New to broadband

Exit

I've just gotten Eircom broadband. From reading threads here, I keep seeing stuff about download caps. What exactly are people talking about?

And here's a dumb question - The 50 something euro a month is the only fee isn't it? I mean, there's no limited amount of time you can use it, and then after that they start charging you extra?

Woden

i don't know the exact details so here goes.

With eircom bb you have a cap of 4Gb per month i believe this to be the maximum amount of data that you can download from the web. i don't know if this 4Gb limit includes uploaded data also. you should look into that or perhaps some one can let you know.

With regards to charge i think eircom charges bout €55 a month. there is no time limit you can spend on the net with bb however if you go above your 4Gb cap eircom reserve the right to charge you for every meg you download i don't know the cost per meg you'll have to check the website.

oh and the contract is for a year also.

good luck

data

Exit

Thanks!
I just searched the website, and it's 4GB, with a charge of 3 or 4c for every meg after that.
Seems dodgy. I'm not sure if I'll be near that 4GB maximum or not. I just use it for everyday browsing, etc. My brother has already downloaded 200MB of mp3s today, and today's our first day having it. I'll have to watch out for that one!

clearz

4GB (4000 MB) is not much once you realise you can download other media types like films etc.

Mutant_Fruit

basically, don't go too much over that cap, if you want to test them out, go over by 400megs this month, 600 next month etc, and wait til they charge ya. But i doubt they'll charge you if you go over by a few huindred megs.

DON'T TAKE THAT AS A PROMISE, its just what seems to be happening. As far as i know, no-one has ever been charged as of yet. But saying that, don't go overboard.

Alternatively get yourself uncapped broadband, or IOL broandband, which is cheaper than Eircom, AND has double the transfer limit (8 gigs).

Señor Juárez

anyone used the IOL BB yet? what are the pings like? do they charge you for cap breakage?

to be honest, the temptation is to go for eircom BB, free install, free first month, xbox for €100

vibe666

iol are offering the same package (albeit with an 8gb cap, and for a little less per month) as eircom are at the moment, even inc. the xbox deal.

as for the caps, bear in mind that at 512kbps you can download (assuming thereis no bottlenecks at certain times of day) about 3.5gb of data in 24 hours.

assuming you figure out how (and are not morally against it) to download movies off the net, a good quality divx of a movie would be anything up to 700mb or more, a full album as mp3's is 60-100mb, and games are anything up to 700mb too.

of course i'm not condoning downloading illegal stuff, i'm justpointing out that it's possible and how quickly your cap could be eaten up.

even keeping it perfectly legal, a lot of game demo's run into 100'sof mb and you'll have a couple of hundred mbjust running widows update for the first time.

then there's movie previews that can be up to 100mb, and shareware and demo applications which it's perfectly legal to download and use. paint shop pro or dreamweaver for example.

the cap is ridiculous, but its something you'll have to live with i'm afraid until eircom join the rest of europe and remove the cap (or at least bring it over 20gb per month mark). in the mean time download DU Meter to see what speeds you are getting and to monitor how much you are actually downloading and uploading. you can configure it to let you know when you are getting near your limit each month (your eircom BB billing period runs from the day you got it up and running).

eth0_

Originally posted by marclar

to be honest, the temptation is to go for eircom BB, free install, free first month, xbox for €100

UTV and IOL are both doing free install. modem and first month aren't they? IOL have an 8GB cap but UTV have no fixed cap so i'd go with them although their QOS seems to have gone right down the toilet lately!

vibe666

have to remember though, that the eircom modem is a lot better than the iol one. eircom use the cayman netopia (usb and ethernet), but iol are still using the zyzel which is usb only.

not an issue if you don't need ethernet connectivity on your modem, but it allows for easier expanability in the future without having to buy another modem.

again,not always relevant, but you never know.

BKtje

Just to point out that 4gb = 4096mb

That extra 96 mb could be useful

raster

Originally posted by B-K-DzR
Just to point out that 4gb = 4096mb

That extra 96 mb could be useful

There is a handy javascript (so you use offline) storage converter here
http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/computer

Señor Juárez

the ethernet modem, yeah i gotta get one of those. the thought of leaving a host PC running doesnt entice me very much.

daveyjoe

Originally posted by eth0_
UTV and IOL are both doing free install. modem and first month aren't they? IOL have an 8GB cap but UTV have no fixed cap so i'd go with them although their QOS seems to have gone right down the toilet lately!

UTV have an 8gb download only cap, I'm not sure if they enforce it, but they do have a cap.

Woden

Originally posted by vibe666
iol are offering the same package (albeit with an 8gb cap, and for a little less per month) as eircom are at the moment, even inc. the xbox deal.

i didn't know iol where doing any xbox deals i ordered it about 2 weeks ago. do you know if they are doing the ipod deal like eircom? i ordered the iol one as i wanted the bigger cap

Drex

Im also new to eircom broad band.
an akward question ye might not want to touch is......

has anybody ever been charged for going over their 4 gb cap?

if so, high or low fees?

OfflerCrocGod

Eircon seem to let ppl off - I've never heard of anyone being charged; IOL/ESAT as I can attest just knock you off for the rest of the month and leave you with no Internet access.

Gummy Panda

Originally posted by OfflerCrocGod
Eircon seem to let ppl off - I've never heard of anyone being charged; IOL/ESAT as I can attest just knock you off for the rest of the month and leave you with no Internet access.

In all fairness to IOL, they give you an extra 4 gigs before they start charging or kicking people off. You'd be better of going with an esat business package. I know a guy who has it and its no cap. perfect for downloading.

steve-hosting36

What uncapped solutions are currently on the market?

OfflerCrocGod

Originally posted by steve-hosting36
What uncapped solutions are currently on the market?

Are you ready for a second mortgage:);(expect to pay 150yoyos at least for DSL if your not covered by the wireless IBB) by the way I believe IOL are giving an ethernet modem to new connections as of the new year.

steve-hosting36

No one is offering 50 euro dsl uncapped at all?

maxheadroom

You could probably order netsource through your business, but its not actually uncapped, its throttled after a certain point (12Gb IIRC?)

MrPinK

Originally posted by maxheadroom
its throttled after a certain point (12Gb IIRC?)

16Gb

Exit

Strange that this thread is brought back up as I was gonna bring it up anyway.

I just want to confirm. Is the 4GB cap only applied to downloads, or is it uploads also? Eircom don't mention anything about uploads here

daveyjoe

Originally posted by Exit
Strange that this thread is brought back up as I was gonna bring it up anyway.

I just want to confirm. Is the 4GB cap only applied to downloads, or is it uploads also? Eircom don't mention anything about uploads here

Eircom's cap is download only

Ripwave

Originally posted by Exit
Strange that this thread is brought back up as I was gonna bring it up anyway.

I just want to confirm. Is the 4GB cap only applied to downloads, or is it uploads also? Eircom don't mention anything about uploads here

oreillycom refer to it as a "download allowance", and the usage calculator indicates how much your downloads exceed this allowance by. (It lists your total uploads too, but effectively ignores this).

Señor Juárez

odd, i heard somewhere that you are allowed to download 4gigs a month, and upload 4 gigs a month.


/me eyes DUmeter, only had the damn thing for less than two weeks, already at 6 gigs