Eircom Broadband Issues

Big Nasty

Over the past few days I've had issues with my eircom broadband. Connection is fine but eircom seem to be blocking some sites. I know there are issues of late in relation to ISP's responsibility in relation to illegal downloads, etc. but I received no notification from eircom to say that they would be taking action / blocking sites. Just two of the sites that I cannot enter are youtube and photobucket which I use quite regulalry. I suppose I should call eircom next time I have an hour to spare but in the mean time has anyone else experience similar problems with eircom usage and / or contacted them about same?

drunkmonkey

What sites are they blocking? I can try it on my eircom connection...

No. ISPs for the main don't block sites.

If they block one where do they draw the line.

I would say it is some f*ck up at eircom or DNS issues that seem to be a regular occurrence with them.

It could even be a problem with you computer.

Cabaal

Noty heard of any ISP blocking sites, I'd say its a PC, router config issue or DNS problem, either way unlikely to be Eircom actively blocking sites

smokingman

Could you have gone above your download limit?

Big Nasty

no, not the limit, spoke to a few other broadband users today and they are having similar intermittent issues. also found a thread on this subject from back in october on boards:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=57549817

seems it's a regular occurance with eircom. the first time i've come across it mind you. all is working fine at the moment but from reading this other thread i wouldn't bank on it staying that way!

h2s

i don't think Eircom bother to block or throttle anything. I think the problems recently are due to routing problems. Especially effected are site located in the US and OpenDNS which is usually good has been having problems.

Some routes are appearing more congested than others at the moment on certain days.

Sponge Bob

traceroute to the open dns servers please and paste the traces in here

also remember that opendns will block phishing sites by claiming it has no ip address for them ( they are unloaded from dns)

These are the servers , my trace shows them behind NTT.NET in London with hops of 20-30 ms .

A ****ed up route would find them in the US or Via the US to London or something. I am not on eircom and have no problems.

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

7 33 ms 31 ms 35 ms ae-5-5.ebr1.London1.Level3.net [4.69.136.90]
8 32 ms 34 ms 29 ms ae-11-53.car1.London1.Level3.net [4.68.116.79]
9 32 ms 28 ms 30 ms xe-3-3.r01.londen03.uk.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.8
137]
10 28 ms 28 ms 29 ms 83.231.146.198
11 29 ms 29 ms 28 ms resolver1.opendns.com [208.67.222.222]

Jaeger

No problems using youtube, or any sites (opendns user), but have noticed ping speeds going to crap lately, making any sort of online gaming a pain in the arse.

vambo_roolz

smokingman wrote: »

Could you have gone above your download limit?

Surely not.....I was told by Eircom broadband support that they charge you extra on your bill extra for exceeding download limits.

pissed off of Donegal (am having serious problems Eircom)

dmcg90

Im in Donegal at the moment, and the same problem has been here since I got Eircom installed, it just randomly goes off during the day, hardly ever at night, have a sneaking suspicion its done just to stop me setting everything to download during the day

Sponge Bob

If it randomly drops off during the day ( not at night) that indicates that some 'industrial' appliance is interfereing with it by banging out interference , lights, welding gear , car washes , alien transmissions in Dungloe , anything !!

It could even be your home alarm system when a PIR triggers , it could be your christmas tree lights .

vambo_roolz

dmcg90 wrote: »

Im in Donegal at the moment, and the same problem has been here since I got Eircom installed, it just randomly goes off during the day, hardly ever at night, have a sneaking suspicion its done just to stop me setting everything to download during the day

Now don't go getting paranoid......as it's something I've been feeling today as well...after doing the rounds with Eircom Accounts (drop the o), broadband support and a lady at the Eircom customer charter department (i wanted advice on witholding the broadband part of my bill as my broadband speeds have become erratic but mostly slow during the day over the last two months).

Actually it was this last person who started me off feeling paranoid. She was very understanding up until the point when she rang tech support on my behalf...now, I'm no stranger to this department as there's been a fault logged going back to early December and beyond and I've also made an official complaint with the complaints dept. Anyway, this lady comes back to me and the conversation goes something like this:

Lady: Well it seems as though you're always on

Me: Well, that's what I pay for, an always on package

Lady: But you're always logged on

Me: Yes, you can't turn it off

Lady: But they (support) say that you're always downloading and you go over your allowance every month. (yep we're guilty of that...sometimes double our 30GB d/l allowance)

Me: Yes I know that but I've been told that I pay extra for going over the limit anyway and anyhow surely that's not the reason why my connection is too often slow. I've been told there's a problem in my part of the telephone exchange. That can't be because I'm downloading too much, surely?

