broadband without phone line?

eclectichoney

had a search but couldnt find anthing that helped, so sorry if this is explained somewhere else - i genuinely couldnt find it! anyway, im moving into a new house that doesn't have a phone line, which suits me fine,but i do want broadband. i saw an ad on tv for some company (cant remember the name) who claim they can set up bb without needing a phone line, are there any companies that offer this service? i'm in the ranelagh area. cheers, thanks a lot

WexCan

NTL (over cable), Irish Broadban and methinks ClearWire do it as well, give 'em a Google and you should find something, most people seem to go for Irish Broadband.

Steffano2002

WexCan wrote:

...most people seem to go for Irish Broadband.

Try to avoid though... Digiweb Metro seems to be much better but they are not as available as IBB yet...

WexCan

Steffano2002 wrote:

Try to avoid though... Digiweb Metro seems to be much better but they are not as available as IBB yet...

Yeah most of what I hear about them is negative but might be the only option. Then again, Ranelagh isn't exactly the backar*se of nowhere.

bk

IBB are not an option, many people barely get dial-up speds with them.

Your options are:
1) NTL (over cable TV - you most subscribe to their TV service, but the BB service is one of the best).
2) Digiweb Metro - Wireless BB, seem to hear lots of good things about it.
3) Clearwire, wireless bb, only ok they block a lot of ports.
4) Smart Telecom - They offer BB over DSL, so you would have to get a telephone line, however they give you free line rental, so worth considering. €35 for 3m BB including line rental
5) BT - Again offer BB over DSL, so you will need to a telephone line, however they have very good packs that include cheap line rental: 1m BB incl. line rental = €35 2mBB incl. Line rental = €40

FranknFurter

I made the mistake of getting IBB when I moved house as had no phone line for a while..........

right here, in clondalkin, i was lucky if I was able to get online 10 mins a day, and i DO mean lucky!

Box now sits in a wardrobe till I can figure out how to make it explode when I send it back to them!

Bout as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike TBH

Steffano2002

FranknFurter wrote:

Bout as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike TBH

And that's being nice! lol

sysconp1

I have IBB, but not on the cheapy box thingy. I have the 2MB/2MB for 35 Euro a month and it is excellent. Even got rid of my Eircom 4MB/256KB link as the IBB was that much better. Certainly don't get as many drop outs/loss of service as I did on Eircom and for much less.
IBB use a squarial on your room and then pipe the link in. My only negative is that they supply a static IP address and if you do any P2P file swapping it is kind of risky!
All in all though I would say the IBB sevice is one of the best. It certainly seems as though the complaints on the IBB service come from the cheapy box users, and considering the technology it uses this is understandable.

gordonnet

i have 1M breeze and my connection is no faster than dial up speeds since december.

sysconp1

I presume the 1Mb breeze you mention is ith the stand alone box that goes on your desk or in your window? To get a good connection with IBB you really do need the external squarial. It may cost you the 150 Euro to get it installed and a little more for the monthly cost, but the service is much better.:D

bk

sysconp1 wrote:

I presume the 1Mb breeze you mention is ith the stand alone box that goes on your desk or in your window? To get a good connection with IBB you really do need the external squarial. It may cost you the 150 Euro to get it installed and a little more for the monthly cost, but the service is much better.:D

No breeze is the same service that you have, line of sight aerial on the roof, ripwave is the box for non-line of sight BB. You are very lucky, even most breeze customers have awful experience with IBB, just look around all the IBB threads here.

Steffano2002

We're all talking about Breeze here Sysconp1... Don't get us started on RipWare (big clue in the name)!

Sarsfield

bk wrote:

You are very lucky, even most breeze customers have awful experience with IBB, just look around all the IBB threads here.

I don't know how you can equate this board to most Breeze customers. Any people I know (in person as opposed to on boards) is very happy with their Breeze connection.

I'm not promoting Breeze. I've never had it and never seen it in operation. While I'd take posts on boards.ie into consideration there's no way I'd exclude an option based purely on the rantings of an anonymous nerd on a bulletin board Before I get banned for abuse, I should point out I'm not referring to you bk

Mutant_Fruit

Aye, but the annoymous nerd is a nerd. They know how to tell when their connection is acting ****e. I was at a friends house who was telling me how great is IBB 'broadband' is after i was bitching about mine. So I went to download a file on his 1meg connection... it came down at about 25kB/sec. Packetloss was also about 7%. Exact same as my 2meg connection...

Thats how much the "typical" user knows. Its 5x faster than dialup, therefore its great.

Sarsfield

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

Thats how much the "typical" user knows.

The people I know who have IBB are all IT professionals or are very IT literate (as opposed to nerds). I trust them more than boards people. Sorry. Bearing in mind that people are more inclined to be vocal when they're unhappy, and that nerds get their kicks from highlighting the failure of tech companies, I'm inclined to believe there's a silent majority of satisfied IBB customers out there.

