Ice Broadband steadily becoming even more terrible

Mikebyrne

My average speeds with ICE for the year according to speedtest.net is 0.71 Mb/s for the 3Mb line im paying for.

I've heard nothing from ICE for the past 2 weeks (4 phone calls, 2 emails and via the offical complaints section on the website)

Should my next step be a letter to Comreg?

BigglesMcGee

Mikebyrne wrote: »

My average speeds with ICE for the year according to speedtest.net is 0.71 Mb/s for the 3Mb line im paying for.

I've heard nothing from ICE for the past 2 weeks (4 phone calls, 2 emails and via the offical complaints section on the website)

Should my next step be a letter to Comreg?

ALWAYS go to Comreg with your complaints about ICE. Ice dont listen to their customers so its your only option.

Mikebyrne

Just got some figures from Speedtest.net

My Average speed is 0.71 Mb/s

My best speed has been 2.14 Mb/s (for about 10 minutes on 26/7)

The average Kildare speed for ICE is 2.93 Mb/s

Compare my speeds to the average, this is unreal and isnt it bordering on false advertising?

Mikebyrne

Is there a specfic section or person I should contact in Comreg?

BigglesMcGee

Mikebyrne wrote: »

Is there a specfic section or person I should contact in Comreg?

Try this. You want the broadband section.

Call them to register your complaint becuase im not sure they read email
Dont forget to point them to this thread too.


Peter Hall

Commission for Communications Regulation

Abbey Court

Irish Life Centre

Lower Abbey Street

Dublin 1

Telephone 1890 229 668

Fax +353 1 804 9680

www.comreg.ie

maninaskirt

Hi all, this is my speedtest this morning:

It's been like this for a few months now after numerous lengthy " discussions ", sometimes rather heated! I went through months of what felt like torture before it was acceptable.
It's still not great for gaming though as the ping is long and the packet loss is inconsistent but when it works well it's brilliant and really fast, I even usually end up as the host. If they sort this out and keep everyone at a stable connection they would be one of the best in the country.

Mikebyrne

maninaskirt wrote: »

Hi all, this is my speedtest this morning:

It's been like this for a few months now after numerous lengthy " discussions ", sometimes rather heated! I went through months of what felt like torture before it was acceptable.
It's still not great for gaming though as the ping is long and the packet loss is inconsistent but when it works well it's brilliant and really fast, I even usually end up as the host. If they sort this out and keep everyone at a stable connection they would be one of the best in the country.

I presume you have the 4mb package??

I was onto them again today and they said there is a new ticketing system in place and tec support HAVE to get back to you within 24hrs. Going to give them until 11 tomorrow

maninaskirt

Yes.

If you get to speak to tech support you'll find that they are very helpful and obliging, I just point blank refuse to deal with anyone else, I had to escalate to the Technical manager due to my frustration, he is also a nice guy and was VERY helpful but that was after months of huge landline bills.

I hope you get it sorted soon, what transmitter you on in kildare?

Mikebyrne

Athy transmitter

I'm strongly considering changing to Eircom, BT or Imagine now there all bringing out new packages

Sellphone

BigglesMcGee wrote: »

Try this. You want the broadband section.

Call them to register your complaint becuase im not sure they read email
Dont forget to point them to this thread too.


Peter Hall

Commission for Communications Regulation

Abbey Court

Irish Life Centre

Lower Abbey Street

Dublin 1

Telephone 1890 229 668

Fax +353 1 804 9680

www.comreg.ie

My experience with them to date has been positive, they responded within 2 days. Once they did that I used their name as a big stick.However, today getting 200 kbps down and 525 kbps up!. Frustrated!

Fuzzy Clam

bartificer wrote: »

Fluctuating between 2 and 3Mb/s is the worst I'll tolerate from a line sold as three Mb/s. Contention does not mean that you never get your full speed, it means that you won't get it at peak times. At night you should be up to your full speeds or there is something very wrong with your provider.


Bart.

If I understand it correctly, contention has nothing to do with peak times as such. If anybody else is on at the same time as you, day or night, it will affect the speed. How much by I don't know.

bartificer

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

If I understand it correctly, contention has nothing to do with peak times as such. If anybody else is on at the same time as you, day or night, it will affect the speed. How much by I don't know.

By your 'logic' the time of day has nothing to do with the congestion on the M50 either.

