Eircom Broadband Drogheda Dublin rd area wots ur modem sync speed?

Honda08

hi folks, if you are along the Dublin Road in Drogheda, whats ur eircom broadband speed?
anyone on 7mb or higher, with good performance?
are we too far from the exchange to get faster speeds?

fh041205

Depends. Wheres the exchange? And good god stop the text rubbish.

Honda08

fh041205 wrote: »

Depends. Wheres the exchange? And good god stop the text rubbish.

useful post :rolleyes:.

fh041205

Honda08 wrote: »

useful post :rolleyes:.

Thanks. If you don't want my help, then good day to you.

Biggins

Honda08 wrote: »

hi folks, if you are along the Dublin Road in Drogheda, whats ur eircom broadband speed?
anyone on 7mb or higher, with good performance?
are we too far from the exchange to get faster speeds?

Prob' won't help but I'm out the Termonfeckin Road, roughtly same distance as from nearest exchange.
Mine is constant over 7 megs a second.
That said, I'm with BTIreland(.ie) and they are upping it for free to 24.

Bigdeadlydave

Just don't get Perlico. Its crap.

positron

In Wheaton Hall with BT for 4 years now with their 3 Mb connection, speed is not brilliant (I can post exact speed later), however the main issue is the connection keeps dropping every few minutes. BT Tech support said it might be because of the phone line, and they might have to try and reduce the speed to 1 mb! I am soo disappointed, I am thinking of going mobile broadband!

Stealdo

positron wrote: »

In Wheaton Hall with BT for 4 years now with their 3 Mb connection, speed is not brilliant (I can post exact speed later), however the main issue is the connection keeps dropping every few minutes. BT Tech support said it might be because of the phone line, and they might have to try and reduce the speed to 1 mb! I am soo disappointed, I am thinking of going mobile broadband!

Jeeze, if dropped connections and slow speeds bother you steer clear of the mobile broadband, I've tried two of the providers and it's awful.
I have the same bt package in the same area and have no trouble, slowest download speed I get is 1mbps

annaarbas

Honda08 wrote: »

hi folks, if you are along the Dublin Road in Drogheda, whats ur eircom broadband speed?
anyone on 7mb or higher, with good performance?
are we too far from the exchange to get faster speeds?

To be honest its my advice if anyone is planing Eircom broadband and fone please please dont even think of this company coz im having problem with Broadband Speed and im on 3 Mbps and my speed is between 128Kbps-800Kbps since june this year, im calling to this issue every day but this guys says there is an Upgrade going in exchange in oct but due to some problem they cant till now and i endup paying every month. i wanted to cancel my contract with Eircom but they say i cant coz of my 1 yr contract. so its my request you guys before going with this company just surf around for a good and better ones.

Wess

Hi, you don't know by anychance if the vodafone or meteor 'braodband to go' works successfully in the Grange Rath area of Drogheda?

Kind regards
Wess:mad:

mythicalireland

I check my speed regularly on eircom.net/speedtest and although I'm supposed to be getting up to 7 Mbps, often it drops below 1 Mbps. I have seen it at 3.5 and once or twice on 5 but rarely any better.

Edit: Sorry, forgot to mention I'm on the south side of town at the top of Donore Road.

delly

I'm in Grange Rath with 3mb Eircom and have 3 meg nearly all the time. My line attenuation is around 7 or 8 so I must be sitting on the exchange.

Wess

Thanks For That!

Yes, my neighbours on either side of me have Eircom broadband, but for some reason the line attached to my house needs to be upgraded before it can receive Broadband. I believe there are a number of homes in Grange Rath with the same problem.

Anyhow, as a number of other providers have 'Broadband To Go' on the market, and according to themselves Grange rath is abit of an unknown where it comes to the level of reception one is suppose to receive.

I basically would like to know if anyone out there, or if anyone knows of anybody who has successfully used or uses 'Broadband to Go' on a provider other than eircom, let me know?

Thanks Folks!
Kind regards
Wess

lucernarian

Dublin road is too vague. That's anywhere between St. Mary's Church and the old Europa hotel. Grange Rath has its own exchange, which serves most of the estate.

