Question for UTV Talk & their Broadband

ericzheng

If I choice UTV CLICKSILVER package, there is an offer for UTV Talk as mentioned. Is that my total monthly rental became = Eircom fixed line normal monthly rental (24.30/mon ?) + UTV CLICKSILVER (29.99/mon) + UTV Talk (24.18/mon ?)

newgrange

No, your total monthly would be €29.99 for the Clicksilver (which includes UTV Talk), €24.30 (or whatever it is) for Eircom's monthly 'line rental' - plus the costs of your calls.

My calls with UTV last month cost me €2.11. Your call charges will only be for those not covered under UTV Talk.

ericzheng

Thanks newgrange for the quick reply!
Is that UTV a right choice for Broadband and when the updated offer (1mb) come out?

newgrange

I find UTV good. I am not a heavy downloader, so I do not find the 8 GB cap restrictive. I don't know if they intend revising their download limits.

PiE

They seem more content to sit around scratching their balls rather than actually come up with some new product pricing/offerings.

Lionheart

PiE wrote:

They seem more content to sit around scratching their balls rather than actually come up with some new product pricing/offerings.

On increasing the D/L speeds their "spokeperson" on their newsgroup said:

"As I've stated, I know the product development team are certainly
'modelling' away and as soon as more info is available, I'll make sure
it's posted here."

This was on the 15th March and still no news from them.

@ericzheng. If you are thinking of joining UTV you should bear in mind that UTV's earlier enthusiasm for coming on here and sharing their ideas has long since faded.

UTV were once a market leader with new ideas.

Now I get the impression that they have adopted a "wait and see what the others are doing" attitude before deciding anything.

mickger

PiE wrote:

They seem more content to sit around scratching their balls rather than actually come up with some new product pricing/offerings.

They would want to get there act together and give us the details of the new offers otherwise they will lose any potential new customers to there rivals.

ericzheng

@Lionheart, actually I really need Internet at moment, do you think it's a good time to join in UTV currently? Because I think they at least will give me three months for free trial and I still can get the benefits for new offering if released, right?

Thanks for the suggestions from everybody!

Dinner

Yeah thats right, if you do join before the end of March you will get 3 months free or 4 if you choose to stay with them and when they do upgrade you will have the benifet of that. And you get a pretty good phone service aswell.

But if utv dont announce something soon they will have alot of unhappy customers.

My name is Mud

ericzheng wrote:

I really need Internet at moment

they'll keep you waiting at least a month and a half before they deliver the modem...

rymus

Arabel wrote:

But if utv dont announce something soon they will have alot of unhappy customers.

quite so.. my teeth are already beginning to grind

pushpop

I got a new computer just before xmas. Its a pentium 4 3Ghz with HT technology. on the utv clicksilver FAQ is says that you must tell them if you have this particular processor as its incompatible with USB modems. Anybody know what the deal with this is?

driver1

I ordered utv clicksilver broadband on March 14th and had the modem delivered on the 18th. It took about 10 minutes to install. no problems so far.

My name is Mud

pushpop wrote:

I got a new computer just before xmas. Its a pentium 4 3Ghz with HT technology. on the utv clicksilver FAQ is says that you must tell them if you have this particular processor as its incompatible with USB modems. Anybody know what the deal with this is?

U.TV Customer Service wrote:

With regards ot the P4 with hyperthreading enabled, the modem we now suppy is a Creative broadband blaster which has both USB and Ethernet connectivity. If the P4 pc has ethernet then there will be no problem in using this equipment.

@ Driver1: thats unreal! I ordered a month and a half ago with no update, so I told them to feck off!

dub45

driver1 wrote:

I ordered utv clicksilver broadband on March 14th and had the modem delivered on the 18th. It took about 10 minutes to install. no problems so far.

That is definitely some sort of record!!! You should buy a lottery ticket while you are on this run!

Seriously though I would have thought that logistically that would be almost impossible.

Dinner

Thats amazing, they delivered mine on the 20th day. I was waiting ages for them to deliver.

driver1

Both my sister and brother also applied for Clicksilver broadband in the last month (as their exchanges were recently activated-all in Donegal). They too had their modems dispatched within a week. I would have had mine a day earlier except for St. Particks Day as they e-mailed me that they had dispatched the modem on Tuesday. Perhaps anyone that applied in the last couple of weeks are getting a faster service or maybe Eircom have speeded up the time it takes them to do the line test.

dub45

driver1 wrote:

Both my sister and brother also applied for Clicksilver broadband in the last month (as their exchanges were recently activated-all in Donegal). They too had their modems dispatched within a week. I would have had mine a day earlier except for St. Particks Day as they e-mailed me that they had dispatched the modem on Tuesday. Perhaps anyone that applied in the last couple of weeks are getting a faster service or maybe Eircom have speeded up the time it takes them to do the line test.

