Ordered yesterday, attempted install today. Unfortunately no line of site to Kilmessan, even though I knew the chances were slim i'm totally gutted.

Oh well

Time to get the chainsaws and bulldozers to work until you Do get a clear line of sight

watty

Yep I went and got permission from my Farmer to cut off his limbs.

(on lower bits of two trees).
Aerial only about 2m above ground at back door.

rjbir

So Lads, are there any other alternatives, i also live in Kilmessan (not in the town)and need broadband, is there anything we can do collectively.

BTW - did digiweb buy out Tarawan?

Cheers
Bob

Slaanesh

You could try a 'Three' 3g datacard depending where you are in the village. I held the laptop right up to the apex of the house in my attic and managed to obtain a 3g signal for about 10 seconds. Not really suitable for my needs.

There is satellite but that's not worth talking about and isn't considered broadband. An eircom technician in the village has eircom broadband, and I am yet to figure out how (trial?). Digiweb did a LOS for my house but got no signal (I live in bective lodge).

Put it this way, I wouldn't hold your breath.

niallb

rjbir wrote:

So Lads, are there any other alternatives, i also live in Kilmessan (not in the town)and need broadband, is there anything we can do collectively.

BTW - did digiweb buy out Tarawan?

Cheers
Bob

Tarawan was disorganised from the start.
The guys meant well, but wanted to treat it as a business
rather than a community scheme.
A business needs to communicate, and they don't.
They managed to locate an excellent site for a mast,
and there's still signal coming from it, with a TARAWAN essid.
Other than that, I don't know. They don't respond to questions on their forum.

I live just between Kilmessan and Dunsany, and have a Vodafone 3G card.
PM me where you are, and I'll do a test run for coverage for you if you like.
I'm receiving my signal from Navan, so you're nearer than I am.
Depending on what you want broadband for, it might be your best bet.

Don't give up on Digiweb though. Describe your location to them as
"near Kilmessan" and see if they give you an independent LOS test.

NiallB

rjbir

NiallB
Cheers for that, i also have a 3G card and its pretty useless, the 2.5G signal comes and goes. i have had tarawan in for a LOS test last year to no avail. Is your 3G signal coming from Navan? if it is decent enough you could consider HSDPA from Vodafone (3.6Mb) it is a pretty good product.

Cheers
Bob

Slaanesh

Now that crawler works for Eircom ... who knows what could happen for Kilmessan :P

niallb

I don't understand what you mean by "consider HSDPA".
It's the same service as the ordinary 3G from vodafone,
it just depends on availability and your hardware.

I had the USB HSDPA modem from vodafone, and could persuade it to work with a satellite dish (Search "Dunsany" and "3G" on flickr).
It never worked above 384k anyway, so I moved to a PCMCIA card, which gives me a more reliable signal.
I have both the older Option 3G card, and the newer one with 1.8M capability.
The older card has a better receiver, and I've had fewer problems with it.
It gives me 384k where the "faster" card gives me 60k.

What card do you have? Does it have an external antenna?
Have you moved it systematically around your house looking for the best signal?
I'd have no service at all if my card was just plugged in on my desk.
Don't give up!

rjbir

Niallb,
As you know HSDPA is an application that runs over 3G but where traditional 3G is only offered up to 384K. (this sounds like the speed that you are subscribed to) HSDPA, however can run up to 1.8Mb, 3.6Mb etc (this sounds like you are not subscribed to any HSDPA service) not sure about Vodafones offering but O2 are launching soon their 3.6Mb offering.

I managed to get my hands on a Nokia 3G test handset, i am planning to crawl around my attic tonight looking for the best 3G reception. when i find it i will place a HSDPA "Home Gateway" 3G box in situ and wireless down to my office. Thats the plan anyway.

Cheers
Bob

rjbir

Hi All,
just spoke to a techie in Digiweb, apparently the coverage map in this thread is way out and Kilmessan etc is not covered at all, from their mast in Navan they can only reach as far as Robinstown!
they have 20 new mast sites going up soon but i couldnt find out where they are going up, if anybody knows could they let me know pls.

Cheers
Bob

Slaanesh

rjbir wrote:

Hi All,
just spoke to a techie in Digiweb, apparently the coverage map in this thread is way out and Kilmessan etc is not covered at all, from their mast in Navan they can only reach as far as Robinstown!
they have 20 new mast sites going up soon but i couldnt find out where they are going up, if anybody knows could they let me know pls.

Cheers
Bob

Now that 'Crawler' (Our informant) works for eircom I don't know how we'll get this information

watty

Digiweb web site?

smellslikeshoes

rjbir wrote:

Niallb,
As you know HSDPA is an application that runs over 3G but where traditional 3G is only offered up to 384K. (this sounds like the speed that you are subscribed to) HSDPA, however can run up to 1.8Mb, 3.6Mb etc (this sounds like you are not subscribed to any HSDPA service) not sure about Vodafones offering but O2 are launching soon their 3.6Mb offering.

