Recommend a domestic broadband advisor/consultant?

puckstownlane

I would like somebody to come to my house and check out exactly how best my domestic broadband should be configured, what supplier is best, what modem/routers are recommended etc. Quite a large old house so booster(s) probably needed.

I am with eircom DSL - fibre not currently available in my area of Dublin. Speed is terrible, about 6mbps when it's working properly.

Thinking of switching to UPC as they supply us with cable TV, but I am prepared to pay to ensure a smooth transition and ideal configuration. Hence I'm thinking of buying in advice. Anybody know a person/firm who does this for domestic users?

ED E

Step 1. Order UPC
Step 2. Get an electrician to wire the house for Cat5E
Step 3. Cancel Eircom when the new setup is up and running.

dublinercheese

I don't know if I would pay to wire the house. This could be a multiple thousand euro endeavor depending on how old the house is and how current the electrical code is. I'd do some 802.11ac surveys first to see what kind of wireless connectivity could be had. Must cheaper and easier to test.

bk

Definitely go with UPC. Though if you are going to lay new network cable, I'd recommend cat6, rather cat5e.

In addition to ED E's excellent advice above, also buy a high quality wifi router. Take a look at the guide I put together above on the matter:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057367191

If you have the money and wire the house with cat5e/cat6, then you could possibly buy a second or third router and use them as access points around the house hanging off the ethernet, thus giving much better wifi performance around a large home.

If running ethernet is too expensive, then you could look at using high end homeplugs and again hanging a second or third 802.11ac router off it.

puckstownlane

dublinercheese wrote: »

I don't know if I would pay to wire the house. This could be a multiple thousand euro endeavor depending on how old the house is and how current the electrical code is. I'd do some 802.11ac surveys first to see what kind of wireless connectivity could be had. Must cheaper and easier to test.

Yes I suspect it would be a big and messy job to cable our house, not justified by our needs. At present we are making do with an eircom router upstairs where the line comes in, and some kind of a booster downstairs which also helps to improve the signal for a web-based security camera.

We were getting 12-13 mbps up to a year ago but that has degraded and eircom don't seem to be interested in investigating it properly. I think there is an external physical issue with the line where it connects with the house but eircom just give me the run-around instead of coming on site to have a look. It will be their loss when I switch.

I'm not really technically proficient enough to deal with this myself (I have no idea what you mean by doing some 802.11ac surveys, for example), hence my wish to outsource the job.

ED E

Is this a Georgian/Victorian 3 story building?

If so you always need multiple transmission points, its the nature of the building techniques and the pure size(usually). Homeplugs MAY work, but the old wiring can often play havok, Ive seen that in such houses even after the endpoints have been rewired recently.

Ideally you want a transmission point per floor. If it were me I'd have UPC fit a tap into the basement or ground foor, place the modem there, then have your electrician run weatherproof cat5e up the outside wall and break in at each floor. You can hide it behind a drainpipe and weatherseal each hole. Wont be visible but will provide the best performance and be future proofed. Then you buy 2x or 3x access points and connect them on each floor. Setting them to mimic each other is simple enough and we can provide instructions here.

You could get some sort of IT contractor out to asses the site, but the same problems occur everywhere and he'll either suggest repeaters(a BAD idea), homeplugs(which are worth a shot for €40) or the above. And probably charge a few hundred for the pleasure.

colm_mcm

Keep in mind that UPC don't do static IP on residential accounts. Might be a factor with the security system.

dub45

Have you checked your line stats to see what you are capable of getting at the moment?

bk

colm_mcm wrote: »

Keep in mind that UPC don't do static IP on residential accounts. Might be a factor with the security system.

If he buys a decent wifi router like I recommend, then he can use a service like Dyn DNS or no-ip, so it shouldn't be an issue.

puckstownlane

ED E wrote: »

Is this a Georgian/Victorian 3 story building?

If so you always need multiple transmission points, its the nature of the building techniques and the pure size(usually). Homeplugs MAY work, but the old wiring can often play havok, Ive seen that in such houses even after the endpoints have been rewired recently.

Ideally you want a transmission point per floor. If it were me I'd have UPC fit a tap into the basement or ground foor, place the modem there, then have your electrician run weatherproof cat5e up the outside wall and break in at each floor. You can hide it behind a drainpipe and weatherseal each hole. Wont be visible but will provide the best performance and be future proofed. Then you buy 2x or 3x access points and connect them on each floor. Setting them to mimic each other is simple enough and we can provide instructions here.

You could get some sort of IT contractor out to asses the site, but the same problems occur everywhere and he'll either suggest repeaters(a BAD idea), homeplugs(which are worth a shot for €40) or the above. And probably charge a few hundred for the pleasure.

Thanks for comments. Yes it's an Edwardian 3.5-story house.
UPC to fit a "tap" - what's that?

ED E

A co-ax cable into the house from their main cable on the street. Its about 2cm thick and their installation guys will run it to where its needed within reason. In a house like yours the most visually discrete will often be through a window frame if you have basement windows right on ground level, save running the cable up the front of the building.

dublinercheese

bk wrote: »

If he buys a decent wifi router like I recommend, then he can use a service like Dyn DNS or no-ip, so it shouldn't be an issue.

Only if not on DS-Lite

bk

dublinercheese wrote: »

Only if not on DS-Lite

True, though UPC seem to have no problem switching over to IPv4 if you request it.