Fastcom

Tar.Aldarion

Hey, just wondering does anybody use fastcom broadband.
Moved to Sligo for a few months and want to get bb.
An annoying mountain blocks most bb services and I just heard of fastcom.
Installation e149 and e39 a month. It's 2meg.
So, anyway, any experiences with them? Was with NTL until now in galway and that was grand, how does it compare etc.


Edit:What's up with the new tagging system when making a thread?

leche solara

What tagging system?

Tar.Aldarion

Pretend to make a thread and check it out, it's a box that appears under thread name. Just noting the new addition. Maybe a new way to search.

Sparky

the tagging system is to do with boardstracker.

dingding

Don't have this but a couple of friends of mine have it. It is wireless they put a small box outside your house. The service has 2meg up and down, no limits that I know of. Also they use it with blueface and it works well with them.

Friends would recommend it, it was down occasionally at the start but the service has improved alot over the past number of weeks.

Tar.Aldarion

Cool thanks. Heard their eh, premises are a bit dodgy but who cares as long as I have bb.

dingding

I think digiweb or irish broadband have come to Sligo, where about are you looking for the coverage?

Tar.Aldarion

Just south of knocknahrea mountain, ransboro area, Didgiweb is blocked by the mountain. I'll give Irish bband a call tomorrow and if not them, fastcom have got me.

thegills

AFAIK IBB should be live in Sligo in about 2 months.
thegills

Tar.Aldarion

Aye, two months too late.
Should get Fastcom bband by next week.
The phonecall was hilarious to be honest. He was trying to explain what broadband was, for no reason. He was saying things like, when you turn on your tv, the channels are always there and broadband is like that! Etc

Tar.Aldarion

Just got broadband from these guys, nice people.
Let's see how things go. Downloading so fast, mmm.

magnumlady

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

Just got broadband from these guys, nice people.
Let's see how things go. Downloading so fast, mmm.

We have had it from Fastcom for a couple of weeks now. Can you see your green LED signal lights on your outdoor dish easily? - we are getting 3 Green LED lights and according to this speed tester: http://www.myspeed.com/ we are getting 1.94MB Download and 1.94MB Upload speed - your right its very fast, I don't think eircom ADSL is as fast as 2mb upload.

The Dish Fastcom BB Installed here for us is made by Alvarion (Breezenet VL) and according to their website the aerial has NLOS capabilities (non line of sight) and can tackle if trees or buildings get in the way of the outside dish and the mast on the mountain which I thought was interesting especially as Fastcom are stating that you must have a clear line of sight to the mast.

A couple of times its felt that there has not been a signal (ie that the signal has dropped) but its not frequent that happens. Its great to be able to use the home phone at the same time whilst surfing the net and the alway on connection is good too - no more dial up and disconnections!!

The other day it was absolutely pelting down with rain really heavy and the speed was still great and I performed the myspeed program and it still said 1.94MB download and upload.

The E149 Installation charge was a bit steep but saying that our particular installer was here for around 2 and a half hours and couldn't attach it to a chimney (cause we aint got any!) so he put some brackets up on a wall and a pole and put up the aerial on the outside and fed all the cable into the house as I say in the end it took him about 2 and half hours.

we are very pleased with it ourselves.

Sponge Bob

magnumlady wrote:

The Dish Fastcom BB Installed here for us is made by Alvarion (Breezenet VL) and according to their website the aerial has NLOS capabilities (non line of sight) and can tackle if trees or buildings get in the way of the outside dish and the mast on the mountain which I thought was interesting especially as Fastcom are stating that you must have a clear line of sight to the mast.

God help ye when IBB show up with the same VL gear on the same spectrum and interference all around. Better warn Fastcom they are 'imminent'

magnumlady

Sponge Bob wrote:

God help ye when IBB show up with the same VL gear on the same spectrum and interference all around. Better warn Fastcom they are 'imminent'

Thank you for that ray of sunshine!

bminish

Sponge Bob wrote:

God help ye when IBB show up with the same VL gear on the same spectrum and interference all around. Better warn Fastcom they are 'imminent'

fastcom are licenced for 3.5 ghz (Channel Block D) Wonder why they are using 5 Ghz kit (VL ) as opposed to 3.5 ghz Kit (XL or MAX)

http://www.alvarion.com/solutions/access/

.brendan

Tar.Aldarion

magnumlady wrote:

We have had it from Fastcom for a couple of weeks now. Can you see your green LED signal lights on your outdoor dish easily? - we are getting 3 Green LED lights and according to this speed tester: http://www.myspeed.com/ we are getting 1.94MB Download and 1.94MB Upload speed - your right its very fast, I don't think eircom ADSL is as fast as 2mb upload.

