Eircom Broadband (Skibbereen) - Can Someone Please Explain?

Porninferno

Hi All

Just been having an absolutely terrible time with Eircom lately and was wondering if anyone could help explain a something to me.

We are about 4k from the Skibbereen exchange in Cork:eek:. When we moved back to Ireland we were originally on a 1MB package but quickly upgraded to a 3MB package as the download speeds were terrible on the 1MB.

On the router page when using 1MB package it would say that line speed was between 500k and 750k but an Eircom speedtest would say 100-290k.

Now, when using the 3MB package our router page says line speed is 1248k to a max of 1415k with a line attenuation of 63/31db. When we use the Eircom speed test (or any other one for that matter) the download speed reads 279k to a low last night or 97k!!!!!

When I plug the router in early in the morning (5AM) the router page says 1248k and above and I've never had trouble streaming video and more recently streaming live TV from Sky Player on the Xbox. An Eircom speed test confirms that indeed we are getting download speeds in excess of 1200k.

Later in the day, although my router page says my line speed is consistent with earlier in the morning I cannot stream a thing! Download speeds taper right off from a high of 1300k to a low of around 100k.

Lots of calls to Eircom and have now been told to downgrade my line to 1MB. Not one person at Eircom can tell me why there is such a massive variation in downloads speeds accross the course of the day but my router page line speed information remains consistent.

Can anyone on here just help explain this to me please? Download speeds tollerable in the morning, stream telly, video, audio, email with photo attachments, you know, actually use the internet to do things....12PM on and it gets progressively worse to the extent that it is unusable in the evenings. Why such a massive variation in speed? Could it be contention? I have mentioned contention to Eircom but that was quickly and flatly denied as an issue.

Relectant to downgrade the line but if everyone thinks that's what I should do for a more consistent service then so be it.

Many thanks in advance chaps.

jor el

I don't think your line can handle the 3Mbps, so downgrading to 1Mbps is the best course of action. You're only getting barely over 1Mbps at the best of times anyway, so why pay for 3?

Variations in speed, over the course of the day, is often due to capacity/contention. eircom will never tell you this, because it reflects badly on them.

Spear

Porninferno wrote: »

Hi All

Just been having an absolutely terrible time with Eircom lately and was wondering if anyone could help explain a something to me.

We are about 4k from the Skibbereen exchange in Cork:eek:. When we moved back to Ireland we were originally on a 1MB package but quickly upgraded to a 3MB package as the download speeds were terrible on the 1MB.

On the router page when using 1MB package it would say that line speed was between 500k and 750k but an Eircom speedtest would say 100-290k.

Now, when using the 3MB package our router page says line speed is 1248k to a max of 1415k with a line attenuation of 63/31db. When we use the Eircom speed test (or any other one for that matter) the download speed reads 279k to a low last night or 97k!!!!!

When I plug the router in early in the morning (5AM) the router page says 1248k and above and I've never had trouble streaming video and more recently streaming live TV from Sky Player on the Xbox. An Eircom speed test confirms that indeed we are getting download speeds in excess of 1200k.

Later in the day, although my router page says my line speed is consistent with earlier in the morning I cannot stream a thing! Download speeds taper right off from a high of 1300k to a low of around 100k.

Lots of calls to Eircom and have now been told to downgrade my line to 1MB. Not one person at Eircom can tell me why there is such a massive variation in downloads speeds accross the course of the day but my router page line speed information remains consistent.

Can anyone on here just help explain this to me please? Download speeds tollerable in the morning, stream telly, video, audio, email with photo attachments, you know, actually use the internet to do things....12PM on and it gets progressively worse to the extent that it is unusable in the evenings. Why such a massive variation in speed? Could it be contention? I have mentioned contention to Eircom but that was quickly and flatly denied as an issue.

Relectant to downgrade the line but if everyone thinks that's what I should do for a more consistent service then so be it.

Many thanks in advance chaps.

