Broadband for Poker

thechamp87

I currently have Irish Broadband in my apartment and I find it is not reliable enough for running poker clients.

I want to change my provider but I'm trying to go for somthing relatively cheap even though I know to a certain extent you get what you pay for.

I'm wondering what people recommend??
Does anyone use Clearwire? I was thinking of getting their middle option, ClearFreedom, which is €29/month...

Any suggestions/advice appreciated.

Adam

kmick

Clearwire is just as bad if not worse. If you are using a wireless solution you will always have high pings and this will cause you issues. Do you have the option to go Eircom/BT/UTV DSL?

Wreck

I currently use clearwire and find it very unreliable. Speed varies, at times cuts out for no apparent reason - can be pretty frustrating for poker.

thechamp87

No, we don't have any need for a landline in the apartment so these are not viable options.
What do you mean by wireless solutions???

Killme00

I use NTL, they are pretty good as long as you dont have to ring them for anything

thechamp87

Killme00 wrote: »

I use NTL, they are pretty good as long as you dont have to ring them for anything

Do you need a phone line??
How much is it per month? connection fee??

kmick

Sorry meant to say if you are using a wireless solution i.e. IBB or Clearwire. Had Clearwire before and it was very unreliable.

Even if you dont need a landline wired can be ok check out
https://ssl.u.tv/UTV_Internet/Residential/ClicksilverBroadband/option.asp?option=2&ROIUser=true

I have BT myself and find it great.

thechamp87

kmick wrote: »

Sorry meant to say if you are using a wireless solution i.e. IBB or Clearwire. Had Clearwire before and it was very unreliable.

Even if you dont need a landline wired can be ok check out
https://ssl.u.tv/UTV_Internet/Residential/ClicksilverBroadband/option.asp?option=2&ROIUser=true

I have BT myself and find it great.

Cheers, I'll have a look.

Goodluck2me

probably saving you money when your disconnected.:p

thechamp87

Joseph, you hilarious joker you

PPP-Pit Boss

I used IB and found it absolutely dreadful. It uses line of sight to the local mast which could be the reason mine was so bad. Constant disconnections and absolutely FA help from IB. So I moved to NTL.. whoopie within 24 hours the connection was completely dead. So I gave Eircom a call.. "Oh yes madam, no problem, business line, great.." they sent me out all the various modems etc. Then called me back and said, "actually no you cant have it".. despite this to this day they continue to send me bills....

So eventually I called DigiWeb, I bought their high end product and I have been happy as a pig in chite ever since. I would recommend it.

thechamp87

PPP-Pit Boss wrote: »

So eventually I called DigiWeb, I bought their high end product and I have been happy as a pig in chite ever since. I would recommend it.

Do you need a phone line for it though? We don't have any need for a landline in the apartment, therefore don't have one.

DeadParrot

thechamp87 wrote: »

Do you need a phone line??
How much is it per month? connection fee??

NTL goes through the Pipe....cable.
6 months half price or something is their signup offer.

We have them 2 years and no complaints

thechamp87

I find that Irish BB is acceptable for normal internet use considering how cheap it is. Youtube and other media sites are slow.

I have never had any problem running PokerStars with it but can't run any iPoker sites with it. I need to find something more reliable.

PPP-Pit Boss

thechamp87 wrote: »

Do you need a phone line for it though? We don't have any need for a landline in the apartment, therefore don't have one.

You dont need a phone line because it actually doesnt use the phone line connections. BUT there is a catch, when I got it there is not package available that doesnt give you a phone as part of the deal. You plug the phone into an ancillary connection on the Broadband base. Then the "Line Rental" is sold as part of the pakage.

TBH I didnt particularly care I got broadband that never fails and is superfast and a landline I now occasionally use.

I have heard many opinions. Some say IB is great for them, I suppose you just have to be lucky enough to have lazer vision line of sight to the mast. Which clearly I dont have.
The follow up service from NTL was the worst I have ever experienced. I had connectivity for a whole day and then five weeks later I was still phoning them daily to ask if they could please come around and fix it. It got so bad that when I angrily called up to cancel the service and switch they put me on to their "Retention" department. I thought I was going to get a sales pitch but instead I she told me something to this affect:
"Listen, I can't guarantee an engineer will come out to you tomorrow, the next day or ever, that is just the way it works. To be honest I would reccommend that you close your account, as things are really bad around here.."

I am not kidding I almost spun off my swivel chair

So anyhoo I am a very heavy home user (of internet tee hee ) and for me Digiweb really did the trick. Not only have I never had an issue, when I called them and gave them my sob storty (see above) they came out the following day and did the installation.

phantom_lord

I'm using a vodaphone 3g modem atm and it works perfectly, I never get disconnected on ipoker.

PPP-Pit Boss

phantom_lord wrote: »

I never get disconnected on ipoker.

New sig moment

Jesus Wept

Getting fed up with NTL, constant breaks of service. :mad:

The worst run company I've ever encountered.

