Best broadband for 4 comps

WooPeeA

I'm looking for some broadband in Galway city center. I live in house with few lads and we want to connect 4 computers to the web. House has 2 floors so I think cable is not a good idea.

It must be fast and have no limits if possible.. Any recommendations?

We were thinking about 6MB speed.

PopeBuckfastXVI

it doesn't really matter how you bring it in I think... just how you split it once it's in.

I wired my last apartment with cat5, stuck a hub under the stairs and had one comp sitting beside the phoneline feeding the rest, it worked fine.

Just be aware that it can be a nightmare sharing the connection, if someone on the Network is P2Ping they can hog pretty much most of the bandwidth, making it impossible to play games online at the same time, for instance. So unless you can get some sort of bandwidth throttle to split it equally I'd advise agreeing in advance what the fair usage is. This would be *very* important if you are capped.

I'm currently on NTL 20meg uncapped, which is 66/pcm as part of the Broadband and Digital TV package. Nice to not have to give eircom any money for line rental too.

WooPeeA

I was thinking about NTL.. I was wondering can I connect those computers via wi-fi or some other non-cable way and not lose the speed..

I'm using 3 broadband at the moment.. Can realy drive you crazy at evenings..

muppetkiller

MAGNET are brilliant.. I've had them for over a year and never lost connection once..3 lads in mine all online too..9mb for 55 a month all in.

forbairt

UPC / NTL are up to 20mb at the moment ...

As was said what'll really matter is your pings on games. At the moment I don't find the UPC pings that great there is a lot of downtime as well and DNS issues at the moment. You can read more on the broadband forum and it might be a better bet to post on there asking as well.

What you should probably do in the house is agree on a no P2P activity during the hours of ... (whatever to whatever) if ye are out during the day then that would be your best time and durning the middle of the night.

I'd probably recommend wired connections as well though if ye are all on laptops it wouldn't be idea. Wired connections would mean that if someone has left P2P stuff running and you need to play online games you could just disconnect them at the router. (That said you could do the same probably through the admin interface of the wireless router or whatever).

Just a few thoughts on it.

I was on BT in galway .. and had a bit of down time still it was fairly reliable. I was on NTL in galway as well and it was a bit of a nightmare at times (but then I was using it for work so that makes it a bit different)

WooPeeA

muppetkiller wrote: »

MAGNET are brilliant.. I've had them for over a year and never lost connection once..3 lads in mine all online too..9mb for 55 a month all in.

How did you connect those 3 computers to each other?

ARGINITE

DNS issues at the moment.

DNS issues can be over come by using opendns:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Connect using wired or wireless, doesn't really matter. You won't loose any speed as long as you have a decent signal for wireless to all machines.

forbairt

ARGINITE wrote: »

DNS issues can be over come by using opendns:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Connect using wired or wireless, doesn't really matter. You won't loose any speed as long as you have a decent signal for wireless to all machines.

Unfortunately not these ones. (Though maybe DNS issues would be the incorrect way of describing it)

gaeilgegrinds

What's the best option for just internet, no channels needed?

PopeBuckfastXVI

Do you already have a landline? You have lots of options then, just find the best package for the price you are willing to pay.

If you don't already have a landline you have to factor in the cost of the line rental, or else consider NTL or a Wireless company

muppetkiller

WooPeeA wrote: »

How did you connect those 3 computers to each other?

Wireless network and network cable to the Reuter ?

po0k

Get a good router and enable QoS to prioritise your gaming over browsing, FTP, P2P etc.

gaeilgegrinds

No landline. Should I just go for the vodafone thingy in the side?

forbairt

gaeilgegrinds wrote: »

No landline. Should I just go for the vodafone thingy in the side?

I'd kinda say go with NTL / UPC ...

when its good its very good ... when its bad its annoying as hell. All depends really how much time you'll spend online

You don't have to take the Digital channels ... so that saves you (not much) but still ...

You can also get something like blueface with it so that you can have a voip phone set up ... I use this quite a bit and damn its handy / cheap (if you've any international calls to make)

Depending on your requirements the broadband value offering at 3mb would even be good ... 20 quid a month + the channels unfortunately (15ish quid) I wouldn't really recommend the vodafone offering ... it can crawl at times or so I'm lead to believe ... I have the O2 and it does crawl from time to time and drops connection

thedesigntribe

I'm a big fan of Digiweb, 35euro for 6mb connection & never an issue.

Wompa1

Getting 24mb for 70 euro a month with SMART. Slows down from time to time but I think thats because one of the lads downloads constantly and it probably soaking up alot of the bandwidth

_Whimsical_

Wompa1 wrote: »

Getting 24mb for 70 euro a month with SMART. Slows down from time to time but I think thats because one of the lads downloads constantly and it probably soaking up alot of the bandwidth

Do you have the wireless modem you get with Smart?Is it any good?
I was going to go with them but someone told me I'd need to buy an expensive modem rather than use the one they supply.

Bonzodog

I am currently on UPCs, 12MB service, and they currently give you a wireless router/modem with the service, but I have one of the older ntl modems which is then linked by ethernet to a wireless router that cost me 35 Euro from PC World.

You can have as may machines as you like on a wireless connection, so you would just need the modem and router in one room, and get everyone to connect wirelessly.
My router also has 4 ethernet ports for hardwired connections.