Broadband - what can I do to get it?

Natacha

Hey, I am fed up of dial-up. I live in Castledermot, not exactly a million miles from civilisation. Have been told vaguely by Eircom that my line is not suitable for broadband for any number of reasons it seems. I'm here 2 years in this house and am home educating my kids, they are only 1 and 3 at the moment but in coming months and years, broadband is going to be essential.

I am outside of O2 mobile broadband range and the digital providers don't do my area (I'm about 1.5 miles outside of town).

Does anyone have any ideas about what I can do? I emailed Eircom complaining but just got back a standard email saying they are upgrading all the time, but not telling me if my line can be upgraded at all.

I find it frustrating the lack of technical knowledge of the Eircom staff. I would like to know the detail of how or why your line is eligible for broadband or not and how it can be changed but they don't help.

Thanks for reading. Oh, I am not a tech head or anything so speak in s i m p l e w o r d s. I'm a bit stupid!:o

Natacha

jor el

Natacha wrote: »

Does anyone have any ideas about what I can do? I emailed Eircom complaining but just got back a standard email saying they are upgrading all the time, but not telling me if my line can be upgraded at all.

Firstly, do you know if your exchange is enabled yet? If it isn't, then you'll just have to wait for eircom (possibly forever). If it is, and your line fails, then there's not a lot you can do. It could be that you're too far from the exchange itself, there's nothing anyone can do about that as it's a limitation of ADSL. Your line could be of poor quality, eircom will do nothing about this unless your voice service is broken. The line could be on a pairgain/splitter (sharing one line with between houses), on which you cannot get DSL.

What's your dial up speed like? If it's <28k, that's an indication that you're on a pairgain. If it's > 28k, then it's unlikely that a pairgain is the issue.

At the end of the day, there is very very little you can do to make eircom do anything, frustrating as that may be. The regulator (Comreg) will also do nothing, nor will our utterly useless minister for communications.

lucernarian

Yep, do tell us what speed your modem connects to the internet at.

Edit: Castledermot has broadband from eircom in it. The exchange is enabled.

Natacha

28.8kbps. sent 159,000 received 90,000. Is that what you were lookign for?

When we moved into this house, the phone line was kind of still active though you couldn't make a call. The people that lived in our house built a new house 2 doors down (they can get broadband) and they took their number from this house to the new house. this caused problems for eircom trying to connect us up. I've always suspected that this might be the problem. Is this the pairgain?

If that is teh case, and the exchange is enabled, could we get a new line installed (obvioulsy at a cost) and this would be broadband enabled?

N

smellslikeshoes

Natacha wrote: »

28.8kbps. sent 159,000 received 90,000. Is that what you were lookign for?

When we moved into this house, the phone line was kind of still active though you couldn't make a call. The people that lived in our house built a new house 2 doors down (they can get broadband) and they took their number from this house to the new house. this caused problems for eircom trying to connect us up. I've always suspected that this might be the problem. Is this the pairgain?

If that is teh case, and the exchange is enabled, could we get a new line installed (obvioulsy at a cost) and this would be broadband enabled?

N

Its possible but generally if a line is on a pairgain its on it for a reason such as lack of copper in the area and it might be the case that you could pay for a new line and it might not be capable of broadband. Some people on these boards have mentioned ordering broadband at the same time as the line and if the line isn't capable the order won't go through but I'm not sure how successful that is. If the worst comes to worst you could probably go with someone like http://www.nbb.ie, as far as broadband goes satellite is poorish at best and atrocious at worst but might get you off of dialup.

PogMoThoin

Are there any wireless providers in your area? This would be a much better option than satellite

watty

Well most but not all wireless is better than VSAT (2 way satellite).

Some wireless is not much better than ISDN and some better than DSL.

Alter-Ego

http://www.digiweb.ie/home/homewave/

Digiweb claim to have wireless availability in castledermot. Wireless comes from a transmitter so its based on line of sight so you may still not be able to get it but its worth a try.

Natacha

Alterego, Have looked on digiweb and have put in Cdermot into it and they say only DSL available here. Will ring them tomorrow. Was on to them about a year ago so maybe things have changed.

will look up about satellite, don't know anything about it really.

N

lucernarian

I suggest you order a line off eircom but specify that the line is going to be used for broadband and that it cannot be pairgained because of the need for DSL on the line.

It's unlikely there is a severe shortage of copper less than 2 miles from the exchange. Very often, pairgains were installed to speed up the install time or keep other pairs free for future use.

I'll put it like this, if there was a house built 2 years ago without any pairgain installed, there is likely to be still a free pair or two around.

