Can ye help me choose a broadband provider?

ixoy

Howdy,

I'm going to upgrade my PC next month. One of the things that I'll be doing as part of this is getting broadband, because I feel that I'd cry if I have to continue using a modem.

Thing is my friend is upgrading his laptop and he'll want to use the connection too. Presumably simulataneously at some points. Obviously, he'll need an ethernet card and the motherboard I hope to get - the Asus - seems to have an ethernet connection as standard. However, do I also - as I fear - need a router or, seeing as it will definetely only be two machines using the connection, is there some other option available?

Which leads me to the question of which provider should I choose. I've a hankering for IOL's Self-Install option, with the modem provided. Is this DSL modem suitable for my purposes? Or do I have to go with Eircom :eek: Being in a rented appartment, I can't actually have much work done in the appartment and NTL anyway refuse to say when they'll be available where I am (IFSC! Hardly remote) except "within the next two years". As for what I'd use the modem for, I'd generally lean more towards downloading stuff over Kazaa, principallly getting those TV shows I like before Sky One show them. So therefore a higher cap seems the better option whereas ping rates won't be as important, since I imagine my online gaming would be something more like Everquest than Counterstrike.

So given what I'd use it for, and given the need to have two machines using the connection, what would people recommend I do, or what, if anything, would be worth purchasing? Ta!

Spud_Gun

For what you want and where you are, I'd recommend Irish Broadband. But you have to pay 320 yoyo's to get it installed which is really a waste of money in a rented accomodation, and you can't take it with you like a modem or router. Whats more, you need somewhere to put a 2 meter ariel. So your next best bet would be Netsource as the installation is minimal impact on your landlords walls, and they have no download cap which will suit your Kazaa and warez needs.

Civilian_Target

I'd suggest you'd just get a normal broadband connection, netsource if you want downloading, UTV or Esat if you want gaming. If you're running windows XP, you don't need a router, if you choose the USB modem, you just need ethernet on your PC, your friend's laptop, and a crossover cable, which any PC shop should sell you for a fiver, and you're set.

El_MUERkO

I was pinging 27 ms to 3/4 diffrent irish CS servers & 62 to most UK ones yesterday with my Netsource connection

For the first time ever I had the lowest ping on a server, now I need to get so skills

I'm also looking at the PS 7 day trial, its 1.5 gigs and would use a large chunk of your cap on anyone other than Netsource which has none.

STaN

If your going to be downloading allot i would recommend netsource as they provide you with a uncapped product with a fixed IP and pings hover around the 20-40 mark to irish servers.

Also, for a router, the D-Link 504 is very good.

Vexorg

Which of the Netsource products are you guys using... the Radsl or Asdl?

Thx

Vex.

STaN

RADSL

El_MUERkO

RADSL

ixoy

OK, so netsource seem the same price as the other lot and no cap....

I see the installation choices are a USB modem or an ethernet modem. Having never had to worry about such things before, can I get two machines to use the USB modem? Or must I opt for the, more expensive, ethernet modem even if I have ethernet capabilites already? What price roughly are the routers involved? For example, this one on seems komplett to do the job, but I could be wrong...

Stark

Use the USB modem at the same time? You can have one machine connected to the net through the USB modem and if that machine also has an ethernet card in it, then it can share it's connection with the other machine (which will have to have an ethernet card in it). There are various ways of doing this. The simplest is probably internet connection sharing (windows 98 se and higher). There are various other solutions available. In Linux you can setup the machine as a full-blown router (mandrake linux has 98-like internet connection sharing, not sure about other linuxes).

talla

Originally posted by Vexorg
Which of the Netsource products are you guys using... the Radsl or Asdl?

Thx

Vex.

RADSL, using since the 1st of July, dowloads haven't dropped below 52kb/s and pings to UK servers have not been above 60 once. Since they got their act together, I haven seen one complaint about netsource in here.

El_MUERkO

I'm getting the 3 com one, its got a firewall in it as well.

MrPinK

Originally posted by ixoy
OK, so netsource seem the same price as the other lot and no cap....

I see the installation choices are a USB modem or an ethernet modem. Having never had to worry about such things before, can I get two machines to use the USB modem? Or must I opt for the, more expensive, ethernet modem even if I have ethernet capabilites already? What price roughly are the routers involved? For example, this one on seems komplett to do the job, but I could be wrong...

Not quite the same price I'm afraid. You gotta get a domain from them too (or transfer an existing one over to them). That's an extra €10 a month. Having no cap is still worth the extra price tho

That router won't do as it has no modem. The cheapest option is just sharing a USB modem and not bothering with a router, as long as you don't plan on connecting more than 2 pc's or running a non-Microsoft OS

ixoy

Originally posted by MrPinK
Not quite the same price I'm afraid. You gotta get a domain from them too (or transfer an existing one over to them). That's an extra €10 a month. Having no cap is still worth the extra price tho

Ah I see. Fine print... must learn to read. I'd have to check that over with the flat-mate seeing as how he's got to pay for this too, although I imagine it's worth it for getting decent quality transmissions of shows.

That router won't do as it has no modem. The cheapest option is just sharing a USB modem and not bothering with a router, as long as you don't plan on connecting more than 2 pc's or running
a non-Microsoft OS

That's what I figured you could do. It's only when all this talk of routers got going that I began to wonder. We'd definetely be both using M$ OSes and, seeing as how my flat mate would mostly use the connection for web surfing, I think sharing the USB modem (or whatever it turns out to be) is the best option. That way if he pisses me off, I'll just disconnect him....

suppafly

soz for the noobishness of this question but whats the difference between netsource and say IOL BB/Eircom?? and where is it available?

MrPinK

With netsource you pay a little extra but you can use it as much as you like. The other providers may be slightly cheaper, but they can charge you per megabyte if you go over their download limit of 4 or 5 gigs a month. They're all just reselling eircoms basic package tho, so they're all available if you're connected to an eircom exchange that's been upgraded. You can check you're number on the eircom site.

Vexorg

High praise for netsource...... I must check out their website


Thx


Vex.

El_MUERkO

Yep, netsource got a massive initial signup which caused problems cause they didnt have enough bandwidth to cover everyone, as far as I know thats not a problem anymore.

Also interleaving (on purpose delay of approx 40ms) is turned on for the Netsource product but having played CS and BF1942 on it I saw no problems or pings that were diffrent to others with IOL connections.

Blade

Vexy, I'm going with Netsource after having read all the posts on this forum. Getting a d-link router modem from the for sale board. Theres a wireless version of it you might prefare. Think it's about 200?

STaN

Originally posted by El_MUERkO
Yep, netsource got a massive initial signup which caused problems cause they didnt have enough bandwidth to cover everyone, as far as I know thats not a problem anymore.

Also interleaving (on purpose delay of approx 40ms) is turned on for the Netsource product but having played CS and BF1942 on it I saw no problems or pings that were diffrent to others with IOL connections.

The delay is actually smaller than that on the RADSL products and is set at 19ms which is lower than their ADSL product for some reason.

I have noticed that eircom RADSL pings are almost identicle netsource's, only the back-end network would have any effect here as the ADSL part is the same.

But IOL's pings are 10-20ms lower than that of netsource/eircom