Smart broadband is it worth it?

miketv

Hi ya,
I guess If I searched this thrend back I would probably find the answers but anyway...
Basically I recently moved into a house off Pearse St. There is a phone line and I got it reconnected, I decided to go with smart telecom because I like the unlimited broadband and no line rental for 35E (seems resonable) But I'm waiting 2 weeks for them to send me the pack(filled in forms,signed contract direct debet etc), asked a few others about it and I've heard (hopefully not true just a rumour) that nobody has been connected and they're really slow to get anyting done. Its sort of annoying as I'm paying eircom line rental at the moment (i dont need or want a landline)
so hopefully sombody will tell me thats it all rubbish, Smart telecom broadband are great oh and fast!
Cheers
Mike

ikol

smart is great and fast go get it but buy your own router

miketv

Ta Ikol,
Put my mind at rest a wee bit. So curiously the router Smart sends you is ****e I take it? Curiously what majour difference does a new router make?
oh and how long did you have to wait from the time you sent back the contract till you got hooked up?

Blub2k4

I use the smart router and am also just off pearse St

If you are having problems with the speed of the connection then give GarifeldConnoll a PM, he is on holidays at the moment, he is Smart BB program manager and is a top bloke if you need stuff sorted with your registration. Beggars Bush exchange is live but normally the problem is with Eircom, they are trying to get you annoyed with Smart and make you drop them so you stay paying their lines and possibly get their BB, dont be swayed, stay the course with Smart and you wont regret it, the service is top.

I use a Smart router by the way and have no problems with it but then I do torrents and not that kazaa rubbish and also not much downloading, if you are a heavy downloader you may need to get a new router.

miketv

Cheers Bulb,
I'll give them another few days grace, then I might make a few calls. Curiously GarifeldConnoll, just ring head office to get him? anyhow I should be okay methinks. If I have problems I'll send you a post
thanks again
Mike

Blub2k4

Yeah cool Mike. look for posts by GarfieldConnoll ( that is his username here) he will actually support you through boards pm's (now that's service )
At one point I had his mobile number, he really takes on issues and solves them properly.

His name is Garfield Connolly his user profile is here and it says he is away on holidays until the 30th of September.

Hang on in there it is worth it for the no line rental and the service is great I get pings of no higher than 30 to almost anywhere and there is no contention on ADSL2+

miketv

Hey bulb,
Well a few days have passed so i decided to call them today. they were very nice and polite I have to say. but get this, they apparently never got my forms and direct debt that I sent in a few weeks back! or if they did they were not up on the system or lost in the admins office etc. gggrrrrrhh now have to fill in again, I explained that I've filled these in but I still have to wait another 15days starting from when they receive my 2nd time filled in forms! oh well, is annoying considering I'm paying eircom for a line that not being used, oh well thats my rant for today, hopefully in 2 weeks it'll all be worth it
Mike

machalla

I'm starting to think I've become a Smart fanboy but as with the rest here I would advise "stay the course". Smart has been excellent overall from a technical point of view. Their billing and customer service sides have been problematic but Garfield has time and again come to rescue on that score.

Definitely the one smart thing I've done this year.

bingo9999

Hopefully all will be sorted soon for you, yeah it takes time but most of it seems to be eircom jerking them around. I've been signed up since feb but with waiting for the exchange to go live and forms and eircom not releasing the line im still waiting, should be any day now though. Most of the wait was for the exchange to go live(at the very end of august) but if thats not an issue for you the wait probably wont be excessive. Best of luck with it.

miketv

jees since Feb bingo! thats a bit of a wait, problem is I'm bored playing battlefield single player off line! another 2-3 weeks seems like a long time

ps
machalla or bulb,
I assume the router thinggy they send out will fit through a standard letter box? if not I best send a quick email to them with my work address...

miketv

Well,
I have to say well done to Smart, turns out the reason they could not recognise any of my details yesterday was because they changed my landline phone number (didnt know they did this) so when I called out my number yesterday to them it was the old eircom ph number and hense no details were in the system. Got a phone call today saying I'm currenetly hooked up and they gave me the number of the delivery guy, he said he'll drop off the router after lunch to my work.
well that was unexpected, if all works out and have brodband later(i assume i will) I'll be well impressed with Smart telecom

Gazza22

Smart is brilliant, i would have signed up but changing my landline number just isn't an option

bingo9999

YES! i got it taday so that wait is over. Its looking prety good so far, have been watching videos and they're downloading faster than they play so its done when vid is halfway thru. Maybe this isnt spectacular for heavy BB users but its soooo much better than 40kb/s. Oh yeah!
Best of luck getting your own sorted and you'll be happy when you do!

darkmaster2

I got my modem on monday. just waiting to get connected now. How will I know when its activated? Is it activated at the same time as the number change? or can I have the broadband before the number changes?




I hate dial up

chorus techy

My line was activated for DSL once my line was changed over - presumably they do the whole thing in one go.