Wess, I'm not sure on what the real status of your line is. You certainly should be able to get a line that easily handles any broadband speed. Call your phone company and see what exchange you are on. From what I know, some of the people in Grange Rath who used to be connected to the Drogheda exchange were just about within range to order the entry level package. I thought you still would qualify for that, even if your line hadn't moved over. Is your number 9818xxx or 98xxxxx?

The worst case scenario is that you might have to get a new line, by ordering a phone line with a broadband and phone call bundle off eircom. Then get your old line disconnected and the number *possibly* transferred over. This is a complicated scenario and will depend on the linesman on the day. Some people have drogheda numbers in the estate, but are connected to the small Grange Rath exchange. He might insist that you take a 9818 number if you don't have one already.

As for mobile internet, I struggle to call/hear people who are indoors in Grange Rath on ordinary GSM mobiles!! I expect most of the estate would have particularly poor 3G coverage. The coverage maps don't take account of the number of new buildings in the area. Even then, the map's coverage is mediocre because of how GR is in a bit of a dip and further away from the busy commercial parts of Drogheda. Nearest masts are probably at train station and over towards Donore Rd. Ind Estate.

A friend of mine using O2 mobile internet has found the signal strengths to be dire, but enough to sustain a connection.

Biggins, places like Termonfeckin Rd. have far shorter lines because the exchane is on Patrick St. and can take direct paths without looping their way along to one of the bridges and back towards other parts of town. BT Ireland aren't selling broadband anymore and it'll be a while before Vodafone start selling LLU it appears. Possibly March? BT Ireland are not selling 24 mbps in Drogheda, just called them there.


As for wheaton hall, it's closer than Grange Rath to the exchange but not significantly so. That's why people would get speeds between 1 and 3 mbps.

positron

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

As for wheaton hall, it's closer than Grange Rath to the exchange but not significantly so. That's why people would get speeds between 1 and 3 mbps.

I am in Wheaton Hall, and I have been with BT for some 4 years now. And for the last year or so the connection keeps dropping every 20 minutes, and even when it connects I don't think I ever get 1 mbps. It's such a pain..!

Last week I got a letter confirming it's now with Vodafone, and this week the connection has been worse. Especially in the evenings, I can't get a stable connection for more than a few minutes now!

After some googling, I looked up the router diagnostics, and he downstream noise margin is a terrible terrible 7db. It goes upto 8db at times, but then drops back to 6db and disconnects. The attenuation is around 49, which is not too bad I think, but I am not sure.

This is my plan: First of all, I am going to try removing the 3 meter extension I have put in between the main phone line point to the router. If that doesn't help, I will try a shielded rj11 cable. If that doesn't help, I think I will switch to eircom broadband and try and kick up a fuss over the poor quality line.

Any other suggestions? Move house?

delly

I think there is a new exchange building opposite Southgate on the Dublin road which I'm connected to in Grange Rath. My attenuation is about 7kb and the connection is rock solid. I wonder if there is anyway of getting one of these new lines by getting your number changed. From what I understand, some people have the old lines which run into Drogheda and others have the new exchange.

event

positron wrote: »

I am in Wheaton Hall, and I have been with BT for some 4 years now. And for the last year or so the connection keeps dropping every 20 minutes, and even when it connects I don't think I ever get 1 mbps. It's such a pain..!

Last week I got a letter confirming it's now with Vodafone, and this week the connection has been worse. Especially in the evenings, I can't get a stable connection for more than a few minutes now!

After some googling, I looked up the router diagnostics, and he downstream noise margin is a terrible terrible 7db. It goes upto 8db at times, but then drops back to 6db and disconnects. The attenuation is around 49, which is not too bad I think, but I am not sure.

This is my plan: First of all, I am going to try removing the 3 meter extension I have put in between the main phone line point to the router. If that doesn't help, I will try a shielded rj11 cable. If that doesn't help, I think I will switch to eircom broadband and try and kick up a fuss over the poor quality line.

Any other suggestions? Move house?

well that will make a difference, you should only use the standard cable that was sent with the equipment. Make sure its in the main phone point too, the one closest the front door

and if your line is poor quality, you'll need to get onto whoever you pay line rental to. They would have to do a line check, but realistically it could be because more people are now connected on your exchange. If thats the case, there isnt anything you can do really

positron

event wrote: »

you should only use the standard cable that was sent with the equipment. Make sure its in the main phone point too, the one closest the front door

Are you referring to the rj11 cable that runs between the phone point and router? I am using the cable that came with the router alright, but I read somewhere that a high-quality shielded cable is supposed to be an improvement over the one that came with the modem (Zyxel Prestige 600).

