The Imagine Wimax Challenge

atlantean

I just did another test on my 7meg connection, I thought 20:30 on a Friday evening might have a few users sharing the connection — still a happy camper

DubDJ

I'm looking to get fixed broadband fitted myself. I've spoken to UPC and checked online and they don't currently offer fixed broadband at my address (even though it's a brand new complex with UPC points in each home).

So the toss up is between Eircom and WiMax (Even though this is technically not fixed broadband). Over the years Eircom has built up a terrible reputation with most friends who have it so it kinda turns me off that idea.

WiMax looks good even though a lot of people seem to have speed issues. I'm in an ok area getting over 4MB/s with Mobile Broadband so hoping for the best. Not much of a congested area either.

My question is does anyone know what the deal is with Imagine's Fair Usage Policy. From past experience i've learnt *Unlimited* never is actually unlimited when it comes to broadband. I've read a few people saying it is 30 - 50GB. Anybody know if this is correct. To me this is by no means unlimited.

I really wanted to get UPC and it annoys me that I can't. They just announced the other day that their lowest download cap will be 500GB on their cheapest plan. Now that seems to me WELL over the amount anyone would consider Unlimited. Why can't other providers follow suit and do the same.

Biggins

DubDJ wrote: »

...My question is does anyone know what the deal is with Imagine's Fair Usage Policy. From past experience i've learnt *Unlimited* never is actually unlimited when it comes to broadband. I've read a few people saying it is 30 - 50GB. Anybody know if this is correct. To me this is by no means unlimited.

I really wanted to get UPC and it annoys me that I can't. They just announced the other day that their lowest download cap will be 500GB on their cheapest plan. Now that seems to me WELL over the amount anyone would consider Unlimited. Why can't other providers follow suit and do the same.

Wimax if you sign up for their 7/8 meg (officially your supposed to get - you'd be lucky!) give you an download cap of 30 Meg, go over that and you start to get the warnings.
Download further during peak times and they drop your speed right down to little or nearly nothing - and I MEAN little or nearly nothing!

I'm just waiting till UPC or SKY become available in my area.
I know UPC are supposedly not perfect but by god NOTHING can be as bad as Wimax.

In the meantime, if you can afford Eircom and their high prices, I'd go with them.

See reviews here: http://ratemyisp.ie/ratings/imagine/

DubDJ

Biggins wrote: »

Wimax if you sign up for their 7/8 meg (officially your supposed to get - you'd be lucky!) give you an download cap of 30 Meg, go over that and you start to get the warnings.
Download further during peak times and they drop your speed right down to little or nearly nothing - and I MEAN little or nearly nothing!

I'm just waiting till UPC or SKY become available in my area.
I know UPC are supposedly not perfect but by god NOTHING can be as bad as Wimax.

In the meantime, if you can afford Eircom and their high prices, I'd go with them.

See reviews here: http://ratemyisp.ie/ratings/imagine/

Thanks for the help.

Seems WiMax wont be the way to go. I'm looking for someone who can offer a high usage rate and UPC would be the best for that. Pity they're not available anywhere. I'm living in Inner City Dublin near office blocks and the likes and they still say the area hasn't been upgraded. And a few friends and that living around Dublin 1 haven't been able to get it. Stupid really.

atlantean

Biggins wrote: »

Wimax if you sign up for their 7/8 meg (officially your supposed to get - you'd be lucky!) give you an download cap of 30 Meg, go over that and you start to get the warnings.
Download further during peak times and they drop your speed right down to little or nearly nothing - and I MEAN little or nearly nothing!

First off — the download cap is not 30 Meg! That would be ridiculous.

As for download speed — it seems to depend on location and setup of equipment. I have never noticed my connection drop below 5Mb, 7Mb to 10Mb is more the norm for me on my 7Mb connection.

This is my most recent speed test — download speed is slow!

DubDJ

atlantean wrote: »

First off — the download cap is not 30 Meg! That would be ridiculous.

I'm sure Biggins meant 30GB not 30 Meg.

atlantean

DubDJ wrote: »

I'm sure Biggins meant 30GB not 30 Meg.

I agree but others may not realise this and believe it to be a 30MB limit!

JoePie

My WiMax is still plugging away anyway.

Moving out on the 19th of this month though, and we're looking to transfer it to our friends next door, so that they can get rid of their dongles and we don't get stuck with cancellation fees. Lets see how easily this works out.

pat13wx

JoePie wrote: »

My WiMax is still plugging away anyway.

Moving out on the 19th of this month though, and we're looking to transfer it to our friends next door, so that they can get rid of their dongles and we don't get stuck with cancellation fees. Lets see how easily this works out.