The Dish Fastcom BB Installed here for us is made by Alvarion (Breezenet VL) and according to their website the aerial has NLOS capabilities (non line of sight) and can tackle if trees or buildings get in the way of the outside dish and the mast on the mountain which I thought was interesting especially as Fastcom are stating that you must have a clear line of sight to the mast.

A couple of times its felt that there has not been a signal (ie that the signal has dropped) but its not frequent that happens. Its great to be able to use the home phone at the same time whilst surfing the net and the alway on connection is good too - no more dial up and disconnections!!

The other day it was absolutely pelting down with rain really heavy and the speed was still great and I performed the myspeed program and it still said 1.94MB download and upload.

The E149 Installation charge was a bit steep but saying that our particular installer was here for around 2 and a half hours and couldn't attach it to a chimney (cause we aint got any!) so he put some brackets up on a wall and a pole and put up the aerial on the outside and fed all the cable into the house as I say in the end it took him about 2 and half hours.

we are very pleased with it ourselves.

Ah good post, thanks.
Getting 1.95Meg up and down, 99% quality of service.
I can see the mast from my house.
Going well so far.

God help ye when IBB show up with the same VL gear on the same spectrum and interference all around. Better warn Fastcom they are 'imminent'

I would say the mountain that blocks everybody but fastcom to my house will also block IBB.

magnumlady

I downloaded this program called BreezeConfig from the net for the BreezeAccess BB system. I don't want to change any setting but want to look at the status of how the system is working on the PC. I cannot seem to get the right ISP info of the equipment and so the BreezeConfig software wont find the hardware.

Has anyone used this software with the Fastcom / Alvarion system and know how to get the IP address of the unit?

magnumlady

bminish wrote:

fastcom are licenced for 3.5 ghz (Channel Block D) Wonder why they are using 5 Ghz kit (VL ) as opposed to 3.5 ghz Kit (XL or MAX)

http://www.alvarion.com/solutions/access/

.brendan

Maybe because it has the NLOS feature? - or because it can go up to speeds of 54Mbps?

I don't know, could they get into trouble for using the 5 Ghz kit if they are only licenced for 3.5 Ghz ?

Tar.Aldarion

magnumlady wrote:

I downloaded this program called BreezeConfig from the net for the BreezeAccess BB system. I don't want to change any setting but want to look at the status of how the system is working on the PC. I cannot seem to get the right ISP info of the equipment and so the BreezeConfig software wont find the hardware.

Has anyone used this software with the Fastcom / Alvarion system and know how to get the IP address of the unit?

Ask them?
I know mine I think, listened to them talk. :P

magnumlady

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

Just got broadband from these guys, nice people.
Let's see how things go. Downloading so fast, mmm.

Did the Installer put a grounding cable on your aerial by any chance? - I haven't got one on mine but the website suggests fitting a grounding wire for surges etc.. and I am just wondering what would happen if lightening hits the aerial as well!

I wonder if lightening could hit the aerial and down the CAT5 cable straight into the back of the PC and fry the main board?

magnumlady

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

Ask them?
I know mine I think, listened to them talk. :P

Ask who Alvarion or Fastcom - Fastcom might be reluctant to give me the IP address of the unit just in case I muck about and start configuring it wrongly.

Tar.Aldarion

As for the grounding cable, I'll have a look tomorrow.


No harm in asking for the ip anyway?

Sponge Bob

magnumlady wrote:

I wonder if lightening could hit the aerial and down the CAT5 cable straight into the back of the PC and fry the main board?

Thats possible, otherwise static could build up if you are in a heavy electical storm.