Theres no separate 3g/hspda packages. His problem is his more recent hspda card doesn't receive signal as well as his older conventional 3g card (which is only capable of 384k. So he uses the older one so he can receive 384k max instead of not getting signal with his hspda card.

cgarvey

watty wrote:

Digiweb web site?

Are there coverage maps online somwhere? (Other than this of course!)

niallb

How'd the crawl around the attic go last night?
You might be better sticking an antenna to a north facing window.
When you're looking for a 3G sweet spot, you need to leave the receiver
in the same spot for up to 30 seconds to see if it locks on.

What network are you trying to connect to?
I'm curious what Nokia 3G test handset you're using.
Very few of them will have HSDPA capability, but for example the 6680
has better reception than the Vodafone USB modem.

rjbir

Niallb,
3G reception not so good, got weak signal overall, I was testing for any good 3G signal O2, Vodafona, whatever. the handset is a Nokia 3G diagnostic piece of kit, i work in the mobile telecoms business.

Cheers
Bob

Shad0r

Ah pants...tbh I didnt expect to be able to get broadband in Kilmessin but I suppose with Digiweb in Dunshaglin and eircom dsl in Dunsany I thought it might be possible...

niallb

rjbir wrote:

Niallb,
3G reception not so good, got weak signal overall, I was testing for any good 3G signal O2, Vodafona, whatever. the handset is a Nokia 3G diagnostic piece of kit, i work in the mobile telecoms business.

Cheers
Bob

Hi Bob,
Don't get disheartened if you can see the signal at all.
So long as you can keep the card from locking to a 2G signal on a different sector, you can have usable service at very low received power in a quiet area like this.

I've had a working connection with reception strength as low as -103dBm.
At -99dBm and above I'd consider it reliable.
If your diagnostic kit doesn't give you these figures, it may instead be giving
you a strength indicator (probably called RSSI) between 0 and 31.
A 3G card or phone used as a modem will give you the same figure in response to an AT+CSQ command.
The same setup can use AT+COPS=? to scan all available networks.

The relationship between the two numbers is roughly -113dBm +2xRSSI reading.
I find a usable signal to be 7 or above on the AT+CSQ scale, with 9 and above giving few dropouts.

Signal quality can also be poor, and a DNS cache makes a big difference
to preventing timeouts stopping the show.

It also seems to help if I use office.vodafone.ie instead of hs.vodafone.ie
as an apn, but that may just be voodoo and coincidence.

Sorry to throw the maths into the thread,
but it's useful to be able to measure a rule of thumb.
I hope you get something working!
Good luck with it.
NiallB

Slaanesh

UPDATE:

Was doing my weekly "Insert number into line checker and fail" routine when I got the message "May be suitable for broadband". Straight on the phone and ordered the 3meg from eircom. Mid order the sales guy goes "Oh sorry sir we can't give you that, your line may only handle 1meg". Fine by me ....

So I placed the order anyway and then got in touch with my eircom contact. Apparently the threshold was increased for the tara exchange just the day before. One of the figures he mentioned was 98dbs which seemed very high. Lots of lines in the village still fail outright. On google maps the exchange is a good 5 miles away. I wonder if I can't get 1 meg would it be possible to get 512K?

Line supposed to be activated by the 17th so I'll just have to wait till then.

Slaanesh

BINGO: I came home and put the router in and the DSL line stayed green (rush of blood to the head). Quickly booted up the computer and straight onto boards.ie, it works. 100K download rate sub-30 ping to boards. I still can't believe I'm actually on broadband after all these years, unbelievable.

Thanks to all who have given me info and advice over the years.

Line stats:

noise margin upstream: 21 db
output power downstream: 6 db
attenuation upstream: 30 db

noise margin downstream: 12 db
output power upstream: 0 db
attenuation downstream: 59 db

Not sure what it all means but maybe some of you guys can pick it apart.

Sponge Bob

Looks like a c.3.5 mile long line at most slaanesh

a healthy 1mbit line that , maybe its a secretly 'bonded adsl2+' line outside

lucernarian

Hey Slaanesh, it's pretty cool to get broadband after so long, isn't it?:d On the face of it, that looks like a grand 1 mbps line. Is the connection speed at 1024/128??

Could you give me the make/model of the router you're using, as I want to check something with the manufacturers over the way they report the stats.

crawler

Slaanesh wrote:

Now that crawler works for Eircom ... who knows what could happen for Kilmessan :P

** Cough **

lucernarian

Yes?? Crawler, do you have anything to offer to the thread?

