ice broadband

bla

has anyone ever used http://www.icecomms.net/
saw a poster about them and had a look at their website, some nice packages but the range is the thing that struck me as odd what equiment are they using to get such big ranges something like wimax or what? i would just like to know as a 2mb /512k package sounds nice over the ****ty 128k i am getting from eircom

Adey2002

Woohoo, Clondalkin is covered! bye bye Irishbroadband ......

stevenmu

I've been looking at them too, it'd be nice to hear if anybody has used them or knows someone who is ? They say they can provide speeds up to 56Mbs which i think means wimax ?

CyberGhost

interesting... we need feedback...

Adey2002

I'm just faxing off my order. They can't be worse than IBB...

I'll keep you posted as to progress but so far they have replied to an email and faxed all the required forms the same day as promised. It took IBB 12 weeks to do that..

stevenmu

From looking at their config details page they seem to use static ips by default which is nice. I wonder if their 'No Limits' is genuine or will they start capping people for excessive use.

djmarkus

Website looks very thrown together by a 14 year old

Chalk

wow, looks good,
but by jesus, if there service doesnt finish less than half a mile from my door.

Chalk

ahh never mind,
the red part is where you cant get coverage,

wasters

give me faster broadband.....

djmarkus

I rung them up and they said they put a dish "The size of an A4 page" on your roof, cant imagine that that will give too good of service.

Adey2002

djmarkus wrote:

I rung them up and they said they put a dish "The size of an A4 page" on your roof, cant imagine that that will give too good of service.

The technology behind it is actually very good and only a small antenna is required. IT's just as good or better than dsl when implemented correctly (the technology can support upto 56Mbps).

Serbian

I don't know, the site is so crappy that it would put me off. I would wait to hear other people's experience with them before I would sign up.

stevenmu

djmarkus wrote:

I rung them up and they said they put a dish "The size of an A4 page" on your roof, cant imagine that that will give too good of service.

Doesn't breeze or ripwave or one of them work off a small modem sized box that sits indoors ? I would have thought that because it's only a fairly local service a small dish would be fine, and certainly better than a unidirectional antenna which I think most wireless providers use ?

Serbian wrote:

I don't know, the site is so crappy that it would put me off. I would wait to hear other people's experience with them before I would sign up.

That's whats putting me off for now too, hopefully there'll be some feedback from people soon, if they're service is good I don't care what they're site looks like

djmarkus

Time will tell

Adey2002

stevenmu wrote:

Doesn't breeze or ripwave or one of them work off a small modem sized box that sits indoors ? I would have thought that because it's only a fairly local service a small dish would be fine, and certainly better than a unidirectional antenna which I think most wireless providers use ?

That's whats putting me off for now too, hopefully there'll be some feedback from people soon, if they're service is good I don't care what they're site looks like

IBB's ripwave is the small internal non line of sight box which I think is currently 512 down. IBB's Breeze is available as 1Mb or 2Mb and requires the same type of antenna on the roof as it requires line of sight. IBB have oversold in a lot of areas though so getting a good service with them is hit and miss (in my case miss).

I'll let you know how I get on with icecomms as soon as it's installed. (hopefully 2 weeks max). It is a shame about their web site design, it does seem to be putting off quiet a few people.

Yook

I have Icecomms, in Co. Meath for about 6 months now and believe me its another IBB.

They could give a great service they just choose not to, i've been on the phone with tech support for weeks and weeks with them telling me i have a 2 meg line and i can only download at about 100k/s. The pings are very erratic.....very erratic (basically anywhere from 24 - 2000 to jolt.co.uk.

The unlimited download is a good concept, but when there is no download rate to back it up, its terrible! You would expect for €60 a month that the service would be excellent, but its far from it.

Also, all of the traffic is routed straight through to the UK, so my ping to irish servers isnt great. We are actually trying to get rid of them.

TO SUMMERISE:
- Not for gamers
- Expensive
- Terrible tech support

Yook

Just to give you a taste of Icecomms, here is my computer pinging jolt.co.uk just a minute or two ago:


Pinging jolt.co.uk [82.133.85.65] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=341ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=730ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=738ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=584ms TTL=55

Ping statistics for 82.133.85.65:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 341ms, Maximum = 738ms, Average = 598ms

ZENER

I'm just inside the coverage area and was going to try them but after seeing those figures . . erm . . maybe not.