Mikebyrne

After 2 weeks of pain I finally got somewhere with ICE. The Tech support called me this morning and now my speeds seem to be normal for a 3mb line

Fuzzy Clam

bartificer wrote: »

By your 'logic' the time of day has nothing to do with the congestion on the M50 either.[/quote

Smartarse, show me anyplace where it states that contention ratios are applicable ONLY during peak times.

Fuzzy Clam

bartificer wrote: »

By your 'logic' the time of day has nothing to do with the congestion on the M50 either.

I never said that the time of day had nothing to do with it, just that its not only during peak times.Your ill thought out analogy is a good point tho, many of us suffer from congestion on the M50 during off peak hours.:eek:

bartificer

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

Smartarse, show me anyplace where it states that contention ratios are applicable ONLY during peak times.

That sort of by definition really. When there is less demand than there is bandwidth then contention is out of the picture. It is 100% irrelevant. If you network is overloaded 24/7 and you are constantly unable to provide capacity then your network is mismanaged.

The concept of a contended network is that you sell more capacity than you really have on the basis that everyone doesn't use all their bandwidth at all times. When it comes to the point where you NEVER get your full speed then the network is over-loaded. On a properly managed contended network most people will see most of their speed most of the time. The aim with contention should not be to defraud customers, but to make your network more efficient by not buying more up-stream bandwidth than you need.

I've used three contended ISPs:
1) DigiWeb - NEVER noticed the contention. Had my full 5Mb/s when ever I needed them
2) Irish Broadband - rarely notice contention except in the evenings when speeds drop about 25% or so sometimes
3) ICE Broadband - NEVER saw my full speeds EVER. Best I could hope for was half my speed, usually I was lucky to get a quarter.

If you want to pretend that ICE are not over capacity on their network then by all means continue to delude yourself. But since ICE have told me directly that they DO over-sell their service that seems like a silly position to take up.

Bart.

Fuzzy Clam

bartificer wrote: »

If you want to pretend that ICE are not over capacity on their network then by all means continue to delude yourself. But since ICE have told me directly that they DO over-sell their service that seems like a silly position to take up.

Bart.

It is YOU who is deluded if you think that contention ONLY applies during peak hours (whenever they are).
I have NEVER pretended that ICE or any other ISP do not oversell. I know that they do, including Irish BB. Show me where I have indicated otherwise. I'm certainly not defending ICE or anybody else.

Will you answer me something without giving a smartarse answer.

Given your contention ratio, how many users need do you expect to be downloading at the same time for you to notice any slowdown in your speed?

bartificer

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

It is YOU who is deluded if you think that contention ONLY applies during peak hours (whenever they are).
I have NEVER pretended that ICE or any other ISP do not oversell. I know that they do, including Irish BB. Show me where I have indicated otherwise. I'm certainly not defending ICE or anybody else.

Will you answer me something without giving a smartarse answer.

Given your contention ratio, how many users need do you expect to be downloading at the same time for you to notice any slowdown in your speed?

Are you just determined not to get it or what?

Contention is a physical property of the network so of course it's always there. However, contention is irrelevant when it is not affecting your speeds. It should not affect your speed constantly. If it is then your ISP has a capacity or management issue.

I'm not exactly talking rocket science here.

Bart.

Rawr

Hey Fuzzy,

I'm afraid Bart's in the right here. Contention is physical property or limitation of shared networks (like most supplied by ISPs).

It's not that it only applies during peak hours, it's just that you are likely to notice contention more at these times.

It is best to think of contention in terms of a motorway. Although you have a personal reason for getting from A to B on the road, you will find that their are others using that same road for their own ends. Outside of peak hours, this may be of little consequence to your journey, as the road would be mostly empty. At this time you will make best speed to your destination, but still...you share the road with others.

The fact that you share the road with others, would typically only be an issue when there are too many others, at any one given time. Dublin's peak hour traffic is a perfect example of heavy contention on shared network. Since there are so many, everything slows down. Your available space is now gone.

Not the best comparison in the world, but the best I could think of

elvis_2009

To be honest, everybody thinks of contention as a motorway ye,i have had BB with other providers and have found no difference, with contention i agree with the motorway theory, but i also believe that people who download and look for providers that dont have download constraints are the ones that bring it all down for others

bartificer

elvis_2009 wrote: »

To be honest, everybody thinks of contention as a motorway ye,i have had BB with other providers and have found no difference, with contention i agree with the motorway theory, but i also believe that people who download and look for providers that dont have download constraints are the ones that bring it all down for others

That's a management issue. And it's the ISP's fault. ICE have no download cap, so all ICE customers suffer. Bandwidth is not an unlimited resource. Yes, ISPs need to be expanding it big-time and investing in their infrastructure, but they still need to manage the resources they have.

