Irishbroadband, should I?

cormie

Hi,
Just asking for quick user opinions of Irishbroadband if anyone could share their experience of recent months it'd be great. I've seen the broadband providers poll, but it's only back in 2007, so maybe things have come on since then?

In the market for broadband in Dun Laoghaire, Digiweb metro and NTL aren't possible, don't need phone, just broadband, needs to be reliable and no trouble on IP with spamhaus etc. Best DSL package seems to be UTV for 605 the first year (including line rental and eircom line activation charge). This is for 3mb unltd cap. With Irishbroadband I can get 2mb with 20gb cap for about 400 euro a year all in. Not too worried about having to wait 20 minutes instead of 13 for a download, just as long as it's a constant always on, no messing about connection.

So any feedback on how Irishbroadband will live up?

Also, I was onto them and they said there is a 7 day trial and if you don't get "fantastic" service, you can bring it back without signing up for a contract.

So can I just walk into Tesco and buy a pack (do the packs say which is 2mb and which is 1mb or is this something you choose later?) and then plug it in at home and check it out and if I'm happy, stick with it?

I want to connect it to a wireless router to share the connection throughout the house, is this possible? I'd like broadband ASAP and don't fancy waiting another 10 days and paying 200 euro more for what may be essentially the same to me if I can get it for 400 euro instead with Irishbroadband. Immediate feedback welcome as I'd like to go and get this asap

cormie

Could someone just confirm whether or not the 2mb package broadband in a box uses the same system as three/o2/vodafone.. I hope not

Merjock

I presume you're talking about the Irish Broadband broadband in a box 'Ripwave' product.
(NOT the same system, incidentally, as mobile broadband from O2,Vodafone etc)
I used Ripwave myself at one stage and, providing your reception is ok
(and it's a very big 'if'!), it's reasonably OK just for e-mail and basic browsing.It's useless for true 'broadband' type activities such as live video feeds and Voice Over Internet applications (Skype etc).
Basically you get what you pay for!
I have a Breeze 2MB connection from Irish Broadband, which requires an antenna on my chimney, but is overall a very good service.Not the cheapest at €36 per month, but I've found it to be very reliable in terms of speed and service.It's also symetric (upload and download speeds the same) and there's NO monthly download limit! I've had very few problems over the past two years.I've managed to dispense with my landline and use VOIP with Skype and Blueface, thus saving a lot on landline rental.However, I would regard 2MB as the absolute minimum for useful broadband.

Jev/N

I'm assuming you're talking about Ripwave as opposed to Breeze

With regard to ripwave, its a very arbitrary service... In my old apartment I was hitting the full 260kbps off-peak whereas now I'm only getting 100kbps max in my new place. I'm hanging onto it for another few months because NTL will be here soon and I'm not forking out for DSL as the line needs to be activated. So basically it's pretty much impossible to tell how good or bad it will be without trying it out in the house/apartment but as you say, they allow this so defo give it a try and see what it's like day and night. Also move it around the room to see where the best reception is (usually by the window at a good height)

In relation to the point about 3/02/vodafone, I don't know what you mean?

Jev/N

Merjock wrote: »

I used Ripwave myself at one stage and, providing your reception is ok
(and it's a very big 'if'!), it's reasonably OK just for e-mail and basic browsing.It's useless for true 'broadband' type activities such as live video feeds and Voice Over Internet applications (Skype etc).

I have to disagree with that point. If you have a good signal and connection (depending on location) it's more than capable of streaming video and VoIP. It's the same as any other 2Mb line! The OP isn't looking for anything too powerful so if the signal is strong, Ripwave would be ideal

Merjock

My experience was with the 1MB product.I found the reception was pretty iffy even though I could see the transmitter if I stuck my head out the window! Never got anything like 1MB speed.I'd also watch the upload speed
if you want to use VOIP.I found the 256K upload speed inadequate for this, even thought it should have been.40-1 contention ratio probably doesn't help either.

cormie

Picked up one today anyway, haven't registered yet so haven't had a chance to check it out properly. The registration page didn't load up too fast though

Could someone tell me though, if I DO get a good connection in the 7 days, is it likely to remain good for the next 12 months I wonder? I know with three, there was some speculation that maybe they allowed the new users get most of the "good" speed in their trial days to make them think it was a good service, and then once they passed their trial, they were bound to a contract and then the service got terrible for them. Has this happened to any IBB customers?

Also, if I can't get full 1MB speeds if I go for the 1mb, is there any point in me going for 2mb package if the speeds aren't there? How would I know is the question I suppose. If I went for the 2mb pacakage and was getting 1mb speeds, could I just drop to 1mb package and still get the same speeds I wonder?

cormie

Set it up anyway and I'm using it now, it's not great, but for 20 quid a month it's not bad either. I tested a download from rapidshare.com and was getting between 60 and 90, mostly around the 80kB/sec download speed. I used to get about 250 on the old broadband here, but I suppose at less than half the price, I can't really complain?

Unfortunately my wireless router doesn't have an ethernet port to test it out where it's supposed to be.

