fastest time-to-installation?

stabu

Hi,

I need to get broadband in the Ranelagh Rathmines area before Christmas. It´s just for web surfing and email, no p2p or multiplayer games.

So, I'm reading some threads and there alot of things to consider, and many people prioritise one thing over an other. Some can maybe wait but want fast pings. Well, my prioirty is speed-to-installation. Any opinions on which company is the fastest?

My initial reading and inquirying points to clearwire which promise 48 hours. Eircom say 10 working days, but that things maybe complicated for Christmas time.

Cheers for reading.

fatherdougalmag

Are you in NTL land? Usually 3 or 4 days.

stakey

do not under any circumstances touch clearwire, have a look at all the posts regarding them here! :eek:

Drapper

NTL call em !!

Ludo

If all you want to do is browse the web, then Clearwire may be an option. I had my modem within an hour of ringing them as they guy I talked to there happened to be passing my office so he dropped it in. So I had "basic web page access" with in 90 mins of applying.

I describe it as "basic web page access" as that is all they provide reliably. They don't provide a broadband service IMHO as of yet.

By the way, this is in no way a recommendation for Clearwire. When you have Broadband, you will inevitably want to do more than just browse the web (such as watching streaming audio/video) and you will not be able to with Clearwire until they solve their problems.

stabu

Thanks for the replies.

I've checked NTL now, and they say for my part of Ranelagh, no go. Pity, there was a fair bit of unanimity there.

Yes, I read the posts about Clearwire, so I really don´t wnat to contract them.

That's it then, is it? (besides considering dialup)

RangeR

I still have no problems recommending ClearWire. Yes, they have had a few issues over the past 3 weeks but other than that I have had a smashing connection. And I dont aonly browse. I download, VoIP, VPN, Remote Desktop, Game and I have 3 webcams haging off it, uploading every 20 second.

People saying that it's only good enough for browsing, are way, way, way off the mark. I would assume that what went on over the past 3 weeks has clouded their judgment slightly.

Things are fine now. I can only hope that CW take a more pracitcal approach to port shaping in the future, if they have to.

Ludo

My vision is not clouded thank you very much. Twice they have screwed up their network for five/six days at a time with no warning or feedback. This is not a good thing to do when you are a new provider in the market. They don't appear to be testing changes they make before rolling them out and they don't appear to have a roll back procedure in place to undo and screw-ups they make.
This is simply not good enough. I gave them the benefit of the doubt the first time they did it but no longer.

I would have no hesitation in recommending Clearwire if they sort themselves out. However, then have a crap track record over the last month.

If they get their port shaping sorted properly without any more screw ups, as you say, then they would be excellent. Maybe they have cracked it this time (hopefuly).

stabu

Thanks for replies, sounds like a one horse race for me. From just this thread I see two opinions against and one opinion for clearwire. So that's 33% positive or if you like 66% negative. Although, it is well known that people who have a good experience of service seldom need to write about it. So my chances of having a good experience with them are higher. In actual fact, those are not indecent stats, if you look at other providers.

bk

stabu wrote:

Thanks for replies, sounds like a one horse race for me. From just this thread I see two opinions against and one opinion for clearwire. So that's 33% positive or if you like 66% negative. Although, it is well known that people who have a good experience of service seldom need to write about it. So my chances of having a good experience with them are higher. In actual fact, those are not indecent stats, if you look at other providers.

Well they block a lot of ports, so if you just want to surf the net then you will be fine, however if you want to: game, download from p2p, VoIP, VPN, ftp or just about anything else of interest that most people do on BB then you can forget it.

ghostdancer

digiweb had my modem to me and line enabled within 4 days of ordering off their website....

Blaster99

bk wrote:

Well they block a lot of ports, so if you just want to surf the net then you will be fine, however if you want to: game, download from p2p, VoIP, VPN, ftp or just about anything else of interest that most people do on BB then you can forget it.

Perhaps it would be handy to leave the comments on the service to the people who actually have the service?

Yes, Clearwire have an extraordinarily annoying habit of traffic shaping stuff. Right at this moment most, if not all of it, seems to be sorted. There's no guarantee that they won't mess around with it again, though.

The service as such is very good. But I think it's over-priced and I wouldn't really go for it over let's say BT Ireland's ADSL, if that's an option. You pay the same or less, you have no wireless worries, no strange traffic shaping, and you're using very reliable infrastructure from Eircom and BT Ireland.

I'm using Clearwire in a particular installation as we needed broadband fast and would have had to order in a phone line etc which would have taken months to get sorted. Apart from the traffic shaping malarky and a half-day outage on mail.clearwire.ie, the service has been excellent. Stable download speeds, stable pings, stable connection.

Still, they made a complete mess with this traffic shaping stuff and it will take a while before they regain my trust and until then I wouldn't recommend them.

dub45

I notice that in spite of assurances given to people who were signing up they still have not changed their on line terms and conditions which require 60 days notice of termination (after completion of your initial period) otherwise you are automatically signed up for a further 12 months.

I also wonder what people think of this clause

22. Credit Reporting Agencies. You authorize us to ask consumer reporting agencies or trade references to furnish us with employment and credit information, and you consent to our rechecking and reporting personal and/or business payment and credit history. Upon receipt of adverse credit information about you at any time, Clearwire reserves the right to suspend or terminate Service to you or require a deposit for Service, at our option.

Do any of the other isps have similar type clauses?

RangeR

dub45 wrote:

I notice that in spite of assurances given to people who were signing up they still have not changed their on line terms and conditions which require 60 days notice of termination (after completion of your initial period) otherwise you are automatically signed up for a further 12 months.

I also wonder what people think of this clause



Do any of the other isps have similar type clauses?

Ok, now we're getting waaaaaaay off topic. But don't BT have that €150 DSL deposit at their discretion?

dub45

IrishTLR wrote:

Ok, now we're getting waaaaaaay off topic. But don't BT have that €150 DSL deposit at their discretion?

Apparently they do - now I disapprove of that too of course particularly the way they implement it - from posts on here it appears it relates to non householders.

bk

IrishTLR wrote:

Ok, now we're getting waaaaaaay off topic. But don't BT have that €150 DSL deposit at their discretion?

Yes, but it is easy to bypass, just lie when they ask if you own the house or rent, say you own it, they have no way of checking.

bk

Blaster99 wrote:

Perhaps it would be handy to leave the comments on the service to the people who actually have the service?

Blaster99 I think that is rather unfair and uncalled for, I give lots of advise to people on these boards all the time, I often advise people to go with BT, Smart or Magnet, despite me not having them and no one complains.

I think people should make the descision for themselves with all the available information, all I did was give that information, was anything I said actually incorrect?

Furthermore I think port shaping is plain wrong, with all the ports I mentioned blocked I don't believe Clearwire can be classed as real BB. I don't particularly care about P2P, but Clearwire is useless for anyone who works from home like myself (normally use VPN, VoIP and ftp) or people who want to play games or people who want to download. In fact the number of people who Clearwire is useful for is extremely small.