Do people recommend going from Eircom to UPC/NTL

apeking

Lads got a question for you:

At moment Eircom land line and internet is at 65 euro a month
And tv with Chorus/NTL is 20

Total is 85 Euro

Now i am looking at gettin the NTL/Chorus all in deal of : DVR, Broadband Express 10Mb and our Phone Service with Freetime to your existing Digital TV service for only €44 extra a month. What's more, order online and we'll connect you for FREE.

So this means we will get everything for €64 a month.

Saving €20 a month.

my question is how much better is UPC to Eircom?

At moment i am on the 7.4mb package on eircom and i am getting the full speeds. My ping has gone to crap though and i like my on-line games (CSS,COD4,TF2)

Are UPC/NTL better for gaming? I am in the swords Area?

And how easy is it to set up wireless internet?b I want to connect everything wireless around the house.

Will my existing eircom router work? Or do i have to purchase additional router?

I like my torrents also, how are they with torrents and emule? Are ports easily opened?

Thanks lads and sorry for all the questions....

UPC are far better than eircom and are doin the most to push BB speeds in ireland.


I am the host on COD 4 90% of the time on my 20MB connection, pings are good not brilliant, Due to it being routed trough Holland,

I believe you can add the option of getting a wireless router or simply use your own.



Torrents arnt throttled either, ports are freely opened.

Cabaal

After using NTL 3MB for two years before I moved to a non-NTL area I'd recommend it over Eircom, price wise its alot better.

John Mason

thats if you can actually get it wired up to your house.

so far they have cancelled twice, turned up at a completely different time to what they told and when they finally turned up, i was told there was full signal in the house but the technican couldnt get it connected to my computer and he would have to send maintenance around but he wasnt sure when that would happened.

so far there i have left 5 messages with NTL asking for a manager to call me back - nothing yet

L31mr0d

yeah get it. I have the 20Mb/s connection, and even though I don't always have the rated speed, my line very rarely drops below 10Mb/s

Also, there is no bandwidth cap, the biggest selling point for me.

JJ

I would recommend moving from Eircom to almost anyone. I would never use them again after they took about a month to set up a phone line in my last place. I only got it done that "soon" because I got someone at my local Citizen's Info centre to put a rocket up the rear ends. Then I switched to Imagine straight afterwards.

La Ola

has anyone else had this problem wher they say 3mb broadband but I am getting 1665kbps which has been constant since i got broadband in thats fine until I was told they upgrade the connection automatically to 3mb but mine didn't.
Got in contact with broadband support they told me it was all fine their end. so i did a full scan of my Computer virus free!!! Kinda at a loss now is there something I am not doing because im paying for a service but not getting it. If Im to blame fine but i need to try everything first,very frustrating as eircom don't seem to give a toss my Router home page says 2mb but they weren't interseted in that either
Is there a miracle quick fix that I can try????????????? anyone

meditraitor

Its only after moving from a UPC area that I realise how handy they are.
The package for TV/Broadband and phone is second to none in terms of price and and the service was dependable.

Trying to get a wireless supplier/ sky and a phone into my new place is a pain. UPC just arrived and plugged me in.

smellslikeshoes

La Ola wrote: »

has anyone else had this problem wher they say 3mb broadband but I am getting 1665kbps which has been constant since i got broadband in thats fine until I was told they upgrade the connection automatically to 3mb but mine didn't.
Got in contact with broadband support they told me it was all fine their end. so i did a full scan of my Computer virus free!!! Kinda at a loss now is there something I am not doing because im paying for a service but not getting it. If Im to blame fine but i need to try everything first,very frustrating as eircom don't seem to give a toss my Router home page says 2mb but they weren't interseted in that either
Is there a miracle quick fix that I can try????????????? anyone

It sounds like the case is that your line can't handle more than that because of distance or because its a poorish line. Post up your line stats, on an Eircom router you do this by going to http://192.168.1.254/ and clicking expert mode on left hand side, then statistics >Dsl. What you are looking for is
Max Allowed Speed
SN Margin
Line Attenuation.

ibuprofen

I was on eircom getting ripped on monthly rental and paying for broadband on top. Similar to what happens with perlico.
Have to say NTL broadband has been brilliant 20MB download and 1.5 MB upload speed for €40. They throw in a free wireless router as well. Really happy with it.

apeking

thanks for the replies...

looks like i'll go for it so.

on 3mb eircom BB i used to get pings of around 25-30ms to UK CSS servers.

What should i ecxpect on UPC?

ytareh

Your ping will definitely go up (guess average 45-75 but of course it varies on what and where youre connecting to -it could be 200-500 outside Europe)Lets jsut say ping INCREASE of 15-35 on average.Surprisingly(NOT) all is great for the first month or two-pings same as Eircom or better even ...then service starts to slip ,ping,download speed,cut outs- brief and for hours on end(although usually after midnight )Its the best I can get in Leixlip but it has deteriorated -some nights recently get constant disconnects ...

La Ola

Thanks for the reply man checked that out these are the stats

DownstreamUpstreamMax Allowed Speed (kbps)2048256SN Margin (dB)31.0025.00Line Attenuation (dB)17.008.50CRC Errors00

This sound right?

La Ola

Bad reply sorry about that hope this is clearer

Max speed allowed 2048 down

256 up


make sense?

smellslikeshoes

La Ola wrote: »

Thanks for the reply man checked that out these are the stats

DownstreamUpstreamMax Allowed Speed (kbps)2048256SN Margin (dB)31.0025.00Line Attenuation (dB)17.008.50CRC Errors00

This sound right?