I think you should give it a try, and when the engineer comes to install it, you'll find out exactly if there's a pairgain or not. Maybe he'll simply take you off the old pairgain and cancel the new line order.

muggyog

Just reading the parallel thread and noticed this

Natacha wrote: »

The people that lived in our house built a new house 2 doors down (they can get broadband) and they took their number from this house to the new house. this caused problems for eircom trying to connect us up. I've always suspected that this might be the problem. Is this the pairgain?

Which means that while you dont have broadband, it is enabled in the area. Back to the fringe nature of the broadband in CD, this is most likely your problem. Join the gang!

Palimpsest

Please let us know if eircom do sort you out (whether split line or other). I also live just outside Castledermot and my neighbours can get broadband but I can't. I cannot get eircom to give me any satisfaction and have had no joy with wireless either.

Thanks,

long_b

I know it's not broadband but have you tried a Meteor phone as a modem ? It used EDGE so it should be a few times better than dialup.
Only until our glorious government sort broadband out mind

lucernarian

long_b wrote: »

I know it's not broadband but have you tried a Meteor phone as a modem ? It used EDGE so it should be a few times better than dialup.
Only until our glorious government sort broadband out mind

Why a meteor phone?? An O2 phone would have the same technical advantage.

Palimpsest

Tried an O2 3g modem only got marginally faster than dial up. Is satellite really that bad????

tinofapples

Some wireless is not much better than ISDN and some better than DSL.

Which ?

jor el

tinofapples wrote: »

Which ?

Metro. Though it can depend on what you would consider better. Is better, the best ping, fastest speed, best coverage, price, caps, customer service, etc?

Palimpsest wrote: »

Is satellite really that bad????

Define bad. Like 3G, satellite is not broadband. Pings can be very long, price is usually quite high (though can be cheaper than using dial-up all day), speeds will vary with service/provider. Satellite is a download accelerator. Depending on what you want to do, it could be good or bad.

Natacha

Hey, just an update for anyone who's interested. After talking to O2 on the phone and in the shop and being told that I wouldn't be able to get mobile signal, I said I'd try it anyway after looking on website and seeing that we were in the EDGE area, I got it and said if it didn't work then I could bring it back within 7 days. Well, lo and behold, it worked. Feel like a new woman. I'm sure its not as fast as others, but it sure beats dial up. On dial-up, it took about 5 hours to download software i needed, and with this, it took 30 mins so that'll do me. Don't know what speed or anything it is or how to check it but I'm happy .

N

tinofapples

Hey, just an update for anyone who's interested. After talking to O2 on the phone and in the shop and being told that I wouldn't be able to get mobile signal, I said I'd try it anyway after looking on website and seeing that we were in the EDGE area, I got it and said if it didn't work then I could bring it back within 7 days. Well, lo and behold, it worked. Feel like a new woman. I'm sure its not as fast as others, but it sure beats dial up. On dial-up, it took about 5 hours to download software i needed, and with this, it took 30 mins so that'll do me. Don't know what speed or anything it is or how to check it but I'm happy .

Thats exactly what I did almost 12 months ago, thinking the masts would eventually get upgraded to broadband. You might get pi$$ed off sometimes like I do though when you are getting crap speeds and realise what you're paying for is not what you're getting.

MunsterCycling

Natacha wrote: »

Hey, just an update for anyone who's interested. After talking to O2 on the phone and in the shop and being told that I wouldn't be able to get mobile signal, I said I'd try it anyway after looking on website and seeing that we were in the EDGE area, I got it and said if it didn't work then I could bring it back within 7 days. Well, lo and behold, it worked. Feel like a new woman. I'm sure its not as fast as others, but it sure beats dial up. On dial-up, it took about 5 hours to download software i needed, and with this, it took 30 mins so that'll do me. Don't know what speed or anything it is or how to check it but I'm happy .

N

Be very careful about the amount you download, all the mobile providers are thieves when you exceed the "CAP"

MC

Natacha

How do you find out how much you have downloaded/used. I'm absolutely ignorant of speeds and these things so if anyone can explain to me, I'd be much appreciative. It says on o2 that you get 7.5gb data usage allowance. How will I know when I get to that?

N

supervixen

Natacha wrote: »

How do you find out how much you have downloaded/used. I'm absolutely ignorant of speeds and these things so if anyone can explain to me, I'd be much appreciative. It says on o2 that you get 7.5gb data usage allowance. How will I know when I get to that?

N

Try this program:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Network-Tools/Bandwidth-Tools/NetMeter.shtml

should give you some indication, don't know if O2 has an webmeter or so .....