By the way they call their DNS servers ZIG and ZAG !!! What does that tell ya :rolleyes:

ZEN

steve-hosting36

Can someone do a traceroute?
to boards.ie?

Yook

There ya go:

Tracing route to www.boards.ie [82.195.136.36]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 2 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 13 ms 10 ms 12 ms 213.168.230.1
3 12 ms 17 ms 12 ms 213.168.225.243
4 14 ms 12 ms 12 ms 213.168.224.18
5 12 ms 13 ms 76 ms 213.242.106.13
6 28 ms 27 ms 27 ms so-4-1-0.bbr2.London1.Level3.net [4.68.128.117]

7 55 ms 27 ms 26 ms ge-11-0.ipcolo1.London1.Level3.net [212.187.131.
39]
8 112 ms 114 ms 112 ms panama.hosting365.ie [82.195.128.2]
9 109 ms 108 ms 112 ms corerouter1.hosting365.ie [82.195.128.7]
10 119 ms 111 ms 109 ms boards.ie [82.195.136.36]

Trace complete.

djmarkus

how far are you from the mast? do you have LOS?

Yook

I'd say im about 1km (if even) from the mast, and yes its perfect LOS because the mast is in the centre of our village (which is up on a hill), i can almost see the mast from my upstairs window. I honestly cant understand it.

I've been on to them many times about it, they say they will ring back and then dont. I know the unlimited downloads are tempting but please think twice, look at the numbers before going with them.

andrew163

Yook wrote:

There ya go:

Tracing route to www.boards.ie [82.195.136.36]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 2 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 13 ms 10 ms 12 ms 213.168.230.1
3 12 ms 17 ms 12 ms 213.168.225.243
4 14 ms 12 ms 12 ms 213.168.224.18
5 12 ms 13 ms 76 ms 213.242.106.13
6 28 ms 27 ms 27 ms so-4-1-0.bbr2.London1.Level3.net [4.68.128.117]

7 55 ms 27 ms 26 ms ge-11-0.ipcolo1.London1.Level3.net [212.187.131.
39]
8 112 ms 114 ms 112 ms panama.hosting365.ie [82.195.128.2]
9 109 ms 108 ms 112 ms corerouter1.hosting365.ie [82.195.128.7]
10 119 ms 111 ms 109 ms boards.ie [82.195.136.36]

Trace complete.

Maybe I'm missing something important here but that looks more like a problem between hosting365 (boards) and level3... the link to icecomms seems to be fine...

Yook

Believe me the main problem is between the base station and me. What you were seeing there was one of the good ones:

Pinging 213.168.230.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 213.168.230.1: bytes=32 time=145ms TTL=254
Reply from 213.168.230.1: bytes=32 time=20ms TTL=254
Reply from 213.168.230.1: bytes=32 time=96ms TTL=254
Reply from 213.168.230.1: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254

Ping statistics for 213.168.230.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 11ms, Maximum = 145ms, Average = 68ms

and again (within 5 mins of each other):

Pinging 213.168.230.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 213.168.230.1: bytes=32 time=324ms TTL=254
Reply from 213.168.230.1: bytes=32 time=653ms TTL=254
Reply from 213.168.230.1: bytes=32 time=392ms TTL=254
Reply from 213.168.230.1: bytes=32 time=1001ms TTL=254

Ping statistics for 213.168.230.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 324ms, Maximum = 1001ms, Average = 592ms

djmarkus

Wow that is very erratic, must be very frustrating

AdMMM

They aren't signed up to INEX which is the reason why you are being routed to the UK first!

ro2

Yook wrote:

Believe me the main problem is between the base station and me. What you were seeing there was one of the good ones:

Pinging 213.168.230.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 213.168.230.1: bytes=32 time=145ms TTL=254
Reply from 213.168.230.1: bytes=32 time=20ms TTL=254
Reply from 213.168.230.1: bytes=32 time=96ms TTL=254
Reply from 213.168.230.1: bytes=32 time=11ms TTL=254

Ping statistics for 213.168.230.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 11ms, Maximum = 145ms, Average = 68ms

and again (within 5 mins of each other):

Pinging 213.168.230.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 213.168.230.1: bytes=32 time=324ms TTL=254
Reply from 213.168.230.1: bytes=32 time=653ms TTL=254
Reply from 213.168.230.1: bytes=32 time=392ms TTL=254
Reply from 213.168.230.1: bytes=32 time=1001ms TTL=254

Ping statistics for 213.168.230.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 324ms, Maximum = 1001ms, Average = 592ms

What make is the equipment they use? They might be using 2.4Ghz equipment and you could be getting interference from someone.

|.Murderer.| wrote:

They aren't signed up to INEX which is the reason why you are being routed to the UK first!

