Quantum Broadband Solutions

TheBazman

Hi

I have just found out that Quantum Broadband is available in our area. This is a wireless solution. First of all has anyone had any experience with this company? Also does it generally happen that once one company moves into a rural area that others are soon to follow, or is it likely that this will be the only option for some time )I only ask because I am concerned about locking myself into a long contract with these.

More generally - what is the connectivity with Wireless like. This is 1Mb /256k. I am not concerned by the upload speed, but the download speed would be okay assuming there are no contention ratio problems. Are contention ratios a problem with Wireless?

Also what is security like - Eg are you safe doing online banking as long as you have a firewall? Can neighbours hijack your connection?

What are peoples experiences with Wireless in general?

Sorry for all the questions - any help appreciated

Thanks

Peanut

TheBazman wrote:

More generally - what is the connectivity with Wireless like. This is 1Mb /256k. I am not concerned by the upload speed, but the download speed would be okay assuming there are no contention ratio problems. Are contention ratios a problem with Wireless?

For sure, everyone is sharing a limited range of frequencies.

TheBazman wrote:

Also what is security like - Eg are you safe doing online banking as long as you have a firewall? Can neighbours hijack your connection?

Being on wireless or not doesn't make any difference to these questions, for the first one you just need to keep your PC spyware/virus free (also personal firewall software might help), for the second, it's only really an issue if you plan to use a wireless access point around your house.

TheBazman

Cheers for the info Peanut

If anyone else has any general info on the actual likely connection speed versus the suggested 1Mb, that would be great

watty

YOu can't answer the "wireless in general" as companies vary hugely in approach to quality of install and backhaul

Widely different technologies are used.

Your location and mast used can make a huge difference.

With most Wireless systems you are best to buy a ethernet WAN Router/NAT/Firewall with or without WiFi. These are often supplied with builtin ADSL modems for phone line broadband, The ADSL kind is no use for Wireless. Only some Wireless providers supply a NAT/Router/Firewall. Mostly it is an ethernet connected modem of some kind.

(Don't accept a USB only Modem).

WiFi is not the same at all as Wireless Broadband (Except maybe in a very poor self help scheme). People need a special modem for Wireless Broadband only available from the supplier, usely with different security features to Home/Office/Hotspot WiFi based connections.

watty

TheBazman wrote:

Cheers for the info Peanut

If anyone else has any general info on the actual likely connection speed versus the suggested 1Mb, that would be great

Again this varies enormously with technology, supplier, how many other users are in your area sharing the same frequency & mast.

I have no knowledge of what Quantum use or how many people they will allow on one wireless base circuit/sector.

For example Vodaphone, 3 and O2 quote a 3Mbps or more speed. But this is the maximum for entire sector. Real speed depends on how many users there are and it doen not scale well past 7.

Digiweb Metro on the other hand can scale up to 500 users on a sector, so statistically sharing works better. Also while you might buy a 1, 3 or 8Mbps package, that is NOT the total sector speed like with 3G/HSDPA (Vodaphone et Al). The total speed with a Metro mast with full sectors probably needs fibre to feed it! It isn't even techically possible on Metro for one user to take all the bandwidth. On other wireless systems one user can take all the bandwidth if the system is not configured properly.

TheBazman

Cheers Watty for your responses - Unfortunately this supplier is the only supplier in my area so it will be either bband thru' them on their terms or no bband at all. I will try dig some information from them around maximum usage on one base sector

Peanut

watty wrote:

..
WiFi is not the same at all as Wireless Broadband (Except maybe in a very poor self help scheme).
..

Well compared to a lot of commercial providers, wifi can easily be better than them if it is limited to a certain size userbase, in non-urban areas.

_William

TheBazman wrote:

Hi

I have just found out that Quantum Broadband is available in our area. This is a wireless solution. First of all has anyone had any experience with this company? Also does it generally happen that once one company moves into a rural area that others are soon to follow, or is it likely that this will be the only option for some time )I only ask because I am concerned about locking myself into a long contract with these.

More generally - what is the connectivity with Wireless like. This is 1Mb /256k. I am not concerned by the upload speed, but the download speed would be okay assuming there are no contention ratio problems. Are contention ratios a problem with Wireless?

