North West Electronics/BlueBox

My NWE connection is back online after a 2 week solid outage and it looks like they finally fixed the erratic speed issue at my end. The upload speeds are varying between 500Kbps and 2Mbps at the moment and the packet loss no longer shoots above 30% like before when I upload.

The following is an extended ping test to Google's DNS while idle:

Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
Packets: Sent = 400, Received = 399, Lost = 1 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 19ms, Maximum = 50ms, Average = 21ms

For comparison to the above test on Meteor, I played Q102's 128kbps stream during the following test:

Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
Packets: Sent = 400, Received = 400, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 19ms, Maximum = 41ms, Average = 21ms

The following is a linear speed test and a multithreaded test, speeds I haven't seen this time of evening on NWE since August:



These tests were with my laptop connected directly to the antenna. I'm curious to see long this holds out for over the Christmas.

For anyone who has recently complained to ComReg or plans to, be sure to periodically check with ComReg that the case is still open.

For example, during my two week total outage, I contacted ComReg for a status update and ComReg's reply was "We have been advised by NWE that they contacted you on the 08/12/15 stating your issues has been resolved."

The 4th December was the last time I heard from NWE and that was to say that an Engineer would be working on the mast. The connection came up last Friday (but wasn't informed about it) and degraded again over the past few days with the uplink speed today back to a snail's crawl again:

With NWE back to a snail's crawl on my end, I decided to repeat the ping test:



Such a vast difference from this post last Friday.

One useful tip if you're watching YouTube and notice it buffering - Right-click the picture and select "Stats for nerds". I originally thought the bitrate shown was the video bitrate, but it's actually the bitrate that YouTube is receiving from the Internet and matches up pretty well to the downlink speed test I get on the TestMy UK server. For example, on my workplace VDSL connection, it will show around 28000Kbps (the actual VDSL throughput) even though the video itself may only be 5Mbps.

The following is an example with my NWE connection:

After reading these posts about this lot I decided not to bother wasting my time even trying, despite the guy on the phone saying it could be very fast. This house, which I just moved into, actually has their dish up on the wall, but the previous tenant stopped using them because they were so bad.

I bought a 4G modem from 3 the other day and I stuck my PAYG sim in it, €20 for unlimited data. SLowest I had was about 2Mb and fastest for 38Mb.

I bought this for €69.99 from the 3 store. If you are unsure about coverage, I would suggest buying it from the 3 online store, that way you can return it without having to argue about coverage etc, as you would be able to return it for ANY reason under Distance Selling regulations. If you get it in the store it will be difficult as you need to prove you cannot get any service, regardless of how poor it is.

This device is handy, I even put it in my pocket and when I was in Tesco the other day I was still using it saving my mobile data on my phone which is only 10GB per month. 3 do not permit you to tether with a prepay sim, but of course shhhhhhhhhh

http://www.three.ie/online/data/prepay/huawei-e5573-black/?src=p

I always used their prepay unlimited data deal in a router until I got Sky fibre installed :P just don't tell them your using it in a router say the SIM is for a phone they won't even know and won't do anything about it either.

That trick unfortunately will not work for me as I'm in a valley and need to drive at least 5km (~3 miles) to pick up the nearest 3G signal on Three:



With a high gain antenna carefully aimed, it will list Three 3G & 4G, but I seem to be outside the range limit for both. It also lists Vodafone 4G, but I'm not about to go through the hassle of signing up to a Vodafone contract just to find out if it will connect. On the other hand, I can confirm my Three prepay phone SIM works fine with O2 Ireland (with dial-up like speed) and on 4G when I briefly tested it at my workplace in Ballybofey using the dongle.

Three's "The Big Upgrade is here" map has been rather unhelpful. They already showed my town as getting a 3G/4G upgrade three times since August. No Three 3G yet in the town and a barely usable O2 2G signal in the front window for picking up text messages. The above screenshot was taken in the town.

I currently get 3.9Mbps down / 0.3Mbps up on DSL, so my plan is to use it as my main connection for streaming and downloads and a Meteor 3G SIM for uploads such as connecting to my workplace and the odd content I want to watch in 1080p.

