Kilmessan Broadband (Again)

niallb

rjbir wrote:

Niallb,
3G reception not so good, got weak signal overall, I was testing for any good 3G signal O2, Vodafona, whatever. the handset is a Nokia 3G diagnostic piece of kit, i work in the mobile telecoms business.

Cheers
Bob

Hi Bob,
Don't get disheartened if you can see the signal at all.
So long as you can keep the card from locking to a 2G signal on a different sector, you can have usable service at very low received power in a quiet area like this.

I've had a working connection with reception strength as low as -103dBm.
At -99dBm and above I'd consider it reliable.
If your diagnostic kit doesn't give you these figures, it may instead be giving
you a strength indicator (probably called RSSI) between 0 and 31.
A 3G card or phone used as a modem will give you the same figure in response to an AT+CSQ command.
The same setup can use AT+COPS=? to scan all available networks.

The relationship between the two numbers is roughly -113dBm +2xRSSI reading.
I find a usable signal to be 7 or above on the AT+CSQ scale, with 9 and above giving few dropouts.

Signal quality can also be poor, and a DNS cache makes a big difference
to preventing timeouts stopping the show.

It also seems to help if I use office.vodafone.ie instead of hs.vodafone.ie
as an apn, but that may just be voodoo and coincidence.

Sorry to throw the maths into the thread,
but it's useful to be able to measure a rule of thumb.
I hope you get something working!
Good luck with it.
NiallB

Slaanesh

UPDATE:

Was doing my weekly "Insert number into line checker and fail" routine when I got the message "May be suitable for broadband". Straight on the phone and ordered the 3meg from eircom. Mid order the sales guy goes "Oh sorry sir we can't give you that, your line may only handle 1meg". Fine by me ....

So I placed the order anyway and then got in touch with my eircom contact. Apparently the threshold was increased for the tara exchange just the day before. One of the figures he mentioned was 98dbs which seemed very high. Lots of lines in the village still fail outright. On google maps the exchange is a good 5 miles away. I wonder if I can't get 1 meg would it be possible to get 512K?

Line supposed to be activated by the 17th so I'll just have to wait till then.

Slaanesh

BINGO: I came home and put the router in and the DSL line stayed green (rush of blood to the head). Quickly booted up the computer and straight onto boards.ie, it works. 100K download rate sub-30 ping to boards. I still can't believe I'm actually on broadband after all these years, unbelievable.

Thanks to all who have given me info and advice over the years.

Line stats:

noise margin upstream: 21 db
output power downstream: 6 db
attenuation upstream: 30 db

noise margin downstream: 12 db
output power upstream: 0 db
attenuation downstream: 59 db

Not sure what it all means but maybe some of you guys can pick it apart.

Sponge Bob

Looks like a c.3.5 mile long line at most slaanesh

a healthy 1mbit line that , maybe its a secretly 'bonded adsl2+' line outside

lucernarian

Hey Slaanesh, it's pretty cool to get broadband after so long, isn't it?:d On the face of it, that looks like a grand 1 mbps line. Is the connection speed at 1024/128??

Could you give me the make/model of the router you're using, as I want to check something with the manufacturers over the way they report the stats.

crawler

Slaanesh wrote:

Now that crawler works for Eircom ... who knows what could happen for Kilmessan :P

** Cough **

lucernarian

Yes?? Crawler, do you have anything to offer to the thread?

Duiske

psssstt....hey crawler, fancy a few free jars down my local ? Couple of carrier/split lines need "fixing" down here.

crawler

<- runs away and hides under big rocks...lurking

Slaanesh

To_be_confirmed wrote:

Hey Slaanesh, it's pretty cool to get broadband after so long, isn't it?:d On the face of it, that looks like a grand 1 mbps line. Is the connection speed at 1024/128??

Could you give me the make/model of the router you're using, as I want to check something with the manufacturers over the way they report the stats.

I'm using a Zyxel Prestige 600. Should be getting the netopia sometime next week.

The line would hardly be able to handle any more than 1 meg? Yeah it's a 1024/128 connection at the moment.

lucernarian

Cheers. I wonder why that engineer fella in the village didn't try to get you connected, seeing as your line is fully capable of 1 Mbps. Of course, mabye eircom have extended the range successfully using something else we're not aware of. But enjoy nonetheless!

Sponge Bob

Sooner or later eircom will have to start deploying DSL Repeaters . I see many reasons why they would tend to do this discreetly and not openly .

I have no actual evidence that any have been deployed .......yet....but sooner or later someone will get a service that defies the laws of physics in the absence of a repeater . Then I will get suspicious as to how they got that service.

Anything odd I have encountered in the past actually turned out to be a full subexchange in a cabinet .....eg someones dialup speed going up from 28k to 48k overnight .

Not aimed at you or at lovely Kilmessan of course slaanesh

MessyRedBlue

Hey Slaanish, I just registered with boards.ie to ask you is this true!!????

