Broadband advice

dafunk

Just moved into a gaff in Salthill. Don't want to deal with NTL ever again. Any recommendations on suppliers? Can we refrain from a supplier bashing thread if possible, just recommendations on who is good value for money and won't be up and down like a yo yo. Was hoping not to pay phone line rental aswell, anyone know if there's decent satellite suppliers or do we have no choice but to pay eircom?

skelliser

well if you want your internet censored at the behest of the recording industry go with eircom broadband.

pleasant Co.

Other than NTL or Mobile broadband I don't think any of the other providers offer eircom line rental free connections.

I use ntl broadband, my experiences with them have been mixed (both great and awful), for my needs though they're the best. My folks use BT broadband out in the country, overall they're decent but I didn't like their capping policy so I wouldn't use them.

OP, check out the various provider's websites, find what's best for you (a shortlist) then post here with what you've narrowed it down to.

muppetkiller

I've had Magnet for 3 years and never had a single day outage.
1:1 contention rates too so serious download speeds.
I pay 55 a month including line rental for a 10mb line. (Even though I tested my line speed at it clocks in at 16mb/s)

Xiney

We've been with Digiweb Metro Home for 2 years.

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

Cons first:

- very strict on traffic, they throttle your connection to sh!t the minute you go over your cap
- need a small aerial on the chimney, sometimes landlords aren't too keen on this (but it literally is the size of a textbook and they come take it down when you leave so we're on our third rented place now with no major landlord objections)

Pros:

- tech support are good. The few times we've had to use them they were helpful and quick.
- Metro Home is very good value we think, since it includes the cost of a "landline". The long distance prices are good too, which is nice since my family is all in Canada. We pay under 50 bucks a month for the internet and phone, and usually use about 5-10 bucks worth of long distance on top of that.
- connection speed doesn't seem to vary over time of day. I've never noticed anything, anyway.

ScumLord

I have digiweb as well, Their more of a business suppler so their service is top notch. I don't know what's happened lately but I have no cap on my connection. It is the fastest one available in my area (7mb) but ever since I rang up complaining about the cap my restriction disappeared.

When you do go over your connection is next to useless and I'd say it's slower than dial-up. I rang up to complain about them letting me go so far over because then I've no internet for days waiting for it to come back down.

Edit: Satellite is useless, it costs a fortune and isn't great for surfing the web, it's grand for downloading stuff but the lag on it and fairly slow speeds are really not worth the money.

kinetic

I used to have NTL and didnt think it was great,switched to Eircom and find them terrible.....come back NTL all is forgiven( never thought id say that)

galah

I feel your pain.
NTL was sh*te, really dreadful, poor service, constant outtages and abysmal customer "service", so we switched back to Eircom, no problems since then. However, their broadband is coupled with the landline, so unless you're willing to get that installed, I'm not sure if Eircom is the best.

I refrain from provider bashing ;-)

I heard good things about Irish broadband (wireless), but don't have any experience myself.

skelliser

iv heard smart are good, no contention as well

dec25532

Have been put on 3 wireless for the past month and find it terrible. They claim to be as high speed as eircom but not with a barge poll. It is okay on occasions but not as a permanent broadband facility. Intake of large emails is a major problem and length of time also an issue. Back to eircom I'm afraid unless there are any other suggestions.

Mrs OBumble

I'm on O2 mobile broadband, 'cos the place I'm in hasn't ever had a phone line installed and it wasn't worth it for my initial 6-month lease.

I've got Skype, which is only useful for incoming calls if you leave the PC on all the time, and a mobile. Some relatives don't ring me 'cos I've not got a landline, but I'm slowly getting them trained to text me and I'll call them back on Skype a lot more cheaply.

It has some weeks when broadband keeps dropping the connection every 15 minutes or so. It restarts again immediately, but it's enough to log me out of boards.ie. But other weeks it's fine (I'd say 1 bad to 3 good, overall). E20/month.

Their on-line support forums are pretty helpful, and a good place to find out about new stuff. (But yes, to use 'em the broadband does need to be working!). I had to use phone support initially (18 months ago) - 'twas tedious but effective. No idea what it's like now.

If you have a laptop, then it can be really, really hand to be able to guarantee that you'll have internet access pretty much wherever you go.