NWE Bluebox speed test at this time of posting:

If Three decides to block tethering or using a mobile SIM in a dongle (like what Three UK already does), another alternative to a contract plan is to get a prepay iD Mobile broadband SIM from the Carphone Warehouse. If you don't have an unlocked modem, their prepay 4G MiFi is €69.

They piggyback on the Three 3G/4G network and their 30 day plans are 25GB for €15, 40GB for €25 and 60GB for €30, which are the largest data bundles I'm aware of on prepay apart from Three's AYCE mobile SIM. iD Mobile also permits tethering on its phone SIMs, however, their largest data bundle is 20GB for €17/month. Excess usage is 2c/MB (=€20/GB), but at least with prepay it can only eat into whatever credit is left instead of running up a massive bill.

The next time I'm in Letterkenny, I intend pick one up just to compare the data speed with Three itself in Ballybofey as Three's data speed drops down to around 1Mbps to 3Mbps just before I depart at 5pm. When I had a 3 UK data SIM (for when I visited the USA), it got substantially faster speed tests than my Three Ireland SIM on 3G, which makes me wonder what the MVNO's on 3 are like during peak congestion. I couldn't compare with 4G as the 3 UK SIM only worked on 3G.

^ Personally I would strongly recommend going for a dongle and external antenna instead of a booster for data. Besides legality issues, they require careful positioning as the internal antenna must not pick up feedback from the external antenna and the external antenna must be carefully aimed at the mast. For example, if the external antenna is quite far off target, the phone and in turn the booster will ramp up the transmission power, which will potentially cause interference with whatever distant masts are in the direction of the antenna. Some 3G boosters that lack proper filtering can amplify unwanted signals such as interference picked up from Wi-Fi, microwave oven, EMI from motors, feedback from external antenna, etc. which will degrade the service for other users on the mast.

With the curiousity about Vodafone stuck in my mind, I decided to buy a prepay phone SIM and €20 top-up to check what I can get rather than do the usual Meteor €20 top-up now that its 30 day bundle is up. I selected the 5GB plan and applied the top-up. Sure enough, I'm outside its 4G range limit. The dongle lists Vodafone 4G in the network search, but timed out each time it tried registering with it.

Like Meteor, the Vodafone SIM works fine with 3G in the dongle, but with a full signal using the antenna. For comparison, I can only get 1 to 2 bars with the SIM in my phone. However, its speed seems to be limited about 2.5Mbps down and 0.5Mbps up. I get impression that their 3G mast here is connected by an ADSL modem!



I'll try again early in the day just in case it's contention in this area. On the other hand, I am curious to see what I can pick up along my route to work and how stable the data is for Internet radio. With Three's data speed at a crawl through most of Co. Donegal, my Internet radio intermittently drops out along my drive, compared to a few months ago where I had uninterrupted listening between Ballybofey and Bruckless. My phone is dual SIM, so can use it for data while using my Three SIM for calls & texts, like I have been doing with the Meteor SIM.

Interestingly, my NWE Bluebox connection speed has been doing quite well today, even at the moment. However, the link itself intermittently drops out for a few minutes every hour or so.



This speed most likely indicates that there's an outage somewhere nearby that has made this extra bandwidth available here.

Update: I just wiped out half my Vodafone credit from the above test. When used in a Dongle, Vodafone treats the prepay SIM as a prepay mobile broadband SIM and charges the default 19c/MB out of bundle rate. Whoops!

I had a quick read of Three's UK equivalent. It seems to work like Vodafone's Sure Signal where the connection is carried over the customer's broadband connection. If this is how Three Ireland does it, it will only provide the data speed that is already available on the DSL connection, but should at least mean no dead spots with texts & phone calls.

After a few days of pretty decent speed, this evening it is back to its usual fluctuating about the place, along with the link intermittently cycling up & down. Link is down at this time of posting.



Vodafone's 3G speed in the town here is pretty decent like Meteor, however, its uplink speed is poor. The maximum I got after multiple tests was 506Kbps.