You can't beat calling at 5:52pm to hear a recorded message saying:

'Our office hours are 9am - 6pm, please call back during that time' to make your blood boil over.

thechamp87

phantom_lord wrote: »

I'm using a vodaphone 3g modem atm and it works perfectly, I never get disconnected on ipoker.

How much is it?? and what exactly is it??

PPP-Pit Boss

The-Rigger wrote: »

Getting fed up with NTL, constant breaks of service. :mad:

The worst run company I've ever encountered.

You can't beat calling at 5:52pm to hear a recorded message saying:

'Our office hours are 9am - 6pm, please call back during that time' to make your blood boil over.

Yeh add to that:
"Good evening madam, we actually have no record whatsoever of you calling in and reporting any problem...."

"but... I have been onto your company every day for the past four weeks..."

phantom_lord

thechamp87 wrote: »

How much is it?? and what exactly is it??

https://www.vodafone.ie/df/modem/;jsessionid=9184BAFE795AE16FE3AF346405CC44E7

DeadParrot

Isnt there some issue with them
Same IP address for ever user in a certain node?
I may be talking balls, but I think I heard it somewhere

phantom_lord

i dunno, i never had any problems anyway.

PPP-Pit Boss

Oh an one other issue BTW with Eircom and Internet in Ireland If you decide to go that way. They have an extremely nasty habit of routing traffic through the US which puts you in a prohibited juristiction when reaching the Ipoker / Playtech servers.
They are not supposed to do this but indeed they do from time to time without warning, This will sever your connection from any site prohibiting play from the US that uses IP blocking.

Jesus Wept

PPP-Pit Boss wrote: »

Yeh add to that:
"Good evening madam, we actually have no record whatsoever of you calling in and reporting any problem...."

"but... I have been onto your company every day for the past four weeks..."

But if it's not in the system, it never happened.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

phantom_lord wrote: »

I'm using a vodaphone 3g modem atm and it works perfectly, I never get disconnected on ipoker.

same here and i get to claim the 39 a month in expenses:)

Jesus Wept

Isn't there a huge restriction on the amount of bandwidth?

NickyOD

When I was with Digiweb they were excellent. I'm with Irish Broadband now and they are fine but I don't get close to the speeds I should be getting. I also had eircom for years and they were surprisingly good, but that was because I lived close to the nearest hub.

Perlico are currently offering broadband for 99c a month for the first 6 months and 14.99 after that.

dvdfan

PPP-Pit Boss wrote: »

You dont need a phone line because it actually doesnt use the phone line connections. BUT there is a catch, when I got it there is not package available that doesnt give you a phone as part of the deal. You plug the phone into an ancillary connection on the Broadband base. Then the "Line Rental" is sold as part of the pakage.

TBH I didnt particularly care I got broadband that never fails and is superfast and a landline I now occasionally use.

I have heard many opinions. Some say IB is great for them, I suppose you just have to be lucky enough to have lazer vision line of sight to the mast. Which clearly I dont have.
The follow up service from NTL was the worst I have ever experienced. I had connectivity for a whole day and then five weeks later I was still phoning them daily to ask if they could please come around and fix it. It got so bad that when I angrily called up to cancel the service and switch they put me on to their "Retention" department. I thought I was going to get a sales pitch but instead I she told me something to this affect:
"Listen, I can't guarantee an engineer will come out to you tomorrow, the next day or ever, that is just the way it works. To be honest I would reccommend that you close your account, as things are really bad around here.."

I am not kidding I almost spun off my swivel chair

So anyhoo I am a very heavy home user (of internet tee hee ) and for me Digiweb really did the trick. Not only have I never had an issue, when I called them and gave them my sob storty (see above) they came out the following day and did the installation.

What kind of prices are the digiweb are they expensive?

aidankk

i have digiweb metro 3m for 35 a month, it is class, much better contention ratio that adsl..

Cant recommend it enough..

Paul Tergat

The-Rigger wrote: »

Isn't there a huge restriction on the amount of bandwidth?

This is one of the main reasons why i went for o2 BB. i cannot get poker on the UCd campus network so i got this in and its the bees knees...had absolutely no problems with it - coverage is great, they don't enforce the bandwidth restriction and it has not dropped on me once while i've been playing.

Think its half price for first 3 months, 40e after that p/month or 30 if you are already with o2

kincsem

I use Irish Broadband Ripwave and would not recommend it. In the last 24 months I did not play any tourneys in 9 of those months. The reason - too many disconnections. Althought in September 2007 I cashed in 19 of 104 $4 180 player Sit & Gos. The line was good in September, but I only play at the lowest level as I won't buy in bigger with a poor connection.

Before that I had an Eircom landline that was expensive, and also no use for poker. I got rid of my landline a few years ago. I had a 30 minute landline out when in the last 200 players of the PokerStars Sunday night $200, and it probably cost me €1k.

thechamp87

Thanks for all the replies. I think I'm gonna go with either the Digiweb Metro or else the Vodafone option. I like the fact that the vodafone one can be used anywhere.

Prob won't be sorting it out for the next few days so any other suggestions still appreciated.

rrtt

check out getbroadband.ie

you can enter the area where you live and it will show all the companies offering broadband .