You're at an attenuation of 63 dB out of a max of 63.5 dB according to the ADSL spec. Your line is very vulnerable to noise from any number of sources, and that means loss of sync and lost packets. Going back to 1 meg should help with this.

Porninferno

Thanks for that guys. Will give them a call in the morning.

Thanks again.

Porninferno

Spear wrote: »

You're at an attenuation of 63 dB out of a max of 63.5 dB according to the ADSL spec.

:eek: That's dreadful.

Sponge Bob

The 63db attentuation is a bit extreme and consistent with being 5 miles from the exchange . Yet you are only 4km which should be fine for 3mbit ( or indeed a lot more)

At what time of day does it go pear shaped ...eg twilight or 6pm ??

Have you tried the modem plugged into the main socket only , no filters splitters phones or sky boxes attached to the line at all

What is your atten like then ?

Porninferno

Sponge Bob wrote: »

The 63db attentuation is a bit extreme and consistent with being 5 miles from the exchange . Yet you are only 4km which should be fine for 3mbit ( or indeed a lot more)

At what time of day does it go pear shaped ...eg twilight or 6pm ??

Have you tried the modem plugged into the main socket only , no filters splitters phones or sky boxes attached to the line at all

What is your atten like then ?

Good point. We have no Sky boxes attached to the line but do have the Eircom ADSL filters attached, as supplied by Eircom. We've done all tests that include connecting the modem straight into the main phone line with no ADSL filter but sadly to no avail. No improvement at all.

It can go pear-shaped anytime from 12PM to 6PM....but after 6PM there really is no point trying.

We're gonna buy carrier pidgeons in the morning and I'm taking a morse code course some time soon. That along with smoke signals and we should be fine!

Thanks again for all the help.

Sponge Bob

If you are not in a bundle you have a 6 month contract ( resets after an upgrade) and after the 6 months you may give one months notice .

You could always order a new line ( standard connection ) and see what happens . Connection is free until march .

http://www.eircom.ie/About/Activities/internet_special_offer.pdf

If it works cease the DSL and the old line and set up DSL on the new line . They can normally be persuaded to let you take your number .

Easier than getting them out to fix it, mindya the tayto bag scrunching while reporting a voice line fault still works , sometimes They do not fix data line faults but do fix voice line faults , echo or crackle or whatever .

Fries-With-That

Sponge Bob wrote: »

If you are not in a bundle you have a 6 month contract ( resets after an upgrade) and after the 6 months you may give one months notice .

You could always order a new line ( standard connection ) and see what happens . Connection is free until march .

http://www.eircom.ie/About/Activities/internet_special_offer.pdf

If it works cease the DSL and the old line and set up DSL on the new line . They can normally be persuaded to let you take your number .

Easier than getting them out to fix it, mindya the tayto bag scrunching while reporting a voice line fault still works , sometimes They do not fix data line faults but do fix voice line faults , echo or crackle or whatever .

Just a word of warning on ordering a new line...by all means order a new line, but don't order any kind of package or bundle on the line.
When you're ordering the new line let them know that you know about the free line connection offer (tell them you need a second line in the house).

When the engineer calls out to you make sure you tell him you do not want a carrier line as you will need to get broadband on the new line too.

Once the new line has been connected and you have a phone number for it do a broadband line check, if its better than you have now, ring 1901 again and ask them to transfer your old number and broadband onto the new line. They may b*tch and complain and tell you that you can't do that, but you can and they have done it in the past several times

If you can't get better quality BB on the new line you ordered, just cancel it. The most it will have cost you is one months line rental at 25.47E


Regards,

Fries.

Sponge Bob

The way you test a new line is to use dialup, at 4km a good line should come up at 38-42k consistently ( even when busy at night)

If not then complain like **** about the new line not supporting "functional internet acces ", eg if it drops the connection etc or goes below 28.8k at any stage .

Complain formally at all times through the eircom online interface , if they do not give a ticket number complain to Comreg at all times. Eventually they will sort it out .

Once it is stable order dsl and cease the old one .

That , in Ireland , is the easiest way .