Broadband in Waterford

jive

Instead of digging up old threads with potentially outdated info I said I'd make this one!

Can people recommend providers for someone living around the city? I've had enough of Eircom's slow internet (paying for up to 8mb, only getting 1.5mb - this wouldn't even bother me much if the internet didn't keep cutting out and recently has been going down for hours on end). I want a reasonably fast, very reliable and reasonably priced provider!

All info. and input is greatly appreciated. I looked into getting Vodafone because I've heard good things but having read through some older threads on here it seems I was mislead :pac:

FatB

UPC are by far the best option currently, unless your house does not fall in their area or you have had any problems with them in the past etc.

http://www.upc.ie/broadband/

€25 a month for 12mb (You'll get at least 9 but should be very close to 12 depending on where your living)

I'm on the 25mb line - just ran a test on speedtest.net and got 18.62mb down and 2.53mb upload... Nothing wrong with it to be fair.

xFROSTY Gx

if you take broadband on its own from UPC there will be a €7.75 standalone charge added onto the advertised price

jive

Anyone else? May as well gather as many opinions as possible before taking the plunge. UPC price is still decent including the 7.75 though, if it reaches close to the speeds it says it's capable of (I'm skeptical :pac:). I'm paying more for Eircom at the minute and I can't imagine any alternative being worse than this shower.

deisedave

Really depends on what your using it for, do you want it for browsing, torrenting or gaming etc

mufcboy1999

theres this new satellite broadband now too with 0 congestion which means you will get consistant speeds.

http://www.kbo.ie/

beware not everyone thinks upc is good, they have big congestion problems in certain areas of the city too, i had the 15 meg package with them last year and i was usually getting only 2 - 5 megs which was a joke.

im looking into giving this crowd a shot im currently with vodafone.

jmcc

jive wrote: »

Anyone else? May as well gather as many opinions as possible before taking the plunge. UPC price is still decent including the 7.75 though, if it reaches close to the speeds it says it's capable of (I'm skeptical :pac:). I'm paying more for Eircom at the minute and I can't imagine any alternative being worse than this shower.

I've BT DSL (Business) and UPC. The UPC is definitely worth the money and the download speeds are good. They do approach the advertised speeds but there are all sorts of variables that may affect it. However the d/l speeds are multiples of the Eircom rates and the option to switch to a higher bandwidth package is there.

Regards...jmcc

jive

deisedave wrote: »

Really depends on what your using it for, do you want it for browsing, torrenting or gaming etc

I want consistant internet that doesn't cut out and is reasonably fast. I'll be using it for all sorts of things and tbh even for browsing alone I'd want decent internet so I don't think it varies. I'd use wired broadband for gaming but most (all?) routers come with wired + wireless anyway.

jive

jmcc wrote: »

I've BT DSL (Business) and UPC. The UPC is definitely worth the money and the download speeds are good. They do approach the advertised speeds but there are all sorts of variables that may affect it. However the d/l speeds are multiples of the Eircom rates and the option to switch to a higher bandwidth package is there.

Regards...jmcc

Yeah I know I probably won't achieve the advertised speeds anyway but if it's advertised as up to 25mb and I consistently only get 1mb I wouldn't be too impressed (if it never could out then I'd be happier than I am now though). The Eircom package I am on is up to 8mb, I've _never_ gotten more than 2mb; this wouldn't even bother me but for the fact that it constantly cuts out. Rang support yesterday and they did some 'tests' i.e. reset phucking everything so that I had to re-do all my wireless devices (phones, printers, pcs and laptops for everyone living here). Tonight it cut out again so I'll be giving them a hearty phone call tomorrow.

Cabaal

mufcboy1999 wrote: »

theres this new satellite broadband now too with 0 congestion which means you will get consistant speeds.

http://www.kbo.ie/

.

With laughable costs and usage caps on their website - http://www.toowaysatellitebroadband.ie/purchase/ I don't know how anyone could seriously consider this crowd.

You'd be better of with ADSL over satellite "Broadband" and I use the word Broadband very loosely in relation to satellite services.

Why waste the OP's time by posting such suggestions when he/she has far more superior options available

jive

Right so I'm leaning towards UPC due to what's been said in this thread. If anyone has any reasons not to join UPC speak now or forever hold your peace

Appleblossom42

I would definitely recommend UPC without hesitation, their broadband is second to none. You'll see a huge difference.

Joe blogger

Appleblossom42 wrote: »

I would definitely recommend UPC without hesitation, their broadband is second to none. You'll see a huge difference.

agreed

mufcboy1999

Cabaal wrote: »

With laughable costs and usage caps on their website - http://www.toowaysatellitebroadband.ie/purchase/ I don't know how anyone could seriously consider this crowd.

You'd be better of with ADSL over satellite "Broadband" and I use the word Broadband very loosely in relation to satellite services.

