I want broadband what should I do

somano

I am looking at getting BB, my choice is Eircom, IOL and UTV.
I am leaning towards Iol cos of price and because I dont want to use Utv's telephony. I want to be able to use the net whenever and for however long I like. The speed of regular phone lines do my head in. I don't play games (yet ?) I use about 20 hours a week at the moment and my wife will use during the day when its free. Is it worth getting broadband for about €20 extra per month compared to IOL Anytime just to get quicker connection to websites. Will probably use also to download music as it will be quick. Anyone got any hints or suggestions ? BTW what are pings ?

oneweb

A ping is the amount of time it takes for a packet of data to be sent from your computer to a given address and be replied to. The lower the ping time, the more responsive an internet connection is.

Sorry I can't help w/ the broadband question as I don't have it myself. Yet

tonky

Big choice. Mate1 has been on IOL for about a month and is very happy with it. Mate2 applied for UTV a week ago and should be connected tomorrow. I went for Eircom and should be on tomorrow also.
The choice has to be your own.
the 3 of us discussed/sussed and that's the way it panned out.

somano

Thanks tonky.

I have been reading all the threads. I knew nothing about BB two weeks ago.

It seems that there is a big anti Eircom contingent out there. Would I be right ?

If people are having problems with speeds of simply accessing whilst browsing. Is there any point in the likes of me getting broadband ?

I'd imagine that because of the special offers available up to the end of the year that there will be many many new customers - will this mean even slower speeds ?

When they say that there is a contention rate of 48:1 - how do they group these 48 people, is it by location, telephone exchange or manually picked ?

narnar2000

I've been with Eircom pretty much since they started their BB deal (€55/month) - I never thought I'd say this, but I can't really fault them, except for the 4GB/month download cap.

My d/l speed has been pretty much constant at around 54 kb/s since day one (at least 10 times faster than dial-up). I, for one, would highly recommend Eircom BB, although the IOL and UTV offers, on the face of it, would seem to be a bit better.

The €20/month extra you mentioned would probably be made up in time saved surfing. That said, you'll probably end up spending more time on the Net...

Not too sure how the contention ratio works.

Check the other threads for a more detailed analysis of the respective offerings...

tonky

rorook.
Anti-Eircom contingent - that's to be expected.
Reasons I went for Eircom:
Past experiences have been good, esp with engineering/technical - never had a problem with either phone or ISDN.
I'm dealing direct with the hardware/service provider if I have a problem.
Connection speed and reliability should be ok for the same reason.
4Gb limit per month should be ok.
No seperate bill - it's all on the one Eircom bill.
The special offer did clinch it.

I was spending a fortune on dial-up internet and now need access during the day, also i'd like music etc without the delay in 56K connection.
That's basically it.

Best
E.