Do people recommend going from Eircom to UPC/NTL

apeking

Lads got a question for you:

At moment Eircom land line and internet is at 65 euro a month
And tv with Chorus/NTL is 20

Total is 85 Euro

Now i am looking at gettin the NTL/Chorus all in deal of : DVR, Broadband Express 10Mb and our Phone Service with Freetime to your existing Digital TV service for only €44 extra a month. What's more, order online and we'll connect you for FREE.

So this means we will get everything for €64 a month.

Saving €20 a month.

my question is how much better is UPC to Eircom?

At moment i am on the 7.4mb package on eircom and i am getting the full speeds. My ping has gone to crap though and i like my on-line games (CSS,COD4,TF2)

Are UPC/NTL better for gaming? I am in the swords Area?

And how easy is it to set up wireless internet?b I want to connect everything wireless around the house.

Will my existing eircom router work? Or do i have to purchase additional router?

I like my torrents also, how are they with torrents and emule? Are ports easily opened?

Thanks lads and sorry for all the questions....

UPC are far better than eircom and are doin the most to push BB speeds in ireland.


I am the host on COD 4 90% of the time on my 20MB connection, pings are good not brilliant, Due to it being routed trough Holland,

I believe you can add the option of getting a wireless router or simply use your own.



Torrents arnt throttled either, ports are freely opened.

Cabaal

After using NTL 3MB for two years before I moved to a non-NTL area I'd recommend it over Eircom, price wise its alot better.

John Mason

thats if you can actually get it wired up to your house.

so far they have cancelled twice, turned up at a completely different time to what they told and when they finally turned up, i was told there was full signal in the house but the technican couldnt get it connected to my computer and he would have to send maintenance around but he wasnt sure when that would happened.

so far there i have left 5 messages with NTL asking for a manager to call me back - nothing yet

L31mr0d

yeah get it. I have the 20Mb/s connection, and even though I don't always have the rated speed, my line very rarely drops below 10Mb/s

Also, there is no bandwidth cap, the biggest selling point for me.

JJ

I would recommend moving from Eircom to almost anyone. I would never use them again after they took about a month to set up a phone line in my last place. I only got it done that "soon" because I got someone at my local Citizen's Info centre to put a rocket up the rear ends. Then I switched to Imagine straight afterwards.

La Ola

has anyone else had this problem wher they say 3mb broadband but I am getting 1665kbps which has been constant since i got broadband in thats fine until I was told they upgrade the connection automatically to 3mb but mine didn't.
Got in contact with broadband support they told me it was all fine their end. so i did a full scan of my Computer virus free!!! Kinda at a loss now is there something I am not doing because im paying for a service but not getting it. If Im to blame fine but i need to try everything first,very frustrating as eircom don't seem to give a toss my Router home page says 2mb but they weren't interseted in that either
Is there a miracle quick fix that I can try????????????? anyone

meditraitor

Its only after moving from a UPC area that I realise how handy they are.
The package for TV/Broadband and phone is second to none in terms of price and and the service was dependable.

Trying to get a wireless supplier/ sky and a phone into my new place is a pain. UPC just arrived and plugged me in.

smellslikeshoes

La Ola wrote: »

has anyone else had this problem wher they say 3mb broadband but I am getting 1665kbps which has been constant since i got broadband in thats fine until I was told they upgrade the connection automatically to 3mb but mine didn't.
Got in contact with broadband support they told me it was all fine their end. so i did a full scan of my Computer virus free!!! Kinda at a loss now is there something I am not doing because im paying for a service but not getting it. If Im to blame fine but i need to try everything first,very frustrating as eircom don't seem to give a toss my Router home page says 2mb but they weren't interseted in that either
Is there a miracle quick fix that I can try????????????? anyone

It sounds like the case is that your line can't handle more than that because of distance or because its a poorish line. Post up your line stats, on an Eircom router you do this by going to http://192.168.1.254/ and clicking expert mode on left hand side, then statistics >Dsl. What you are looking for is
Max Allowed Speed
SN Margin
Line Attenuation.

ibuprofen

I was on eircom getting ripped on monthly rental and paying for broadband on top. Similar to what happens with perlico.
Have to say NTL broadband has been brilliant 20MB download and 1.5 MB upload speed for €40. They throw in a free wireless router as well. Really happy with it.

apeking

thanks for the replies...

looks like i'll go for it so.

on 3mb eircom BB i used to get pings of around 25-30ms to UK CSS servers.

