Broadband Problems

IrishCule

Live in the Clare area and have been having problems with Eircom broadband for years so we finally decided its time to change.

So I have tried various providers (UPC, Magnet, Vodafone) and got the same response, can't get broadband on our line. Even though I know one of our next door neighbours has Vodafone and when I check our number on Vodafones website it says we cant get it and their number comes back saying it is able to get it.

What's the deal with this? Why hasn't Eircom upgraded our line when our neighbours have been? Is this what is causing our problems with our internet (about to receive the 5th new router in about 1-2 years)? And how do I go about fixing this problem/do I have to pay for it?

jor el

IrishCule wrote: »

Why hasn't Eircom upgraded our line when our neighbours have been?

eircom doesn't upgrade anyone's line for broadband, so your neighbours almost certainly have not.

If you can get eircom broadband, then you should be able to get broadband from any of the re-sellers (Vodafone, UTV, Perlico, etc). If your line is so bad that it's going to give problems even on the lowest speed, then they may not be willing to touch it. Basically, even though they could, they don't have to offer it to you.

IrishCule wrote: »

Is this what is causing our problems with our internet (about to receive the 5th new router in about 1-2 years)?

If your line is of poor quality, then that would cause connection problems. A new router will not help this.

You need to check your line stats, Attenuation and SNR Margain are the important numbers. Log on to the router and check these. Do a forum or Google search to find out how to do this with your particular model of modem.

IrishCule wrote: »

And how do I go about fixing this problem/do I have to pay for it?

If your line is bad, then you don't fix it. It's eircom's line, and they won't fix it for anything other than voice problems.

IrishCule

I can't tell you our line stats at the moment as I am currently waiting on another new router from eircom, I will post them in this thread when I can.

I have been talking to Eircom and Vodafone today, Vodafone told me again that they cant give us broadband, I explained to them how we have had eircom broadband for years and now we want to change to someone else and he said that "there is no way you are getting broadband on that line"

Eircom sales told me there is no problem with my line and that any one else should be able to provide me with Broadband and that I need to contact Vodafone blah blah.

Eircom Technical Support kindly explained to me how eircom sublet the lines to the other carriers (which I already knew) and that the reason I am not showing up for them is that our line isnt being subletted to them(????) and asked why our neighbours can get Vodafone and we cant (i.e. why are their lines being made available to other providers and ours isnt) and he told me "nobody in eircom will answer that question, that is between Eircom management and Vodafone management", he also said that the subletting reason was the reason our line does not show up for Vodafone to check it.

What is going on here? I am basically being told that either I use Eircom Broadband or else have no broadband. (illegal?)

Our number does not show up on any online checker (even Eircom's, they had no explanation for this) except Magnets one and when I actually contacted them they told me the same as Vodafone.

I thought there was Eircom or other ISP employees on here?

Spear

IrishCule wrote: »

I thought there was Eircom or other ISP employees on here?

Eircom:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1293


Vodafone:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1270

jor el

IrishCule wrote: »

Eircom Technical Support kindly explained to me how eircom sublet the lines to the other carriers (which I already knew) and that the reason I am not showing up for them is that our line isnt being subletted to them(????) and asked why our neighbours can get Vodafone and we cant (i.e. why are their lines being made available to other providers and ours isnt) and he told me "nobody in eircom will answer that question, that is between Eircom management and Vodafone management", he also said that the subletting reason was the reason our line does not show up for Vodafone to check it.

My guess is that your line is of such low quality, that eircom won't release it to any re-seller, as it would only cause too much trouble for them. They possibly shouldn't even be providing you with broadband on it, but are going with a best effort approach. It happens sometimes when a line is very marginal that it may or may not work, and if it does work, it may be unreliable and unstable. Handing this over to a re-seller is probably not something they want o do, and not something the re-seller wants to take on either.

You could submit a formal complaint to eircom, and if you don't get a response then follow it up with Comreg, and ask them to find out the reason. You could also try to get an answer from the official reps here on the eircom board, as linked by Spear. If you would like this thread moved to the eircom forum, let me know and I'll do that.

