Eir broadband & smart home

lyoness

Hi, has anyone any experience with eir(com) phone line & a smart homes installation. My house has hidden wires all connected to a hub downstairs. Always had UPC until now no phone line. Eir says there is a connection when they test the line so builders/electrician must have done this originally. Engineer that came to install eir today didn't have a clue and when I told him about the hub ( on the phone) he didn't know what I was talking about and he tried to connect via a internet port socket ( I have several around the house). Naturally this wasn't connected so he claimed wire was "broken" ?? I wasn't there so just getting a report from person who was there. He claims he has to drill a hole and bring a black wire up the front of my house!! He didn't even open the hub apparently. I didn't realise this till I got home -over the phone I thought he understood about the wireless house. Am I wrong in thinking this is an easy install via the hub and no wires are required?!

bk

It is more likely that no wires are required, the installer is just being lazy.

The "internet port socket" that are in each room are likely ethernet ports (probably cat5e or cat6) and they likely run back to a central location where the hub is.

I would also assume that the UPC coax cable also comes into your home at this central location and that also the Eir phone line also comes into your home at this location.

You really need to look at where the hub is and figure out what all the wires there are. If you can take pictures of the hub, plus the different wires there, we can probably help you figure out what is what.

One question though, why change from UPC to a much slower service? Doesn't really seem worth it if it ends up being this much trouble.

lyoness

Exactly I assume all wires come through the hub. Technician to be fair seemed very inexperienced so provably should have had someone else with him. Not blaming him rather the company who sent him! I had an awful customer service experience with VM hence moving to Eir.

mass_debater

You need to figure out the wiring, it's not up to him, it's not his responsibility. He will usually act dumb and try not get involved which is what you've experienced. Get your electrician figure it, have him on site to help when the tech calls. The black cable is a dropwire which connects you to the nearest distribution point on a pole or in a manhole, if you've not got one no provisions are in place. Eir could be testing a line to a different house, unless you have an active line they have no way of knowing. Also note, he's only responsible up to 3m inside your external wall, it's not up to him to send it around the house or even get it to the hub, this is where your electrician needs to assist.

lyoness

Perhaps but the wiring is all there AFAIK. This guy didn't even open the hub. It's in a wardrobe but apparently he opened the wardrobe and said there was nothing in there. So he never saw the hub. I know I should have been there but I couldn't get out of work.
I don't have an electrician

mass_debater

lyoness wrote: »

Perhaps but the wiring is all there AFAIK. This guy didn't even open the hub. It's in a wardrobe but apparently he opened the wardrobe and said there was nothing in there. So he never saw the hub. I know I should have been there but I couldn't get out of work.
I don't have an electrician

You need to get one. It's not up to the tech to to figure it. It's a regular thing for a tech to get Eir to reschedule until the customer organises electrician to figure out internal cabling. They'll keep kicking it to touch if it's anyway beyond the norm and move on to the next job.

bk

lyoness wrote: »

Perhaps but the wiring is all there AFAIK. This guy didn't even open the hub. It's in a wardrobe but apparently he opened the wardrobe and said there was nothing in there. So he never saw the hub. I know I should have been there but I couldn't get out of work.
I don't have an electrician

Well you keep saying "hub" but that doesn't really mean anything.

It could be an ethernet switch or it could be a UPC router, neither of which are a telephone line and neither of which would be of any use to the Eir technician.

Now you would hope that an Eir phone line is also in that same wardrobe, but it may well not be, you need to figure it out for yourself or contact an electrician to do it for you.

What issues did you have with UPC? Maybe we can help here, it may well be easier to stay with them if your issues can be sorted.

lyoness

I'm not trying to blame eir here just wondering has anyone experience of this kind of set up and can help identify what's in the hub - will post a pic later.

I was only getting 20mb at best with VM bad contention on line the eir broadband is 100mb no contention
VM customer service is Artrocious

ED E

For regular networking hubs haven't been a thing for more than a decade, so what you're talking about is either:

A. a switch:


B. a CoAx Splitter:



Unfortunately neither of these are part of the landline which is the techs objective.

He has to:
-Find the line (black sheathed cable coming in from the road)
-Confirm its connected
-Place a socket on it/upgrade the existing socket

Thats all he does. This line may be by your front door, back door, attic or master bedroom and it is its your own sparkys job to run it to your "comms cabinet" (if thats what it is).

mass_debater

lyoness wrote: »

I'm not trying to blame eir here just wondering has anyone experience of this kind of set up and can help identify what's in the hub - will post a pic later.

I was only getting 20mb at best with VM bad contention on line the eir broadband is 100mb no contention
VM customer service is Artrocious

Any chance your own setup could be hindering your UPC speed? Have you investigated? How are you testing?