Well its not the line test its the enabling of the line. You definitely ordered on the 14th March?

Lionheart

ericzheng wrote:

@Lionheart, actually I really need Internet at moment, do you think it's a good time to join in UTV currently? Because I think they at least will give me three months for free trial and I still can get the benefits for new offering if released, right?

Thanks for the suggestions from everybody!

If I really wanted Broadband right now, I would not go to UTV.

Remember,

1. UTV have been the slowest to respond to the latest news on download speeds. We are still waiting to hear from them. .

2. UTV will charge you no matter how little you exceed the cap.

3 UTV are intent in getting you to sign up for 12 months and then treat you like you have no option but to stay with them. In that they are making a big mistake as I know many will walk when the 12 months are up.

4. UTV came on boards.ie with great enthusiasm when they first launched, but now that they have had some market penetration, boards.ie no longer matters to them.

5. UTV have a newsgroup but their spokesperson has little or no power to do anything. He's always to busy even to ask the UTV powerbods questions on behalf of the customers. In other words, he couldn't be bothered.

If I was you, I'd try one of the others and then make my mind up in three months time.

dub45

Lionheart wrote:

If I really wanted Broadband right now, I would not go to UTV.

Remember,

1. UTV have been the slowest to respond to the latest news on download speeds. We are still waiting to hear from them. .

2. UTV will charge you no matter how little you exceed the cap.

3 UTV are intent in getting you to sign up for 12 months and then treat you like you have no option but to stay with them. In that they are making a big mistake as I know many will walk when the 12 months are up.

4. UTV came on boards.ie with great enthusiasm when they first launched, but now that they have had some market penetration, boards.ie no longer matters to them.

5. UTV have a newsgroup but their spokesperson has little or no power to do anything. He's always to busy even to ask the UTV powerbods questions on behalf of the customers. In other words, he couldn't be bothered.

If I was you, I'd try one of the others and then make my mind up in three months time.

Nobody has criticised UTV as often as me but in fairness your point at no 5 is totally wrong. Carl has consistently bent over backwards to help UTV customers for ages and answers problems for posters at all hours of the day and night often from home. He is one of UTV's few goodpoints. And if the powers that be wont tell him what they are going to do that's not his fault.

leche solara

When I signed up with UTV I got my modem within about 4 days.

In relation to the Hyper Threading I too saw on the website that it was incompatible with the modem, but forgot this when I installed my modem. It is still enabled and I havent had any trouble - so I dont know what the warning is about?

Dinner

Where and what is the newsgroup?

And also, I'm sure its been asked a million times but what is the Upload limit wiht UTV or is there one?

dub45

Arabel wrote:

Where and what is the newsgroup?

And also, I'm sure its been asked a million times but what is the Upload limit wiht UTV or is there one?

In whatever programme you use for newsgroups - most people use outlook express add news.utvinternet.com and then when you download the list of newsgroups you will find utv.support there. UTV dont provide a full news service so there are not that many to download.

Dinner

Ah I gotcha thanks.

kaizersoze

pushpop wrote:

I got a new computer just before xmas. Its a pentium 4 3Ghz with HT technology. on the utv clicksilver FAQ is says that you must tell them if you have this particular processor as its incompatible with USB modems. Anybody know what the deal with this is?

UTV now provide a Creative Labs Blaster modem/router so the HT incompatability isn't an issue anymore AFAIK. That warning was referring to the old USB only Zyxel modem they used to provide.
Two of my friends ordered Clicksilver the same night about a fortnight ago and both received their modems on the 5th working day after. One turned out to be faulty and there was a replacement in the post the following day. Nothing wrong with that.
I've been with them since October 2003 and never had a problem

ericzheng

Thanks for your suggestions!

@Lionheart,

1. I think they should release the news within three months period, so I can wait using the three months free trial.

2. Actually I am not a really download fans for whole days, so their cap probably enough for me. Are their provide real-time statistic for the downloaded data?

3. If the price and stability of Network is acceptable, I can stay over 12 months.

I have no idea with point 4 and 5.


@ My name is Mud,
Actually I have my own ADSL router which bring from UK, so just worry about the time to active my ADSL line but don't care the modem. When and how will they email/phone me the username and password for ADSL?

dub45

ericzheng wrote:

Thanks for your suggestions!

