Switch to Digiweb?

dacookie

I live in Dublin, Rathgar.

I had problems with Eircom a good few weeks back where the internet kept disconnecting and reconnecting(This problem has happened before that as well.), although the problem stopped, it has come back again and I am seriously considering switching.I made a thread about this, forgot to come back and say it stopped though.

I have the Eircom broadband 2mb package, I am a gamer, and will probably change to the 3mb digiweb package.

My question is:

Will I get a better service from Digiweb or will it be the same except for the fact that its 3mb and not 2mb?Will I keep getting these random disconnects and reconnects?

Praetorian

I think you would be better off with Smart, NTL, BT Ireland or Magnet. Digiweb are a bit better than IBB for customer service in my opinion but they're not great at all. Eircom are expensive but usually one of most reliable ISP's have you called them? Have you tried another DSL modem / router?

watty

The problem is probably your phone line. Which is the same no matter which DSL provider you have (BT, Magnet, Smart, Digiweb, UTV, IBB).

The main alternatives to phone line DSL are UPC/NTL cable (various packs up to 6Mbps?), IBB Breeze (2Mbps) and Digiweb Metro (various packs from 1Mbps to 10Mbps).

Unless you have fibre access, Magnet and Smart just use the eircom line. If the line is poor 3Mbps DSL will be worse.

dacookie

watty wrote: »

The problem is probably your phone line. Which is the same no matter which DSL provider you have (BT, Magnet, Smart, Digiweb, UTV, IBB).

The main alternatives to phone line DSL are UPC/NTL cable (various packs up to 6Mbps?), IBB Breeze (2Mbps) and Digiweb Metro (various packs from 1Mbps to 10Mbps).

Unless you have fibre access, Magnet and Smart just use the eircom line. If the line is poor 3Mbps DSL will be worse.

Yes but aren't these other sources of internet bad for gaming?I play a variety of games:

CS etc, latency is only good with dsl broadband I thought.

dacookie

Praetorian wrote: »

I think you would be better off with Smart, NTL, BT Ireland or Magnet. Digiweb are a bit better than IBB for customer service in my opinion but they're not great at all. Eircom are expensive but usually one of most reliable ISP's have you called them? Have you tried another DSL modem / router?

Yes I have called them before, but they are no help and they think im some sort of a retard who has my router turned off or something.I have tried a different modem, and I don't think it is the router.

thebman

dacookie wrote: »

Yes but aren't these other sources of internet bad for gaming?I play a variety of games:

CS etc, latency is only good with dsl broadband I thought.

No Cable and Fixed Wireless can be used for gaming. Might depend on the provider.

I use IBB Breeze fixed wireless 2Mbps to game on Xbox Live and with HL2 online.

watty

dacookie wrote: »

Yes but aren't these other sources of internet bad for gaming?I play a variety of games:

CS etc, latency is only good with dsl broadband I thought.

Indeed Ripwave, WiFi based (some licence free operators), 3G/HSDPA and Satellite are bad for latency (delay on Gaming). Or some small rural ISPs with Satellite backhaul.

IBB Breeze can be OK as can Digiweb Wireless. Digiweb Metro, Cable, Digiweb Mobile are all similar or lower delay to DSL. Fibre is about 1/10th. Bitstream DSL (resold DSL) is higher than some Metro & Cable and all LLU DSL due to eircom "interleaving" or something...

Praetorian

dacookie wrote: »

Yes I have called them before, but they are no help and they think im some sort of a retard who has my router turned off or something.I have tried a different modem, and I don't think it is the router.

ISP Tech support staff can be very condescending. I suggest you try again and firmly ask to speak to a level 2 tech or supervisor. You really don't want to leave DSL as a technology right now as I think it's the most reliable for ping. Wireless can be brilliant one day and pants the next (have my sisters friend typing away on my laptop beside me because her ICE broadband has gone down for the 3rd time this week). Also from what I'm reading in the forum, NTL have been very poor recently so also not worth the chance.

How are DSL stats? Your looking for these numbers

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 3072 kbps 384 kbps
Line Attenuation 27 db 8.5 db
Noise Margin 13 db 13 db

thebman

Praetorian wrote: »

ISP Tech support staff can be very condescending. I suggest you try again and firmly ask to speak to a level 2 tech or supervisor.

That seems unfair. It depends on the person you get and how bad a day they are having. I'm sure 90% of the issues are nothing and a lot of the actual issues they don't seem to be allowed acknowledge for fear that people will want refunds for that month. I don't think its a nice job.

You really don't want to leave DSL as a technology right now as I think it's the most reliable for ping. Wireless can be brilliant one day and pants the next (have my sisters friend typing away on my laptop beside me because her ICE broadband has gone down for the 3rd time this week). Also from what I'm reading in the forum, NTL have been very poor recently so also not worth the chance.

Ice are known to be a crap ISP. They bought a load of other operators so their quality is dodgy in places. You can't be guaranteed a good service from Ice. They aren't good at repairing it when there is an issue either.

With IBB fixed wireless my service is good the vast majority of the time. I think Digiweb would be good enough too. I was able to play Team Fortress 2 over Live with it and that lag problems for a lot of people.

If you head over to the Xbox forums a lot of users are using NTL there so worth asking them what they think of it.

Praetorian

I said can be very condescending, not are condescending. If you look through this forum you will find peoples posts outlining very bad customer care and terrible attitudes from support staff. I wasn't being mean or unfair

watty

yes. 1st stage is chase issue as a line fault and change as a last resort.

dacookie

Praetorian wrote: »

ISP Tech support staff can be very condescending. I suggest you try again and firmly ask to speak to a level 2 tech or supervisor. You really don't want to leave DSL as a technology right now as I think it's the most reliable for ping. Wireless can be brilliant one day and pants the next (have my sisters friend typing away on my laptop beside me because her ICE broadband has gone down for the 3rd time this week). Also from what I'm reading in the forum, NTL have been very poor recently so also not worth the chance.

