Pre-Cabled/Free/Inclusive BB in Apartments

campers

Just wondering if people have experience of the inclusive/pre-cabled broadband which is on offer in some new apartment blocks?

......I suspect contention inside the building is pretty high..? For example, if all they are doing is putting a router on the end of a 3/4Mbit DSL line??

Also, maybe someone knows if:

1. Can DSL be routed into apartments? Or does it all depend on the building's subexchange?
2. Can Chorus route their cable BB into apartments?

Thanks

bushy...

The only sure way ( may not be the easiest ) is ask someone living there . I know one small apartment setup where its an IBB 4meg package into a switch.

lynchtp

On Campus apartments (or near campus) often have this type of internet access.
It is an extension of the campus network and usually gets great speeds.
However it will be heavily filtered. Did someone say proxy server?

campers

lynchtp wrote:

On Campus apartments (or near campus) often have this type of internet access.

Nope, nothing to do with edu networks. Private rented accom in and around the city centre.

altered121

campers wrote:

Nope, nothing to do with edu networks. Private rented accom in and around the city centre.

chorus have started to cable city for b/band, dock to be complete in aug afaik.
1,2,3,6Mb choices 20euro to 40 euro
ad in limerick post classifieds.:D

Zoney

campers wrote:

Just wondering if people have experience of the inclusive/pre-cabled broadband which is on offer in some new apartment blocks?

......I suspect contention inside the building is pretty high..? For example, if all they are doing is putting a router on the end of a 3/4Mbit DSL line??

If it's unmanaged, anyone running filesharing software will be hogging the bandwidth. If it's not any special kind of package with the ISP, the cap will be quickly reached with such filesharing, and even without it, could well be inadequate for "normal" usage amongst multiple tenants. A capped connection will not be fun amongst multiple tenants; even less so if filesharing monkeys still persist.

Chances of sorting problems out may be slim as explaining the technicalities may take some effort. Quite possibly you'd be dealing with a letting agent who deals with apartment management company who deal with the contractors and act on behalf of the landlords.

Fun all round.

nazthing

I've been through a pretty miserable experience regarding included broadband in a Limerick City Centre apartment for the last 18 months, so maybe my story might clue you in/help you out.

When we moved into the complex the internet was not yet ready, but it was connected not long after. My job was teleworking online until quite recently, so having access at home was crucial.

First of all, it was an IBB connection, breeze, distributed through the complex. Thereafter, it was a Digiweb line, which actually worked very well. The problem was that the cap kicked in, so the speed, shared throughout the complex was 20k and the performance was sub dialup. This went on for two months, I lost a fortune, when I complained to my management company, they said I could move out if it was a deal breaker. We really did like everything else about the place. I used the connection when it was usable and borrowed other people's connections and laptops to work for a while.

Crucially, the same company providing the broadband also provided the phone service in the building (through phone cards), so you couldn't get DSL or even dialup. Chorus was verboten also, as was Digiweb because it involves physical changes to the apartment building. Sky, phone and broadband are prewired, so in theory that shouldn't matter .

So, with Digiweb capping and uncapping the connection every week or so, IBB was switched back on while the service provider sourced a dedicated uplink. It took 15 months.

As the complex filled up, the service provider introduced some traffic shaping on the network and some bandwidth throttling based on i.p/usage to prevent hogging of bandwidth. Trouble was, from their perspective, this was easy to get around by using encrypted torrent clients and swapping usb wlan adapters between pcs.

So the latest and I presume final model, is a PPPoE connection, based on an individual username and password pre-assigned to each apartment. Downloads are now limited to 25 KB/s, so it's barely broadband.

I shelled out for a 3G USB modem as soon as I could, so I'm not beholden to it anymore for work purposes. My girlfriend is more of a downloader (like 4 GB a week when we had our own connections), so she's effected much more by it. The important thing to remember is that you probably will not be allowed to source your own provider should you find the included service not acceptable.

Also, the ISP don't look at you as their customer, they get paid from the management company. You are the annoying irritant in between the cost of distributing a 3 MB connection between 100 people and their hefty monthly service charge (yup, still a little bitter).

Good luck with the move!

watty

campers wrote:

Just wondering if people have experience of the inclusive/pre-cabled broadband which is on offer in some new apartment blocks?

......I suspect contention inside the building is pretty high..? For example, if all they are doing is putting a router on the end of a 3/4Mbit DSL line??


Thanks

The situation is terrible. Landlords get a domestic BB connection (IBB, Digiweb, Chorus, eircom, Magnet).
Then they stick an unmanaged switch on the router. The goverment susbsidy scheme stipulates 64k access, not broadband.

If even ONE other person is running torrents it will be slow and then pig slow or cut off or whatever when it goes over cap.

The lucky ones are on the college network, or get their own signal via aerial on balcony.

The ISPs don't like it as is is NOT fair use to feed an entire apartment block from one domestic connection. ISPs are happy to get the names & address of places doing this and then they can "advise" the Landlord / management company. No ISP wants to have people thinking their service is terrible.