As I was in the Vodafone shop yesterday to purchase the SIM, I checked their bill pay broadband plans for curiosity. Their in-store plans are more generous than the website - 15GB for €22, 30GB for €30 and 50GB for €50, all with 4G access and a 12 month minimum contract. Out of bundle doesn't make much sense though - 2c/MB on 3G and 3c/MB on 4G.

editorsean wrote: »

If Three decides to block tethering or using a mobile SIM in a dongle (like what Three UK already does), another alternative to a contract plan is to get a prepay iD Mobile broadband SIM from the Carphone Warehouse. If you don't have an unlocked modem, their prepay 4G MiFi is €69.

They piggyback on the Three 3G/4G network and their 30 day plans are 25GB for €15, 40GB for €25 and 60GB for €30, which are the largest data bundles I'm aware of on prepay apart from Three's AYCE mobile SIM. iD Mobile also permits tethering on its phone SIMs, however, their largest data bundle is 20GB for €17/month. Excess usage is 2c/MB (=€20/GB), but at least with prepay it can only eat into whatever credit is left instead of running up a massive bill.

The next time I'm in Letterkenny, I intend pick one up just to compare the data speed with Three itself in Ballybofey as Three's data speed drops down to around 1Mbps to 3Mbps just before I depart at 5pm. When I had a 3 UK data SIM (for when I visited the USA), it got substantially faster speed tests than my Three Ireland SIM on 3G, which makes me wonder what the MVNO's on 3 are like during peak congestion. I couldn't compare with 4G as the 3 UK SIM only worked on 3G.

Hi, this is interesting as my Eir DSL is pretty damn crap. I can get 4g in my house, just checked on my smartphone there now and got 55ms ping and about 10 up and 10 down. So seems like it's pretty good. What are my best options. I know you can get the three payg sim with €20 all you can eat data and install that into a mobile modem, but I'd be weary as to what deal three will offer once the all you can eat expires in July. Anyway I guess if I were to get the three or iD mobile modem. then I could use both a three payg sim or an iD mobile sim. Is that correct or would the three or iD mobile modems be locked?

Thanks

gooner99 wrote: »

Hi, this is interesting as my Eir DSL is pretty damn crap. I can get 4g in my house, just checked on my smartphone there now and got 55ms ping and about 10 up and 10 down. So seems like it's pretty good. What are my best options. I know you can get the three payg sim with €20 all you can eat data and install that into a mobile modem, but I'd be weary as to what deal three will offer once the all you can eat expires in July. Anyway I guess if I were to get the three or iD mobile modem. then I could use both a three payg sim or an iD mobile sim. Is that correct or would the three or iD mobile modems be locked?

Thanks

I would not be too concerned about the current expiration of the All You Can Eat data offer, Ive had a PAYG sim from them since 2011 and that offer has always been there, and it always had an expiration date. Most likely when we get to July they will extend the offer again, its what keeps a lot of their customers. Without that offer, their call packages are not great currently, especially if you want unlimited national and all networks mobile calls as they dont provide a decent solution for that. If they did, I would be on 3 for my mobile phone as well.

About two weeks ago I had an unexpected call from an NWE engineer checking if I was home, which I wasn't as I was at work. So I told them a day I'll be home and that day came and went without anyone showing up. Then I got an e-mail mentioning a new call out date, so I stayed at home that day.

The engineers came in and one asked what's the problem. I mentioned about the issues I am having, but straight away the engineer said - If I see Internet access from your connection, there will be a service charge for this call out. The enginner would not accept my explanation of problems as he insisted that nothing matters to him other than whether the he sees a live Internet connection from the antenna.

He plugged the Ethernet cable from the antenna straight into his laptop and did a signal test, which had a very strong signal and quality reading. He then went to speedtest.net and got 3Mbps down and 0.2Mbps up (if I recall right) and said straight away "Your connection is fine, I'm going to have to call the office to get a price for this call out". I insisted on running further speed tests and thankfully saw his laptop throw up a "Connection timed out" error midway through the next download test and again at the start of the ping test.

He then updated the firmware on the antenna and did some more speed tests. This time it gave around 12Mbps down and 1Mbps up on several servers he tested and took snapshots of his laptop with his phone (probably doesn't now how to use print screen!). He again said that there will be a service charge and showed me the speed test on his screen. As I saw the timed out error messages, I pointed these out and finally got him to agree that the problem was fixed with an antenna firmware update.

30 minutes after the engineer and his colleague headed off, the connection went back to a snail's crawl again, throwing up time-out messages, etc. I've written to them to cancel the service and cannot ever imagine recommending their service to anyone, especially after that engineer visit.