Their IPs are part of the Telecity mesh, they connect to Sprint and Level3 - not bad apart from the INEX. The INEX is in Telecity now so they might be allowed to join it one of these days.

steve-hosting36

Nope, it's actually a condition of INEX that carrier neutral data centres hosting it cannot join it, so Telecity and DEG cant become members under the current rules.

ro2

I heard that from DEG a while ago, but at least they have carriers that are members of the INEX as part of their mesh. You'd think they'd change that rule now that they've added Telecity - it's not a monopoly now.

steve-hosting36

Sprint and L3 are not INEX members...

The rule could probably be changed, as both Telecity and DEG have their own 'meshed' access product, but it would require a vote and constitution change at INEX

bla

i gave them a ring to see what they actualy used and its a 5.8ghz service thats not quite los so unless you have los it could be even more eratic, think i will wait and see how others get on first

sweeper4

I am a customer of Ice in the Leixlip area. From the coverage map Leixlip seems to be covered by two high sites - mine is pointed in the Maynooth direction. I had DSL for about 1 1/2 years before deciding to ditch €ircon and their line rental and switch to wireless. My experience with Ice so far has been just fine, download speeds match the 2Mbps Eircom service I left and the upload is obviously superior as you would expect from the 512Kbps compared to 128Kbps.

DonkeyStyle \o/

djmarkus wrote:

Website looks very thrown together by a 14 year old

Giggling my mofo ass off tbh.

djmarkus

sweeper4 wrote:

I am a customer of Ice in the Leixlip area. From the coverage map Leixlip seems to be covered by two high sites - mine is pointed in the Maynooth direction. I had DSL for about 1 1/2 years before deciding to ditch €ircon and their line rental and switch to wireless. My experience with Ice so far has been just fine, download speeds match the 2Mbps Eircom service I left and the upload is obviously superior as you would expect from the 512Kbps compared to 128Kbps.

Sounds Good, Do you think it would be suitable for online gaming or maybe VOIP? wuts ur ping results?

sweeper4

djmarkus wrote:

Sounds Good, Do you think it would be suitable for online gaming or maybe VOIP? wuts ur ping results?

I have not tried either so I could not say.

To use the example a previous poster used:

Pinging jolt.co.uk [82.133.85.65] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=55

Ping statistics for 82.133.85.65:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 17ms, Maximum = 22ms, Average = 18ms

Adey2002

sweeper4 wrote:

I have not tried either so I could not say.

To use the example a previous poster used:

Pinging jolt.co.uk [82.133.85.65] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=55

Ping statistics for 82.133.85.65:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 17ms, Maximum = 22ms, Average = 18ms

OMG!!! Sweeper do you have Ice Broadband, and is the above done from it??? I hope so... I'm having my LoS test done by IceComms today.

Yook

sweeper4 wrote:

I have not tried either so I could not say.

To use the example a previous poster used:

Pinging jolt.co.uk [82.133.85.65] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=55

Ping statistics for 82.133.85.65:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 17ms, Maximum = 22ms, Average = 18ms

Jaysus.....i wish i got a service like that with them.

Adey2002

As promised, I said I would post my results when I got Ice broadband installed ... (Clondalkin, Dublin btw).
They installed this morning (had LoS done on Friday and a call yesterday to arrange so very quick installation from them). Engineers did an excellent job, took them about 40mins in total, they even ran the cable through the attic so it could be dropped into the corner of the room to minimise cables running round the house.

So, onto the important bit....
I'm on their 2Mb fixed ip package ...
http://www.onspeed.com/en/speed_test.php ===> 1673kb/sec
ftp.esat.net/mirrors/.0/ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ls-lR.gz ===> 232KB/sec 11.2Mb in 49 seconds (did that twice because I coulsn't beleive it myself!).


