Nightmare that is trying to get broadband in Dublin

adrian522

Hi,

Any help or advice greatly appreciated.

First of all I live off the main road in Rathmines about a 10 min walk from the city centre.

I first called NTL and asked about their broadband, after all the usual guff about account numbers and what not, it transpires that all they can offer is basic cable, no digital tv and no broadband.

So next step was to call eircom, had to pay €121 to get the line installed.

That was only this week. Then called them up about the broadband and they say there is only 300mbit capacity on the line.

This is just crazy as far as I can see. They then start to try and sell me this wireless product they have. Now I already have clearwire so I wanted to get away from wireless.

Anyway, Eircom won't even guarentee that I will be able to get any broadband at all but will sign me up if i want but only to the 1mb package(12 month Contract).

I know that they only test the lines at the exchange every month or so but the girl on the phone swears blind that there is only 30% capacity for a 1mb connection.
I don't see how she could know this as the line was only just installed.

I'm confused about what to do next. Maybe I could give it a week or 2 to see if the test at the exchange gets done or else I could sign up and see what the signal is like.

Other option is to wait for this wireless package though they say you also need the phone line for this.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Sponge Bob

Adrian

please edit the title of the thread ( edit > go advanced) and put the words IN DUBLIN at the end.

Otherwise people will think you are a culchie from 10 miles out of Dublin in the schticks who has no business with broadband or any technology of note. So they won't care.

Good lad.

Cabaal

I take it Eircom meant your line can only take 300K as apposed to 512K (half meg) or 1024K (one meg).

The time the line gets installed has nothing to do with what your line can support, at the end of the day the issue comes down to distance from your local telephone exchange (not as the crow flys) and the actual quality of the telephone line between your local telephone exchange and your house (incl wiring in your house).

It sucks but thats the reality of things, It might be working waiting for the line to be retested and see what you can get then but its worth remembering that line tests are a estimate and the results can often vary from spot on to wayyyy off.

To give you one example, I've seen a line being classed as only being able to take 512K but at the end of the day when the line was provisioned for broadband itn was able to support upto 4MB, while thats not the norm...it can happen.

Even if your line can only support 512K speeds then Eircom are still selling the product within spec as its supplied as a upto 1MB service.

Cabaal,

btw I've edited the thread title

Sponge Bob

could simply be a bit of damp or a spider nesting for the winter got in somewhere and that it can be found and cleaned and dried and sealed up.

adrian522

Cabaal wrote: »

I take it Eircom meant your line can only take 300K as apposed to 512K (half meg) or 1024K (one meg).

The time the line gets installed has nothing to do with what your line can support, at the end of the day the issue comes down to distance from your local telephone exchange (not as the crow flys) and the actual quality of the telephone line between your local telephone exchange and your house (incl wiring in your house).

It sucks but thats the reality of things, It might be working waiting for the line to be retested and see what you can get then but its worth remembering that line tests are a estimate and the results can often vary from spot on to wayyyy off.

To give you one example, I've seen a line being classed as only being able to take 512K but at the end of the day when the line was provisioned for broadband itn was able to support upto 4MB, while thats not the norm...it can happen.

Even if your line can only support 512K speeds then Eircom are still selling the product within spec as its supplied as a upto 1MB service.

Cabaal,

btw I've edited the thread title

Yes 300K is what they are saying, so it doesn't sound like good news. But I Guess it's worth getting the broadband to see what sppeds it actually gets?

Cabaal

adrian522 wrote: »

Yes 300K is what they are saying, so it doesn't sound like good news. But I Guess it's worth getting the broadband to see what sppeds it actually gets?

Might be worth it alright, whats there cooling off period like?

As if its a decent amount of time you could order it test it and cancel it if your not happy, might as well since you forked out for the phone line.

watty

It's an even bigger nightmare outside of the 5 cities.

300K on DSL is much better than "up to 3.6Mbps" £G/HSDPA and some of the more doubious wireless in a box products.

Praetor

That prequal could be old (you said you are on a new line)

384 kbps is the worst prequal you can get, if the installation is unsucessful Eircom can offer you mid brand services and hook you to a non RA 256 kbps connection.

Anyhow, I doubt that prequal is right, dont hold your breath, you will only know after you get the service.

adrian522

Thanks for this, but excuse my ignorance, what is non RA?

Praetor

Rate adaptive

Rate adaptive means that the modem is alowed to connect to a lower speed depending on your line conditions , basically the modem will try to connect at the preset speed (lets say 1024 kbps or 1mb), if it cant it will try a lower speed (978, 762, 612... thats when dsl light flashes) until it finds a suitable one and then connects (syncs), for a 1 mb connection the margingoes from 160 kbps to 1024 kbps. If it reaches the lowest speed (160 kbps in that case) sync will fail and the modem will retry until it connects.

Non Rate Adaptive means that the line speed will not change and will always remain the same, that's always 160 kbps or 256 kbps or 512 kbps..., so the modem will try to connect at that particular speed, if it can't it will resync but always at the same speed.

hope it helps

adrian522

Thanks....

canmatt

I love this country and city but the communications infrastructure is seriously stuck in the 90s.

bealtine

canmatt wrote: »

I love this country and city but the communications infrastructure is seriously stuck in the 90s.

You are being far too kind calling it stuck in the 90's...more like the 80's.

long_b

My line gets about 300kb/sec too. It's not that bad at all really, when it works.

I find my connection goes down for a day or two every couple of weeks, really annoying but not as bad as dealing with 3 BB

Maybe it's my distance from the exchange (in the sticks) - you may be OK.

I'm with UTV who I find to be very good support wise, they sent me out a second (older) modem to see if it would sync better.

great unwashed

bealtine wrote: »

You are being far too kind calling it stuck in the 90's...more like the 80's.

could be he meant 1890s because that's around the time when telecommunications began.

BB goes down a few times in a month for me - in the sticks so that's acceptable, I suppose...