If anyone wants to swap their router with one, for a perfectly good one without, let me know :pac:

Irishpimpdude

cormie wrote: »

Set it up anyway and I'm using it now, it's not great, but for 20 quid a month it's not bad either. I tested a download from rapidshare.com and was getting between 60 and 90, mostly around the 80kB/sec download speed. I used to get about 250 on the old broadband here, but I suppose at less than half the price, I can't really complain?

Unfortunately my wireless router doesn't have an ethernet port to test it out where it's supposed to be.

If anyone wants to swap their router with one, for a perfectly good one without, let me know :pac:

Glad to hear it working alright for you, as far as i know its better then mobile broadband

cormie

definitely better than mobile BB from my experience of both

So I wonder, if I'm only getting 80kB/sec, which isn't 1mb speed, if I went for the 2mb option, would I still only be getting 80kB/sec?

thebman

cormie wrote: »

definitely better than mobile BB from my experience of both

So I wonder, if I'm only getting 80kB/sec, which isn't 1mb speed, if I went for the 2mb option, would I still only be getting 80kB/sec?

Most likely as its probably the reception that is causing the lower speeds and it won't increase if you pay more.

You should check your ping times too if your going to be using it for VOIP or gaming. You'll want to make sure it isn't going to jitter on VOIP.

cormie

Unfortunately I have never known what pings are or how to check ping times even though I've seen them mentioned on a lot of broadband threads. Any advice welcome

Irishpimpdude

Speedtest.net do a speedtest then post the image here :-)

cormie

So what does that mean :pac: Good or bad for 1mb 20 quid a month?

jor el

820kbps is pretty good, and if you could sustain that, then you're probably not going to do better with a 1Mbps deal. The 200ms ping is quite poor, so FPS games would likely be a no no. Lag in VOIP calls may become noticeable too.

cormie

Thanks for the feedback, so you mean don't bother going for the 2mb option as I wont be able to get any better with my location anyway? Will the ping ever improve or is it likely to be the same all the time? Is that also location dependant?

Does anyone know do IBB give preference in contention to new sign ups, so my 800 might be good now, but after the 7 days is up and once I'm in the contract, it might get terrible?

humaxf1

IBB Breeze works fine in Dun Laoghaire (for me anyway)

IF you can get IBB Breeze installed depending on your accomdation arrangements, it would be well worth it. I'm on 3Mb/3Mb for €48/month.

jor el

cormie wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback, so you mean don't bother going for the 2mb option as I wont be able to get any better with my location anyway?

You won't know the answer to that, until you try it out. It may or may not work, but there's no way to be sure. If you had a very poor 1M connection, then 2M would be unlikely to improve anything. You have quite a good 1M though, so it might well be OK at 2M too.

cormie wrote: »

Will the ping ever improve or is it likely to be the same all the time? Is that also location dependant?

Ping is not likely to get any better. Ripwave will never give you a proper broadband ping.

cormie wrote: »

Does anyone know do IBB give preference in contention to new sign ups, so my 800 might be good now, but after the 7 days is up and once I'm in the contract, it might get terrible?

It has been suggested in the past, but there's no way to know that for certain.


Moved to midband too.

cormie

Cheapest breeze package at the mo is 55 per month with 100 installation fee, that's about 760 for the first year. What I'm on now is costing about 260/300 a year. Extra speed definitely isn't worth it for what I use it for

Guy on sales line said that if I do get the 2mb, that my speed will double as I'm getting that speed from a 1mb signal, so if I get the 2mb, I'll be getting a signal twice as strong and be able to get speeds twice as fast. There is a 7 day trial if you sign up for the faster package which is cool.

Now I'm having trouble with trying to get this damn thing wireless.

I need to connect this
and this

to this dg834g router: so I can transmit the signal from the ripwave box throughout the house.

watty

That''s an ASDL router. The router/firewall is internally connected to the built in DSL Modem. It will never work properly.


You need a model with NO DSL modem and a 5th WAN ethernet port. Called Cable or ethernet routers.

Argos, Maplin, Komplett.ie, Dabs.ie all have them, though Dabs confusingly calls them ADSL/Cable routers.

cormie

Thanks for that info, that's what I needed to find out!

I'll try an ad on adverts.ie, if anyone has a WAN router and wants to do a simple swap for my dg834g you'd be doing me a big favour:)

Jev/N

For 1:20 in the afternoon that's a great speed for a 1Mb connection, you're hitting almost 85% speed! If you got the 2Mb line you'd probably hit 85% of that also.

Try it at night, you should prob get the full 1Mb or at least a bit closer!

cormie

That's great to know anyway Thing is though, that the wireless router needs to be in the floor above me. I'm just testing it out down here while I get the proper router sourced and sorted. So I just hope when it's in it's home position, it'll be as good!

cormie

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Seems to be going a bit slower at the moment unfortunately, but still fast enough for what I need. The ping time is lower though which is strange, so maybe just more people in the area are using theirs at this time now?

I also now have it upstairs connected to a wireless router, but it was still kinda slow before I brought it up tonight and my signal strength is "good".