Pinging www.jolt.co.uk [82.133.85.65] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=56
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=56
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=48ms TTL=56
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=56

Ping statistics for 82.133.85.65:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 15ms, Maximum = 48ms, Average = 23ms


Pinging www.boards.ie [82.195.136.36] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 82.195.136.36: bytes=32 time=46ms TTL=51
Reply from 82.195.136.36: bytes=32 time=43ms TTL=51
Reply from 82.195.136.36: bytes=32 time=52ms TTL=51
Reply from 82.195.136.36: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=51

Ping statistics for 82.195.136.36:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 43ms, Maximum = 52ms, Average = 46ms

djmarkus

looks like they sh1t on ibb.

Adey2002

Well, I'm very happy after the last few months. Their website needs a little work cus I know that has put off a few people but I can't say anything bad about the service at all. A1* all the way.

Couch Potato

Adey2002 wrote:

Well, I'm very happy after the last few months. Their website needs a little work cus I know that has put off a few people but I can't say anything bad about the service at all. A1* all the way.

Or is that A4

Adey2002

Couch Potato wrote:

Or is that A4

Either way, after months of pain and heartache with IBB, Icecomms, with EXACTLY the same equipment can provide the service they advertise! any one with IBB having a problem should see if they can get an Ice connection.

zuma

Damn "Adey2002" that data on your connection looks very nice!!!

Well if they use the same equipment then its proof that IBB are, to put it mildly, a badly managed company!
You cant blame the IBB installers or the people that work in the helpdesk....but you can blame management!!!
Useless managers can bring even the biggest most sucessfull company to its knees.

Adey2002

I agree Zuma. It's exactly the same equipment as IBB use, even down to the alvarion black box . .

It's been a few days since my installation now and nothing has changed, in fact pings seem to have improved.. it's always in the teens to www.jolt.co.uk and downloads are shooting down between 1600 & 1700 kbps.

It's worth the little extra money just for the reliability alone..

Sponge Bob

Ice appear to have slightly dodgy(congested) routes into Inex/Ireland and would be better off getting Inex membership sometime soon but seem to have excellent routes into the UK .

If your primary requirement for BB was gaming off a UK server then the traceroutes I have seen suggest that they are a very very good option indeed.

djmarkus

Ice rocks, got my sis to get it, pings are <20 ms to UK servers. well over 100Kbytes down all the time. highly recommended, hope the service doesnt get congested with a high take up tho.

Yook

djmarkus wrote:

Ice rocks, got my sis to get it, pings are <20 ms to UK servers. well over 100Kbytes down all the time. highly recommended, hope the service doesnt get congested with a high take up tho.

Do you want to know the sweetest plum! With them i get 5 ping to all of the iol games servers. Its ****ing awesome since they fixed it, do youself a favour and ping games5.iol.ie (quake 3/quakeworld server):

Pinging games5.iol.ie [193.120.123.137] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 193.120.123.137: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=57
Reply from 193.120.123.137: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=57
Reply from 193.120.123.137: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=57
Reply from 193.120.123.137: bytes=32 time=8ms TTL=57

Ping statistics for 193.120.123.137:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 4ms, Maximum = 8ms, Average = 5ms

I used to hate them till they put be on a new mast. Look at those pings!

Saruman

My brother knows the people who set it up.. i think it started as a college project and then it turned into a proper business. Im sure as a company they are perfectly fine.. those who have problems must be just unlucky or have some sort of interference causing it.

Noopti

Just a quick question for the people who are with Ice. I'm in Leixlip, and I put through my order online on Thursday night, and sent off the Standing Order form thingy on Friday. I was just wondering how long it took them to get back to you guys after you had ordered? I haven't heard anything from them yet, I realise its only Monday, but just wondering if anyone could give me a ballpark figure for how long it took. Cheers...

I guess I'm just impatient after failing line test after line test for DSL!

djmarkus

2-3 days 5 at most, these guys are quick off the mark.

pugleon

Hmmmm

They're using the same carriers as IBB so it can't be that great. 70% of the issues with IBB were packetexchange and level3 related. Drops were originating from there. So unless ice changes that you are going to get the same crap as with IBB. Unless of course those careers improve.

Did I mention I love me new BT plus, and want to have its babys? That is if life were like an Arnie movie and men could bare Children. And at that from an async broadband line...