What should i ecxpect on UPC?

ytareh

Your ping will definitely go up (guess average 45-75 but of course it varies on what and where youre connecting to -it could be 200-500 outside Europe)Lets jsut say ping INCREASE of 15-35 on average.Surprisingly(NOT) all is great for the first month or two-pings same as Eircom or better even ...then service starts to slip ,ping,download speed,cut outs- brief and for hours on end(although usually after midnight )Its the best I can get in Leixlip but it has deteriorated -some nights recently get constant disconnects ...

La Ola

Thanks for the reply man checked that out these are the stats

DownstreamUpstreamMax Allowed Speed (kbps)2048256SN Margin (dB)31.0025.00Line Attenuation (dB)17.008.50CRC Errors00

This sound right?

La Ola

Bad reply sorry about that hope this is clearer

Max speed allowed 2048 down

256 up


make sense?

smellslikeshoes

La Ola wrote: »

Thanks for the reply man checked that out these are the stats

DownstreamUpstreamMax Allowed Speed (kbps)2048256SN Margin (dB)31.0025.00Line Attenuation (dB)17.008.50CRC Errors00

This sound right?

They are definitely only sending 2mbit down that line. Are you sure that your exchange has been upgraded for the higher speeds?

sz_danii

My opinion is that UPC sucks , ports are blocked ( you have to use encrypted connection ), their DNS servers suck as well, so connection is not good at all. You get a 20 mb BB on your bill , but download is not better than on an eircom 3 MB line !

La Ola

not 100% sure as the exchange only came online in july and the muppet support never mentioned that, even though i had said that figure to them, would have thought that was the solution.
Thanks for your time man appreciate it will follow it up
cheers
La Ola

Moriarty

apeking wrote: »

thanks for the replies...

looks like i'll go for it so.

on 3mb eircom BB i used to get pings of around 25-30ms to UK CSS servers.

What should i ecxpect on UPC?

Provide a few ip addresses to game servers you use and we can provide ping/traceroutes for you.

christophicus

Moriarty wrote: »

Provide a few ip addresses to game servers you use and we can provide ping/traceroutes for you.

Just remember that there will be some overhead on game servers, over the ping/tracert time.

Archu

Biggest negative against UPC is their total disinterest in any form of Customer service

Once they have your money, they don't care a whit for Customer Service

I'm being hounded by UPC to upgrade from our DVR to include B'Band and Talk
While it sounds like a bargain - I know I'll be very much on my own should I have any questions, or God forbid somethin' goes wrong

Once bitten etc.

apeking

When i ping the SD:CSS server in the uk this is waht i get

C:\Users\ping 82.136.24.19

Pinging 82.136.24.19 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 82.136.24.19: bytes=32 time=60ms TTL=122
Reply from 82.136.24.19: bytes=32 time=62ms TTL=122
Reply from 82.136.24.19: bytes=32 time=60ms TTL=122
Reply from 82.136.24.19: bytes=32 time=58ms TTL=122

Also when i ping Jolt.co.uk i get


C:\Users\ping www.jolt.co.uk

Pinging www.jolt.co.uk [82.133.85.65] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=57
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=57ms TTL=57
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=63ms TTL=57
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=59ms TTL=57

Ping statistics for 82.133.85.65:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 57ms, Maximum = 64ms, Average = 60ms

if someone could compare it would be great thanks

Moriarty

c:\>ping -n 10 82.136.24.19

Pinging 82.136.24.19 with 32 bytes of data:
...
Ping statistics for 82.136.24.19:
Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 10, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 30ms, Maximum = 42ms, Average = 34ms


c:\>ping -n 10 www.jolt.co.uk

Pinging www.jolt.co.uk [82.133.85.65] with 32 bytes of data:
...
Ping statistics for 82.133.85.65:
Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 10, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 19ms, Maximum = 26ms, Average = 21ms

So yeah, better than dsl

apeking

Thanks Moriarty

Thats what i wanted to see!!

I'll book it online tomorrow.

Thanks for all your help lads

vibe666

sz_danii wrote: »

1. ports are blocked ( you have to use encrypted connection )

2. their DNS servers suck as well, so connection is not good at all.

1. anyone using any ISP should be using a random port with transport encryption ON if you plan on downloading anything other than linux ISO's, I don't see that as a downside at all.

2. i haven't used an ISP's dns servers since opendns started up, and I wouldn't recommend anyone else did either unless it was as a backup for opendns.

