New apartment, lots of Cat5E sockets, no phone/coax, no phone number, perplexed!

H3llR4iser

Hi folks,

Last night I entered my newly rented apartment in Clongriffin, Dublin 13. I knew already UPC/Virgin is not available at the place, so I was looking to figure out what kind of connection I could get.

According to the eir website, the general area has fibre coverage; However, if I try to enter the address it says it's not recognized - or better, it comes up as Baldoyle; I'm not sure what to make of it.

The apartment seems not to have a phone number - the landlord doesn't know it, the estate agent can't find any references to it. None of the sockets have a sticker with it on (as I found in other places I rented).

Even more oddly, there are a multitude of RJ45, Cat5e sockets - three in the living room, one in the hall and one in each bedroom. I though they might be all wired up to an ethernet switch somewhere in the apartment, but I couldn't find one.

What am I exactly looking at? Is there the possibility that the ethernet sockets all, somehow, come from outside the building? Could it be the case where one does, and the others are all connected to some "hub" structure in the walls? Never seen anything like it. Unfortunately, I can't take a better look nor do any tests right now as I'm back to Cork in order to finish packing and organize the move.

The only provider that seems to know the address specifically is Magnet, who's adamant there's "Pure Fibre" to the place - would the above be a standard setup for this provider/service?

whomitconcerns

Yep. That's what I have in Malahide there will be a box somewhere. Magnet fibre wired throughout apartment

ED E

Management agency/Landlord should really be able to tell you.

Sounds like two things:
1. Its common wiring thats useful only for phones but RJ45 terminated (otherwise there would be a switch in the dwelling)
2. The complex did a monopoly deal with Magnet for FTTB.

The latter is more likely, and isnt really great as you end up like our poor american brethren. Have to go with Magnet, cant chose anyone else. Too slow, tough luck, doesnt work, tough luck, stupid throttled FTP, tough luck.

Where the landlord is clueless the fastest approach is just to ask one of your new neighbours.

cloneslad

Couple of friends of mine lived there for 2 years and they had to use magnet, as said above they have a monopoly on the development. I remember their service being terrible and their customer service being even worse, to the point that both of them cancelled their broadband. One moved just to get a better broadband service while the other just went without until he left.

This was 4-5 years ago so hopefully their service has improved since then but I know it would have stopped me moving in to an apartment there.

whomitconcerns

Magnets broadband is excellent in my experience. I get 56/58 on my 60mb connection almost all the time with very low latency. FTTH like the op.

ED E

whomitconcerns wrote: »

Magnets broadband is excellent in my experience. I get 56/58 on my 60mb connection almost all the time with very low latency. FTTH like the op.

But is that openEir kit sold by magnet or magnet FTTB? I know some of the magnet owned deployments are 30Mb max.

whomitconcerns

fibre to the home direct from magnet. I have a 100mb option also

Gmaximum

It's fibre to the home form Magnet.

Never used it myself but have seen good feedback from other posters.