Are you allowed to transfer in this way? I wasn't aware such a thing was legally possible, to be honest. I would have thought Wimax would want your friends to start their own contract from the anew and you to pay the cancellation fee or possibly the remainder of your contract to them.

atlantean

My 7Meg connection is still zipping along nicely

Antoh

Biggins wrote: »

Wimax if you sign up for their 7/8 meg (officially your supposed to get - you'd be lucky!) give you an download cap of 30 Meg, go over that and you start to get the warnings.
Download further during peak times and they drop your speed right down to little or nearly nothing - and I MEAN little or nearly nothing!

I'm just waiting till UPC or SKY become available in my area.
I know UPC are supposedly not perfect but by god NOTHING can be as bad as Wimax.

In the meantime, if you can afford Eircom and their high prices, I'd go with them.

See reviews here: http://ratemyisp.ie/ratings/imagine/

just read through my welcome pack and according to that the download limit is 2TB. i download quiet a bit bout 90GB-120GB per month for work related reasons and iv never been issued a warning for over usage.

YourNameForMe

I can't get over the speeds some of you are getting. I ordered the 3Mb package and got great speeds (3-5Mbs download) for the first week but it has since dropped to a pretty dastardly low speed. I think I'm going to ring Imagine to see why this is the case.

JoePie

pat13wx wrote: »

Are you allowed to transfer in this way? I wasn't aware such a thing was legally possible, to be honest. I would have thought Wimax would want your friends to start their own contract from the anew and you to pay the cancellation fee or possibly the remainder of your contract to them.

Absolutely no idea. I'm going to put it them that I'm moving apartment and tat my friends wants to have all the bills in his name or whatever. Chance my arm, like.

pat13wx

JoePie wrote: »

Absolutely no idea. I'm going to put it them that I'm moving apartment and tat my friends wants to have all the bills in his name or whatever. Chance my arm, like.

Go for it:)

Let us know what happens.

PogMoThoin

atlantean wrote: »

My 7Meg connection is still zipping along nicely

100ms ping time is horrible

JoePie

So rather than trying to dance around with Imagine like I mentioned above, we came up with a more simple solution:

- I gave the box to my mates with all the trimmings.
- I keep it in my name and keep up the direct debit to Imagine.
- They have set up a direct debit to me.

This way we avoid all the hassle of trying to change the account info around, and we don't have to pay that disgusting cancellation fee.

Bye bye, Wimax!!

smelly sock

Terrible product and customer service.

STAY AWAY FROM WIMAX.

PogMoThoin

smelly sock wrote: »

Terrible product and customer service.

STAY AWAY FROM Imagine WIMAX.

FYP

Wimax is a technology. Many other providers use fixed Wimax which does work very well, where everyone gets a fixed install with the best possible signal, not this self-install dongle through walls and glass crap

smelly sock

What other providers use fixed wimax?

bealtine

smelly sock wrote: »

What other providers use fixed wimax?

Many fixed wireless providers use Wimax technology as it's a technology family.
Imagine Wimax however...

atlantean

PogMoThoin wrote: »

100ms ping time is horrible

It is not ideal but I have to say it has not hindered my use of this service. I was getting timeouts when I would try to ping servers while I was using Eircom!

Imagine WiMax may not be perfect — but it is so much better than what I have had to put up with in the past from Eircom.

smelly sock

Imagine Wimax is grand for light browsing.

THEY THROTTLE AND BLOCK TORRENTS. What's the point having a 10 meg connection for light browsing. I could do that with a 20 euro per month 3g dongle.

U_Fig

I've had imagine Wimax now almost a year 7Mb connection outdoor receiver.. Now in saying I game on xbox live even use my laptop sharing it's wireless connection via Ethernet and have little problems apart from my NAT rating being closed using this way.. I download on average 40-50Gb per month using file-hosts ( I get on average 700-900kb/s up to 1.2mb/s speed from rapidshare and filesonic others vary, I don't use torrents) on top of streaming video and browsing and using xbox live and have yet to have a warning.. Overall i'm pretty satisfied with it apart from sh1t customer service; the can never understand what I'm saying.

The only issues I've had is when getting it set up changing over from Irish broadband breeze it took nearly a month from contacting them to getting installed and when it did get installed they didn't seal up the the hole where the wire comes in and water leaked down into the router destroying it causing it to smoke.they came out a few days later and replaced the whole system and it's been ok since..

I also hate that the don't give out the pass for the CPE.. I asked several times for a reason why and got answers ranging from "to protect the proprietary technology being used from unauthorised access" to "to prevent you from doing damage causing ur Internet to not be available" both are bullsh1t excuses. The block it so people are oblivious to the sh1t they do i.e. close ports to block torrents ect..

