tooway broadband

celticbhoy27

hi guys just wondering if anyone has a package with this provider? if so, how do you find the service? i know it's pretty pricey but i'm at my wits end with crappy broadband options, or lack of, and think if it's a good service it might be worth it

augmented reality

We have eircom.... barely, eircom on a good day might reach 0.5mbps, ping ~150ms and upload ~0.1mbps.
We were sick of this so decided to put in tooway, seemed great for the first few days. Download: 6mbps, upload: 1mbps but ping was ~1000ms:eek:. A nightmare for online gaming. Tooway also seemed to be inconsistent, unlike eircom which is slow but steady.

The main thing to watch out for with tooway is the allowance, the basic is 4gb!!! We used 12gb in a matter of days with youtube and rte player.(They trippled allowance until they get the monitoring site for ussage up and running)
Speed then dropped to ~0.25mbps-worse than eircom, and has remained that way since. Our first month will be up next week so we're waiting for the limit to be removed to see how long we can last on 4gb.

Long story short:
We had eircom, it was slow but steady.
We got tooway it was fast but not steady, lasted 4 days!
We're back using the eircom which luckily hadn't been cancelled.
We're waiting for the allowance limit to be lifted to see how long we can last on the tooway basic 4gb package.

lesson: DO LOTS OF RESEARCH!!!

washman3

living in rural area, have a tooway satellite dish through the national broadband scheme,contract is with 3,dongle was useless,dongle with booster not much better. so got supplied with dish.
Nothing to write home about,but as im told what can i expect for €20 a month.
Does my needs though.
ping--- 680
download----.98mbps
upload--- .16

can vary slightly from this form time to time.

celticbhoy27

thanks for the replies folks. thnk the ping might put me off from pursuing this though online gaming is a major factor in any package i'm looking for!

jor el

Satellite Internet is NOT broadband, no matter what Niall Quinn might like to tell you. It is certainly not for gaming or VOIP.

Download limits on satellite are usually very low.

celticbhoy27

i bet all these internet providers hate the likes of forums such as boards.ie! the amount of business they lose because of people relaying their experiences with them! then again all they have to do is deliver a decent feckin product! thanks a million for the replies guys, my search continues

washman3

jor el wrote: »

Satellite Internet is NOT broadband, no matter what Niall Quinn might like to tell you. It is certainly not for gaming or VOIP.

Download limits on satellite are usually very low.

quite true indeed. suppose its all down to lack of investment from our governments. is it true we're at the bottom of the pile in Europe with regards to broadband.? its been said even Albania are well ahead of us.

pat13wx

celticbhoy27 wrote: »

i bet all these internet providers hate the likes of forums such as boards.ie! the amount of business they lose because of people relaying their experiences with them! then again all they have to do is deliver a decent feckin product! thanks a million for the replies guys, my search continues

You have hit the nail on the dead; if these operators provide a decent service then their customers will speak of them in glowing terms, if not, then as seen on this forum, they will be royally hammered - and rightly so.

Providing a good service, whether via Satellite or Wireless, and have realistic prices, decent download allowances, decent speeds, then everyone's happy. Simples:)

watty

Satellite doesn't have the capacity. The newest, most powerful Ka-Sat is 15x to 20x the capacity of previous satellites. Yet one UPC street cabinet or the Fixed Wireless Metro at Threerock has much more capacity than is available to Ireland on all Satellite services.

That's why the traffic restrictions are so awkward.

Satellite is good for Broadcast. Rotten for two-way data. Even most of Africa is switching to terrestrial Microwave and fibre instead of Satellite.

pat13wx

watty wrote: »

Satellite doesn't have the capacity. The newest, most powerful Ka-Sat is 15x to 20x the capacity of previous satellites. Yet one UPC street cabinet or the Fixed Wireless Metro at Threerock has much more capacity than is available to Ireland on all Satellite services.

That's why the traffic restrictions are so awkward.

Satellite is good for Broadcast. Rotten for two-way data. Even most of Africa is switching to terrestrial Microwave and fibre instead of Satellite.

Those restrictions aside Satellite does at least provide a type of BB option for those not able to avail of fixed-line broadband. In a perfect world we'd all be able to available of a full UPC service, for example. But, yes, Satellite BB is very limited and will not suit everyone.

watty

It's Internet, but not Broadband. Lots of Broadband/Internet stuff won't work on it.

Economically and Technically no more than 100 people in Ireland should need it. Not the about 2000 or more with it and the 5,000 more looking for it. It's a scandal created by Civil Service idiocy and Governmental inaction.

pat13wx

watty wrote: »

It's Internet, but not Broadband. Lots of Broadband/Internet stuff won't work on it.

Economically and Technically no more than 100 people in Ireland should need it. Not the about 2000 or more with it and the 5,000 more looking for it. It's a scandal created by Civil Service idiocy and Governmental inaction.

What happens when over a 100 people have it installed? In any case, I would have thought there'd be well over that amount using Satellite BB at this stage in Ireland.

The only real restrictions I've reading about is to do with gaming and latency issues and perhaps using voip. For other things, such as downloading stuff it should be OK, providing the monthly allowance permits such a luxury.

watty

Over 2000 using it in 2007 I think. It's a criminal shame.

More than gaming doesn't work

pat13wx

It is a criminal shame so many are without a decent alternative and have to rely on Satellite for their Internet. Many promises are made, few delivered.

ps200306

Was searching for something else (in connection with new Digiweb traffic monitor). I noticed all these moans about satellite broadband. Well, I've had Ka-band for 9 months and -- compared to the available alternatives -- it is fantastic. Yes, there is high latency -- that doesn't mean it's not broadband. And (unlike my previous satellite service) VoIP works fine, as does Skype. I don't do online gaming (which I would expect not to work).

Just in case anyone thinks I am claiming it's an unqualified joy -- it's not. The new traffic monitor that Digiweb have just launched with great fanfare is **** beyond belief. It's not a traffic monitor, it's a limit-exceeded monitor. I frickin' know when my limit is exceeded -- the connection slows by 95%. I want to know how close to the limit I am.

But it has a lot of good points for people with no alternative. It's a lot more stable and consistent than any wireless provider.

FlyingIrishMan

jor el wrote: »

Satellite Internet is NOT broadband, no matter what Niall Quinn might like to tell you. It is certainly not for gaming or VOIP.

Download limits on satellite are usually very low.

I don't know about other satellite providers, but we live in rural Mayo and we have satellite broadband. Download speed is 1mb whilst upload is 512kb, but we have absolutely no download limit, I download a couple of 100GB a month, and the ping is usually around 30 the odd time jumping to around 100. But its perfectly fine for gaming. Seems like a lot better than what Eircom offers some customers.

long_b

FlyingIrishMan wrote: »

I don't know about other satellite providers, but we live in rural Mayo and we have satellite broadband. Download speed is 1mb whilst upload is 512kb, but we have absolutely no download limit, I download a couple of 100GB a month, and the ping is usually around 30 the odd time jumping to around 100. But its perfectly fine for gaming. Seems like a lot better than what Eircom offers some customers.

That sounds awful like a fixed wireless connection, not satellite.
Unless they've managed to get one into an extremely low orbit just over your house ?

bealtine

FlyingIrishMan wrote: »

I don't know about other satellite providers, but we live in rural Mayo and we have satellite broadband. Download speed is 1mb whilst upload is 512kb, but we have absolutely no download limit, I download a couple of 100GB a month, and the ping is usually around 30 the odd time jumping to around 100. But its perfectly fine for gaming. Seems like a lot better than what Eircom offers some customers.

With a ping of 30 that sure as hell isn't satellite sounds more like a Westnet offering