UPC Queries

Lanterrrn

Hey guys, sorry if I seem like a bit of an eejit when it comes to the whole broadband issue. I had a quick search for the answers, and couldn't really find the answers to the following... so any help would be great.

Right... so I'm thinking of switching to UPC because I had this (3MB Eircom package):



... then the internet shut down for a few days (as well as the phones, which are still down)... and now I have this:



So, my questions...

1) How is the speed of the 20MB package in the Kilmacud/Dundrum area? I'd imagine the closest exchange would be Dundrum, but I figured you guys would know better. What areas should I be looking into for direct comparisons to what I'll be getting. A good few posts had lads from Dundrum getting 18MB (cue copious amounts of drooling).

2) Does it take long for them to come out to me once ordered? There was an installation topic just down the page... but for the life of me, I couldn't understand all the talk of splitters and whatnot. Hahah...
I like to have my router in my room though, upstairs close to my consoles for online gaming. Will this be a problem for them to set-up? And how long does it roughly take once they're inside the door?

3) My set-up at the moment has the ethernet cable from some old netopia router going into my Apple Airport BaseStation for wireless around the house... will anything change in that regard, or will I need a new router? I know UPC give me a free wireless router, but to be honest, I'd prefer to keep using the BaseStation. Can I just get a normal router from them instead?

4) Am I doing the right thing in switching from Eircom right now? I'd imagine the answer is yes, but if the reason the lines have been so terrible recently turns out to be some mega upgrade, I'll be a bit... well, you know...

Any help is greatly appreciated! And sorry for the wall o' text... and my obliviousness.

_Sidhe_

Couldn't tell you about Dundrum, I'm from the other side of the country myself!;)

As for the install, if you called them on Monday, you should be installed by the end of the week.
Their techs haven't got the best of reputations but they tend to get them out quickly enough, that is if they don't miss the apt.:rolleyes:
My install was painless.
Called on a Tuesday I think, was installed on the Friday.
The techs were there for about 30-40 mins, but my install was for TV and BB.
And they had to feed two seperate cables and do a lot of tacking.

The issue with the splitter on the other thread is down to the positioning of your modem.
It depends on if you have tv with UPC.
If you only have one UPC tv point in the house, the techs will naturaly try and put the modem there.
It doesn't have to go there though, although I've heard about people who said some techs insist it does.
Trying to make the job easier I suppose.
They like to put a splitter on the cable going into the tv, and leave the modem and router there.

The other option is to split the cable outside the house (or use a second connection) and put the other cable where you want the modem.
That's what I did.
The techs wanted to put the modem by the tv, I said no, and in fairness they agreed straight away.
I had the cable split outside.
One line was fed through the upstairs wall into the room where I had the computer.
The second cable was tacked down the wall ,and a second hole was drilled into the wall there to feed the tv.
I even got the techs to tack the cable along the roof to conceal it, and inside the house, along an awning for the same reason.
I've heard horror stories though (cables left dangling) so I can only advise on my experience.

A lot of this depends on your house.
Does it have UPC points built in?
As I said earlier, do you have tv with UPC?

As long as the room you want the modem in has an external facing wall, you should be grand however.


As for the Netopia wireless modem, long story short, no.
There are ways to get it to work but it's really, really, not worth it, and requires a lot of work.
Any cable router will do the job for you, and I personally never had a problem with the router they supplied.
I changed it to increase my range only (nothing like browsing the net in the garden!:D).

I'm not a Mac man myself, but the netopia will work with your set up.
My sister has Virgin BB in the UK, and her husband and her both have MAC's.
Virgin supply the exact same router as UPC (Netgear WGR614), and their system works fine.
Or as I said, any cable router will do if you want to get your own.



I really wouldn't want to tell you whether moving would be the right thing to do or not.
I had a horror story myself with Eircom, and know that I'll not be going with them anytime soon.
My situation was extrordinary however, and is going to clowd my judgement.;)

Lanterrrn

Thanks for the reply, Sidhe. Very informative!

The broadband is the one and only thing we're going to be getting from UPC, so I'm guessing that means they won't be messing around with splitters, or limiting where exactly I can have the whole set-up positioned (within reason). The room my modem currently sits in is externally facing as well. So it sounds like it'll all go nice and smooth once they get inside the home. Great!

And as long as the router has no problems working with my mac, then I'll have no bother using it. I was just worried there'd be some compatibility issues. Sounds good on that front too then.

One more thing is confusing me at the moment... currently, a cable runs from a phone jack in my room, into my modem. Now, am I right in thinking that this will no longer be in use, or does the UPC broadband run in a similar fashion? If not, where exactly will this cable come from?

dub45

UPC bb has aboslutely nothing to do with your eircom line.

It will likely come from the upc cable running along your house exterior wall.

They will probably have to drill a hole to bring it in. They will connect it to the cable modem which they supply and you should able to connect your wireless router to that with litlle bother. It will really depend on how you had it set up with your eircom router. Were you using dhcp on the apple or on the Eircom do you know?

Lanterrrn

In my Airport's network settings it has "Configure IPv4 using DHCP", with the 'using DHCP' bit as the option. Does that answer your question, dub?

dub45

Lanterrrn wrote: »

In my Airport's network settings it has "Configure IPv4 using DHCP", with the 'using DHCP' bit as the option. Does that answer your question, dub?

What's your setting for connection sharing at the bottom of that page?

Lanterrrn

It says "Off (Bridge mode)".

dub45

Lanterrrn wrote: »

It says "Off (Bridge mode)".

This setting means that the Airport is only being used as a wireless point and that the Eirom netopia is doing the routing.

If you take the netopia out of your system and substitute the UPC modem you will need to change that setting to 'share a public IP address'

Lanterrrn

Good stuff. Thanks for that, dub!