.............


2. Actually I am not a really download fans for whole days, so their cap probably enough for me. Are their provide real-time statistic for the downloaded data?

Yes d/l statistics are available on the site they also give you the option of being cut off if you go over the cap rather than being charged. And when your line is activated they will email you your sign on and password.

EKRIUQ

driver1 wrote:

I ordered utv clicksilver broadband on March 14th and had the modem delivered on the 18th. It took about 10 minutes to install. no problems so far.

I got mine last September and only took 5 days to arrive and set up in 5 minutes and no problems so far. The people who don't have UTV are always the people who have all the opinions :rolleyes:

UTV is by far the cheaper at €29.99 per month.

My name is Mud

GRRRRR!!!!

I ordered UTV Clicksilver on the 15th of Feb. It turns out my line was activated for Broadband on the 16th of Feb (after numberous phone calls).

Its now the 23rd March. 3 Helpdesk tickets and 4 phonecalls, and my modem is still not going to be delivered until "a later date"

I cancelled the order with UTV cos of their unbelivable crapness in DELIVERING A FECKIN MODEM!!!!

4 Months Free? BOLLOX. Im already down a free month... feckin nordys

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

WhatsGoingOn

I ordered mine 7 working days ago, it arrived today and I am using it now, after only taking about 10 mins to setup. They are the cheapest and the free phone calls with UTV phone is a big plus too..

mancman

Lionheart wrote:

If I really wanted Broadband right now, I would not go to UTV.

Remember,

1. UTV have been the slowest to respond to the latest news on download speeds. We are still waiting to hear from them. .

2. UTV will charge you no matter how little you exceed the cap.

3 UTV are intent in getting you to sign up for 12 months and then treat you like you have no option but to stay with them. In that they are making a big mistake as I know many will walk when the 12 months are up.

4. UTV came on boards.ie with great enthusiasm when they first launched, but now that they have had some market penetration, boards.ie no longer matters to them.

5. UTV have a newsgroup but their spokesperson has little or no power to do anything. He's always to busy even to ask the UTV powerbods questions on behalf of the customers. In other words, he couldn't be bothered.

If I was you, I'd try one of the others and then make my mind up in three months time.

Wild guess here but I'd say your one of those poeple that sends an email to a support facility and moans big time when you don't get a reply in 10 minutes.

Are you super efficient in your job or do burger king not mind if you take your time

I've been on utv for a number of years now and I find that their products and support to back it up are 2nd to none. Anytime I've dealt with them I always tend to find the reason for all the hold ups are down to impatient people on the phone 10 times a day cos they haven't got what they wanted via the 10 emails/faxes/pigeons they sent 5 mins ago.

Wee bit of advise for ya m8, take a long hard look at your own job before you throw the feckin rattle out of the pram in future!

and instead of coming on messageboards and acting the big nappy and saying your going to cancel this that and the other...do us all a favour and just do it...we ain't gonna talk ya out of it.

I hear eircom/esat/iol and any of the rest are just bending over backwards to look after you

Sully

dub45 wrote:

Nobody has criticised UTV as often as me but in fairness your point at no 5 is totally wrong. Carl has consistently bent over backwards to help UTV customers for ages and answers problems for posters at all hours of the day and night often from home. He is one of UTV's few goodpoints. And if the powers that be wont tell him what they are going to do that's not his fault.

I disagree with your first point; im either on par with you criticsing UTV or moan more Made a complaint today to a guy who deals with complaints, about the poor responce times, ignorance of some of the staff etc. Apparently, UTV rep. are supposed to give there name when they answer the phone! Never do to me.

The only reason im sticking with UTV is its the cheapest, and no other better offers (besides Smart who I await to come in my area) are around..

- Sully

Billabong

step 1 - set your UTV account to suspend if download cap is exceeded
step 2 - dont ever log off as you cannot get kicked off but you can be denied logon
step 3 - see how much you can download in a month and then try beat it the following month.
step 4 - Keep a handy eircomnet dialup ready for when a powercut logs you off and your already over your cap

This trick is something I kind of stumbled upon back before christmas. I've been using utv bb since the summer and had found myself constantly checking to make sure i didn't exceed my limit and get my account suspended until the next month. ( note i have the suspend my account option selected which means they cannot legally bill me for any excess capacity I might "accidentally" use)

One day just before christmas I accidentally went over the limit buy a meer 2 gigs, there was a 10 days left in the month so I was a bit ****ed off. To my surprise, even the next day UTV had still not kicked me off the server. I remained on the server for the remaining 10 days and got a grand total of 16.5 gigs out of my 8 gig cap.

