WHICH BROADBAND IS THE BEST AND CHEAPEST??

talkin

looking for broadband? i have meteor dongle which is great but my partner wants broadband at home so we have wifi?? is wimax any good. we really just want something cheap and reliable.. is eircom the best,or any other input. thanks in advance

Xcellor

talkin wrote: »

looking for broadband? i have meteor dongle which is great but my partner wants broadband at home so we have wifi?? is wimax any good. we really just want something cheap and reliable.. is eircom the best,or any other input. thanks in advance

To answer this question you need to provide more info.

What do you intend using the connection for?
Where do you live?

talkin

for wifi,social networking, shopping,internet banking,downloading music, boards.ie etc..... just normal things i suppose. i live in the west. best value im looking for,to be honest id prefer to stay with my prepay dongle.

The thing about broadband in ireland is it's so patchy and area specific that quality of a service provider depends heavily on where you live, even down to a postcode if applicable as well as what kind of stuff you will be doing online.

There's no point in settling on a specific provider because 15 people at the other end of the country say they're great. I'm on the north side of Dublin and after trying pretty much every provider out there over the years i now have fantastic 15mb fibre broadband from NTL which i will never give up if i have any say in it. However i could move twenty miles down the road and the same service could be terrible, or even completely unavailable.

It depends where you live, whether you're urban or rural and how close to a decent fibre network you are, so take the recommendations of people near you much more seriously than anybody elses. Local knowledge rules on this topic, but as a general rule of thumb i've found the following to be the case.

To put my usage in perspective, I'm a moderate to high end web user. I surf the web a lot, send large files and attachments regularly, use web conferencing, work from home sometimes, download large media files from itunes and other web stores on occasion, and play video games online with other people a fair bit across large distances. I also have several machines in my house sharing the same internet connection.

Eircom and vodafone@home broadband have both been pretty shoddy for me and also for people i know of or have read up on online. Not to get too technical but their contention ratios are bad, their upload and download speeds are poor and the service speed and quality fluctuates a lot, particularly at peak times. I know that's a characteristic of DSL but they both seem to be terrible for it. Anything more than basic webpage surfing will cause frustration in busy periods with those two guys. Also you have the hassle line rental to worry about because eircom have a lot of the country by the short and curlies in terms of provision of broadband and phone infrastructure so they charge whatever they want and give as poor a service as they think they'll get away with. Vodafone at home broadband were formerly BT, who were always a very good eircom alternative, good solid speeds, reliable, and good customer service, but they were then bought out by vodafone, who transitioned all the BT customers to poorer quality service on much busier infrastructure and much much worse customer service. It's only a personal recommendation, but i'd avoid them both like the plague unless there's no other option.

If NTL are in your area they are very good and good value cash-wise to boot, especially if you go for their triple play service (tv, net, and phone all in one). From a technical standpoint it's the best broadband service i've ever had. Rock solid speeds that never fluctuate, higher than any other provider for the same or less cash. Great for everything you'd need to do on the net right up to the higher end home user stuff. Their customer service is a bit of a pain if you have to deal with it, the agents are all thick as planks, but you will rarely need to speak to them because their service usually just works fine 24/7. Account & billing issues due to general thickness are as bad as it's got with them for me, and if you know how to handle them you'll be fine. Here's a tip: if you're not getting what you want on the phone, just mention the phrase "comreg" to them and watch them jump to attention.

I have heard magnet is a good service but it's very expensive for what it is. Probably more than you'd need for ordinary surfing and at more of a price than you'd want to pay, but i don't have any direct experience of them so maybe check them out with someone who can tell you for sure.

Of the wireless options, i have no idea on wimax yet, that's still all "up in the air" (sorry for the pun ) but if you want to use your new connection to set up a wi-fi network, video stream, P2P torrent, use xbox live, or do anything more than surf the web, then forget about any of the wireless satellite broadband providers like clearwire, irish broadband etc or the mobile networks like the meteor dongle you have. They won't work properly for anything other than ordinary website surfing, will lose lots of data packets in transmission and result in poor experience generally for any advanced usage, and also a lot of them restrict the bandwidth they allow to very popular web activities like P2P filesharing etc.

Unless wimax has changed the situation, to do all of that cool stuff you will need a hardline of some kind(fibre, coaxial copper cable or DSL) into your house, so you're basically limited by what infrastructure is in your area and might have to bite the bullet on line rental etc.

if you want to get technical, watch out for contention ratio, upload AND download speed, throttling, packet loss averages, and stuff like that when you're choosing a provider, if you're lucky enough to have a choice. All the services out there look more or less the same until you look a little deeper under the hood, and all of this stuff can make a difference to your experience.
Here's a good site to help you figure out what it all means and find the best deal in your area without too much jargon. It's independent and run by the regulator's office so you can generally trust what it says.

http://www.getbroadband.ie/

Regards.

jay93

id avoid wimax anyway ..if your meteor service is good would you not get a wifi router from them they are 69euro online?
or better yet go for a cheap enough vodafone at home package they seem to one of the cheapest DSL proivders

Zeppi

jay93 wrote: »

better yet go for a cheap enough vodafone at home package they seem to one of the cheapest DSL proivders

me I'm fed up of them, customer care does not exists, since they've sorted my speed issues I have a constant dropouts now, have a look at the vodafone section and you can read for yourself.

rgds
zeppi

jay93

jay93 wrote: »

better yet go for a cheap enough vodafone at home package they seem to one of the cheapest DSL proivders

Don't do it, i urge you. Vodafone at home have seriously bad service. You'll get dropouts all the time, low speeds, random disconnects/router resets, and a customer service department that just doesn't give a crap.