Grounding is good practise because electricity has to go _somewhere_

You could maybe get a surge protector for the CAT5 cable (which can pass thru power over ethernet or poe ) install lower down and ground that gizmo instead.

Maybe

http://www.teletronics.com/17105L.jpg which protects the poe pairs and

and

http://www.patton.com/products/pe_products.asp?category=123&MiDAS_SessionID=517a50817c3c46788e75b55155f4bd51

which protects the pc

Its a bit 'tech' but you seem well able for it magnumlady

MunsterCycling

magnumlady wrote:

Maybe because it has the NLOS feature? - or because it can go up to speeds of 54Mbps?

I don't know, could they get into trouble for using the 5 Ghz kit if they are only licenced for 3.5 Ghz ?

Maybe its coz the 5GHZ band is unlicenced???

magnumlady

Sponge Bob wrote:

Thats possible, otherwise static could build up if you are in a heavy electical storm.

Grounding is good practise because electricity has to go _somewhere_

You could maybe get a surge protector for the CAT5 cable (which can pass thru power over ethernet or poe ) install lower down and ground that gizmo instead...

I wonder who's responsibility it is to provide lightning protection for it? - is it the customers or is it fastcom's bearing in mind that the equipment / hardware that fastcom supply can never be owned by the customer, it is always the property of fastcom.

Cuddlesworth

I use Ibb, and I grounded the aeriel myself. Its seems to be common practise to ignore the proper mounting instructions. In fact I would have many things to complain about how well the installation was done. And the reality that close to 4 grands worth of equipment was in danger.

bminish

krazy_8s wrote:

I use Ibb, and I grounded the aeriel myself. Its seems to be common practise to ignore the proper mounting instructions. In fact I would have many things to complain about how well the installation was done. And the reality that close to 4 grands worth of equipment was in danger.

Most of the grounding instructions I have seen provided with Wireless kit really only apply on sites that have fully bonded earth systems (telco sites) or to situations that have no dependable local earth (many older 110V installations) Connecting your kit to anything other than a bonded earth (mains earth) is actually more likely to make damage occur and is hazardous.

The very reason that telephone lines have taken out so many modems over the years is because the modem is the bit in the middle between 2 separate earth systems (the phone earth and the mains earth). Historically the fact that the 2 earth systems were separate was not a problem since they hardly ever met in the days before modems

Grounding Wireless kit to anything other than the mains earth (often taken care of by the power supply in any case) is a bloody bad idea in the typical Irish domestic install and may indeed actually compromise the integrity of the existing mains earth system in the case of a nearby lightning strike putting property and even life at risk.

In general your provider did not ground that equipment because that is the correct thing to do for your kind of deployment.

Polyphaser http://www.polyphaser.com have a lot of good information on how to deal with grounding, they sell lightning protection systems but the real secret is that even the best lightning protection systems are of no value IF they are not part of an overall policy based on avoiding potential differences occurring when strikes happen.

.brendan

magnumlady

I have seen these in-line CAT5 Surge Protectors on sale but it was on an American site. But it stated that they were used for POE units (power over Ethernet) they had a tail wire coming out of the unit which I predict is for joining up to a proper grounding or earthing point somewhere.

I wonder how efficient it would be to run a grounding wire up the pole and join it onto the earthing terminal at the back of my Alvarion dish (aerial) and then adjoin the other end of the cable to one of these earthing stakes you can drive into the ground so that if static does built up or lightning does hit it then it can travel straight to earth rather than my PC? - wonder if that would work effectively?

Foxwood

magnumlady wrote:

I wonder how efficient it would be to run a grounding wire up the pole and join it onto the earthing terminal at the back of my Alvarion dish (aerial) and then adjoin the other end of the cable to one of these earthing stakes you can drive into the ground so that if static does built up or lightning does hit it then it can travel straight to earth rather than my PC? - wonder if that would work effectively?

And if there's a ground strike nearby, it can run up the earthing stake, and straight into your PC.

Sponge Bob

but that would take out the electrics in the whole house foxwood, not just the PC

Foxwood

Sponge Bob wrote:

but that would take out the electrics in the whole house foxwood, not just the PC

Huh?