How are DSL stats? Your looking for these numbers

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 3072 kbps 384 kbps
Line Attenuation 27 db 8.5 db
Noise Margin 13 db 13 db

How do I check this?Im not very computer wise.

DVD-Lots

I had the same issue when Eircom upped from 1mb to 3mb, line continuosly dropping. Was eventually told that my internal wiring was probably the problem. Switched to BT as it seemed cheaper at the time but am now in the process of getting this disconnected and going with Digiweb Metro. My connection is dropping every 15mins at the moment with it getting worse after 8pm. Both the mother and sister have Digiweb and there have been no major issues and I have played CSS on it with great results, mainly due to the faster upload speed.

Praetorian

dacookie wrote: »

How do I check this?Im not very computer wise.

Hi there depends on your router, but Eircom routers are usually (put this into your browser) 192.168.1.254. Then I think you click on Expert mode and then OK. Then I think it's an option called Diagnostic mode. This is all from memory because I don't have an Eircom router myself. Try it and give us the stats. If your line is bad (or has gone bad recently) we might be able to advise further action.

blobert

I have Digiweb Metro in the Dublin 6 area and it is very reliable, almost never goes down.

Have tried NTL in the area also and it seems fine, NTL have very poor customer support compared to Digiweb who are normally pretty good.

dacookie

Praetorian wrote: »

Hi there depends on your router, but Eircom routers are usually (put this into your browser) 192.168.1.254. Then I think you click on Expert mode and then OK. Then I think it's an option called Diagnostic mode. This is all from memory because I don't have an Eircom router myself. Try it and give us the stats. If your line is bad (or has gone bad recently) we might be able to advise further action.

This is all it says:


Pinging www.supremel2.com
Received reply
Received reply
Received reply
Received reply
Success rate is 100 percent (4/4)
round-trip min/avg/max = 30/30/30 msec

dacookie

I fiddled around a bit and found this:


Downstream Upstream

Max Allowed Speed (kbps) 2048 256

SN Margin (dB) 12.00 24.00

Line Attenuation (dB) 31.00 15.50

CRC Errors 2 2

dacookie

With the Eircom speed increases coming soon, and going to this new adsl2 thing( )will my line be completely different and thus probably remove the problem?

Once these speed increases come into play il probably go for the 3mb or 4mb(7.6mb or 10mb)

dacookie

Bump.

Praetorian

Your line doesn't seem too bad really, but I do worry a little when I see CRC errors. Have you gotten in SKY or an alarm recently? It's hard to know if the upgrades will do anything for the reliability of your connection. Have you called Eircom recently and spoke to a senior tech? They will be able to see exactly when your connection is dropping and may be able to remedy the situation? How often is it dropping? DSL in Balbriggan has been unreliable in the last few months (with Digiweb / Eircom / BT) but my friends and I are convinced it's to do with massive power spikes on the grid around here...

Also you could check your stats every so often to see if there is much fluctuation. A little fluctuation is normal (1-2)

Below is what your line should be capable of.

Moriarty

dacookie, there's no need to bump threads.

dacookie

Praetorian wrote: »

Your line doesn't seem too bad really, but I do worry a little when I see CRC errors. Have you gotten in SKY or an alarm recently? It's hard to know if the upgrades will do anything for the reliability of your connection. Have you called Eircom recently and spoke to a senior tech? They will be able to see exactly when your connection is dropping and may be able to remedy the situation? How often is it dropping? DSL in Balbriggan has been unreliable in the last few months (with Digiweb / Eircom / BT) but my friends and I are convinced it's to do with massive power spikes on the grid around here...

Also you could check your stats every so often to see if there is much fluctuation. A little fluctuation is normal (1-2)

Below is what your line should be capable of.

We have Sky TV, and I am pretty sure this hasn't happened before that(but sometimes it doesnt do this at all, and its ok in a couple of days).It drops around every 10 minutes from 5 30 or so onwards.Il give them a ring tomorrow, but they are not very helpful.

Those Micro filters, do I need to buy a few of them and pop them in the sky box or something?

Praetorian

I think you definitely need to speak to a level 2 tech. This sounds fixable to me. Might be an idea to check with neighbours in your area that have dsl with eircom to see if anyone is experiencing problems similar to yours.

dacookie

Praetorian wrote: »

I think you definitely need to speak to a level 2 tech. This sounds fixable to me. Might be an idea to check with neighbours in your area that have dsl with eircom to see if anyone is experiencing problems similar to yours.

Aight will do, gonna give them a ring next time the internet does this crap.

jArgHA

Also thinking of switching to DigiWeb after recent poor performance of Chorus (UPC) in cork city. I was wondering whether DigiWeb actually enforce the download quota rules? If so do they have some facility to check how much you have downloaded at any time during a month?

Chorus never seemed to give a rats ar$e if you exceeded your download quota, which I'm sure I must have done a few times as there is 2 other flatmates sharing the connection with me in the house.

jAH

rinnin

How is Digiweb Mobile?
Just been onto sales guy about this and sounds interesting. They're calling it "4g mobile" with max dl 5.4megs upload 1meg. About €30 per month with €130 installation & 15GB cap.
In the rural Clonee area of Co. Meath (near Damastown) and was thinking of getting this. Anyone have any good / bad stories about this service & do they still have this rolling download limit / cap that features in other discussions?
Mainly wanting it for home / small business use basically Web, eMail, VOIP, iTunes purchases.
Advice much appreciated.

dacookie

Rang Eircom today, they told me to take out the telephone line out from my sky box, dunno if it has worked yet as I have to see if the internet has gone down today.