I'm a huge believer in new media and I would hate to see overly small bandwidth caps killing podcasting, IP TV, cloud computing and all that, but unless you have some serious infrastructure you can't offer unlimited downloads and expect your network to function. Having said that, IBB have no caps and their service is superb, they must have a fantastic infrastructure.

Bart.

Fuzzy Clam

bartificer wrote: »

Are you just determined not to get it or what?

Contention is a physical property of the network so of course it's always there.


Bart.

At last!!!!!! Thats what I said in the first place. DOH!" contention has nothing to do with peak times as such. If anybody else is on at the same time as you, day or night, it will affect the speed. How much by I don't know." 28-07-2008 12:22



just as well you're not a rocket scientist.

bartificer

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

At last!!!!!! Thats what I said in the first place. DOH!" contention has nothing to do with peak times as such. If anybody else is on at the same time as you, day or night, it will affect the speed. How much by I don't know." 28-07-2008 12:22



just as well you're not a rocket scientist.

Just like traffic jams have nothing to do with peak times, it's just all those other people on the road.

You seem to refuse to accept the glaringly obvious point which I was conveying, there is a pattern to peak times, when lots of other people are on the net you get slowed down, when there aren't you don't. To pretend that there's no relationship between time of day and the effect of contention is retarded.

That's been my point all along, and still is. I haven't changed what I'm saying one bit.

Bart.

BigglesMcGee

Well folks in Rolestown area. Persistence with Eircoms "engineers" seems to have paid off. It turns out that there was a problem with some box along the route to Eircoms exchange. Eircom have now identified this problem and will have all lines in the Rolestown area able to carry at least 2Mb if not more ir 100% reliable broadband in the next 2 -3 weeks.

Given the amount of people i am in contact with in this area who suffer from Ice Broadband i can see a mass exodus from Ice to DSL the minute the first person confirms that its worked. I've already been on the phone to spread the word and the amount of people who have called me to verify is unreal. A couple will be keeping Ice though as Prime time are following their efforts still.

Not a moment too soon.

Fuzzy Clam

Rawr wrote: »

Hey Fuzzy,

I'm afraid Bart's in the right here. Contention is physical property or limitation of shared networks (like most supplied by ISPs).

It's not that it only applies during peak hours, it's just that you are likely to notice contention more at these times.

I never said otherwise. DID I?

I have made it clear that I'm not defending ICEs poor proformance etc...

I simply said that contention is not limited to peak times, a point that Bart has now conceded.

Fuzzy Clam

bartificer wrote: »

To pretend that there's no relationship between time of day and the effect of contention is retarded.


Bart.

Are you retarded? I never said that.

Please show a quote of me where I said that.

bartificer

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

Are you retarded? I never said that.

Please show a quote of me where I said that.

Apologies. You're not a retard. You're just a pedant. Derailing this thread for some wordplay has clearly been very helpful to other less technical readers. They have clearly learned a lot from you arguments.

You clearly are smarter than me. You have clearly added more to this discussion than I have.

I blow to your superiority.

Fuzzy Clam

bartificer wrote: »

Apologies. You're not a retard. You're just a pedant. Derailing this thread for some wordplay has clearly been very helpful to other less technical readers. They have clearly learned a lot from you arguments.

You clearly are smarter than me. You have clearly added more to this discussion than I have.

I blow to your superiority.

There is nothing pedantic about asking you not to claim that I said something that I clearly did not say. You were factually wrong in something you said and you finally agreed to that.

I may indeed be smarter than you but I was not attempting to add more to this discussion than you have. If you think that I have then something good has come out of this.

Blow away.

BigglesMcGee

Fuzzy,
Calm dow.
you're not really adding anything here.

Dont let the door hit your arse on the way out.

Fuzzy Clam

BigglesMcGee wrote: »

Fuzzy,
Calm dow.
you're not really adding anything here.

Dont let the door hit your arse on the way out.

Thanks. I wasn't trying to add anything here. Bart made a stupid comment which I corrected him on and he has since admitted he was wrong. End of.