Blindpew

sz_danii wrote: »

My opinion is that UPC sucks , ports are blocked ( you have to use encrypted connection ), their DNS servers suck as well, so connection is not good at all. You get a 20 mb BB on your bill , but download is not better than on an eircom 3 MB line !

It must depend where you are or else you may have a pc problem. I'd give them top marks so far, as I can download at 2.3mbps fairly often, thats a 700mb film in under five minutes. I can barely watch them that fast. So long as they don't throttle me I think they're great.

vibe666

you can watch a movie in 5 minutes? :eek:

John Mason

I have decided UPC/NTL dont want my money

after crying on the phone on wednesday with total frustration with their customer service, i am off to start a thread about broadband in a box

dub45

pink fluffy bunny wrote: »

I have decided UPC/NTL dont want my money

after crying on the phone on wednesday with total frustration with their customer service, i am off to start a thread about broadband in a box

Yes I know what you mean - in spite of very bad memories I had forgotten how bad they could actually be until last week when I attempted to report a major tv outage in the area. After getting past the irate robotic voice warning me that I better have my account number next time and a demand for a telephone number (how does such a demand conform with data protection I wonder?) before I could get anyone passing for human to answer me I then had to assure the person concerned that I did have an account with them and that the account had been with their various incarnations for 30 years or so. I wonder how many people they get who dont have an account with them report faults?:rolleyes:

I was then told that any disruption was due to new cables being installed - when I queried this further I was told that there had been a fault ok but it had been fixed at 1.30 that day and when I assured the person that my neighbours and myself were all looking at blank screens I was told that it could not be progressed further until I agreed to an appointment with a technician. I of course pointed out that this was utterly stupid but again nothing could be done if I didnt agree etc etc etc.

If they were paying me to take bb from them I wouldnt! I really did not think that the old NTL customer service could get worse but UPC really have done that. Quite an achievement. No doubt they will be awarded bb provider of the year one of these fine days!!!:rolleyes::rolleyes:

vibe666

i just moved (yesterday) from BT (eircom bitstream 7.6mbps DSL) to ntl cable 20mbps and couldn't be happier with the speed.

admittedly it's only been day and I've probably cursed myself to a life of woe now, but just wanted to say i was happy with it so far.

vibe666

still going grand with it btw.

sz_danii

even if i`m working for the leader in BB in Ireland , i have a 20 mb connection with NTL, but i`m not so happy with it! It`s downloading ok for me , but i don`t know why i`m not happy with it .... probably becouse of the fibre connection from work

vibe666

just out of curiosity, who would you consider to be the leader for BB in Ireland?

if you mean eircom with their alleged 'upgrades' to 7.6mbps (which for a lot of people are worse than 3mbps), they hold more responsibility for holding back broadband in Ireland than anyone.

if you mean BT, their lack of customer servicesand piecemeal upgrades to make it look like they're giving everyone 24mbps when eircom are stuck at 7.6mbps is a piecemeal offering for a selcet few whilst the majoirty of their customers get offered a reconstituted eircom 7.6mbps connection for the same price as the precious few get their 24mbps and then get throttled every time they try and use any of the extra speed to download more.

magnet, digiweb and smart etc. don't reach enough people to count, or where they do they're just reselling eircom's bitstream product so those don't count either.

which leaves the blob that is now chorus/ntl/upc which is finally doing a pretty good job of rolling out their products to more and more homes, as ntl have been promising for years. customer service is still pretty shoddy but that too is apparently being corrected (albeit very slowly).

so from here it doesn't look like we actually have a 'broadband leader' in ireland. who did you way you worked for again?

Cabaal

Personally I'd view Smart as the leader of ADSL Broadband and UPC (cause there basically the only one's anyway) as the leader of Cable Broadband (yes I'm aware of casey cable )

sz_danii

Did i say i work for eircom.... neah !? Why you work for NTL? ... you know their sh*t why would you say that ... 24 mb in dublin city center .. but not anywhere else .... who has most line over 3 mb outside dublin ??? eircom does ... smart and bt have only a few exchanges... their using eircom ones..... so what now ?

vibe666 wrote: »

just out of curiosity, who would you consider to be the leader for BB in Ireland?

if you mean eircom with their alleged 'upgrades' to 7.6mbps (which for a lot of people are worse than 3mbps), they hold more responsibility for holding back broadband in Ireland than anyone.

