North West Electronics/BlueBox

pipcoo

Here is a comment left on the petition page by a former Bluebox employee.


" Used to work for this crowd, got to a stage you were actually mortified going to houses, hoping they wouldn't do a speed test before you left, especially when kids were off school speeds would be s**t all day,
They have nobody that has proper technical knowledge to fix things,
Can't retain staff,
Sell a 50mb service when their equipment can only reach absolute max of 29, real world of 18-20 of peak.
They have masts overloaded.
No training for staff, I was a postman 1 week before I was climbing ladders installing for them."

chris_ie

Yeah, 29mb was the max I ever saw. That was back when things were better and in the early hours of the morning. It was very rare though. But just funny that he mentioned the 29.

TireeTerror

chris_ie wrote: »

Yeah, 29mb was the max I ever saw. That was back when things were better and in the early hours of the morning. It was very rare though. But just funny that he mentioned the 29.

Was that 29Mb back in the day when we all had black and white TVs?

editorsean

I wonder if the 29Mb refers to something that happened around July / August 2015.

I went through my log history on TestMy and found a handful of test results over 30Mbps around June. It looks like it was the fastest month I had with them and even the TestMy log (covering everyone that ran tests) shows a drastic change from June/July '15 to January/February '16.

TestMy summary graph - based on 1000 results between June & July 2015:



TestMy summary graph - based on 1000 results leading to present, i.e. January & February 2016. Bit of a difference...



Pity Ookla's Speedtest couldn't show summary graphs like this as I'm sure they have a lot more test results.

I use to run most of my download tests in multithread mode (as what Ookla Speedtest does), as the most I could get in normal linear mode was around 10Mbps.

The fastest test results I could find carried out on my former connection are as follows - normal download, normal upload and multithreaded download:

pipcoo

I hope something comes as a result of this petition and that a well implemented WiMAX system can be put in place as it does work if done properly. I was with Bluebox for over 4 years and at first it was pretty good until they oversubscribed and overloaded their network.

chris_ie

Another night of pathetic speeds :mad: A whopping 0.5MB download. Those using Three on here. What router are you using? I need the connection for work (on call) and this crowd cannot be relied on at all.

editorsean

I'm using a Huawei B593S-22 which I bought used off eBay. It's a mains powered router, similar size to the current Eir/Vodafone VDSL router.

Based on my brief experience so far, it's well worth going for over a MiFi. The Wi-Fi range is much better, it has 4 Ethernet ports and has an incredibly sensitive internal antenna as compared in my post here. I'm using with iD Mobile on Three's 4G network.

With the current 2 bar reception I get, the downlink speed varies between 4Mbps and 25Mbps with TestMy's standard linear test. Multithreaded (inc. Ookla) is generally 15Mbps+. The uplink speed is fairly consistent between 6Mbps and 7.5Mbps. The connection so far seems to be stable, no random 1-2 minute drop-outs like I was getting with Bluebox even before last September when it was performing better. The only minor drawbacks for me are the 60GB monthly cap and having a private IP (carrier-grade NAT).

I never thought of running a ping test yet in the evening. This is from 3pm just before writing this post, with my PC connected over Wi-Fi to the router upstairs:

Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
Packets: Sent = 400, Received = 400, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 31ms, Maximum = 149ms, Average = 39ms

chris_ie

editorsean wrote: »

I'm using a Huawei B593S-22 which I bought used off eBay. It's a mains powered router, similar size to the current Eir/Vodafone VDSL router.

Based on my brief experience so far, it's well worth going for over a MiFi. The Wi-Fi range is much better, it has 4 Ethernet ports and has an incredibly sensitive internal antenna as compared in my post here. I'm using with iD Mobile on Three's 4G network.

With the current 2 bar reception I get, the downlink speed varies between 4Mbps and 25Mbps with TestMy's standard linear test. Multithreaded (inc. Ookla) is generally 15Mbps+. The uplink speed is fairly consistent between 6Mbps and 7.5Mbps. The connection so far seems to be stable, no random 1-2 minute drop-outs like I was getting with Bluebox even before last September when it was performing better. The only minor drawbacks for me are the 60GB monthly cap and having a private IP (carrier-grade NAT).

I never thought of running a ping test yet in the evening. This is from 3pm just before writing this post, with my PC connected over Wi-Fi to the router upstairs:

The routers I have have the option of using a 4G dongle, but figure the routers would provide better speed. I'd just be replacing the NWE antenna with this. The other 2 routers already in the house will handle the wifi. The packages are still quite expensive for the monthly caps though! I know there are other ways that people use it :P

editorsean

Same plan here - Once I receive the adapters to attach my antenna, I'll be mounting my antenna outside in place of the dish. If I can get hold of an RJ45 crimper, I'll attach a new plug to the cable leading to it on the inside as this way I have an Ethernet connection running from the router to the rest of my equipment like I had with Bluebox.

