Spencer Dock apartments broadband choices

DrBB

I have taken an apartment in the Spencer dock apartment complex.

I have been investigating broadband choices for this place it seems that the developers have left the place 'finished' with a Magnet (fiber to home) and the UPC. Not sure if there is a normal phone line in there somewhere too!

I have contacted Smart Telecom who inform me that the only service they can provide is a 3mbit 'smartvision' broadband line. Which is not really what I was after. (35/month + 80 install)

Just wondering if anyone else in the development had broadband from any provider?

Being a 'new' apartment Eircom wish to furnish their coffers with the €100 odd install fee.

Smart would have been my first choice with the option of a static IP (preferable!).

Magnet seem unwilling/able/otherwise to provide static IP's on their FTTH products. Being that the fiber exists in the building they are unwilling to offer ADSL2+ products. Their business 'FTTO' packages are ... not so cheap. They again won't provide business ADSL2+ as the fiber exists ;(

Any thought's comments or suggestsions would be appreciated

bk

You are very lucky that you have so many options.

It sounds like your apartment is wired for UPC cable, ethernet/fibre and phone, so you can pick from pretty much the best providers on the market.

I wouldn't touch SmartVision with a ten foot pole, I have the SmartVision service myself and it is awful.

I wouldn't go with Eircom or any of the other bitstream providers also.

I'd go with either Magnet or UPC, both excellent services. Neither will offer you a fixed IP, but I wouldn't let that stop me, would a Dynamic DNS service not be good enough for you?

rc28

Upc currently offer the best package of 20mb with a decent tv service too. You are extremely lucky to have a choice between the best broadband services in the country! I heard recently that magnet will soon be offering 50mb over their ftth- maybe give them a call?

lotas

DrBB wrote: »

Magnet seem unwilling/able/otherwise to provide static IP's on their FTTH products. Being that the fiber exists in the building they are unwilling to offer ADSL2+ products.

So, magnet are offering you broadband, which, by the way, is being upgraded to 50Mb/s and your looking for ADSL2? i thinks you need to get your head checked...

lynchie

What he said ^^^^

Why you need a static IP? Unless you are running a mail server / DMZ at home then you dont need a static IP.

lotas

and even if you are running mail, web or dmz at home, dyndns will be grand. I've ran servers at home on NTL/UPC for years!

DrBB

Well I have traditionally run a wide variety of things from my home connections, static IP's usually proved more reliable. But dyndns is a good compromise.

My worry with magnet is well, I don't know them very well at all. 50mbit connections are all well and good but I'd hope their on-site and core infrastructure is up to the task challenge. From brief forum scanning I note people complaining of contention (i.e slow speeds) from international things. (Phoned them earlier and the 50mb was 'rumored' for August and supposedly symmetric, like their current offering.(warning sales pitch etc)).

I also seem to get the impression that magnet are very protective over the hardware they give you, i.e the (essentially Ethernet switch/router I presume). Refusing to give passwords etc, this would make port-forwarding rather difficult. (Have read a thread claiming to have a method of contacting the HW manufacturer to obtain an unlocking method)

As for wanting magnet adsl2 vs fiber, if you look at their business fiber offering, you get 1mbit down 500kbit up for 99+vat/month 2mbit up/down for 169+vat/month... their adsl2+ *business* products are significantly cheaper (and have static ip's etc). That was the only reason I was looking towards ADSL2 vs fiber.


(I know magnet claim no contention but 50mbit in each of the Spencer dock apartments is a fairly hefty infrastructure requirement.)

lotas

to tell you the truth, i have never had a magnet connection, but i have heard good things. one guy i know says they had gaming servers running off them, and the ping times where extreamly low. As for the international stuff, could be their upstream ISP... depends on who they are connected to. I would also be looking more at UPC for internet too. thats who i am with at the moment, and i have 20 down, 1.5up. very nice. i have had the same ip for a couple of months now, and nothing has changed. I use a DynDns service for DNS, but, only rarley...

As for no contention, i am guessing its the number of people on the same line. UPC, for example, say 17:1. so, the link between me and the "Exchange" has 17 other people on it. Your magnet fiber connection, on the other hand, may not have anyone except you on it. Mind you, unless they have a couple of 2.4Gb/s fiber links directly into the appartments, your problem may be getting back out... Dont know though...