Duiske

psssstt....hey crawler, fancy a few free jars down my local ? Couple of carrier/split lines need "fixing" down here.

crawler

<- runs away and hides under big rocks...lurking

Slaanesh

To_be_confirmed wrote:

Hey Slaanesh, it's pretty cool to get broadband after so long, isn't it?:d On the face of it, that looks like a grand 1 mbps line. Is the connection speed at 1024/128??

Could you give me the make/model of the router you're using, as I want to check something with the manufacturers over the way they report the stats.

I'm using a Zyxel Prestige 600. Should be getting the netopia sometime next week.

The line would hardly be able to handle any more than 1 meg? Yeah it's a 1024/128 connection at the moment.

lucernarian

Cheers. I wonder why that engineer fella in the village didn't try to get you connected, seeing as your line is fully capable of 1 Mbps. Of course, mabye eircom have extended the range successfully using something else we're not aware of. But enjoy nonetheless!

Sponge Bob

Sooner or later eircom will have to start deploying DSL Repeaters . I see many reasons why they would tend to do this discreetly and not openly .

I have no actual evidence that any have been deployed .......yet....but sooner or later someone will get a service that defies the laws of physics in the absence of a repeater . Then I will get suspicious as to how they got that service.

Anything odd I have encountered in the past actually turned out to be a full subexchange in a cabinet .....eg someones dialup speed going up from 28k to 48k overnight .

Not aimed at you or at lovely Kilmessan of course slaanesh

MessyRedBlue

Hey Slaanish, I just registered with boards.ie to ask you is this true!!????

I cant belive Kilmessan has Bband! I just bought a house there and hope to move in the next few weeks, its in the new estate (im sure you know the one im talking about) Do you think we will have Bband there?????

I've been following your blogs re broadband in kilmessan since I put a deposit on the house and I cant believe this is true. If I ring Eircom in the morning will they be able to hook me up???? The excitement!!!

Slaanesh

Hi there,

It is apparently true in my case. I assume you have bought in Bective lodge, I bought there too. There will be a few more people over the coming weeks getting hooked up. I'll throw you a PM if all or most of them succeed in getting DSL.

Judging from what the guys here have said about my line stats it appears to be a healthy 1 meg line. I've only had it go down once so far for about 2 minutes, other than that it's been brilliant.

MessyRedBlue wrote:

Hey Slaanish, I just registered with boards.ie to ask you is this true!!????

I cant belive Kilmessan has Bband! I just bought a house there and hope to move in the next few weeks, its in the new estate (im sure you know the one im talking about) Do you think we will have Bband there?????

I've been following your blogs re broadband in kilmessan since I put a deposit on the house and I cant believe this is true. If I ring Eircom in the morning will they be able to hook me up???? The excitement!!!

MessyRedBlue

That would be great if you could keep me updated on the other peoples progress. I rang Eircom this morn and I have to pay 120 euro to get phone line first, they said it would be 5 to 6 weeks and even after that they couldnt guarantee that the line would be suitable for broadband.

I might wait to see if the other BL residents have success before I splash out!!!!

btw I tried entering a few local businesses phone numbers in eircom tester website thing and it says that broadband is not available. Could it be that you were just lucky!?!

Do you think its possible that some houses in the BL estate are able to get connected and some arent (I hope not)

greeny

Hi Slaanesh

Jsust registered, i've been following the post for the last while, i alos bought in BL. I was told that there was a DSL enabled mini-exchange fed of the the Tara exchange in Kilmessan, is you phone line connected to this or to Tara?

Great news by the way, congrats

lucernarian

There's a DSL-enabled exchange in Co. Meath (according to eircom.ie) that's called Pelletstown. Would this be near Kilmessan??

MessyRedBlue

hey tbc,

pelletstown is about the same distance away from kilmessan as dunshaughlin is, Tara would be nearer.

kilmessman

Hi,
I am new to this thread but have also heard that there is a "mini exchange" in Kilmessan linking back to Tara.

Just wondering if this is now in use and if Slaanesh and MessyRedBlue still have good broadband performance from Eircom in Kilmessan.

Thanks

Slaanesh

The 1 meg I have has been great. Would ideally like more but I'll take what I get for now. There is a slight bit of interleaving on the line with 20+ping to boards.ie as opposed to 10-12ms in work.

I haven't heard of anyone else in Bective Lodge getting broadband yet, some people seem to be waiting an age to get a line from Eircom. I was talking to a guy in the pub and he said that he can't get a line and there is no date provisioned for one ... that sucks.

I also asked my contact in Eircom if I was on the sub-exchange, turns out I am actually serviced directly by the Tara exchange which I found very odd because I remember them digging the road up and linking the sub-exchange with our estate. Not that I know exactly how all this jiggery pokery works.