Eircom Broadband.....run away very fast !

MarinoMark

I live in Marino Dublin, I ordered adsl home self install broadband early in april
"We will have you jumpered/switched on, on the 6 may" they told me. Great when will I have my modem ? 5 working days said Eircom..that was April. After 13 phone calls my modem arrived on 17 may. I spent hours routing cable setting up software etc, only to discover It was not switched on on the exchange. 20 more calls since then. Nobody at eirconm can tell me 1.. Is my line activated..? if not why ? When ?
The now tell me if I have a problem ring 1560 555444 which costs 40 cent a min. I have logged official complaints, We will call you back...Nothing ! This is now june 1.What to do ? Send back modem ? Hang in there ?. Finally should the dsl light come on the modem when you attach to phone line, Mine never has, I dont know, Eircom dont know.............Advise Please....Mark

MarVeL

Yes the DSL light shoudl come on if the exchange has enabled your line. At this stage I'd send the lot back to them and look for a refund. On the plus side it does sound like you should be eligible for the 3 month free offers still

Grayarea

Have you tried plugging the ADSL modem in without a filter?

My filter was duff and I thought it was the line not being enabled.

Just don't use the phone while you have the ADSL connect without the filter and it should work OK, if your line in enabled.

Grayarea.

ozmo

Originally posted by Grayarea
Eircom Broadband.....run away very fast !

Thats not very fair. My experience was it was turned on 4 days after I ordered it.

Now they didnt tell me it was on or start billing me for 4 weeks later ... but
that didnt stop me using it

Ring up the broadband section - be really calm and dont let them fob you off -
Dont ring the premium, even when they tell you its the only way to get the password etc.. it isnt - if you get someone who doesnt know anything ask for their manager.

Sleipnir

Originally posted by ozmo
Thats not very fair. My experience was it was turned on 4 days after I ordered it.

Now they didnt tell me it was on or start billing me for 4 weeks later ... but
that didnt stop me using it

Ring up the broadband section - be really calm and dont let them fob you off -
Dont ring the premium, even when they tell you its the only way to get the password etc.. it isnt - if you get someone who doesnt know anything ask for their manager.

Took my Dad three months to get it activated after the usual
"next week"
"the week after"
"tomorrow"
"the next day"
two weeks"

Cryos

tut tut, you are all using the wrong approach.

we had an problem where after 4 weeks we got our modem but no other info, the line hadnt been activated either as the dsl sync light wasnt on, so i rang up eircon support on the premium number (i couldnt be bothered finding the free number).

Got the Press one two and etc.. stuff had to wait because not an touch tone telephone, got onto the guy in support explained that the line hadnt been activated for dsl, he said that it would be ready at the start of the following week (it was tuseday when i rang) i said "Why activate it next week when you can do it now"

"guy: we cant, we have to wait for blah blah blah blah"

"me: you can activate it now or you can get your supervisor and he will activate it for me"

there was a moments pause

"gay: line will be activated in 40 mins"

Phone down counted down the 40 mins turned on the modem DSL Sync Light came on went to 192.168.1.254 clicked connect to the internet and..... "username or password is incorrect"

so got back onto eircon and got the user name and password

Much downloading was to be had by all (i.e ME!)

ainiseoir

your post came too late for me.
finally got the modem etc.,
F*** up my OS and IE in the process.
Went from a 56k modem speed of 50 t0 52 to an average of mid 60's on broadband.
can hardly tell the difference.
they said that a technician would be out in a day or two to check the line.
No sign.
No follow on from expensive premium rate calls .
No reply from e-mails to sales and customer services.
And then some B**** comes on radio to say what a great year they are having.
If i have to stay with this crap connection I'm out of there.
I think they reckon that they are still a semistate company.

ozmo

Originally posted by ainiseoir
your post came too late for me.
finally got the modem etc.,
F*** up my OS and IE in the process.
Went from a 56k modem speed of 50 t0 52 to an average of mid 60's on broadband.
can hardly tell the difference.
they said that a technician would be out in a day or two to check the line.
No sign.
No follow on from expensive premium rate calls .
No reply from e-mails to sales and customer services.
And then some B**** comes on radio to say what a great year they are having.
If i have to stay with this crap connection I'm out of there.
I think they reckon that they are still a semistate company.

Its unlikely to be the connection or line. It wouldnt have passed the line test.
You are sure the ALL phones have splitters? Do you have a very long run of untwisted (cheap phone cable) to the pc?