Apparently the server knows when your over your limited at the once daily update time but does not have the capability to kick you off. Your username simply gets blacklisted for the remainder of the month so you cannot log on which is not a problem when you are already logged on.

According to UTV who I rang twice over this issue " you cannot get charged if you have the suspend account option selected"

It does mean that your computer must be on 24/7 but thats the norm now for all you legal downloaders of linux and the likes over P2P.

sorry about the excessively long post but i've an awful load of work to be avoiding.

My final note to any UTV staff that may be reading this, My 12 month contract will be up in a few months and hence I will have no loyalty to U.TV ( a company who seem to have a standard phone queue wait time of 20 mins "based on the average of 3 calls to UTV"). I am happy to stay with U.TV based on the fact that I can download on average 13 gigs a month which I feel is adequate. Should the U.TV techies avtually find a way to disable this trick, It shouldn't bother me, especially with smart telecom around the corner. No hard feelings.

Sully

Billabong wrote:

step 1 - set your UTV account to suspend if download cap is exceeded
step 2 - dont ever log off as you cannot get kicked off but you can be denied logon
step 3 - see how much you can download in a month and then try beat it the following month.
step 4 - Keep a handy eircomnet dialup ready for when a powercut logs you off and your already over your cap

This trick is something I kind of stumbled upon back before christmas. I've been using utv bb since the summer and had found myself constantly checking to make sure i didn't exceed my limit and get my account suspended until the next month. ( note i have the suspend my account option selected which means they cannot legally bill me for any excess capacity I might "accidentally" use)

One day just before christmas I accidentally went over the limit buy a meer 2 gigs, there was a 10 days left in the month so I was a bit ****ed off. To my surprise, even the next day UTV had still not kicked me off the server. I remained on the server for the remaining 10 days and got a grand total of 16.5 gigs out of my 8 gig cap.

Apparently the server knows when your over your limited at the once daily update time but does not have the capability to kick you off. Your username simply gets blacklisted for the remainder of the month so you cannot log on which is not a problem when you are already logged on.

According to UTV who I rang twice over this issue " you cannot get charged if you have the suspend account option selected"

It does mean that your computer must be on 24/7 but thats the norm now for all you legal downloaders of linux and the likes over P2P.

sorry about the excessively long post but i've an awful load of work to be avoiding.

Id agree with your steps, but the last one (dialup). Does Eircom have to know when your going to use the dialup? Or can I use it anytime and just get billed for the time I use?

And if I go over the limit, dont log off etc. then I can still use UTV BB ya? Even tho I hit the limit and they dont have the power to d/c me? What happens if I log off sometime next month, I wont be given "Access Denied" for not logging of last month hence I was still able to use BB?

- Sully

dub45

Sully04 wrote:

Id agree with your steps, but the last one (dialup). Does Eircom have to know when your going to use the dialup? Or can I use it anytime and just get billed for the time I use?

And if I go over the limit, dont log off etc. then I can still use UTV BB ya? Even tho I hit the limit and they dont have the power to d/c me? What happens if I log off sometime next month, I wont be given "Access Denied" for not logging of last month hence I was still able to use BB?

- Sully

I thought that UTV threw everyone off every two days or so? Remember there were complaints about that a while ago?

PcP

Mine is set to cut off when it hits the cap but I'm fairly sure that if you dont logoff, whatever you downloaded since last logon will be carried through to the following months allowance.

Lionheart wrote:

5. UTV have a newsgroup but their spokesperson has little or no power to do anything. He's always to busy even to ask the UTV powerbods questions on behalf of the customers. In other words, he couldn't be bothered.

I would agree about the cap charges and constant 12 month lockins but that last bit ^^ is utter rubbish.

bush

Well I was using the internet on the 13th of this month and was over the limit by a gig and they cut me off. My internet is always on too through a router.

Dinner

As far as I know UTV do kick you off every 2 days or so to get a read or something like that so I'm not sure if Billabong's idea will work anymore.

Sully

Not really on my side. I just randomly d/c for no reason.

- Sully

Repli

I dunno about Billabongs idea.. I think the T&C's say "you will be charged for exceeding the cap", not "you wont be charged if you check the box to disconnect yourself for exceeding the cap". And from stories I've heard about UTV, if they find out about it they could hit you with a bill for a few hundred euro a few months down the line.. just be careful is all I am saying

Sully

Repli wrote:

I dunno about Billabongs idea.. I think the T&C's say "you will be charged for exceeding the cap", not "you wont be charged if you check the box to disconnect yourself for exceeding the cap". And from stories I've heard about UTV, if they find out about it they could hit you with a bill for a few hundred euro a few months down the line.. just be careful is all I am saying

So your telling us that - even if we select the option to "Disconnect on exceeding cap" - we will still get charged no matter what option is selected?