Also I cannot seem to get any other router to work with it apart from the "router" they provide that is just useless all it does is transmit wifi so I had to rearrange my home network using powerline adapters

Alan_P

U_Fig wrote: »

I also hate that the don't give out the pass for the CPE.. I asked several times for a reason why and got answers ranging from "to protect the proprietary technology being used from unauthorised access" to "to prevent you from doing damage causing ur Internet to not be available" both are bullsh1t excuses. The block it so people are oblivious to the sh1t they do i.e. close ports to block torrents ect..

They'll give you the CPE password if you have a legitimate reason. They gave me mine. And no, it didn't have any blocked ports. Also, and in response to an earlier poster, they don't block torrents. I use torrents regularly, and get excellent download speeds.

I've had it 6 months, and am quite happy with it. I've had perfect reliability, and always get at least the nominal 7MB :- it's usually closer to 10MB.

U_Fig

Alan_P wrote: »

They'll give you the CPE password if you have a legitimate reason. They gave me mine. And no, it didn't have any blocked ports. Also, and in response to an earlier poster, they don't block torrents. I use torrents regularly, and get excellent download speeds.

I've had it 6 months, and am quite happy with it. I've had perfect reliability, and always get at least the nominal 7MB :- it's usually closer to 10MB.

i've asked 5 or 6 times with legitimate reasons.. and each time told no..even when i had the engineers out i asked them and they wouldn't give it to me. it's not like i don't know what I'm doing..kinda annoys me when people prevent you from getting the most from your hardware. i don't use torrents so i wouldn't know but i've heard from alot of sources that they often don't work..and as far as ports being blocked some are not open.. i was unable to connect to my router from an external computer someting i was able to do previously tho that could be down to the router being sh1t either

PogMoThoin

smelly sock wrote: »

What other providers use fixed wimax?

http://www.westnet.ie/
http://www.lightnet.ie/
http://www.fastcom.ie/
http://www.lastmile.ie/
and there are many more

atlantean

For the first time I have had a problem with my connection — download dropped to 0.07Mbs :eek:

Anyway, having emailed Customer Support all is back up to speed again



Happy days

shanek248

I recently signed up for the 7MB imagine package.:(

My experience over the last few months has been fine up till the last few days when they sent me a message saying that I was exceeding fair usage and that if I didnt curb my usage they would lower my speed for two weeks. I play some online games in the evening and recently started using Netflix from time to time. I don't download at all or use anything excessively. The next day despite not turning on my PC at all and only using the PS3 online for a short period they curbed my speed to 0.3-0.4MB!:eek:

This is ridiculous and I consider it unfair!

Basically if you use the internet for anything more than searching Google and maybe using email (don't download to many attachments now!!) then I would recommend you choose another provider. I will contact customer support on Monday and let everyone know their response.

Despite the claims made in their adverts if you like gaming online... with imagine your gonna be anything but fine.:mad:

PogMoThoin

shanek248 wrote: »

I recently signed up for the 7MB imagine package.:(

My experience over the last few months has been fine up till the last few days when they sent me a message saying that I was exceeding fair usage and that if I didnt curb my usage they would lower my speed for two weeks. I play some online games in the evening and recently started using Netflix from time to time. I don't download at all or use anything excessively. The next day despite not turning on my PC at all and only using the PS3 online for a short period they curbed my speed to 0.3-0.4MB!:eek:

This is ridiculous and I consider it unfair!

Basically if you use the internet for anything more than searching Google and maybe using email (don't download to many attachments now!!) then I would recommend you choose another provider. I will contact customer support on Monday and let everyone know their response.

Despite the claims made in their adverts if you like gaming online... with imagine your gonna be anything but fine.:mad:

Netflix eats data limits for breakfast, what do you expect?

smelly sock

shanek248 wrote: »

I recently signed up for the 7MB imagine package.:(

My experience over the last few months has been fine up till the last few days when they sent me a message saying that I was exceeding fair usage and that if I didnt curb my usage they would lower my speed for two weeks. I play some online games in the evening and recently started using Netflix from time to time. I don't download at all or use anything excessively. The next day despite not turning on my PC at all and only using the PS3 online for a short period they curbed my speed to 0.3-0.4MB!:eek:

This is ridiculous and I consider it unfair!

Basically if you use the internet for anything more than searching Google and maybe using email (don't download to many attachments now!!) then I would recommend you choose another provider. I will contact customer support on Monday and let everyone know their response.

Despite the claims made in their adverts if you like gaming online... with imagine your gonna be anything but fine.:mad:

Stay away from the company imagine. They lie about their quality of services and then when they no it's nearly impossible for you to get out of your contract they throttle torrents. What they provide is no better than what vodafone give you on a 3g connection. Keep away.