More like a badly configured Norton Anti Virus or Zone Alarm on your pc.
I see from a previous post of yours you use ZA on an Pentium 233mhz. This is really base-line stuff. I dont think you could use a usb modem on this pc.

I would say get rid of ZA if you have it and try again. The free version (the older version anyway that I tried) can cause internet slowdowns and can be difficult to remove(simple Uninstall does not unstall it totally). Its best avoided.

You should be getting about 55kbytes (440kbits) per second on Eircom - its very good - havent seen one complaint about the speed, only the cost.
What kind of pings do you get.

ainiseoir

Thanks for your reply.
I have indeed noted that the complaints rarely featured connection speed and am aware of the danger of marching out of step with everybobody else.
I have been told that the final mile here in Tralee can be poor.
I get my connection speeds from "browserhawk" and the test connection facility on real player. they correspond fairly well.
re the points you made.
All phones have splitters.
i have tried both with and without ZonelabPro .
Knew that the Norton Security System was an issue , but not the AntiVirus.
I am using the cable that came with the Netopia modem that came with the PC
I installed an Ethrtnetcard following earlier advice
My ping rate to the eircom address is
reply from 159.134.237.6 bytes 32 time26ms. TTL 60
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,bytes32 time25ms. TTL 60
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,bytes32 time 27ms.TTL 60
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,bytes32 time 28ms. TTL 60

I have also sent a what the F*** e-mail(without the F's) to eircom, which will make me look a twit if my lines are OK.
I knew that my pentium 2 and 233 processor were at the minimum, but allowed myself to be talked into it.
Works fine, with the 56k, makes no sense to change it for BB, especially if my line is a proble,

Thanks again.

ainiseoir

Found this IP in another program.
Seems to be the one that i am logged into,
reply from 213 94 179 63 bytes 32 time 1ms. TTL 255

All the other 3 readings exactly the same.

ZENER

Went from a 56k modem speed of 50 t0 52 to an average of mid 60's on broadband.

A typical 56Kb modem connection speed would range from about 42K up to 53 Kbps. ADSL download speed range from about 50KB to 54KB - maybe even 60 if you're lucky - are you sure you're not confusing 52kilobits with 53 kilobytes. It's unlikly your line would have passed the test if it was that poor so maybe a mixup in terms ??

The 233MHz PC really need to be souped up a bit, with BB you need to have an effective antivirus package and internet security system running. Couple that with various media types like Java and Flash as well as .avi and wmv files and that cpu will soon run out of steam. Ozmo is spot on that computer will struggle trying to do all this and run a USB modem.

ZEN

Mutant_Fruit

Originally posted by ainiseoir
Found this IP in another program.
Seems to be the one that i am logged into,
reply from 213 94 179 63 bytes 32 time 1ms. TTL 255

All the other 3 readings exactly the same.

You're more than likely pinging your router. Which means you are just asking the box right beside you how fast can it reply to you.

Why don't you ping boards.ie or clarity.jolt.co.uk like this...

Ping statistics for 195.149.21.11:
Packets: Sent = 31, Received = 31, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 9ms, Maximum = 19ms, Average = 15ms
Control-Break

Ping statistics for 82.195.131.128:
Packets: Sent = 49, Received = 49, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 4ms, Maximum = 163ms, Average = 11ms
Control-Break

There were three spikes to 100 in the second ping. Which was a bit strange, usually boards is quite low pinging.

plastic_axe

Originally posted by MarinoMark
I live in Marino Dublin, I ordered adsl home self install broadband early in april

well i also live in marino and i have to say that ive never had even the slighest problem with eircom dsl. ordered, got modem after 4 days and was connected in 5.

Jim

Originally posted by ozmo
My experience was it was turned on 4 days after I ordered it.

4 months here.

ainiseoir

Hi Zener,
latest reading your connection speed is 67739 bits/sec (8.27KBytes/sec)

ainiseoir

Suggested pings.
Reply from 82.195.131.128
bytes32 time 28ms. TTL 59
bytes32 time30ms. TTL59
bytes32 time25 ms. TTL 59
bytes 32 time 29ms. TTL 59

reply from195.149.21.11
bytes32 time39 ms. TTL 57
bytes 32 time76 ms. TTL 57
bytes 32 time 37ms. TTL 57
bytes 32 time 37ms. TTL 57

Some day I may understand all this!

Tenshot

ainiseoir, where are you reading this "67739 bits/sec" figure from? It shouldn't be in Windows dial-up networking, because the Netopia units look after all the connection details for you (you did say you're connecting to it via Ethernet, right?)