Lady: Well, they're looking into the problem and no you can't refuse to pay, only if you're not getting any broadband at all. Eircom states that it cannot guarantee it's download speeds.

At this point I gave up. I felt as if some judgement call had been made on me by the formerly helpful lady after she called tech support. I know that I'm giving Eircom a hard time (I'm a customer with a service that has deteriorated significantly in the last 6-8 weeks...ever since they started upgrading our exchange...Buncrana). Before this I had nearly two years of a really good service with no mention before then of me being naughty and downloading too much.

Whatsmore, Eircom really have us over a barrell don't they when they use the 'cannot guarantee d/l speeds' excuse. There should be some recourse for the consumer over such an inconsistent service? I won't give up trying and I'm half expecting Eircom to turn up at my door with lawyers from the music and games industry along with the local parish priest wagging and tutting. Haw haw....

Sponge Bob

That is bollox, eircom guarantee 256k min on every residential package and 1mbit min on every business package .

Can you pm me info on this customer charter dept ( names and emails and numbers and did they respond to the complaint you raised or is there a complaints dept too ?? ) but please dont publish them here as the mods would kill both of us

dub45

It sounds to me as if the lady in Eircom was more or less saying ''how can you have a problem if you are always on and manage to download more that your permitted limit each month?'' Which probably seems a a reasonable enough argument to put to someone?

Me: Yes I know that but I've been told that I pay extra for going over the limit anyway and anyhow surely that's not the reason why my connection is too often slow. I've been told there's a problem in my part of the telephone exchange. That can't be because I'm downloading too much, surely?

Have you ever actually been charged for going over the limit?

How are you measuring your download speeds?

Whatsmore, Eircom really have us over a barrell don't they when they use the 'cannot guarantee d/l speeds' excuse. There should be some recourse for the consumer over such an inconsistent service? I won't give up trying and I'm half expecting Eircom to turn up at my door with lawyers from the music and games industry along with the local parish priest wagging and tutting. Haw haw....

There are all sorts of reasons why an isp cannot guarantee download speeds from the nature of the dsl product itself to the internal wiring of houses to what people have connected to their telephone lines.

You have only got to read boards for a short period to realise how many times slow speeds are not the fault of the isp. And then there is variability of the download source etc etc. That's not to say or course that isps are by any means blameless or course.

vambo_roolz

dub45 wrote: »

It sounds to me as if the lady in Eircom was more or less saying ''how can you have a problem if you are always on and manage to download more that your permitted limit each month?'' Which probably seems a a reasonable enough argument to put to someone?

It's always on but where's the issue there? They advertise it as an always on service. Logically it also means that because of slow speeds it takes everything that much longer to download so I leave myself logged on longer. I also a have teenager who spends half the night online taking advantage of the far superior (and once normal in the daytime) speeds in the wee hours. And yes, I know about congestion, but that wouldn't explain the great service I enjoyed for nearly two years. It seriously has gone pear-shaped in the last 6-8 weeks ever since the exchange has been worked on to take it up to 10mb capability (source: Eircom Tech support). I was informed that they were upgrading the exchange well over a month ago and that it would take a week. What grates with me is that if they are still in the process of upgrading just tell me, I'll understand, say sorry for the inconvenience to my service and I wait expectantly...maybe even send out a letter to all in the locality the way that ESB do to inform of interruptions to the electricity service. But nothing, it's the way it's done, the sheer arrogance of it all...shoddy and amateurish.

As for measuring deteriorations in the connection, well firstly I know from
having used the service for two years what I have been used to which is a pretty fast connection and here's the keyword...consistently and I don't need speed tests to tell me that, although I have been running quite a few of those recently and they ain't been too great (256kbps this evening and below that on others) on a 3mb connection and no downloads running on other Pc's. No new gadgetry in the house, no house alarms and yep, guess what loads of other people in Buncrana with sh*tty internet as well.

I guess I'll keep on plugging and in any case my complaints coming up to it's 10 day turnaround soon, so I'll keep the heat on.

TPD

vambo_roolz wrote: »

guess what loads of other people in Buncrana with sh*tty internet as well.

Another here. For months it's been terrible. I'm with UTV who rent their lines from Eircom, been emailing them but have had nothing helpful atall. They told me that they see no problem and Eircom see no problem.