I cant belive Kilmessan has Bband! I just bought a house there and hope to move in the next few weeks, its in the new estate (im sure you know the one im talking about) Do you think we will have Bband there?????

I've been following your blogs re broadband in kilmessan since I put a deposit on the house and I cant believe this is true. If I ring Eircom in the morning will they be able to hook me up???? The excitement!!!

Slaanesh

Hi there,

It is apparently true in my case. I assume you have bought in Bective lodge, I bought there too. There will be a few more people over the coming weeks getting hooked up. I'll throw you a PM if all or most of them succeed in getting DSL.

Judging from what the guys here have said about my line stats it appears to be a healthy 1 meg line. I've only had it go down once so far for about 2 minutes, other than that it's been brilliant.

MessyRedBlue wrote:

Hey Slaanish, I just registered with boards.ie to ask you is this true!!????

I cant belive Kilmessan has Bband! I just bought a house there and hope to move in the next few weeks, its in the new estate (im sure you know the one im talking about) Do you think we will have Bband there?????

I've been following your blogs re broadband in kilmessan since I put a deposit on the house and I cant believe this is true. If I ring Eircom in the morning will they be able to hook me up???? The excitement!!!

MessyRedBlue

That would be great if you could keep me updated on the other peoples progress. I rang Eircom this morn and I have to pay 120 euro to get phone line first, they said it would be 5 to 6 weeks and even after that they couldnt guarantee that the line would be suitable for broadband.

I might wait to see if the other BL residents have success before I splash out!!!!

btw I tried entering a few local businesses phone numbers in eircom tester website thing and it says that broadband is not available. Could it be that you were just lucky!?!

Do you think its possible that some houses in the BL estate are able to get connected and some arent (I hope not)

greeny

Hi Slaanesh

Jsust registered, i've been following the post for the last while, i alos bought in BL. I was told that there was a DSL enabled mini-exchange fed of the the Tara exchange in Kilmessan, is you phone line connected to this or to Tara?

Great news by the way, congrats

lucernarian

There's a DSL-enabled exchange in Co. Meath (according to eircom.ie) that's called Pelletstown. Would this be near Kilmessan??

MessyRedBlue

hey tbc,

pelletstown is about the same distance away from kilmessan as dunshaughlin is, Tara would be nearer.

kilmessman

Hi,
I am new to this thread but have also heard that there is a "mini exchange" in Kilmessan linking back to Tara.

Just wondering if this is now in use and if Slaanesh and MessyRedBlue still have good broadband performance from Eircom in Kilmessan.

Thanks

Slaanesh

The 1 meg I have has been great. Would ideally like more but I'll take what I get for now. There is a slight bit of interleaving on the line with 20+ping to boards.ie as opposed to 10-12ms in work.

I haven't heard of anyone else in Bective Lodge getting broadband yet, some people seem to be waiting an age to get a line from Eircom. I was talking to a guy in the pub and he said that he can't get a line and there is no date provisioned for one ... that sucks.

I also asked my contact in Eircom if I was on the sub-exchange, turns out I am actually serviced directly by the Tara exchange which I found very odd because I remember them digging the road up and linking the sub-exchange with our estate. Not that I know exactly how all this jiggery pokery works.

SkepticOne

Slaanesh wrote:

I was talking to a guy in the pub and he said that he can't get a line and there is no date provisioned for one ... that sucks.

He should be entitled to a line under the universal service. Eircom are required to tell him how long it will take.

Sponge Bob

what Universal Service ??? The scam run by Comreg ??

SkepticOne

Too bad it is run by ComReg but that is what Eircom are required to do.

kilmessman

Thanks Slaanesh

Do anyone know if TaraWAN still exists?

Slaanesh

kilmessman wrote:

Thanks Slaanesh

Do anyone know if TaraWAN still exists?

Dead, fruitless venture.

greeny

Hi Slanesh, i got a netopia router for eircom broadband (my line fails) but i said i'd try it anyway, I'm in Bective Lodge also. I plugged in but no joy, was there any magic you performed to get BBand working

Slaanesh

Eircom still have to enable your line regardless, you can't just plug the router in and expect it to sync. I reckon you need to ring someone in Eircom and really push to have your line enabled, even if it's failing.

greeny

was on to eircom, they say the cant enable my line as it fails the test, how did you get aroud this

StickyMcGinty

i've a friend out kilmessan way in curtistown, she's been quoted abs crazy prices for satellite BB and i've been searching for ages for info on getting landline DSL for her...

anyway i'd say any line outside the actual village is Pairgained all over the place? anyway i can check?

KHUGY

Right folks, i live in bective also. i have been waiting almost a year for a phone line to be put in, and still no sign of it. Got the story about that exchange being built. Are there anymore out there still waiting on a landline to be installed in the lodge by eircom