IrishCule

jor el wrote: »

snip

Thanks for the reply Jor, I have pm'd one of the Eircom reps so I'll give him a chance to respond. I would actually prefer it if you kept the thread here as I may also pm a Vodafone rep and ask about this. This is an ideal situation for me where I can talk to a rep from both companies in the same place so I may now get answer from them as to why one company says the line is fine and the other says it isn't.

lucernarian

This is a mistake on Vodafone's checker (which is based on eircom's measurements) or else it's intentional behaviour by Vodafone themselves. I understand that Vodafone won't supply lines that are "may be suitable" according to the eircom line tester. These lines are also known as amber lines and are supposedly too long for anything faster than 1 meg.

What's unusual is that your neighbours are showing up in the clear while you are having disconnects. Even if your line was narrowly in the Amber category, it should still receive a solid 1 megabit/s. (like the broadband in my parents house among other examples I know of).

As far as these disconencts are concerned... This could tell how much is Vodafone's or how much is eircom's fault. Can you give me the "DSL statistics" of the line which is found somewhere on your router's webpage? You can access this through typing 192.168.1.254 in internet explorer.

eircom: Mark

IrishCule wrote: »

Live in the Clare area and have been having problems with Eircom broadband for years so we finally decided its time to change.

So I have tried various providers (UPC, Magnet, Vodafone) and got the same response, can't get broadband on our line. Even though I know one of our next door neighbours has Vodafone and when I check our number on Vodafones website it says we cant get it and their number comes back saying it is able to get it.

What's the deal with this? Why hasn't Eircom upgraded our line when our neighbours have been? Is this what is causing our problems with our internet (about to receive the 5th new router in about 1-2 years)? And how do I go about fixing this problem/do I have to pay for it?

Hi IrishCule,

Apologies we did not respond to you yesterday, I got your DM with the details and I need to investigate the issue in detail so I will get back to you early next week.

Thanks, Mark

IrishCule

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

snip

Well you are exactly right about the amber line as they did say I had an amber line although I did not know what that meant and I am able to get 3mb according to them and have been getting it albeit with problems.

Have the new router now and it is working (for now).

stats are:

Line Attenuation (Down/Up): 56 dB /29 dB
DSL Noise Margin: 25 dB /13 dB

eircom: Mark wrote: »

Hi IrishCule,

Apologies we did not respond to you yesterday, I got your DM with the details and I need to investigate the issue in detail so I will get back to you early next week.

Thanks, Mark

Ok Mark that's fine, be sure read the other posts in this thread also.

jor el

56dB attenuation is high, but should be OK for 3Mbps.
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/max_speed_calc.php

I don't see why Vodafone are saying no, unless it's something to do with your lines status (amber means provisional from eircom's line test, so maybe they won't touch such lines at all). That amber should be changed to green if it is working.

lucernarian

That's interesting, the stats are grand...

I have a feeling that eircom are more flexible with line speeds for amber lines. Vodafone tell me that amber lines cannot be offered more than 1 mbps but I've heard of people with worse lines being offered 2 or rarely 3 mbps with eircom.

This is looking more like Vodafone being at fault but it would be premature to decide that.

eircom: Mark

IrishCule wrote: »

Well you are exactly right about the amber line as they did say I had an amber line although I did not know what that meant and I am able to get 3mb according to them and have been getting it albeit with problems.

Have the new router now and it is working (for now).

stats are:

Line Attenuation (Down/Up): 56 dB /29 dB
DSL Noise Margin: 25 dB /13 dB






Ok Mark that's fine, be sure read the other posts in this thread also.

Hi IrishCule,

There was a slight problem with your number not filtering through all the eircom systems as such it was not registering on all our systems correctly.

However I believe we have rectified what was causing the problem and it is showing up fine on all eircom systems and websites.

We hope this will be the case when checking other companies websites as well


Thanks, Mark

IrishCule

eircom: Mark wrote: »

snip

Yes Mark it has fixed that problem, thanks you for your help.


Could this have had any impact on the problems we have been having with our broadband?