Evening time ping on iD seems similar to earlier, although the throughput this evening is around 10Mbps to 15Mbps. Being a MVNO, Three itself probably would have even lower latency. This was run just after 9pm:

Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
Packets: Sent = 400, Received = 400, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 26ms, Maximum = 169ms, Average = 40ms

Slightly better average than my DSL line:

Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
Packets: Sent = 400, Received = 399, Lost = 1 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 38ms, Maximum = 165ms, Average = 45ms

m99T

Im back again! Stopped checking this thread but it seems that **** is still going down.

chris_ie

Yep, still rubbish. I've mailed them a while back and been told to do the usual speedtest -> screenshot -> word doc procedure. However, in the past they just asked for a few speed tests a bit of time apart, now they want one in the morning, evening and at night. I refuse to do them anymore because, if it shows above 1MB they are just going to say its contention. But sure according to their site :

What does Contention Rate mean?

• Contention Rate is the maximum number of other people you will have to share the connection infrastructure with. If all connections were downloading at the same time then your download speed could drop hugely — but in reality this doesn't happen. This is a theoretical worst case, and as a result you can enjoy much faster download speeds.
  

editorsean

Have a listen to the Shaun Doherty Show podcast that was aired on Wednesday on Highland Radio - jump to 07:30.

http://www.highlandradio.com/2016/03/30/shaun-doherty-show-listen-back-to-wednesdays-show/

It mentions about one person who took his issue up with ComReg which eventually ended up with Bluebox deciding it was in their best interest to terminate his contract without any consultation even though the contract had not lapsed either. It mentioned the full story was published in the Inish Times.

I also came across this article mentioning just how tough it is to get through on the phone to NWE that some people are driving to their Derry office:

http://ulsterherald.com/2016/03/18/pressure-mounts-on-publicly-funded-broadband-provider/

NIMAN

Surprised it took so long to make it into the media.

editorsean

We finally got the LTE antenna mounted outside and aimed for the best dBm readings, hovering about -75dBm RSSI, -100dBm RSRP and -7db RSRQ. The main change was the RSRP value. The previous best figures I could get for it was -108dBm with the router only and -105dBm with the antenna aimed out a non 'E' coated skylight.

The following was roughly the upload speed I was getting on NWE on the 28th January, 11:40am, a few days before they cut me off:



Now with the new set-up about 9pm today:



The download speed is fluctuating quite a bit at the moment due to peak time (Saturday evening), so the following is a approximate average download test with a chunky 50MB block:



While there's no way I'm ever going back, I'm curious to watch what happens as the FTTH roll-outs and 4G upgrades take place over the year. For example, had I never tried NWE, there's no way I would have tried them now with 4G and the various 3G providers here.

Just a year ago, I could not pick up any 3G within several kilometres of my house and now there's 3G with Vodafone, Three & Meteor and 4G on Three and even the poor 3G I was getting with Three (2-6Mbps down, 0.6Mbps up) was a massive leap ahead of what I was getting with NWE over my final 6 months with them.

Tommy Lagahan

editorsean wrote: »

We finally got the LTE antenna mounted outside and aimed for the best dBm readings, hovering about -75dBm RSSI, -100dBm RSRP and -7db RSRQ. The main change was the RSRP value. The previous best figures I could get for it was -108dBm with the router only and -105dBm with the antenna aimed out a non 'E' coated skylight.

Nice! What antenna did ya get? I have 2 Poynting LPDA 0092s ready to put up on the side of my house here just haven't gotten around to drilling the holes for the mounting pole yet. Contention in the area is starting to utterly murder Three now though unfortunately so Id say even with the new antennas outside im going to be stuck. already getting -55dBm - -65dBm and the speed drops below 1mbit. Might swap back to 3G for a while instead of LTE.

These are the yokes I picked up: http://i.imgur.com/i7JwRMw.jpg

editorsean

It's an 800MHz MIMO panel antenna which I bought off eBay. The following is a similar listing for the same antenna:
http://r.ebay.com/eJaMdz

It's actually my 4th antenna! When Meteor 3G became available in my area, I bought a 4G dongle (E8278) with 2 antenna connections. The dongle itself could not pick up the signal even with me holding it up outside the skylight. So I bought an eBay cheapy antenna, i.e. a small white diamond antenna with a '+' shape. It got a one bar signal and a surprisingly good download speed on Meteor (8Mbps) with a prepay SIM, but the upload speed was at best about 200Kbps so I knew getting 3G here was indeed possible and that it was time for the next step up.

