Which Broadband to get?

brendan86

Heh,

I just found out broadband is finally availible in my area, Im just looking for advice in which isp to go for.

Digiweb - 2Mbps €24.75 per month (€29.95 incl vat)
Eircom - Up to 1Mb speeds €29.99 per month plus free self-install connection
Esat BT - 2 mb 30euro per month (On only problem is 20gig transfer per month :eek: )

Im looking for broadband for gaming online and also downloading during nights. I would appreciate if any of you could recommend the best isp for both.

One more question, Its a new house im moving into and it doesnt have a phone line in it? I guess I have to order a phone line from eircom? I see esat BT do a good deal 2mb broadband and phone line for 40euro a month total, 20gig cap tho ;/

Brendan

Slippin Jimmy

I have Eircom Broadband for €29.99 a month. It is good value, have had no problems with it yet. Maybe deerer than other company's, but you pay for quality.

Fr Dougal

Also got a free WIFI modem with eircom.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

just to let you know, eircom is now 2mbs since they upgraded it, but tbh i have no real knowledge on these things so ill leave it to other people who do

Slippin Jimmy

playa3 wrote:

just to let you know, eircom is now 2mbs since they upgraded it, but tbh i have no real knowledge on these things so ill leave it to other people who do

They upgraded it to 2mb for €39.99. That is a different package.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

hmmm oh yes i see that now,forgiveness please

Slippin Jimmy

playa3 wrote:

hmmm oh yes i see that now,forgiveness please

Even the best can make mistakes:rolleyes: .

hobie

They upgraded it to 2mb for €39.99. That is a different package

I ordered an Eircom package at 29.99 a month and the notes on it said 1.0mb but I've installed it(2 days ago) and its running at 1.75mb
(nom. speed 2.0) .....

I know I read somewhere that Eircom were increasing the speed of a number of packages by plus 1.0mb and that existing customers would be upgraded i.e. 1.0 becomes 2.0 etc etc at no extra charge .... but do you think I can find the note ???? .... nope !!! ..... I have a feeling it was a press announcement by Eircom just a few days ago so will keep looking .....

Ps. I also got the free Router and in addition to wireless it has 4 Ethernet ports .... very handy for me .... .... 3 filters .... a couple of Ethernet cables .....

I think it's a good deal

is_that_so

brendan86 wrote:

Heh,

I just found out broadband is finally availible in my area, Im just looking for advice in which isp to go for.

Digiweb - 2Mbps €24.75 per month (€29.95 incl vat)
Eircom - Up to 1Mb speeds €29.99 per month plus free self-install connection
Esat BT - 2 mb 30euro per month (On only problem is 20gig transfer per month :eek: )

Im looking for broadband for gaming online and also downloading during nights. I would appreciate if any of you could recommend the best isp for both.

One more question, Its a new house im moving into and it doesnt have a phone line in it? I guess I have to order a phone line from eircom? I see esat BT do a good deal 2mb broadband and phone line for 40euro a month total, 20gig cap tho ;/

Brendan

I have Digiweb and they are fine. Self install as well. Check their website for router info etc. I had my own.
I may be corrected on this but I suspect you have to order the physical phone line from Eircom.

kaizersoze

brendan86 wrote:

Digiweb - 2Mbps €24.75 per month (€29.95 incl vat)
Eircom - Up to 1Mb speeds €29.99 per month plus free self-install connection
Esat BT - 2 mb 30euro per month (On only problem is 20gig transfer per month :eek: )

Im looking for broadband for gaming online and also downloading during nights. I would appreciate if any of you could recommend the best isp for both.

One more question, Its a new house im moving into and it doesnt have a phone line in it? I guess I have to order a phone line from eircom? I see esat BT do a good deal 2mb broadband and phone line for 40euro a month total, 20gig cap tho ;/

Brendan

First things first.:)
Are you thinking about ordering BB in your existing house or for the new house?
If it's for your existing house bear in mind that you'll be entering into a 6 month contract. If you are planning on moving sooner than 6 months you may have to cancel the contract and may bepenalised.
If you're thinking of it for your new house it would be a bit premature to be ordering BB until the new phone line is installed and tested for BB. Eircom do not guarantee that any phone line will be suitable for BB, even new lines that are connected to an enabled exchange.
That being said, I would recommend BT with line rental for €40 is the way to go. It's the best value for DSL at the moment (except for Smart if you can get it). There are horror stories about their billing but I've never had a problem with them. Don't worry about the 20gb cap as they don't enforce it.
Keep in mind that Digiweb and Eircom prices do not include line rental (€24.18p/m).