Also what is security like - Eg are you safe doing online banking as long as you have a firewall? Can neighbours hijack your connection?

What are peoples experiences with Wireless in general?

Sorry for all the questions - any help appreciated

Thanks

I use quantum near Kilcullen and have to report the following:

Signal drops off completely between every hour and every ten minutes. I originally thought this was wireless interference/signal strength, but the wireless connection is sometimes up when the connection drops. I've run a packet sniffer on the etherent provided from the CPE and can see others packets (mainly ARPs, but lots of other stuff), even when internet is down, so the wireless is good. I've spoken to QBSL about this (well I left them a message, becasue they have their phones on permanent divert: you can never reach a person), but they say there is nothing wrong with this. As a network admin, I disagreed with their engineer and they threatened to disconnect me is I didn't like the service!
As if I needed proof that this should not happen on a correctly configured public lan, someone on my local QBSL loop recently plugged a wifi AP in and it started sending out DHCP addresses to my firewall/router (and several others!) I logged in to it and shut it down, and back came the internet.
When I try to call these people, they never answer the phone, and never return my messages, give me a status report on a logged issue, etc.
They always take my money. As soon as DSL is in my area, I'm on it and away from the c*wb**s.
That's from someone with 10 years sys admin experience, using wifi as the primary connectivity for an enterprise. In my experience QBSL don't know what they're at and don't value their customers very much.

My 2c

JohnnieM

TheBazman wrote:

Cheers Watty for your responses - Unfortunately this supplier is the only supplier in my area so it will be either bband thru' them on their terms or no bband at all. I will try dig some information from them around maximum usage on one base sector

What area are you in?..

Marlow

_William wrote:

As if I needed proof that this should not happen on a correctly configured public lan, someone on my local QBSL loop recently plugged a wifi AP in and it started sending out DHCP addresses to my firewall/router (and several others!) I logged in to it and shut it down, and back came the internet.

Looks like they have bridging clients and no authentification mechanism at all on the AP side. Not good.

/Marlow

zugvogel

Gone bankrupt? Not that I've heard. It was last November when they did the LOS test at my place. Maybe they're snowed under. From what I can figure out there is very little broadband coverage south of the N7 in Kildare apart from the likes of Athy, but it looks like that places like Calverstown, Nurney, Kildangan, Narraghmore and so on have no decent service at the moment and I'm sure there's plenty of demand around here. Any service that is available is usually at the extreme range of the wireless providers present e.g. Digiweb from Athy, Last Mile from Kildare/Laois border and so on. I would have thought that QBSL would be in there like a shot before Eircom start upgrading the exchanges??

Zug

_William

Marlow wrote:

Looks like they have bridging clients and no authentification mechanism at all on the AP side. Not good.

/Marlow

That's what I thought when I saw all the remote traffic on my local presentation. An L2 rule on the AP would sort all that out quicksharp. I can see browser announcements etc from users, which I suppose is down to plugging in a windows machine with the MS clients active on the ethernet, but most users set their hostname to their family name or something, so I can identify them. Not good at all. A firewall is a must.
btw, the AP I logged in to had it's default settings, including username pwd combo, so it went live from the box and disrupted the whole network (segment?). Now that should not be possible.
Having posted here, I now have to report that the connection has become more stable over the last few days ?? It still drops off a few times a day, which, in my opinion is still unacceptable for a broadband connection. A wifi mesh should maintain its connections even with link loss, and a client/AP link should stay up forever given decent RF performance.
Having recently moved back from the UK, I find this kind of stuff quite laughable. I used to get 8megs DSL from BT in London with no link or packet loss for about 6 years! Ah, the good old days. I think, given what you say about the low broadband penetration in Kildare that it's possible to provide a poor service and still take peoples money becasue there is no competition. It seems a strange way to run a business to me, as it can only generate a desire to move as soon as something better comes along, but you see the same behaviour with banking and insurance, where people stay put and don't move their business after experiencing bad service or high prices from a provider. I suppose it all comes down to peoples tolerance and the perception that moving is hard work. The devil you know and all that rubbish.
Anyone know a TD I could lobby for DSL on an exchange?

;-)