Why waste the OP's time by posting such suggestions when he/she has far more superior options available

chill your beans mod boy, it was just a suggestion i didnt really do much research on them myself no need to come of all high and mighty you swear i suggested something totally outrageous.

to the OP, as i said upc isnt great all over the city and there is congestion problems up around stephen street where i used to live so if your anywhere near that exchange point give it a miss, also if you play online games just give upc a miss altogether there ping rates on the higher speed packages are crazy high and which makes it worse is 99.9 per cent of the customer care doesnt even know what ping is.

my final say go with the next gen broadband there is 0 congestion so that means consistant speeds 24/7.

Cabaal

mufcboy1999 wrote: »

chill your beans mod boy, it was just a suggestion i didnt really do much research on them myself no need to come of all high and mighty you swear i suggested something totally outrageous.

mod boy?
The fact I'm a mod on other forums has nothing to do with here I'm afraid.

So you suggested something that you know nothing about as a suitable alternative to UPC, that makes no sense at all.

Satellite broadband should only be used when you have no other options, this means that "Mobile Broadband" providers such as Meteor, O2, Vodafone etc don't work for you and you need something faster then dialup.

FatB

Guess I should add that I get a 36ms ping to Paris (Used to play WoW years ago so it's probably the only important server I could think of for playing games). Seems very reasonable to me. (UPC again by the way)

Also, guess it's a better deal to add the phoneline if you have any relatives/friends with landlines in any of the countries they give free offpeak calls to since they charge you almost 10 quid if the internet is got on its own. Else the TV would be suitable I guess.

Best of luck with whichever you decide to go with.

johndoe99

I'm on UPC 25mb and am getting 24.6mb (living in Ballybricken), have been with UPC over 6 years and in all that time, i've only lost service about 5 times (due to maintenence in area).

deisedave

jive wrote: »

I want consistant internet that doesn't cut out and is reasonably fast. I'll be using it for all sorts of things and tbh even for browsing alone I'd want decent internet so I don't think it varies. I'd use wired broadband for gaming but most (all?) routers come with wired + wireless anyway.

Ah so mobile broadband is out of the question then, I am with three and they are great besides the Indian call centre:D

Ah-Watch

Get UPC broadband. Its by far the best and most reliable broadband Ive used so far. Vodafone At Home is the most useless pile of c**P I've ever used. Its worse than my Meteor dongle. The other mobile BB's are not as good and its good value IMO for what you get. Eircom is too pricey when you can get UPC

shockwave

+1 for UPC, been using it for a few years now and very happy with it.

SteelyDanJalapeno

UPC +1

25MB line here getting 24.3 Mb/s

200motels

Appleblossom42 wrote: »

I would definitely recommend UPC without hesitation, their broadband is second to none. You'll see a huge difference.

I have to agree no one else is better.

T42

Load of bull man, don't critise until u try it, ur living in the past.
Sat bb is the way forward for those that have no or poor bb, and there is plenty out there.

Appleblossom42

T42 wrote: »

Load of bull man, don't critise until u try it, ur living in the past.
Sat bb is the way forward for those that have no or poor bb, and there is plenty out there.

???

jmcc

T42 wrote: »

Load of bull man, don't critise until u try it, ur living in the past.
Sat bb is the way forward for those that have no or poor bb, and there is plenty out there.

Actually I don't think that you know much about satellite communications. There is a lag in satellite broadband that is not present in some other broadband options due to the round trip (the signal going up to the satellite and coming back down again). This makes it somewhat less than a good solution for online gaming. It would be better to try other options such as UPC cable broadband (a very good solution if available) or Wireless broadband if it is not.

Satellite broadband is very much a worst case solution where no other broadband is available. There are other potential problems with satellite broadband such as a clean line of sight at the satellite (can be problematic in cities and in some areas with lots of trees) and issues concerning the dish if the premises is shared or rented.

Regards...jmcc

batm!ke

Have to agree with the above posters bigging up UPC, never had a problem with it, very fast! I run my Xbox Live from a cable and my iMac n iPhone from the Wireless and wouldn't have a bad word to say about it. If people come over with iPhones or smartphones or whatever they have the password in already to use the Wi-Fi and have never had issues with lagging etc

batm!ke

Has anyone switched from UPC to Sky TV and kept the UPC Broadband?
My broadband is great but my current TV package is with UPC also and the changing channels, menus and general package is woeful. I also have Sky Sports on it so my bill is about €91 per month.

Basically what I'm wondering is, has anyone got a setup that has Sky (or Sky+) TV, Sky Sports and UPC Broadband... and how much is it costing? I have no qualms getting rid of the Sky Sports if needs be but Sky are running an offer at the mo for Sky+ for €35 a month (frozen until 2013) and I'm very tempted to switch but also want to know how easy is the changeover and how quickly they would get out to me in Waterford and if it'll affect my broadband if at all.

Thanks and apologies for the long post