If anything, at least I managed to get roughly 5 months of usable service and for sure will no longer be wondering what that service is like on top of the hill.

@Hamill92 - Unfortunately it looks like Three UK's large mobile broadband package is 20GB/month which is either £21/month (12 month contract) or £23/month (1 month contract). I do know their network is a lot more strict about data access, for example, their firewall will disable data access if one attempts to tether or use a phone SIM in a dongle. On the other hand, from what I've heard, their network has much better data performance than the Irish network.

I got a decent LTE/3G panel antenna now which gives a fairly solid 10Mbps down and 0.8Mbps up in the loft with Meteor. I'll probably go with Meteor's 30GB bill pay plan and use it in combination with my DSL connection, e.g. Meteor for uploads, YouTube videos I want to watch in 1080p, etc. and DSL for streaming, downloads, etc. As for location, I think I'll re-use the existing mount the Bluebox antenna is on and drill a wider hole in the wall to feed both cables through.

Glad to hear you're both back online.

In case they cut me off before my actual end date, the following gives a rough idea of how much my speed fluctuates in just minutes:



There's no upload speed in the left one as it kept timing out on the 96KB upload part of the test. The main reason I originally ordered Bluebox was so I could upload files quickly, especially to work and it actually worked much better than I expected initially, until near the end of August. I have an existing DSL connection which gives about 300Kbps (38KB/s) on the uplink and I thought if I got at least 1/10th what Bluebox offered of its 50Mb/10Mb package, that would be great.

Yet, as I write this post, it's having great difficulty just uploading a 96KB test block over what's suppose to be a 10Mb uplink. :rolleyes:

Ping test for anyone curious:

Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
Packets: Sent = 272, Received = 234, Lost = 38 (13% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 101ms, Maximum = 302ms, Average = 117ms

I have a test set up at the moment consisting of a high gain panel antenna and MiFi with a Meteor prepay SIM. So once NWE comes and takes away their antenna, I plan mounting the antenna outside where the Bluebox dish is and going on their 30GB bill pay plan. With the prepay SIM, it currently gets a fairly consistent 10Mb down and 800Kbps up in the loft, so reckon the uplink will be a little quicker outside as the upload speed reaches 3Mb when I drive to an area that has clear line of sight of the Meteor mast. Even still, 800Kbps is already about 3 times faster than my DSL connection for uploading and it's not like a game of data roulette wondering if my uploads will upload quickly, time out or get corrupt.

The DNS shouldn't affect your actual speed, but can make a difference to the speed your web browser can resolve domain names. It's a bit like having a faster directory inquiry number, i.e. you'll get through quicker, but doesn't necessarily mean you'll spend less time speaking to the person you tried to reach.

It's similar for connection speeds - your browser, FTP client, etc. will connect to the host quicker with a faster DNS, but the speed will depend on the congestion of the network.

On the other hand, if many other people connected to your mast are having the same issue, then that indeed will mean less traffic on the mast since their web browser, streaming boxes, etc., can't connect if they cannot do DNS look-ups.

You're currently getting what I was was able to get until August. I sure miss them days.

Going back through my speed tests on TestMy, I found this result I conducted about this time of day also on a Thursday, just before my connection speed fell off a cliff:



NWE speed test at the moment, using the same UK server on TestMy:



An FTP upload example, which use to always go about 1.1MB/s at this time of day:

Connection down all evening for me. Mailed them and no reply. Need the connection for work tomorrow too. Ridiculous.

Despite my subscription being paid until near the end of February (contract end date), it looks like I've finally been cut off as my end has now been offline for a week. Either that or there's another extended outage in this area. The trace route ends a hop after my router, i.e. the antenna IP address.

So for anyone planning to cancel, be sure to have an alternative Internet connection during the final 30 days notice. For me, it went offline 6 days after they e-mailed me to confirm the cancellation.

I did an online search for NWE/Bluebox after hearing about the petition and found this thread. Their customer service is woeful and their internet speeds are (nearly) worse! The problem is, I have no other option. Eircom would have to erect six or seven poles to get a cable up our length and they're not willing to do that for just one customer. It's pants!