With an Ethernet card, the speed of your PC should be pretty irrelevant. My brother is using a Pentium 75 with Windows 98 and a 10BASE-T network card to surf the net over my 1 MB DSL line, and everything loads at the speed you would expect (about 100 KB/s, i.e. about 800 kb/s+).

Had you previously run any "connection optimisation" software to try and speed up your modem before getting DSL? Some of these can absolutely cripple a fast Internet connection. If you have the opportunity to plug a different PC into the Netopia and try with that instead (e.g. a laptop) it might narrow down where the problem is.

ainiseoir

The 67739 bits/sec is taken from one of the many speed connection services available on the net.
yes, i did run a net accelerator , it was still on when i first tried to install the netopia, gone now,
I fear that the visit of the eircom technician will confirm that the poor connection speed is my fault.

Tazzle

Originally posted by ozmo
Thats not very fair. My experience was it was turned on 4 days after I ordered it.

2 days

MarinoMark

Call it a fluke,lucky or sombody in eircom reads this, I posted original message on friday, today sat, an eircom engineer arrived and left again after he called the exchange whike sitting at my pc, He told them what to do...I now have a very fast broadband connection...Thanks for all the replies..Really appreciated, Mark

luckat

A friend has Eircom broadband, to all intents and purposes - but he can't use the web, he says: Netscape and IE won't connect for him. He says he can see that he's connected, but not use a browser. (He doesn't do email from home.)

Has this happened to anyone, and if so what were the problem and the solution?

Stephen

He wouldn't by any chance have his web browsers set up to use some proxy server from an old ISP he used to use or anything would he? Or is he behind a firewall/router or something that is misconfigured?

Cryos

sounds like an problem we had at work, ie couldnt see that the lan connection was acctuly the net connection aswell, we had to set it up to dial into PPPoE easy enough done. in the internet setup or setup button in the internet properties under connections

Tenshot

How does your friend know he's connected? From Windows, or by looking at the lights on the Eircom box?

Try PING 159.134.237.6 and see what it says; if it responds with something like

Reply from 159.134.237.6: bytes=32 time=55ms TTL=60

then chances are it's a proxy issue (or maybe a PC firewall being overzealous) that's the problem. If the ping doesn't work, it could be a more fundamental connection problem between the PC and the router.

If you're using USB rather than Ethernet to connect to the modem, then Blitz's suggestion about creating a PPPoE connection is certainly worth a try.

SolarSys

Sorry to hear about your plight with eircom broadband. Your case is extremely rare. There must have been a mix up with orders of your line and the jumpering of your line at the exchange. If you ring eircom support on 1530 555 444 and just tell them calmly that you are getting No Sync Light on your modem. They will have an Eng. go out to your premises and check it out!
Also, if you ring eircom customer services and tell them that you've had no service for the past serveral weeks they may credit you. You can ring them on 1800 400 281.

PS: The reason you have to ring a 1530 support number is because thats the particular package you've signed up for and if you've accepted the package it means you've also agreed to the "Terms and Conditions of the Service" (even if you haven't read them - they are available to read on eircom website)
With some of the higher packages you don't have to ring a 1530 number, you get to ring a local rate number.

spongebob

Originally posted by SolarSys
PS: The reason you have to ring a 1530 support number is because thats the particular package you've signed up for and if you've accepted the package it means you've also agreed to the "Terms and Conditions of the Service" (even if you haven't read them - they are available to read on eircom website)
With some of the higher packages you don't have to ring a 1530 number, you get to ring a local rate number.

In fairness Solar that is a ridiculous premise. You have to PAY 75c a minute most of it on hold in order to tell Eircom that THEY ****ed up.

Its simpler , email phil.nolan@yac.com and he will sort it out pronto

M

Ripwave

Originally posted by Muck
In fairness Solar that is a ridiculous premise. You have to PAY 75c a minute most of it on hold in order to tell Eircom that THEY ****ed up.

They dropped the price on that weeks ago, Muck.

spongebob

That probably means they keep you on hold longer Ripwave as they 'are very busy' nowadays.

The email to Phil normally does the thrick :d

M

eth0_

Originally posted by SolarSys

Also, if you ring eircom customer services and tell them that you've had no service for the past serveral weeks they may credit you.

AAAAAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!
I don't know what's funnier...the statement above, or the fact someone from eircom tech support is posting here!