Thats pathetic.

- Sully

Repli

Sully04 wrote:

So your telling us that - even if we select the option to "Disconnect on exceeding cap" - we will still get charged no matter what option is selected?

Thats pathetic.

- Sully

No, if you select that option and play by the rules you won't be charged for exceeding the cap.. I was talking about Billabongs method of not logging off.. also

Apparently the server knows when your over your limited at the once daily update time but does not have the capability to kick you off. Your username simply gets blacklisted for the remainder of the month so you cannot log on which is not a problem when you are already logged on.

We are just taking his word that this information on how their system works is correct

PiE

That is the way it works, however they can and do disconnect everyone every 48hrs to tally up the downloads. His method does work, but you should only do it around the last 2 days of the month unless you don't mind having no 'net.

I've gone over it by a fair few gigs most months using this method and haven't been charged. I'd like them to try charge me

PcP

Sully04 wrote:

So your telling us that - even if we select the option to "Disconnect on exceeding cap" - we will still get charged no matter what option is selected?

Thats pathetic.

- Sully

Your data traffic is sent on each disconnect so if you leave it connected until the first of the month surely everything you downloaded on that connect will be taken off your new monthly allowance. You won't get charged for going over but I would imagine it's still counted in your cap.

Sully

If things where fantastic this would be a good (fairy tale) idea:

Whatever is left over in the cap on Month A is added to Month B :P

- Sully

Billabong

Ill try and answer a few of the queries which came up after my post (revised post).
1. eircomnet is my backup and quite simple charge you at the local call rate.
phone no. 1892150150
username eircomnet
password eircomnet

2 I was having problems with the 48 hours disconnect before christmas and the extreem difficulties of reconnection. I find the automatic disconnect rarely happens anymore on either of my two connections in two separate counties (dublin,louth). Whether this was due to my obsessive complaing or just coincidence i just dont know.

3 for the past 3 months now I have being leaving my connection alive and downloading for the last 7 days of each month without fail. I must admit though there were one or two occasions where itdid disconnect, usually because my computer having a nervous breakdown from laque of sleep. However with a quick reconnect I actually got reconnected, i'm assuming because of the delay in updating.

at the very least, even with a two day disconnect you should be able to start heavy downloading 4 days before the end of the month, disconnect and reconnect 2 days before the end of the month and before the update occurs (From my observations on sleep deprived nights, U.TV updates are accounts between 2 and 3 in the morning. They do not necessarily have to disconnect in order to tally up. I thinks). Try it! whats the worst that can happen, you might have to do without broadband for two days, not the end of the world, try reading a book or something. Just make damn sure that you have the correct option selected to suspend your account, remembering that there is a delay of a month for any option change.

4 I was quite paranoid about this when it first happened accidentally so I took a few precautions. I made 3 separate phone calls to U.TV to explain exactly what had happened. Their harmonious reply was that if I had selected not to be billed for excess that I could not be charged under any circumstances. I had the foresight to record the thrid conversation although I did not declare it when I was speaking to the operative so I dont know how that would hold up legally. My only worry is that the operatives out of some "freak occurance" dont have a clue what they are talking about, god forbid.

5 one last thing, I have deffinitely not ever experienced carry over into the next month under any circumstances. I get a clean slate each month without fail. If anyone experienced otherwise please let me know as i dont want my luck to run out.

Try it, dont try it, I don't care, it works for me and I just wanted to share it with the rest of us deprived broadband users.

Repli

Your current bandwidth usage this month is:


Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error '80004005'

[DBMSSOCN]General network error. Check your network documentation.

/clicksilveraccountie/onlineusage.asp, line 96

Anyone else getting this error when checking the cap?

Subc

yes i got that message

and any damn news from UTV, 31st of March and we have NOTHING

Dinner

Yeah I'm getting that message too.

UTV would be extremely stupid not to respond to what Eircom have laid out at the moment.

mickger

Arabel wrote:

Yeah I'm getting that message too.

UTV would be extremely stupid not to respond to what Eircom have laid out at the moment.

There silence since Eircoms announcement almost 3 weeks has been a bloody disgrace.Luckily my contract is up tomorrow so i will be leaving for Smart in May/June the sooner the better

Subc

mabey they have a surprise 5mb connection