Eir Broadband Issue.. Anyone experiencing similar???

Darkcailin

Hello boards.ie community!

I am posting this thread in the hope that someone may be able to help, or have experienced the same. For the last few months (since February) I have noticed that my wireless internet has been dropping periodically and repeatedly throughout the day. The internet drops for a few seconds to a minute, and on some occasions it has even dropped for half an hour! It is absolutely ludicrous!! We have 2 college students in the house who were reliant on using the internet, and they were constantly noticing the internet drops. The internet dropping has been noted on phones, laptops, TVs, tablets and the playstation. No internet connected device was safe!!

Now Eir were contacted on numerous occasions as a resolution was required. Since February we have contacted them, and spoke to numerous colleagues. Each time we rang Eir, the customer service and technical phone support would give DIFFERENT and varying reasons as to why the internet would drop (no 2 reasons were the same!). We spent hours on the phone running through their diagnostics, turning the modem on and off again, resetting the modem, and unplugging and plugging the house phone back in. Each time we rang they would make us check everything, and numerous faults on the line would be seen.

It bamboozled the phone support team so much that they sent out a new modem for us to try (in fact we have received a total of 2 new routers!), in an attempt to rectify the issue. Despite this our internet kept dropping. Frustrations started to run high as Eir sent out approximately 10 engineers out to the house. During the visit of the 10 engineers, all the plug points in our house were checked to determine if there was an electrical fault. No issue was found.

The next time they came out to check the electrics, 2 engineers were present and they rechecked the electrics. Miraculously the two engineers found a MASSIVE fault which resided in the back of the house (NOTE: modem is in the front of the house). The engineers came to the conclusion that our dimmer light switches were at fault. They suggested that we get an electrician in to check the lights, and to change the RCD in the fuse box. We got an electrician out to check the lights, and he found NO FAULTS. He even changed the RCD in the fusebox, despite not noticing any faults. While he was checking the lights and replacing the RCD, he rang the Eir engineers to determine what equipment they used to determine the dimmer switch lights were causing the faults, as he wanted to use the same equipment to check the lights. Surprisingly the Eir engineer COULD NOT tell the electrician what equipment they were using which really inspires confidence in their test results... NOT!!

After the lights were checked and the RCD was replaced, an engineer came out to recheck to make sure the issue was resolved... the issue was still present. When the electrician asked the engineer what the problem was, the engineer got snotty and said that it was the electrician's problem to solve. Now it must be noted that the internet drops regardless of the dimmer lights being on or off. When the lights are off the internet drops, when the lights are on, and would be for long periods of time, the internet would also drop. Regardless of the lights being on or not the internet would drop. It has even been stated that WE NEED TO sort the problem as our dimmer switch lights are causing line faults in the neighbourhood as well....

Have anyone experienced anything like this? Are our 50Hz lights really the cause of the terrible internet (5GHz) we have been getting since February? Can dimmer lights really interfere with wireless broadband?

At this point Eir have blamed absolutely everything, I can't think of anything left in the house that they could blame at this point! They even blamed our house phone, which at the time was plugged out!!! At this point I am severely fed up and annoyed!

ED E

Surmising from your post it seems likes it is in fact a line issue. Lots of things can cause interference but your dimmers seems like a weird choice.

If the techs (on site) measure properly they'll be using a JDSU. Support on the phone will never have seen one of these in their life so wouldnt be able to tell you.


An issue like this is too nebulous for us to really offer significant advice, you need to push them for the techs to actually track down the source and resolve. You can switch off your lighting at the consumer unit (fusebox) for 8hrs of daylight to prove its not related.

long_b

Is it just the wifi that drops - are devices connected via Ethernet cable affected?

I'd be tempted to rum the router off of a generator and turn off your electricity altogether (if that's possible) to rule out your electrics completely ?

jca

long_b wrote: »

Is it just the wifi that drops - are devices connected via Ethernet cable affected?

I'd be tempted to rum the router off of a generator and turn off your electricity altogether (if that's possible) to rule out your electrics completely ?

A ups would be better many electronic items don't like the choppy generator output.

Zatoichi

I'm connected via an ethernet cable and I'm getting the same problem. It started a few months ago, lasted about two weeks, then it went away. It came back yesterday, and it's been going on today.

I've never bothered contacting Eir as the tiresome run-around is entirely predictable.