Eir speeds are up to 100mbit, you could get anything from 7 to 100 depending on your distance from the cabinet or exchange

lyoness

ED E wrote: »

For regular networking hubs haven't been a thing for more than a decade, so what you're talking about is either:

A. a switch:


B. a CoAx Splitter:



Unfortunately neither of these are part of the landline which is the techs objective.

He has to:
-Find the line (black sheathed cable coming in from the road)
-Confirm its connected
-Place a socket on it/upgrade the existing socket

Thats all he does. This line may be by your front door, back door, attic or master bedroom and it is its your own sparkys job to run it to your "comms cabinet" (if thats what it is).

This is a wireless smart home built 8 years ago. Unfortunately the company that wired it is gone, so is the builder hence I am devoid of info as to how it is set up. I have asked on a local FB group to see how others got their phone line working.

guil

What gear was used when it was built? 8 years is a huge timeframe for tech and chances are that's the cause of your speed problems with upc.
Unless the builder got in a specialist chances are any old crap was used.

mass_debater

Are all your tests carried our wirelessly. Have you plugged a modern laptop direct into the UPC modem and measured your speed? What is the model number of what you call a hub? Your 8 year old equipment is most likely holding back your UPC speeds.

lyoness

mass_debater wrote: »

Are all your tests carried our wirelessly. Have you plugged a modern laptop direct into the UPC modem and measured your speed? What is the model number of what you call a hub? Your 8 year old equipment is most likely holding back your UPC speeds.

The hub is just a central connection point they hardly upgrade connection points every couple of years? Same as other houses which have a wire coming in from outside? Surely these are hardly upgraded frequently

mass_debater

lyoness wrote: »

The hub is just a central connection point they hardly upgrade connection points every couple of years? Same as other houses which have a wire coming in from outside? Surely these are hardly upgraded frequently

Take a photo and upload it here. Yes, the standards of Ethernet, wireless and telecoms have changed several times in the last 15 years

lyoness

I just found an old thread from neighbours.ie and basically eircom said phone line was working (as is mine) and guy from the smart homes installer HQ digital solutions connected them in seconds via the smart box or hub as I am calling it. So the phone line is there in this box. Unfortunately that company seems to be long gone phone disconnected etc.

bk

lyoness wrote: »

I was only getting 20mb at best with VM bad contention on line the eir broadband is 100mb no contention

That sounds like more an issue with your setup, then Virgins gear.

You really should connect an ethernet cable directly from your laptop to the virgin media router (NOT through the "hub" or any of the "internet" ports or wifi) and test the speed then.

Virgin really are the fastest ISP in Ireland and very rarely suffer from congestion issues. Speeds of 200Mb/s+ are the norm on Virgin. So when you say you only get 20Mb/s from them, that really doesn't sound right and makes me suspect that the issue is with your "smart home" setup.

You should really check this first before ordering broadband from Eir. The reason I say this is that even if you manage to eventually get broadband from Eir, you might find you still get no more then 20Mb/s from Eir, if the issue is actually with your "Smart home" setup.

Better to actually confirm where the issue is first, rather then spend time trying to change providers only to find it makes no difference.

Also post pictures of what is in your wardrobe. Pictures of any different types of cables. Pictures of the front, back and bottom of the "hub" and pictures of your Virgin Media router and we should be able to help give you more information.

However I would really strongly suggest properly testing your Virgin Media service first.

lyoness

With all due respect BM I am not looking for advice on internet providers. I am asking does anyone have experience connecting phone line in a smart wireless home as the eir technician did not.
I will post pics of the smart box this eve.

bk

lyoness wrote: »

With all due respect BM I am not looking for advice on internet providers. I am asking does anyone have experience connecting phone line in a smart wireless home as the eir technician did not.
I will post pics of the smart box this eve.

And that is exactly what you are getting in vast quantities from multiple posters and for absolutely free!

You are getting advice from incredibly experienced and senior engineers in the industry here, vastly better advice then you would ever get from either a technician or a support person.

BTW yes I do have a "Smart home" and have massive amounts of experience in it. However the term "smart wireless home" doesn't actually mean anything, much in the same way the "hub" doesn't mean anything either.

They are both marketing terms that have no technical basis and can actually mean one of many different setups. Without more meaningful information, such as documentation, model numbers, network plans and pictures, we really can't say what your setup is and can only make educated guesses based on experience.

It would be truly idiotic to go change ISP, to only then discover the issue wasn't with the ISP and you end up having to trouble shoot your "smart wireless home" anyway.

I'm not saying don't change your ISP, but at least listen to the experts here and make sure the problem actually is the ISP first. At least then, if you do change you know you will have a good experience and that it is worth the effort.

It literally takes about 5 minutes to properly test Virgins router. It certainly would not be wasted time.