What BroadBand would you recommend?

hexa44

Hi there,

I am moving soon (Clonmel area), and was wondering what BroadBand service would you recommend. My usage pattern is pretty heave downloads sometimes, www browsing, uploading to FTP etc. - so I would need pretty high DL/UL speeds and not too small limit. UPC is NOT an option unfortunately, as the area I move in is not covered.

Previous BBs I had:

ICE BB - I had bad experiences with them (slow connection/not working often)

Clearwire - sh1t, never ever again.

I was thinking about VF at Home package, but am not sure it works as advertised...

Can anyone knowledgeable point me somewhere?


Thanks in advance,
Greg & Agata.

cardol

Hi, welcome to Clonmel!

I was with Eircom and left because their BB was always going down when out of hours and they could not be contacted.

I am currently with Vodafone but am now thinking of moving. I get very low signal strength with VF and they keep telling me it's to do with devices me or my neighbours may or may not have. A problem I didn't have with Eircom.

See their responses to my "low signal" query below. Clonmel is a large town so I'm sure you'll have neighbours too

I wouldn't recommend VF in this area.

Hiya,
this sounds like you have an issue with WiFi transmission rather than the broadband connection itself.
Essentially, the DSL signal comes down the line, and the router then sends it on to where it needs to go (think of it like a radio transmitter, it broadcasts a "station" that your computer then picks up).

If there's interference on that Wifi channel, it can cause a loss of signal - it's like holding a mobile phone up to a set of speakers, it creates that "static" noise.
Interference can be caused by other wireless products (cordless phones, baby monitors and game console controllers being among the most likely candidates), some of which can broadcast to quite a hefty range, so it could be a device in a house next door or even further away.

Hiya,
As we've noted in your previous thread, this isn't a broadband issue, it's wireless interference.
If you were to connect your computer via ethernet, you wouldn't have these issues. You can get a long ethernet cable which should reach any room in the house, so there is no need to continue using wifi if you have this much interference.

Interestingly, they have no problem suggesting I have holes drilled in my walls to allow an ethernet cable to pass through. According to VF, WiFi is not always an option with them......

DesperateDan

See if Imagine Wimax is available in the area, I've heard reasonable things about them

cardol

Hmmmm DesperateDan, is "reasonable" worth the money?:D I'm looking for excellent...:D

watty

DesperateDan wrote: »

See if Imagine Wimax is available in the area, I've heard reasonable things about them

Well, it will be fine for some people. But it's not Broadband, it's Nomadic/Mobile WiMax on inappropriate 3.6GHz, so marginally better than 3G (no breathing) but really unstable speed and ping compared to Breeze or Fixed WiMax. It's poor for plenty of people. Though they claim it's unlimited it's really 30GByte Cap which is too high to avoid congestion. It should be more like 5G to 10G Cap it they want to improve consistency.

2Mbps DSL is better. For some Imagine WiMax users and any real time game online players even 1Mbps DSL will be better.

Imagine Wimax is about x8 poorer capacity than Fixed WiMax in same channel and Band.

Clearwire's Irish assets are now owned by Imagine. It and Ripwave are only a bit worse than Imagine WiMax.

Ice is gone and assets taken over by Ripplecom. Ice was one of poorest Fixed Wireless providers as they used a lot of WiFi technology.

If going for phone line BB, choose Digiweb/Smart, Magnet, UTV, Eircom. Not Vodafone. Vodafone's DSL is ex Perlico and BT retail/IOL/ESat.

Avoid any Mobile or "home Router" version Mobile (O2, Vodafone, 3 or Meteor/eircom Mobile). These are Mobile Phone network and can be better or worse than Clearwire, drop connection or refuse to connect (CDMA breathing). While Speed can be about 5Mbps and ping as low as 85ms, the issue is that 250ms and 1Mbps is more common and down to 0.05Mbps with > 500ms is easily as possible as 5MBps.

KennyLegend

You have two options really outside of the modem dongle....