I then bought a single 12dB LOG antenna from the Polish seller "proscan-antenna". I thought 3G only needed a single antenna, but was very surprised to only hit 5-6Mbps down even though the upload speed now hit 1Mbps and the signal went up to 4 bars. When I attached one lead from the cheapy to antenna port #2, the download speed increased back up to 8Mbps. After a quick bit of online research, I soon found out the second antenna port is used for Rx diversity on 3G.

The Polish seller no longer had this antenna listed, so I decided to go for their 1780 - 2700 MHz colinear MIMO antenna which was quite an expensive purchase at about €120. I always thought all the networks operated 3G on 2100MHz in Ireland and certainly did not expect 4G to be in my area for years to come. I quickly learned my mistake when the antenna arrived. It could not list Meteor in the network search, let alone connect! When Vodafone 3G went live in my area, not even its network was listed and similar for Three, so all three networks are operating 3G on 900MHz here. If only dongles and phones could show what frequency it's currently connected on...

Knowing that 3G was operating on 900MHz and that 4G would operate on 800MHz, I decided to go with a dedicated 800-900MHz antenna as narrow band antennas tend to be much smaller than a wideband antenna of similar gain. With Meteor, it increased the downlink speed to 10-12Mbps and the uplink speed remained about 1Mbps. So despite the 18dBi claim, it basically had the equivalent performance of two 12dBi LOGs.

You must be right next to the cell tower with those readings. Unfortunately I don't think the antennas would deliver much better throughput especially with that incredibly strong -dBm reading. Generally the uplink suffers first with LTE as the signal gets weaker. Assuming there is little contention on the mast, the downlink can usually maintain above 10mbps by the time the uplink hits 1Mbps.

I sure would like to see how your antenna would perform here as that's got to be the largest 3G/4G antenna I've seen to date! If that's a LOG antenna (which to me looks like it is), it will have 4 times the gain of what I have as my wideband log is 33cm long.

I would definitely recommend trying 3G also. Try both the Three and O2 masts as Three broadband SIMs can use both (Three phone SIMs can only use O2's 2G network). 3G can easily handle over 20Mbps depending on contention and bandwidth of the cell tower. For example, in Ballybofey, the Meteor 3G mast consistently delivers 20Mbps on TestMy:



If your Three SIM is a phone SIM, I would suggest getting the lend of a mobile broadband Three SIM to see if it fares any better. Based on what I'm seeing, Three give much higher network priority to its mobile broadband accounts. See this post where I tested various APNs with my Three on my phone and this one where I compared my phone against Three mobile broadband.

Tommy Lagahan

Wow thanks, didn't think they actually gave priority to mobile broadband, always thought it was the other way around having been on the NBS scheme for years. Did away with that contract but I'll borrow the brothers sim that he still uses from the NBS.

As far as I can tell I'm actually 9KM from the mast at least, its the only one I can spot, its line of sight since I'm higher up than it. I'm using a Poynting XPOL-A0002 (http://conugis.com/products/lte-3g-umts-antennas/xpol-a0002-antenna/) currently with the cables shortened down to about 15CM and hooked into me modem with small pigtail adapters to reduce cable loss. Whole setup is attached to an old towel rack stand on my bedroom window at the moment lol, pointing straight at the mast out the window. Three do some tomfoolery with their RSSI I think since the RSRP and RSRQ for Three are actually much worse than the vodafone mast I also pick up.
Vodafone has -75,-8 and reports -53dBm RSSI whereas Three is -85,-10 (sometimes -85,-15 at peak) and reports -60dBm~ depending on the time of day. Don't actually know too much about what all those values mean to be honest, just going off years of futering with modems and the mobile data monitoring tool.
There's a few towers within LOS since I'm up in the barnes mountains overlooking Donegal Town but theyre all feckin miles away. There's one 2KM away from me but its utterly blocked by a hill behind the house. Seriously considering putting me own setup on the hill and somehow sending that back down to the house.

I might borrow the brothers Huawei B315s while I'm at it when I get these bad boys hooked up, see if there's any improvement from the E3276-150 USB dongle I'm using currently. Might think about getting one of the new E5186 routers then off the net if it does improve.

m99T

Hi guys, so I am considering putting together a meeting to discuss the problems and in general broadband in Donegal. It would most likely be in Letterkenny.

Only going to do this if there is enough support. Would anyone attend?

Tommy Lagahan

m99T wrote: »

Hi guys, so I am considering putting together a meeting to discuss the problems and in general broadband in Donegal. It would most likely be in Letterkenny.

Only going to do this if there is enough support. Would anyone attend?

I'd be up for that. Tons of people in this county stuck on Three 3G since the NBS or NWE, both awful inconsistent services.

chris_ie

We might finally have some decent competition coming our way. Imagine LTE will be launching up here soon in rural areas. I contacted them and they reckon I might hear something in a few months.