if you mean BT, their lack of customer servicesand piecemeal upgrades to make it look like they're giving everyone 24mbps when eircom are stuck at 7.6mbps is a piecemeal offering for a selcet few whilst the majoirty of their customers get offered a reconstituted eircom 7.6mbps connection for the same price as the precious few get their 24mbps and then get throttled every time they try and use any of the extra speed to download more.

magnet, digiweb and smart etc. don't reach enough people to count, or where they do they're just reselling eircom's bitstream product so those don't count either.

which leaves the blob that is now chorus/ntl/upc which is finally doing a pretty good job of rolling out their products to more and more homes, as ntl have been promising for years. customer service is still pretty shoddy but that too is apparently being corrected (albeit very slowly).

so from here it doesn't look like we actually have a 'broadband leader' in ireland. who did you way you worked for again?

DingDong

sz_danii wrote: »

Did i say i work for eircom.... neah !? Why you work for NTL? ... you know their sh*t why would you say that ... 24 mb in dublin city center .. but not anywhere else .... who has most line over 3 mb outside dublin ??? eircom does ... smart and bt have only a few exchanges... their using eircom ones..... so what now ?

sz_danii you make no sense at all if you believe upc to be so bad, Why have you chosen them over other isp's? . The main reason most of the ntl cable network was it such a terrible state was due to ownership by Telecom Éireann. They only bought the cable company for fear of it developing voice services. They then proceeded to invest nothing in the network and allowed it be in it current state. Ntl had great plans but underestimated the cost to create a modern cable network and nearly went bust. Now we have upc who are one of the few high rollers left in town investing millions into the network creating a massive amount of jobs and bringing high speed internet at an affordable cost. Yes they are far from perfect but at least they are putting the money into the network unlike eircom who seem to be happy to sit of their ever ageing network looking for a government hand out.

sz_danii

True .... but still wtf they give out a 20 mb connection where you can`t use Bittorrent only if its encrypted ( slows it donw to 500 kbps, i can get this even with a 2mb line ) and strong dc takes ages to configure to get it up at maximum 200 kbps ) for reading your e-mail and reply on boards.ie your dont need 20 mb .... or youtube ! My opinion ! (btw PS3 and X-Box work even on a 1mb good line )

DingDong wrote: »

sz_danii you make no sense at all if you believe upc to be so bad, Why have chosen them over other isp? . The main reason most of the ntl cable network was it such a terrible state was due to ownership by Telecom Éireann. They only bought the cable company for fear of it developing voice services. They then proceeded to invest nothing in the network and allowed it be in it current state. Ntl had great plans but underestimated the cost to create a modern cable network and nearly went bust. Now we have upc who are one of the few high rollers left in town investing millions into the network creating a massive amount of job and bringing high speed internet at an affordable cost. Yes they are far from perfect but at least they are putting the money into the network unlike eircom who seem to be happy to sit of their ever ageing network looking for a government hand out.

vibe666

sz_danii wrote: »

True .... but still wtf they give out a 20 mb connection where you can`t use Bittorrent only if its encrypted ( slows it donw to 500 kbps, i can get this even with a 2mb line ) and strong dc takes ages to configure to get it up at maximum 200 kbps ) for reading your e-mail and reply on boards.ie your dont need 20 mb .... or youtube ! My opinion ! (btw PS3 and X-Box work even on a 1mb good line )

I have my 20mbps NTL for over a week now and it's grand. I don't always get the full speed all the time, but the first thing I did was pick 2 well seeded torrents and download them to test the speed and the combined speed of just those 2 torrents was over 700kB/s (5.7mbps).

here, check it out if you don't believe me.



since then I've found it to be much faster than my old 7.6mbps BT DSL (eircom bitstream) and I don't have to juggle my downloads any more to avoid getting throttled like I used to.

and no, I don't work or NTL, but I did used to work for eircom.net tech support and it just happened to be at the time when it all went downhill so I'm well aware of what a useless shower of eejits they are. that's no direct reflection of the people on the frontline doing the work though, as with most things it's management saving money by cutting corners on wages and training.

Calibos

Moved to a new home which is just a few hundred yards from the exchange and went with eircom for at least the 6 months contract period just to get the line in quick with minimum of hassle. Will re-examine options next year. Anyway our Line attentuation and S/N figures are amazing in the new home and the eircom netopia synces at the full 7.6/700k.

