Switching Provider - worth it?

Toots

I'm currently out of contract with Digiweb for 1gb FTTH broadband and there's a phone number included in that as well. We're paying €79.99 per month at the moment. We bought the Fritz 3000 repeater as all our walls are solid block, and the main router is at one end of the house and without it, the coverage was a bit patchy at the other side of the house. So far we've been happy with Digiweb, but having stuck my eircode into Switcher.ie it seems like we're paying a lot. I phoned Digiweb this morning to ask could they knock anything off the price, and I'm still waiting for a call back, but the guy I spoke to didn't seem massively optimistic about bringing it down. He mentioned removing the phone option but I'd prefer not to. We don't have an actual "landline" it's one of those phones that you plug into the router.

If we were to switch to Pure or Vodafone, would we have to get all new equipment sent out/installed? Or would we just be able to continue with what we have and just pay a different provider, similar to switching electricity provider? I'm keen to avoid downtime because if the fibre goes out the mobile signal in our house isn't good enough to access the internet. My husband is WFH and I have 2 autistic kids, so if the internet goes down it's catastrophic!

Out of Pure and Vodafone would anyone have any recommendations on which is better, or is it pretty much the same? I'm reluctant to go near Eir as I had an absolute nightmare with them overcharging my elderly parents for years, and I'd really rather avoid them.

swoofer

Yes, €79.99 a month is a lot. I have switched from VF to EIR to PURE TELECOM within 14 days and not lost service. With FTTH to the home its all done remotely and no break in service but give as much notice as possible. DIGI will want the router returned. PURE telecom have a deal 35 a month for 500mb and includes calls to landlines. 1GB is overkill. Check their website.

VF are good and may have deals as well.

A modem is sent out via courier and you may get a text to say service will switch over between 8-1pm or in the pm if you request it. While online a message will appear no internet, just swop over modem and plug in phone. NB phone can take up to 48 hours.

The fritz repeater should work with any modem but someone else may reply.

I'll try DIGIWEB next year.

Tell digiweb you are going to switch and they may change their tune. They have good offers for newbies

ps found this for you

https://en.avm.de/service/knowledge-base/dok/FRITZ-Repeater-3000/3487_Connecting-FRITZ-Repeater-to-a-router-from-another-manufacturer

RobiePAX

Fibre is Fibre, like you mentioned its like switching electricity, very straight forward. You most likely will be asked to return modem.

Eir, Vodafone, Sky and Pure are usually the big names with the most competitive offers that use the same lines. Just make sure they make activation fee free.

Sky is hands down best deal right now. €30/pm for 500 MB/s fibre. I'd definitely consider it while it's still available, that's a pre-Covid price.

While Eir is worth considering if you have mobiles with them as you'll get sim cards with calls, texts and data for €10/pm.

Vodafone is a great alternative if you don't want to deal with Eir.

turniton

Hi,

live in Galway City and both wife and myself working from home. We currently have Virgin 500MB.

Usage for the last 5 months is : 400 GB, 570GB, 700GB, 340GB, 305GB

Service always worked fine but when I called Virgin for renewal , the only option they gave me , is the €70/month. Which I think is too high but they won't offer anything else

I checked with Eircode and It seems I could get:

a) Sky 500 mbps 24 months @ €35 x month

b) Vodafone 500 mpbs 12 months @ €40 x month

Just worried about "fair usage" policy and reliability

(used Sky in the past. all good apart from some small VPN issues)

peking97

FWIW I recently switched from Vodafone to Eir and the whole process was almost seamless. VF were charging me €65 a month for VDSL BB and Phone over copper and Eir is now charging €35 for FTTH for BB and Voice over Broadband (VOBB). So definitely worth switching in my opinion!

Was getting 42/14 on VDSL and now getting 500/50 on FTTH.

Broadband and phone were working within 20 minutes of the switchover. Hope this helps.

turniton

According to VF I could get the 2gb Broadband at my address but I am more than happy with 500mb. It says that there is not price plan change after 12 months, which would be a good developement. not having to check, call and change every 12 months if you don't have to do so

banie01

Yes, it is very worth it IMO. I switch every 12months.

I use my own Asus router connected to the ONT. So never any issue with needing to either edit the SSID of a new suppliers router, or in the worst case changing the WiFi settings on every single WiFi device in the house.