You'll be promised callback after callback while they try to "diagnose the problem", but you'll end up chasing them every time, and sitting on hold for ages each time you call.

There are numerous web boards with the same advice. Unless you have absolutely no other option, steer clear of vodafone at home broadband. It's a frustrating experience from a company that's so big, it just doesn't have to give a sh1t.

Beefy78

I'm kind of in the same boat as the thread starter and, rather than starting a new thread, I figured I'd hijack this one.

I'm in the Donnybrook/Ranelagh area of South Dublin. I've been here for a year and have been using my Meteor dongle for that time for general surfing and even some downloading and, to be honest, I've been pleasantly surprised with the connection. But I'm about to renew my lease for another year and I really want to bust out my PS3 and get badly beaten online at FIFA. So I've been looking around at various packages and am instantly reminded why I settled on the 3G option in the first place.

UPC isn't an option in my area - which is annoying because I've got my TV with them. Eircom get a bad rep and whilst the actual cost of the broadband itself is ok, it's the line rental which makes it expensive. I can afford it no problem but I object to paying more in a month in line rental than I did in a Quarter back home in England. Especially as I have no use for a landline. So beyond that I think I'm stuffed.

I was looking at Breeze? Seems like wireless broadband without the need for a landline.

gleep

UPC

wobbles-grogan

Are you in a city or other major urban center. I've had good success with UPC broadband and it is cheap too. Depends where you live though. Its cable so not available out the countryside!

Beefy78

wobbles-grogan wrote: »

Are you in a city or other major urban center. I've had good success with UPC broadband and it is cheap too. Depends where you live though. Its cable so not available out the countryside!

It's not available everywhere even in Dublin! As I said, I'm a mile South of the City Centre and can't get it.

wobbles-grogan

Im in drumcondra and have a 30 meg connection! Its strange they dont have in ranelagh....

Beefy78

It's bloody annoying, is what it is. They must do everywhere in Dublin apart from Morehampton Road. In fact the guy when he put my TV stuff in swore blind he'd installed intenet within 200 yards of my front door!

jay93

vodafone isnt bad for everyone i know a good few people who have no problems with them but yet again i know some who have terrible service from them also they are cheap and for this reason you couldnt ever be guarenteed a good service at all from them maybe digiweb smart or the likes of them might be better actually was just looking at digiweb's website earlier and the have some grand deals for 7mb internet compared to eircon ..

Beefy78

I'm looking at Digiweb now. Looks alright. Wireless broadband without needing a landline. Looks almost too easy...

Beefy78

Beefy78 wrote: »

I really want to bust out my PS3 and get badly beaten online at FIFA. So I've been looking around at various packages and am instantly reminded why I settled on the 3G option in the first place..........I was looking at Breeze? Seems like wireless broadband without the need for a landline.

You'll have to get some kind of fixed line service for PS3 or XBox Live. Wireless, dongles, 3G, etc just won't work with it. Eircom say they're XBL certified, they're probably your best bet out of a bad lot, at least you won't have to get a second bill in every month or go through the hassle of a new installation and being at home for an engineer etc. Shame you don't have more options though.

Beefy78

Digiweb specifically mention below as a selling point that their wireless service is "Great for Gamers". It seemed too good to be true though. Are you saying that it won't work well?

http://www.digiweb.ie/home/broadband/metro/index.html

naughto

where in the west do u live i used to be with westnet but have moved since and cant get them(stupid hill in the way).

Bebop

I'm in Dublin 24 and using the Eircom basic package the speed today is
0.66 Mb/s download, 0.11 up, can't even watch youtube, my last bill contained charges for exceeding my download limit 7.0 GB @ 1.65 per GB

I used to have NTL and left them to switch to Sky, the connector is still there, I dont want the TV or phone but can I just get the BB?

tomagetti

You can use wireless for the xbox. You get a wireless connector goes in the back of the Xbox bout €40. Got one myself and thats how i run my xbox live. Try the vodafone Hotspot its on there webpage you can get 7 meg with it and its like a dongle but just sends out wireless conection

Beefy78

Beefy78 wrote: »

Digiweb specifically mention below as a selling point that their wireless service is "Great for Gamers". It seemed too good to be true though. Are you saying that it won't work well?

http://www.digiweb.ie/home/broadband/metro/index.html

I've never used a wireless setup with xbl and not had problems, but if they advertise it as suitable you could try it out. If I were you though I would get assurances from them that it will work in some format that you can store and use against them as proof in case you have an issue later on. Get them to stick it in an email. Having proof of their mis-selling you is the only way you'll have of getting out of a contract if you have a problem down the line.

Beefy78

Thanks for the advice. I've actually, incredibly, been able to hook the PS3 up to the internet using my Meteor 3G dongle. Even more incredibly, it's worked fine, no lag, no delays and it doesn't seems to be eating up my allowance. Guess I'll see how this plays out before maybe moving to Digiweb.

bealtine

Bebop wrote: »

I used to have NTL and left them to switch to Sky, the connector is still there, I dont want the TV or phone but can I just get the BB?

Yes is the short answer, you can take only the broadband if you pay an extra charge for it something like E7 a month.