I'm not suggesting all is rosy, and I know about the Consumer Association report on customer support. I just took issue with the advice that IBB is not an option. It clearly is for many so I believe the advice was bad.

bk

Sarsfield wrote:

The people I know who have IBB are all IT professionals or are very IT literate (as opposed to nerds). I trust them more than boards people. Sorry. Bearing in mind that people are more inclined to be vocal when they're unhappy, and that nerds get their kicks from highlighting the failure of tech companies, I'm inclined to believe there's a silent majority of satisfied IBB customers out there.

I'm not suggesting all is rosy, and I know about the Consumer Association report on customer support. I just took issue with the advice that IBB is not an option. It clearly is for many so I believe the advice was bad.

LOL yes I suppose all the complaints received by the consumers association of Ireland was from nerds:
http://www.electricnews.net/news.html?code=9667057

IBB have very serious problems, of course there will be people who are happy, but given the massive amounts of complaints they receive, I just can't understand how you could advise anyone else to join them when they are lots of much better companies like Digiweb Metro.

BTW Many of the people who post here on boards, in particular in the technology boards are "IT Professionals", as if that is supposed to mean something. Grow up.

Steffano2002

I'm with bk on that one. Great reply!

ghostdancer

I have IrishBroadBand (IBB) and am happy 16 5.73%
I have IrishBroadBand (IBB) and am NOT happy 26 9.32%


from the poll in the sticky at the top of this forum.


i know 6 people with IBB, 4 ripwave, 2 breeze.

all 4 ripwave people have serious speed and packetloss problems, and 3 either don't realise it, or just think it's part and parcel of having wireless. the other is well aware of how ****e IBB is but has no other options.

of the 2 on breeze, one works almost perfectly apart from the odd time when he says it doesn't work for a few hours (every few weeks), the other doesn't really have a clue and just knows it's faster at browsing the web.

they have far more problems than any other broadband provider in this country, unless customers of the others are choosing to keep quiet, and it just happens that a much larger percentage of IBB customers get on here to complain about them (bearing in mind that most IBB Ripwave customers are of the "oh, that's cheap, just plug it in, no messing with phone lines, always on, oh wow i'll get that" mentality, i know that's the mentality of anyone i know or have heard of enquiring after Ripwave.
anyone who thinks that IBB are a good company, which provides a good service, is either very very lucky, clueless, or lying.

Sarsfield

Look, the 'nerds' thing wasn't supposed to be taken seriously.

My serious point regards the quote "IBB are not an option, many people barely get dial-up speds with them". IBB IS an option. For some it may be a crap option but it's wrong to say it is not an option. I justify it as an option by pointing out that I know happy IBB customers. Simple.

And on a point of fact, I have not advised anyone to sign up to IBB. Not on this thread. Not ever.

bk

Sarsfield wrote:

IBB IS an option.

It is a really bad option, Digiweb Metro is available almost everywhere that IBB is and on licensed spectrum, so why take the chance when there are far better options.

Sarsfield

bk wrote:

It is a really bad option

That may well be true. It's certainly fair comment.

You may think I was being pedantic but I think when giving advice it's important to be clear. "Bad option" informs the potential customer that the choice is there. "Not an option" suggests it's unavailable. Let people make their own choices.

hawthorn

I havent seen any mention of Last Mile Broadband. The are based in athlone, and put up various masts around the Midlands, which give a signal to about 9 miles, if you have a clear line.

anyone have any experience of them? I heard good reports.

Im in Birr, or 2km outside it, and of course on Crinkle exchange. Which most people dont even know exists. I didnt till Eircom finally told me it is the reason i cant get broadband. Even though people up the road, who LIVE in crinkle but are on BIRR exchange, can get it.

The girl in fairness, rang me back a few times, but wasnt too optimistic.

Are there any other alternatives down here in Offaly, or should I try Last Mile? Not sure if I'll get there signal.

Is wireless in general bad or what? Ive seen a few bad things written here.

Thnx

TH

wexfordman

Nothing wrong with wireless Hawthorn, as long as its done right.

IBB do seem to be getting a lot of bad posts, I have wireless, but not from IBB, and I am very happy with it. Running blueface as my main/only phone service, having dumped my landline for it. No regrets.

Wexfordman

TempestSabre

I know two people with IBB. One has Ripware and thinks its great. I don't think he uses it that much though. The other had Breeze and thinks its terrible. But hes a very heavy user/gamer etc. I wonder does it depend on your location though.

cormac_byrne

Sarsfield wrote:

That may well be true. It's certainly fair comment.

You may think I was being pedantic but I think when giving advice it's important to be clear. "Bad option" informs the potential customer that the choice is there. "Not an option" suggests it's unavailable. Let people make their own choices.

Yes people choose to do stupid things all the time

Here's an example of the quality of their Breeze 2Mb/2Mb connection

make your own mind up!

WexCan

cormac_byrne wrote:

Yes people choose to do stupid things all the time

Here's an example of the quality of their Breeze 2Mb/2Mb connection

make your own mind up!

Ouch... Thank god for telephone lines.