The most I ever have to do now when I change provider is edit the PPoE credentials.

I've had fibre for 5/6 years now and change every single year rather than get caught in the "full price" trap.

bk

"I use my own Asus router connected to the ONT. So never any issue with needing to either edit the SSID of a new suppliers router, or in the worst case changing the WiFi settings on every single WiFi device in the house."

This is the way.

It makes it so relatively easy to switch providers and usually you get a much better wifi performance then you would from the ISP supplied router. The cost of your own wifi router is quickly made back by swapping.

Cold|Fusion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120935660#Comment_120935660

I just upgraded to the 1gb ftth from Eir and have my Asus RT-68U connected directly to the ONT with one of those flat Ugreen 10gb Lan cables and then pc wired direct and can only get max 50mb up/down. Is there settings I need to change that I'm missing?

bk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120984224#Comment_120984224

That doesn't sound right. On your PC you should check that your LAN port is actually running in 1000mb/s mode and not just 100mb/s

Also I assume that is 50mb/s (megabit) and not 50MB/s (megabyte), 50MB is 400mb/s

Cold|Fusion

Hi bk

Ya the nic is set for 1000mb/s

I will just share the result here if that's ok

https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/9488651745

I was previously on the 500mb tier and wasnt getting much difference in speeds

Of note. When I was on the 500mb tier using the Eir modem I was hitting 400

I know for a fact that it has been upgraded because I can see the speed tier in settings on the ONT

I want to use my own router because as mentioned the WiFi coverage and speed Is way better. Thanks for reading

pizzahead77

Have you tried using the router suppled by Eircom to check if there's an issue with the Asus router.

Or tried other Ethernet cables to rule out an issue with the ones you are using.

Is there WiFi on your PC? If so disable it in case its connecting by

Cold|Fusion

No WiFi on pc. I have tried with different patch leads that are only a couple of metres in length and the same issue.

I am on the latest to firmware on Asus router, I haven't tried the Eir modem again yet as it's in storage I'll have to root it out. But I do know that when I was on 500mb originally the Eir modem gave me higher speeds than my Asus did on wired connection

swoofer

I had that router in 2015 and it was very good.

Just saw you had 500 mb so router must be correct and wiring. as stated you will need to use eir router and see if that makes a difference.

its really weird now, did you reset the asus by any chance.

And by the way I can recall that the speeds i got back in 2015 were lower than the eir one but not a lot.

As it worked before you must have put in the bit about VL 10 did you check its still there.

Cold|Fusion

Ok update. I took out the old Eir fibre router and tested it out am getting 983 down and 103 up

I then tried with my Asus and while it is a little better it's nowhere near this

Getting 400 down and 40 up on the Asus

Ya I have that v tag as 10 however on this modem it's listed under IPTV

Funny place to have it however

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/does-rt-ac68u-support-802-1q-vlan-2.63401/

And

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058061743/swap-eir-router-for-another-settings

Am I missing something obvious here.

Thanks for all your help

swoofer

Your next step is do a complete reset on the ASUS and if it stays at 400 you need a new asus. I changed because of the speed and had spare cash,

Or you could do a new thread with Asus RT-68U  in the title.

I did a google and theres quite a bit about slow speeds, have you checked items like QOS, parental protection.

I change dns to cloudfare and not the isp one.

Cold|Fusion

Hi swoofer

Thanks for the response. I did a reset and setup again and I'm now getting 820 down 100 up

Better again than what I did have, but still not quite up there.

Funny thing now is on ps4/5 I'm getting a nat type failure. I'll look into this further.

If I can't get higher speeds I might have to invest in a new router. Any recommendations if I do decide to jump for a new one. Thanks.

swoofer

At least you got it back, 820 is as good as it gets, I got 845. The reason I changed was for extra lan ports and 1gb ones but over the last 2 years I have gone to 500mb with VOIP and to be honest not noticed much difference if any.

I have the RT-AX88U but no longer available.

For gaming look at this but do a bit of checking.

ASUS TUF Gaming AX3000 V2 Dual Band WiFi 6 Router with Mobile Tethering.

I used to to have netgear but I like asus now. There is a netgear nighthawk that gets a good few recommends.