And as for the OP, miketv, just hope and pray your connection works without any hitches. Their technical support is 95c and they are the most useless shower I've ever come across in my life - I've had an awful connection with smart for the past month. My DSL keeps dropping constantly and my phonecalls have a constant data screech audible in the background. I've spent over €15 alone on bloody technical support calls this month alone, I've had two call outs, five different microfilters and according to them my line is perfect, yet my connection drops every fifteen to twenty minutes ALL THE TIME, even if I have only the modem connected to the wall socket. The speed is ****e and my packet loss is through the roof most of the time. I'm thinking of starting a collection of microsplitters as their tech support seem to think it's faulty splitters causing the screeching noise in the background of every single phone call and so send me a new splitter every time I ring them.

And that's just the "service"!

I wouldn't worry too much about the Direct Debit mandate's - they're only going to send you one with EVERY single bill for the hell of it - and you may sign as many as you like because they're just gonna keep sending you more. And if you're lucky like me, they'll cut you off for an entire weekend for "non payment of your bill".

Anyway, I hope you will get an okay service (and apologies for the above little rant ). The only person I will compliment in smart is Garfield here on the boards - he has been an enormous help in keeping me sane over the summer during my 3 month ordeal to switch from Smart to Eircom and then back to Smart to have the LLU process put through. I'm starting to feel sorry for wasting his time because if this goes much longer, I'm just going to cancel. €35 for phone & BB might be good, but I need a service that's halfway reliable. I would have been better off getting ntl or even IBB.

Anyway, just my 2c - I've heard plenty of good or okay reports on smart, hopefully yours will go without a hitch miketv

miketv

Hey chorus techy and others,
jees seems you had a bad run of it, I'll keep all your bad points in mind.Kinda levels the trend as 95% of it are good things about smart.
Well if any thing else should arise I'll be posting it, but I have to say true to their word the router was delivered to my house at about 7.30 last night. I followed the instructions and hey presto it worked! I've now got broadband!
Now I'll put my hands up and state I'm not a computer wizz kid, just know the very basics, so when I went in to work this morning my workmates assumed it came with some sort of virus protecter,and no it didnt, to be honest just getting on the net was kinda exciting so didnt even think about it (sort of christmas morning feeling!) so Ive left the line overnight, slightly worried now, hopefully when i return home should be okay and not on fire like my work mates predict! they recommended zonelab free firewall to get me started. So yes wish SMART on their booklet to start the rooter mentioned (or advised) about the virus protecter. only a small point really.

So overall very happy with smart, so yes I think they are woth it!
Now I found the changing of your phone number very misleading, it doesn't advertise this on the brochers (or if it is its very discreet). Personally In my case didnt bother me (dont need phone) but if this was lets say my family phone number for years and decided to go with smart, my number would be changed without me knowing about a new ph number. Of course Ive signed the contract so tough titty, could see this being a big flaw for them. anyhow for me I'm very very happy...so far!!

Ardent

miketv wrote:

but I have to say true to their word the router was delivered to my house at about 7.30 last night.

I met the delivery guy yesterday when getting mine. He had tonnes of AOLynk boxes in the back of his van and told me that they had 50,000 of the things to deliver over the next weeks!

bingo9999

someone asked how you know your line is switched, yeah the phone number change is the biggest hint, just keep trying your home phone from your mobile. I think also the light on the router goes from blinking on link to always lighting and act blinks quite often too. That was very fast miketv, its good news for those interested in it. And 50000 routers would seem like there is a big take up recently on it, good stuff!

TimTim

The router smart use (and all for that fact) has NAT built in to it. I'm not very good at explaining things so I won't

But it can be considered better security then a actual software firewall.

As long as you aren't forwarding lots of your ports to your PC you should be quite safe.

I'm using a router and no device on my network has a firewall installed and I've had no problems over the last 3~ish years.

dub45

miketv wrote:

Hey chorus techy and others,
jees seems you had a bad run of it, I'll keep all your bad points in .........................................
Now I found the changing of your phone number very misleading, it doesn't advertise this on the brochers (or if it is its very discreet). Personally In my case didnt bother me (dont need phone) but if this was lets say my family phone number for years and decided to go with smart, my number would be changed without me knowing about a new ph number. Of course Ive signed the contract so tough titty, could see this being a big flaw for them. anyhow for me I'm very very happy...so far!!

I know of a couple of people who rang lately to inquire about signing up and the requirement for the new number was the first thing that they were told so Smart seem to be improving on this aspect.

But they have certainly been giving people confusing information on this in the past.

chorus techy

Well when I signed up, the change of number was not mentioned however this was not smart's doing. Unfortunately, eircom went into a huffy mood and when smart began to unbundle lines, they conveniently informed smart that when they port the line, they cannot port the number over either. I remember shortly after signing up (early march), anyone signing up new had to check a box saying whether or not they accepted a new smart number. Some people seem to see it as a big deal, others don't, most people never complained about needing to get new mobile numbers a few years back. New numbers can have advantages too - if you've relations you don't want contacting you, just don't give them the new number!

miketv

well the good news is its working a treat, have it a day now and am really happy, its very fast, althought funny enough boards seems to be slightly slower than most sights but doubt thats anything to do with smart.
Oh and yes my computer was fine, expecting the computer to be pumping out smoke by the time I got home, nope all good, the zonelab firewall seems to be quite good actually.
Just got set up with skype as well, I think its paying for itself already,
really recommend getting skype, sure it will take off proper any day now...