The other night I downloaded a 350mb well seeded file at about 600k/s and it was downloaded in about 10 minutes.

I don't think Eircom are throttling (not at night anyway) There are even preconfigured ports set in the router for all the popular torrent apps.

sz_danii

Yeah thats the thing they don`t block anything ... BTW ... 300 KBPP + 400 KBPS = 700 KBPS = 0.7 MBs .... thats not 7.6 MBPS )) ... i get the same sh*t from NTL , but i have my eircom one as well and no chance for the ntl one...... i get 2MBPS on eircom with a 7.6 line , not a 20 mb line )

vibe666 wrote: »

I have my 20mbps NTL for over a week now and it's grand. I don't always get the full speed all the time, but the first thing I did was pick 2 well seeded torrents and download them to test the speed and the combined speed of just those 2 torrents was over 700kB/s (5.7mbps).

here, check it out if you don't believe me.



since then I've found it to be much faster than my old 7.6mbps BT DSL (eircom bitstream) and I don't have to juggle my downloads any more to avoid getting throttled like I used to.

and no, I don't work or NTL, but I did used to work for eircom.net tech support and it just happened to be at the time when it all went downhill so I'm well aware of what a useless shower of eejits they are. that's no direct reflection of the people on the frontline doing the work though, as with most things it's management saving money by cutting corners on wages and training.

vibe666

sz_danii wrote: »

Yeah thats the thing they don`t block anything ... BTW ... 300 KBPP + 400 KBPS = 700 KBPS = 0.7 MBs .... thats not 7.6 MBPS )) ... i get the same sh*t from NTL , but i have my eircom one as well and no chance for the ntl one...... i get 2MBPS on eircom with a 7.6 line , not a 20 mb line )

err, I think you need to learn your bits from your bytes mate (and your capitilization is all fk'dup).

700kB/s (aka KBps or KiloBytes per second) = 5600kbps (kilobits per second) or 5.6mbps (megabits per second) OR 0.7MBps (MegaBytes per second). Note the difference in upper and lower case representing bits and BYTES.

on an ntl 20mbps (lower case 'bits') connection that's pretty damn good for torrents (42mb downloaded a minute, less than 9 minutes for a 350mb file) and a damn sight faster than I ever got on my 7.6mbps DSL.

AFAIK, you may have just completed a self fulfilling prophecy in your signature (even without correcting the spellinz).

*cough*FAIL*cough*

vibe666

sz_danii wrote: »

damn .... sorry to say it but your dum ..... but your line is in bites as well ) ... so your bandwith is 20000 kbps ... and your download is 700 kbps ... were is the rest ?

we're talking about torrenting, not FTP'ing, 2 very different things.

and a 'bite' is what you have for your lunch, it's got no place in a conversaiton about data.

are you seriously going to try and argue your point when you haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about?

you need to re-read my previous post about 50 times if you have even the faintest hope of understanding any of this.

sz_danii

i know what you mean !!! ... but what you said is not true .... you get 700 kbps .. thats 0.7 mbps ... your contract sais 20 mbps ( even if you take a torrent that is well seeded and stuff still not gonna pass over maximum 3 mbps )

Data Communications ( 10^x )
700000 bits
700 kilobits
0.7 megabits
0.007 gigabits
7e-7 terabits

TbStorage ( 2^x )

87500Bytes
85.449Kilobytes
0.083447Megabytes
0.000081491Gigabytes
7.9581e-8Terabytes




Here example :

Business Lite
1Mb
Maximum product speeds:
Download 1,024kbps
Upload 128kbps

Business Lite Plus
3Mb
Maximum product speeds:
Download 3,072kbps
Upload 384kbps

Business Starter
7.6Mb
Maximum product speeds:
Download 7,782kbps
Upload 672kbps

vibe666 wrote: »

we're talking about torrenting, not FTP'ing, 2 very different things.

vibe666

no you don't know what I mean because if you did know what you were talking about we wouldn't be having this conversation. :rolleyes:

I'm going to make it as simple as I possibly can for you, but I've got stuff to do so I can't spoon feed you all night, you're going to have to use your brain at some point.

here we have a zoomed pic of the speed shown in my previous screengrab.



please pay attention to the download speed of 718 kB/s (note the big 'B' in the speed which is NOT in any way, shape or form anything like the same as kbps. the speed you see in the screengrab above if converted to kbps units would be around 5744kbps.