Its a very handy site which gives details of speed, price etc.

digiman

phantom_lord wrote: »

I'm using a vodaphone 3g modem atm and it works perfectly, I never get disconnected on ipoker.

I was using this for a couple of weeks and found it to be good. It would rarely disconnect, I was always in good coverage, very close to Vodafone masts. I also managed to play 2 SNGs using this while in the car from blanchardstown to Kells and it never dropped connection once which I found to be very impressive.
I now have NTL 6meg and its brilliant for poker and anything else you want to use it for on the internet.

Graysen Brave Sledgehammer wrote: »

same here and i get to claim the 39 a month in expenses:)

.

phantom_lord

PPP-Pit Boss wrote: »

Oh an one other issue BTW with Eircom and Internet in Ireland If you decide to go that way. They have an extremely nasty habit of routing traffic through the US which puts you in a prohibited juristiction when reaching the Ipoker / Playtech servers.
They are not supposed to do this but indeed they do from time to time without warning, This will sever your connection from any site prohibiting play from the US that uses IP blocking.

huh, I'm in the process of getting eircom bb atm , how much of problem is this?

thechamp87

phantom_lord wrote: »

huh, I'm in the process of getting eircom bb atm , how much of problem is this?

Quick question P_L...Did you ever go over the limits within the Vodafone package - ie did you ever have to pay more than the €30?? Is it likely that poker sites affect these limits or is it completely irrelevant????

Lazare

Apparently Clearwire are good if you have cables coming out of your ying yang.

phantom_lord

poker sites use very very little bandwidth, u could datamine 24/7 and u wouldn't come close to the limit.

thechamp87

Cheers thanks

OilBeefHooked2

phantom_lord wrote: »

huh, I'm in the process of getting eircom bb atm , how much of problem is this?

I have eircom BB and play on Ipoker all the time and have never encountered this problem.

PPP-Pit Boss

phantom_lord wrote: »

huh, I'm in the process of getting eircom bb atm , how much of problem is this?

Phone them up Phantom and tell them to ensure your traffic is never routed through the US. They can actually see to this... Cant give you 100% guarantee they wont do it again but they have solved it for our players.
They shouldnt be flipping doing it at all but they do...

menoscemo

Get Smart Telecom.
Even though it comes with line rental, it is only €35 a month, line rental and BB. It is much quicker than eircom who I had before and half the price.
I like you have no need for a phone so I just don't use it. It is only a few quid dearer than the cheaper options and 20 times better.

Gillybean72

I was with Eircom for a few year and had many problems with connections dropping regular and them never finding out what problem was. I am now with Irish Broadband, and after the first week where it was discovered that I had an IP conflict error, the signal was dropping all day and making playing in tourneys too difficult as it dropped for an hour or more.

I got them out pronto and they changed my IP address and so far other than a few, few second drops, I have had a decent connection.... (fingers crossed now)

Only thing I didnt like was having to buy a seperate router to go wireless.. but totally worth the money....

Tinytony

It's been a nightmare trying to get broadband connected at a house i've just moved into. Previous tenants name still on the line or something. Was trying to avoid going with wireless, as I'd heard bad things about Clearwire and Irish Broadband. Was previously with eircom and never had any problems.

Do Digiweb allowing torrents etc, as a I've heard before that clearwire block them?

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

aidankk

Tinytony wrote: »

It's been a nightmare trying to get broadband connected at a house i've just moved into. Previous tenants name still on the line or something. Was trying to avoid going with wireless, as I'd heard bad things about Clearwire and Irish Broadband. Was previously with eircom and never had any problems.

Do Digiweb allowing torrents etc, as a I've heard before that clearwire block them?

digiweb do allow torrents, but there is a cap of between 20g and 60g on there tarrifs.. The general speed of metro at the moment is much faster than a similiarly prices ADSL line.. I get consistant 3m most of the time..

If you go for the 35 a month version the contention ratio is half that of dsl..

Tinytony

aidankk wrote: »

digiweb do allow torrents, but there is a cap of between 20g and 60g on there tarrifs.. The general speed of metro at the moment is much faster than a similiarly prices ADSL line.. I get consistant 3m most of the time..

If you go for the 35 a month version the contention ratio is half that of dsl..

Excellent Aidan, thanks. Was looking at that 3MB connection and it looks good.

PPP-Pit Boss

Erm wtf is a torrent?
I have heard 3g is a no no once again if you dont have line of sight its cheerio connection. I have also been told you can forget about uploading / downloading with 3g due to the fluctuating contention ratio's...

ollyk1

PPP-Pit Boss wrote: »

Erm wtf is a torrent?

torrent

It's how a lot of people download their favourite poker shows Nikki

Misneach

I signed up for 3G mobile broadband during the summer, was very slow and also pokerstars would not work, it would load up and freeze after a matter of seconds. Im still paying for it for the yr but never use it ):

Unaware of how the other mobile broadband companies are fairing out but at the time it seemed an excellent idea, as it usable with the UK also and other countries but the connection simply isnt good enough, for poker anyhow.