People using this down the country are getting good results at the min, seen quite a few on around 40-50MB.

They state on the site :

"While the minimum speed that Imagine will connect you at is 30MB but can easily be 70Mb, depending on your location."

Daily download allowance is 20GB and downloads between 12am and 7am don't count towards the allowance.

Fingers crossed it gets done soon!

pipcoo

Here is another example of Bluebox incompetence. I cancelled my contract with them in December `15 and asked them to remove their equipment from my house which they have still not done. It turns out that they removed the dish from my brother-in -laws house last Thursday and left a receipt tucked under a flower pot with MY details on it. While we live on the same road the address is obviously different. It is almost funny that a firm can be so useless.

cushte

m99T wrote: »

Hi guys, so I am considering putting together a meeting to discuss the problems and in general broadband in Donegal. It would most likely be in Letterkenny.

Only going to do this if there is enough support. Would anyone attend?

first time poster here, i would be very interested in a meet up if it is still going ahead.apoligies for not reading all this thread but i think ive got the jist of it.if i had another option for broadband i would not be with this company.when and where will it be? tia.

Tommy Lagahan

cushte wrote: »

first time poster here, i would be very interested in a meet up if it is still going ahead.apoligies for not reading all this thread but i think ive got the jist of it.if i had another option for broadband i would not be with this company.when and where will it be? tia.

If we do go through with it we might as well give everyone on this page a shout: https://www.facebook.com/Bluebox-Broadband-Beyond-****-1709331289287410/?fref=nf

Had to laugh at the page name, was checking to see if their other page was still up lol!

They might have to do something if a hundred something people show up protesting.

editorsean

I spotted my demo video in the feed.

I did a similar one with Three just before switching my mobile to Meteor and have been tempted to pull it. I'm not sure whether Three spotted it or did an upgrade in this area as there has been a substantial improvement in Three's peak time speed here over the past few weeks.

At the moment (9:10pm) linear (e.g. file download, streaming), multi-threaded (e.g. simultaneous FTP transfers):



Earlier in the day and a multi-threaded from yesterday after midnight:



Surprisingly, this is with a Three prepay AYCE SIM. I ended up stopping iD Mobile for now as it had a few small issues, so I'm glad it was not a contract like Bluebox - It's capped about 20Mbps by pulsing the connection, surprisingly similar to what Bluebox did when I was getting good speed. This is a killer for VoIP / Skype or any other real-time application whenever a download is taking place. Another issue is that I had to restart the connection once or twice a day as it would intermittently slow way down (e.g. ~5Mbps max) and once I restarted the router, it was back to 20Mbps. I certainly never expected Three to be delivering VDSL like speed around here for years to come...

For anyone using Three (or any other 4G service) with external antennas, here's a tip that may be useful: Instead of relying on the router's signal readings, start a multi-threaded download early in the day (e.g. 5 large FTP transfers in parallel) or run TestMy's largest 200MB test in Multi-threaded mode with the UK server. Bring up the Wi-Fi / Network graph in Windows task manager and watch the throughput while adjusting the antenna. If the horizontal and vertical polarity antennas are separate (like my setup), adjust them individually. I went from about 32Mbps max to 49Mbps max. using this idea without any noticeable change in the signal readings - RSSI (-77dBm), RSRP (-100dBm), RSRQ (-7dB), 3 of 5 bars lit.

gooner99

Just had a look on the imagine website. They seem to be live in Donegal now.

cushte

Tommy Lagahan wrote: »

If we do go through with it we might as well give everyone on this page a shout:

Had to laugh at the page name, was checking to see if their other page was still up lol!

They might have to do something if a hundred something people show up protesting.

i checked out that facebook page, seems we might soon have options. is the meet up to discuss broadband in rural donegal still going ahead?

cushte

gooner99 wrote: »

Just had a look on the imagine website. They seem to be live in Donegal now.

had a look there, heres hoping they come to inishowen

chris_ie

If you give Imagine a call and give them your Eircode and other details they'll let you know once its going live in your area. When I called they said it could be a matter of months when it goes live in my area. They seem to be quite busy with the rollouts.

schizo1014

Has anyone else been having problems with this lot for the last week? Internet was down since last Thursday and only got through to them today said they were going to send an engineer is 5 to 7 days, a lot of people I know using this provider have been without interent for the last week. Where I am in Donegal bluebox is the only one atm where I can get broadband but for anyone interested another company called Beacon Broadband is being set up but it's a bit more expensive and has no real feedback from it

cushte

chris_ie wrote: »

If you give Imagine a call and give them your Eircode and other details they'll let you know once its going live in your area. When I called they said it could be a matter of months when it goes live in my area. They seem to be quite busy with the rollouts.

i called a few times there, on hold for over 20 minutes so i just filled out the eircode thing. waiting for them to get back.