which would you choose

duckcfc

I have a choice of efibre, Vodafone or sky broadband and don't know which one to choose. Every sale rep I talk to from each company says they're connection is best, I know this is their job but they've just hit me with all this information I don't understand and I just agreed with them all as if I knew what I was talking about.

What I want the connection for is downloads, streaming football, watching documentaries and just internet browsing but I wouldn't know what connection would suit me. I'm in castlebar in mayo with decent speeds(so I've been told)

I'm just using a Vodafone dongle just now and have been this last 2 years but need something better because there's more in the house wanting connected to the net.

Please help.

ED E

Sky dont do VDSL(Fibre), only ADSL. So with eircom and vodafone you'll get between 12 and 100Mb depending on location whereas with sky you'll get between 1 and 24Mb depending on location(usually closer to 1 than 24).

If you have a few people in the house you should start at 25-30Mb so that you can have a few youtube/sports/other streams and not have to worry.

eircom and vodafone use the same physical hardware so the speed is the same with both, so go for the cheaper one(vodafone).

duckcfc

ED E wrote: »

Sky dont do VDSL(Fibre), only ADSL. So with eircom and vodafone you'll get between 12 and 100Mb depending on location whereas with sky you'll get between 1 and 24Mb depending on location(usually closer to 1 than 24).

If you have a few people in the house you should start at 25-30Mb so that you can have a few youtube/sports/other streams and not have to worry.

eircom and vodafone use the same physical hardware so the speed is the same with both, so go for the cheaper one(vodafone).

Is there a higher price if I go with 25-30mb with Vodafone?

Bog Standard User

duckcfc wrote: »

Is there a higher price if I go with 25-30mb with Vodafone?

ok ill try explain speeds versus distance on vdsl (price is the same regardless)

from your house to the cab (with vectoring)

NOTE: this is line length NOT line of sight

0 - 300m = upto 100mb on a clean line
301 - 500m = upto 80mb on a clean line
501 to 800m = upto 50mb on a clean line
801m to 1200m = upto 40mb on a clean line
1201m to 1500m = upto 30mb on a clean line
1501 to 1800m = upto 25mb on a clean line
1801 to 2000m = upto 20mb on a clean line
2001m to 2200m = upto 18mb on a clean line
2201m to max 2500m = upto 12mb on clean line (2500m expect no better than 7mb)

line faults such as shorts, earth faults, or foreign dc volt faults will create noise and impact on speeds

short fault = line poorly wired
earth faults = line poorly insulated
foreign dc volt faults = line directly in contact with another electrical source (another line or electrical line)

duckcfc

Bog Standard User wrote: »

ok ill try explain speeds versus distance on vdsl (price is the same regardless)

from your house to the cab (with vectoring)

NOTE: this is line length NOT line of sight

0 - 300m = upto 100mb on a clean line
301 - 500m = upto 80mb on a clean line
501 to 800m = upto 50mb on a clean line
801m to 1200m = upto 40mb on a clean line
1201m to 1500m = upto 30mb on a clean line
1501 to 1800m = upto 25mb on a clean line
1801 to 2000m = upto 20mb on a clean line
2001m to 2200m = upto 18mb on a clean line
2201m to max 2500m = upto 12mb on clean line (2500m expect no better than 7mb)

line faults such as shorts, earth faults, or foreign dc volt faults will create noise and impact on speeds

short fault = line poorly wired
earth faults = line poorly insulated
foreign dc volt faults = line directly in contact with another electrical source (another line or electrical line)

How can i find out distance from cab to house?

BArra

You can't get the exact distance, only Eircom records would show this.

The best you can do is find your nearest vdsl cab and measure, Google maps lets you do this, it's just an estimate however. Lines can travel in all directions, not just as the crow flies

Go onto the Eircom site, and under check if efibre is in my area, input a neighbours telephone number, this gives speed indication for fibre

Dermot McDonnell

I'm in Rathbawn, Castlebar. Fibre sync rate is ~50mbps down, ~18mbps up on Eircom. As ED E points out, Vodafone and Eircom attach to the same hardware. The cheaper option is likely to save you money. The down size of Vodafone is their HG658c router is cr*p. The Eircom F1000 is a much better device and will give you a higher sync rate.

BeerWolf

duckcfc wrote: »

How can i find out distance from cab to house?

Try using http://irelandoffline.org/map/

dixiefly

Dermot McDonnell wrote: »

I'm in Rathbawn, Castlebar. Fibre sync rate is ~50mbps down, ~18mbps up on Eircom. As ED E points out, Vodafone and Eircom attach to the same hardware. The cheaper option is likely to save you money. The down size of Vodafone is their HG658c router is cr*p. The Eircom F1000 is a much better device and will give you a higher sync rate.

Is this difference noticeable? I have heard some negative reports about the F1000 also. Is the difference enough to make a person choose eircom over vodafone? I am currently considering changing from Eircom to vodafone and am expectig efibre in the next couple of months.

Dermot McDonnell

dixiefly wrote: »

Is this difference noticeable? I have heard some negative reports about the F1000 also. Is the difference enough to make a person choose eircom over vodafone? I am currently considering changing from Eircom to vodafone and am expectig efibre in the next couple of months.

F1000 has gigabit Ethernet, ie ten times the HG658c, that is important to lots of folk. It also has a later version of the same WiFi radio. Vodafone lock theirs down so much you cannot even save your router config. You can unlock both and replace the firmware with an unlocked, more recent, version from the manufacturer. That is highly recommended for both of these. The F1000 will almost always get a better sync rate with newer firmware. That will make little difference if your ISP limits your data rate.

Folk who complain about routers generally have not set the device up for optimal performance. In particular, for WiFi, use wireless mode "n only" if all of your WiFi devices support it. Throughput will likely double. You can do this on the F1000 advanced settings, not on the HG658c.

duckcfc

Choosed Vodafone. Everything will be up and running on wed hopefully

karltimber

A question on this if I may.
I am within 300m of a cab box but have a 3 year old phone line (replaced) from the path outside the house to my current house connection (approx 20metres)

will vodafone fit a new cat5 cable from the path to the house ? or will the standard phone cable suffice ?
can i offer to replce this cable with cat5 if they won't ?

Thx

ED E

VDSL is provided over your POTS line, they just jumper you at the cabinet and fit a new socket(if required) in the premises. CAT5 is only needed if you want to move the modem away from the master socket, and that can be requested when you make your order. They do it all.

karltimber

ED E wrote: »

POTS line,.

Plain Old Telephone Service - very good. wiki'd that - was expecting some tech jargin

Thats grand - current modem is beside my master socket and house has cat5.

thx

K