action jackson

after about a month of deciding which one to go for, i went with smart broadband. not entirely convinced about this digiweb (or any wireless), as it had limited bandwith or whatever it is called. apparently each area has a certain quota and if your neighbours all have it, your reception is jeopordised. also with wireless, the obvious natural factors are also to consider, if it snows, or heavy rain, a weak signal is is inevitable. wireless would be for infrequent users who might download the odd mp3. smart b'band goes through your phoneline, and they also give free connection plus phone, plus unlimited downloads.
eircom is crap, limited downloads, if you go over there 8mb (or whatever) limit, then you get really skinned (talking from exp) !!!
not sure about esat bt - probably same as eircom, and irish b'band is apparently complete rubbish.

so in conclusion to my little rant - if it aint broke, don't fix it - meaning a wired connection will never let you down, esp for gaming. hope this helps !
hope you can get smart in your area !

Slunk

Bear in mind, im waiting nearly 6 weeks now for BTBB :mad:

andy1249

Just a FYI , I have been with eircom since it was the only company supplying broadband , could not be bothered to change , since then it has gone from a 1 mb download service 128 kb upload , 4 GB limit , to a 3 Mb download . 384 upload , 30 GB limit , in the space of two years , for the same price , which is 29.99 ex vat ( 35.99 inc Vat ) per month.
Personally , considering the problems my mates have had with so called cheaper networks ,( UTV , IBB , etc. )
I am fairly happy , I know Eircom have the bad name and all , but they have always been alright by me , never had connection problems , always great connections playing unreal , great download speeds, no contention ratio issues etc.

twogunkid

€20 package Broad band Ordered Feb 01 delivered yesterday Feb 15.
Helpful tech support.
Looks good so far

kaizersoze

action jackson wrote:

....not entirely convinced about this digiweb (or any wireless),.....

Digiweb do DSL (over phone line) aswell. I think that's what he is referring to.

action jackson

if they do, then great !

smart is 35 per month for unlimited download at 3mb dl, 256 ul. which to me is quite a good deal, considering there is 100 eur connection with digiweb, as well as 42.3/ month rental !

i was not aware eircom had upgraded there service considerably, but the problem with that is, you need to rent a phoneline from them, and dl is capped, if you go over limit you get really screwed - although 30gb is quite alot.

smart would appear at this moment as best value for money over 12 months -this could change though !!

good luck !

jbkenn

action jackson wrote:

after about a month of deciding which one to go for, i went with smart broadband. not entirely convinced about this digiweb (or any wireless), as it had limited bandwith or whatever it is called.

Yes, it is called bandwidth, but it is managed, not limited.

apparently each area has a certain quota and if your neighbours all have it, your reception is jeopordised.

Thats news to me.

also with wireless, the obvious natural factors are also to consider, if it snows, or heavy rain, a weak signal is is inevitable. wireless would be for infrequent users who might download the odd mp3.

Action Jackson, you really have not had any experience of a properly deployed and managed wireless broadband network, if you can read this post then the heavy rain theory goes out the window.

Here are some pings for you.

C:\>ping www.boards.ie

Pinging www.boards.ie [82.195.136.250] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.195.136.250: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=55

Ping statistics for 82.195.136.250:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 12ms, Maximum = 12ms, Average = 12ms


C:\>ping www.jolt.co.uk

Pinging www.jolt.co.uk [82.133.85.65] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=25ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=25ms TTL=55

Ping statistics for 82.133.85.65:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 24ms, Maximum = 28ms, Average = 25ms


jbkenn

is_that_so

action jackson wrote:

if they do, then great !

I have ADSL from Digiweb. I am not altogether sold on wireless owing to the enthusiasm of BB providers to sign up too many subscribers without the necessary infrastructure.
On top of that there is the question of service of a lot of providers. I believe Eircom do a good job in terms of support and I have also heard good things about Digiweb.
Personally I have no interest in Smart or any of the other wireless entities as they have ignored anyone outside the larger population centres.