Eircom or Wiimax (if thats the correct term for the dish way).

The wiimax way is supposed to be excellent in high areas or areas free of obstruction of the signal path and you dont need a landline.

Eircom..well...we all know about Eircom dont we.....them and Voda will be pretty similiar in most respects. Be aware of the Next gen BB though...not supposed to be all its cracked up to be and peeps seem to be getting slower speeds than they had previously.

**EDIT**...just read wattys post....looks like adsl is your best option then..

thelagg2000

i,m with perlico now for 6 months and have had no problems,i have a 36gb d/l limit and free calls to uk&ireland,

Cantona's Collars

Digiweb Metro available in most parts of Clonmel http://www.digiweb.ie/home/broadband/metro/index.html

watty

KennyLegend wrote: »

You have two options really outside of the modem dongle....

Eircom or Wiimax (if thats the correct term for the dish way).

Nonsense.
There are TWO kinds of WiMax:
1) Fixed outdoor aerials/radios only
or
2)Mobile, Nomadic, mix of Indoor & Outdoor aerials.

There are many technologies of Fixed Wireless.
Some Wireless suppliers use Fixed WiMax, some use Proprietary systems like Fixed WiMax, some use WiFi like systems (poor).

Also as well as DSL (only mostly eircom and always eircom's cable) there is Fibre and cable based Broadband.

Metro (Fixed Wireless) is similar system to UPC, except without the cable

Metro Typical 8Mbps



Digiweb Metro 8Mbps twice as good as average 8Mbps Eircom ADSL NGB and typically Eight times better than Imagine WiMax "up to" 7Mbps. All have 30 GByte cap.
See also http://www.techtir.ie/telecomms/8Mbps-broadband

cardol

zerks wrote: »

Digiweb Metro available in most parts of Clonmel http://www.digiweb.ie/home/broadband/metro/index.html

Cheers Zerks, I'm looking at this online - it seems to be a really good deal. It's also a lot less than what I'm paying for VF at the moment. It's just occured to me I might be tied to VF for a year, wil need to check that.:rolleyes:

tfitzgerald

i have utv internet and i cant fault them its a good service and if i do have to ring them more for advice than any other reason i find them really helpfull i am in the limerick area and am using a land line

_Nuno_

cardol wrote: »

I am currently with Vodafone but am now thinking of moving. I get very low signal strength with VF and they keep telling me it's to do with devices me or my neighbours may or may not have. A problem I didn't have with Eircom.

Which is a common enough problem, especially if the WFI channel is not automatically selected. Have you tired changing it or trying to plug in an Ethernet cable and see if it works better?

hexa44

Hi lads,

Thanks for the answers, now it's a bit clearer...

I will be living in Longfield area of Clonmel, unfortunately UPC is not having fibre over there , therefore I made extensive checks and between those and recommendations here I came up with some options:

1) Digiweb - would it be better to opt for DSL Broadband or Wireless Broadband?
2) Metro - they can't offer me uncongested line, and what they can is 8.1Mbps with 12:1 ratio... Is 40EUR/month a lot for such service? I spokoe to Rory and he told me it's truly unlimited... well....
3) Vodafone home - is it really that bad as people say?

What would you recommend from those?

Regards,
Greg & Agata

watty

Digiweb and Magnet both have two kinds DSL, resold eircom and LLU. Speed depends on distance from exchange and other issues.

Digiweb Metro is cheaper than DSL when you include Line Rental.

If VERY close to exchange (less 1m):
1) LLU digiweb/smart or magnet
2) regular DSL
3) Digiweb Metro

if close to exchange (1km to 2km):
1) LLU digiweb/smart or magnet
2) Digiweb Metro
3) regular DSL

If more than approx 2km from exchange
1) Digiweb Metro
2) LLU LLU digiweb/smart or magnet
3) regular DSL

hexa44

watty: is there a way of determining the closeness of exchange beforehand?

watty

sort of.