DrBB

Indeed, currently the apartments seem 'relatively' empty, my worry would be 3-4 months into a 12 month contract and ending up in extreme contentionsville. Equally the 20mbit ntl links in the same complex could be suffering the same!

Edit:

Another thought, I know Magnet's TV products are provided over their IP network, does NTL's TV package eat into their network in a similar way?

jimmycrackcorm

DrBB wrote: »

I
Another thought, I know Magnet's TV products are provided over their IP network, does NTL's TV package eat into their network in a similar way?

No. Cable can handle a wider range of frequencies than twisted pair. If you have more than one tv point with Magnet then each one takes an additional 4mb from your BB capacity.

bk

A friend in work is on Magnet in Adamstown, he gets solid 8m/8m with no contention.

DrBB

Have given magnet a go, will see how things turn out

Tefral

Im in spencer dock too with the same situation as you and i opted for NTL will see tomorrow how it fares out and will let you know. Incidently i think im the only one living in my block...

DrBB

Had the 8mbit stuff installed the other day, seems perfectly stable.



Pings about 1-2ms to rte.ie - 12-13ms to jolt.co.uk

I just noticed earlier that they have launched the 50Mbit product.

So I had them upgrade it (took about 5 mins). Now so far, line seems great, same pings etc.



Long may the infrastructure survive

How is your NTL connection working out cronin_j?

Bohrio

Magnets international contention is not that bad. You barely noticed a depreciation of the service (maybe 10-20%) but dont let that stop you...

I dont think you will have problems with contention in the near future either, their interlinks are wide enough...

I strongly recomend Magnet, 50 mb (50 mb/8 mb), even the 8/8 mb service is outstanding!

The total price is 93 euro and includes BB, TV and phone. You can't leave the phone or TV aside though when you are opting for the 50 mb service.

If you find it to expensive you can always go for their 24/8 mb service...

barnicles

Good speed

paulm17781

DrBB wrote: »

Sweet Jebus!

smellslikeshoes

Good to see someone from boards on the 50mbit, was wondering how long it would take before we seen a 50mbit magnet speedtest.

Bohrio

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

Good to see someone from boards on the 50mbit, was wondering how long it would take before we seen a 50mbit magnet speedtest.

Yeah looks great!

I have the 8 mb package and the reason why I havent applied for the 50 mb one is because It would have broken my 2 month trial special offer (first 2 months you pay 50 euro/month), my trial is almost over now, as soon as it is I will def upgrade to the 50 mb package...

DrBB

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/1217507030641154751.html

Nipped home during my lunch break to run a few things. The upload speed, in the testers seems to be about 1-2mbit 'slower' than it was reporting when I was on the 8mbit. But thats nothing really to quibble over.

Ran the speedtest one a few times got 58/59 and that 63 one.

The upload seems to fluctuate a lot on speedtest.net's thing, it seems to burst at the start (20/30) then fluctuate in and around the 7~ mark.

rc28

Speedtest.net isn't that reliable for ping and even for dl and upload speeds. Can you please run a test at irishisptest.com and post your results here. Thanks!

CivilServant

DrBB wrote: »

Riggght, I'm moving!

smellslikeshoes

rc28 wrote: »

Speedtest.net isn't that reliable for ping and even for dl and upload speeds. Can you please run a test at irishisptest.com and post your results here. Thanks!

I fail to see how irishisptest would be any more reliable than Speedtest, it is essentially the same thing.

rc28

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

I fail to see how irishisptest would be any more reliable than Speedtest, it is essentially the same thing.

In my experience, it provides more accurate ping results to Irish servers and a more accurate upload speed result. It has been proven on here that speedtest.net gives completely wrong ping results- fact because when you do a DOS ping to the exact same server that the dublin speedtest.net server uses (westnet.ie) the result is MUCH lower than the one the website gives you. Also, irishisptest.net gives a way more detailed set of results like quality of service, packet loss etc. Why don't you try it out;
http://www.irishisptest.com/runmyspeed.php

DrBB

Just nipped in to run the test off out

http://www.irishisptest.com:443/myspeed/db/report?id=148179

Think that works!

rc28

DrBB wrote: »

Just nipped in to run the test off out

http://www.irishisptest.com:443/myspeed/db/report?id=148179

Think that works!

Thanks for that. 48mb dl is far more realistic for a 50mb connection than 60 something, I remember spongebob or some other poster saying that for connections above 20mb speedtest.net becomes inaccurate but I don't know why.