They are definitely only sending 2mbit down that line. Are you sure that your exchange has been upgraded for the higher speeds?

sz_danii

My opinion is that UPC sucks , ports are blocked ( you have to use encrypted connection ), their DNS servers suck as well, so connection is not good at all. You get a 20 mb BB on your bill , but download is not better than on an eircom 3 MB line !

La Ola

not 100% sure as the exchange only came online in july and the muppet support never mentioned that, even though i had said that figure to them, would have thought that was the solution.
Thanks for your time man appreciate it will follow it up
cheers
La Ola

Moriarty

apeking wrote: »

thanks for the replies...

looks like i'll go for it so.

on 3mb eircom BB i used to get pings of around 25-30ms to UK CSS servers.

What should i ecxpect on UPC?

Provide a few ip addresses to game servers you use and we can provide ping/traceroutes for you.

christophicus

Moriarty wrote: »

Provide a few ip addresses to game servers you use and we can provide ping/traceroutes for you.

Just remember that there will be some overhead on game servers, over the ping/tracert time.

Archu

Biggest negative against UPC is their total disinterest in any form of Customer service

Once they have your money, they don't care a whit for Customer Service

I'm being hounded by UPC to upgrade from our DVR to include B'Band and Talk
While it sounds like a bargain - I know I'll be very much on my own should I have any questions, or God forbid somethin' goes wrong

Once bitten etc.

apeking

When i ping the SD:CSS server in the uk this is waht i get

C:\Users\ping 82.136.24.19

Pinging 82.136.24.19 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 82.136.24.19: bytes=32 time=60ms TTL=122
Reply from 82.136.24.19: bytes=32 time=62ms TTL=122
Reply from 82.136.24.19: bytes=32 time=60ms TTL=122
Reply from 82.136.24.19: bytes=32 time=58ms TTL=122

Also when i ping Jolt.co.uk i get


C:\Users\ping www.jolt.co.uk

Pinging www.jolt.co.uk [82.133.85.65] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=57
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=57ms TTL=57
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=63ms TTL=57
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=59ms TTL=57

Ping statistics for 82.133.85.65:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 57ms, Maximum = 64ms, Average = 60ms

if someone could compare it would be great thanks

Moriarty

c:\>ping -n 10 82.136.24.19

Pinging 82.136.24.19 with 32 bytes of data:
...
Ping statistics for 82.136.24.19:
Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 10, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 30ms, Maximum = 42ms, Average = 34ms


c:\>ping -n 10 www.jolt.co.uk

Pinging www.jolt.co.uk [82.133.85.65] with 32 bytes of data:
...
Ping statistics for 82.133.85.65:
Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 10, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 19ms, Maximum = 26ms, Average = 21ms

So yeah, better than dsl

apeking

Thanks Moriarty

Thats what i wanted to see!!

I'll book it online tomorrow.

Thanks for all your help lads

vibe666

sz_danii wrote: »

1. ports are blocked ( you have to use encrypted connection )

2. their DNS servers suck as well, so connection is not good at all.

1. anyone using any ISP should be using a random port with transport encryption ON if you plan on downloading anything other than linux ISO's, I don't see that as a downside at all.

2. i haven't used an ISP's dns servers since opendns started up, and I wouldn't recommend anyone else did either unless it was as a backup for opendns.

Blindpew

sz_danii wrote: »

My opinion is that UPC sucks , ports are blocked ( you have to use encrypted connection ), their DNS servers suck as well, so connection is not good at all. You get a 20 mb BB on your bill , but download is not better than on an eircom 3 MB line !

It must depend where you are or else you may have a pc problem. I'd give them top marks so far, as I can download at 2.3mbps fairly often, thats a 700mb film in under five minutes. I can barely watch them that fast. So long as they don't throttle me I think they're great.

vibe666

you can watch a movie in 5 minutes? :eek:

John Mason

I have decided UPC/NTL dont want my money

after crying on the phone on wednesday with total frustration with their customer service, i am off to start a thread about broadband in a box

dub45

pink fluffy bunny wrote: »

I have decided UPC/NTL dont want my money

after crying on the phone on wednesday with total frustration with their customer service, i am off to start a thread about broadband in a box

Yes I know what you mean - in spite of very bad memories I had forgotten how bad they could actually be until last week when I attempted to report a major tv outage in the area. After getting past the irate robotic voice warning me that I better have my account number next time and a demand for a telephone number (how does such a demand conform with data protection I wonder?) before I could get anyone passing for human to answer me I then had to assure the person concerned that I did have an account with them and that the account had been with their various incarnations for 30 years or so. I wonder how many people they get who dont have an account with them report faults?:rolleyes:

I was then told that any disruption was due to new cables being installed - when I queried this further I was told that there had been a fault ok but it had been fixed at 1.30 that day and when I assured the person that my neighbours and myself were all looking at blank screens I was told that it could not be progressed further until I agreed to an appointment with a technician. I of course pointed out that this was utterly stupid but again nothing could be done if I didnt agree etc etc etc.

If they were paying me to take bb from them I wouldnt! I really did not think that the old NTL customer service could get worse but UPC really have done that. Quite an achievement. No doubt they will be awarded bb provider of the year one of these fine days!!!:rolleyes::rolleyes:

vibe666

i just moved (yesterday) from BT (eircom bitstream 7.6mbps DSL) to ntl cable 20mbps and couldn't be happier with the speed.

admittedly it's only been day and I've probably cursed myself to a life of woe now, but just wanted to say i was happy with it so far.

vibe666

still going grand with it btw.

sz_danii

even if i`m working for the leader in BB in Ireland , i have a 20 mb connection with NTL, but i`m not so happy with it! It`s downloading ok for me , but i don`t know why i`m not happy with it .... probably becouse of the fibre connection from work