Being as you seem to like copy pasting interwebby stuff, have a little good hard look at [URL="[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbit/s#megabit_per_second[/url]"]THIS[/URL] page (repeatedly, please for the love of god until you finally get it) on wikipedia which explains it all in plenty of detail, specifically this bit.

'b' vs 'B'
'b' stands for 'bit' and 'B' stands for 'byte', where one byte refers to 8 bits. This can lead to confusion, as when a "1 Mega" connection is advertised, it usually means 1 Mibit/s (mebibit per second) or 1.049 Mbit/s (megabit per second), meaning the maximum achievable download speed is actually about 128 KiB/s (kibibyte per second) or 131 kB/s (kilobyte per second).

so to recap: a little 'b' signifies a 'bit' whereas a big 'B' signifies a Byte. ntl do a 20megabit connection, NOT a 20megabyte connection.

the 20mbps ntl connection is equiv. to 20x 131kB/s so the absolute maximum download speed you will see (via ftp) on a perfect 20mbps internet connection is 2,620kB/s, so given the constant toing and froing of data on a torrent download my 718kB/s looks pretty impressive imho.

well, at least when you know your bits from your bytes it does. not to mention 'bites'. :rolleyes:

sorry but you're going to have to come back when you know what you're at because right now all you're doing is confusing the situation for other people who also might not know the difference.

unfortunately the IEC has been messing around with units of measurement so it's all changed again to Kibibyte and Mebibyte to totally confuse all of us, so you'll just have to work those out for yourself, but it'll be good exercise for your brain.

Torrents have been ruined over the last few years as they have gotten popular.


People wont share, cant share! Keep taking and never give back, againt the whole spirit of bitorrent.


So back to the old friend Usenet


VVVV

i hit 18.5 most times


European server farms with SSl







As you can see the speed at the bottom


18.2Mbps/2.3MBps


And that is constant, any time of day, and day of the week,

sz_danii

I know wat you mean .. but it`s not correct, storage is in bytes, network speeds should be in bites !!!! ( according to our day regulations )

vibe666

nice one cisk, you pay for usenet or you know somewhere secrit?

Its a secret thats been around since before the World wide web



You pay a few quid amount to a news provider for unlimited high speed access to the usenet network.


Check out http://www.slyck.com/ng.php


I use http://www.news.astraweb.com/ costs bout 10e a month unlimited.

99% of media gets ripped to usenet 1st and then filters down to torrents.

vibe666

cisk wrote: »

Its a secret thats been around since before the World wide web

You pay a few quid amount to a news provider for unlimited high speed access to the usenet network.

Check out http://www.slyck.com/ng.php

I use http://www.news.astraweb.com/ costs bout 10e a month unlimited.

99% of media gets ripped to usenet 1st and then filters down to torrents.

I was trawling usenet over dialup (and then ISDN) before DSL was even invented (and bbs's before that, starting to feel old now!)

tbh i have an rss feed set up to grab pretty much everything i download reguarly and remote access to the server at home to set off anything new i see during the day which has always been finished by the time I get home anyway, so I pretty much wouldn't bother with usenet I don't think, although the speed is pretty impressive all the same. about 4gb downloaded today and all done before I was home from work to do anything with it anyway, so plenty fast enough imho.

Sponge Bob

Can we get back to NTL please

There are certain areas where NTL cable is too grotty to compete with eircom. D8 and D15 come to mind .

Then there are areas where NTL cable is brand new and the eircom exchange is too far away and the cabling too grotty to compete with NTL cable . These tend to be areas on suburban fringes in major urban areas .

Only about 10% of net users have any serious interest in binaries or torrents so can we advise the other 90% please.

Ta.

vibe666

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Can we get back to NTL please

indeed we can.

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Only about 10% of net users have any serious interest in binaries or torrents so can we advise the other 90% please.

in that case they don't 'need' a 20/24mbps connection at all and any of the fixed line providers should do the job.

seriously though if we're talking about 'that' 90% of users one of the most important factors would have to be decent support, which pretty much stuffs all the ISP's I can think of.

a reasonable service that 'works' and good support when it doesn't would be the best for most people. irish broadband maybe?

pretty much find out who has the lowest % of *complaints per head and go with them.

*which wouldn't be NTL, BT or Eircom.

Hellrazer

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Only about 10% of net users have any serious interest in binaries or torrents so can we advise the other 90% please.

Ta.

Id say the figure is higher for interest in torrents to be honest.Anyone in Maynooth know if torrents are throttled there?