The main phone point, just inches from the front door is in the most awkward place possible to have a phone point in my opinion, I don't know what they were thinking when they installed it there! But, fair point, I will try and connect it there tonight and see if that improves the situation.

I guess if nothing works, I probably should switch to eircom, as they might be in a better position to make changes to the line, right (as they own the hardware?).

delly, it's brilliant that you got the new exchange near GrangeRath. I wonder if they (vodafone? eircom?) would switch people from exchange to exchange on request..!

lucernarian

If you're not in Grange Rath, I don't think you have a hope of getting a 9818xxx number. That involves physically laying cables to an exchange built to serve a housing estate. Some parts of Drogheda around the southern industrial estates are now being served by an exchange in the large eircom plant yard near the Donore Rd. I don't think any cabinets towards the Dublin road are on that exchange, but I could be wrong.

Attenuation of 49dB on top of the fact that so many people will also have DSL in the area and in use during peak time will really help generate instability unless you're on a 1 mb connection.

One of those belkin shielded cables will make feck-all difference, unless there's lots of interference coming into the cable between the modem and the socket. The socket itself however is often 15 years old or more, with any extension sockets probably connected haphazardly to the original phone cable over the years.

The special master socket eircom use, which filters any extension sockets and uses a higher quality filter, is much more likely to prevent any problems being caused within your house. From what I've seen on boards and in my own home with a 4 mile long line, extension sockets branching off from the original phone line are the main enemy of connection speed.

positron

True true.

In fact, now that you mentioned it, there's no socket by the door at all - it's just two wires sticking up above the skirting!! I had it connected to a 3m long cable to the other end of the hall, where I have a tiny box, splitter etc and the modem is right there with meter long cable that came with the modem.

After speaking to some sound Vodafone customer support people this morning, I rang in the evening from home and got a proper numpty. He asked me to change the WAN/DSL usename and password in the router config to a generic vodafone@vodafone.ie / broadband, and immediately I am without internet. I had the guy on phone, and I tried my best to convince him this is not the usual drop out I am used to, and this config is somehow wrong, and he insists that he can see it connected from his end and all is well - except that I have no internet! Aaargh... such a tool!! He said he will send me out a new modem as this got to be a modem issue! Which just happened as I changed the username? Yeah right..!! Face-palm!! :rolleyes:

He also wanted me to record instances of disconnection from now on so that he can raise it with eircom. Shame he can't use last year worth of examples that I can give him - he wanted from last 12 hours! I will stay late night and record a dozen disconnections.., not a bad excuse to get a few hours on BC2!

And then he hung up on me (despite me being my very polite and working with him)! Now, I switched the username and password back to old BT one and look, I am connected again! Tech support, my bum!!!

Now to re-wiring etc. If you don't hear from me again, assume the worse!

Salty Dog

positron wrote: »

I am in Wheaton Hall, and I have been with BT for some 4 years now. And for the last year or so the connection keeps dropping every 20 minutes, and even when it connects I don't think I ever get 1 mbps. It's such a pain..!

Also in WH and had this exact problem with BT. It's to do with the quality of the lines and the fact that they can't handle 3m even though they're supposed to.

For the guts of a year our line kept dropping all the time and then at times wouldn't connect. The line would drop on average a 100+ times a day and made working from home a nightmare. BT got on to Eircom who apparently even sent their engineer out to "clean" the line - not exactly ensure what this entailed and when I queried it they couldn't tell me.

Long story short, I got them to drop the line capacity from 3m to 2m and haven't had an issue since this was done.

Now with VF since the automatic switch over from BT and the service has been grand at 2. Only issue is that VF recycle the modem/ip address every 24 hours so the modem needs to be turned off then on if left on continuously for longer than 24 hours.

lucernarian

If a line is 4-5 kilometres long and especially when it's in a bundle of cables all 4 km long and carrying DSL too, then broadband speed is going to be quite compromised. There's nothing wrong with the "quality" of the lines, they're just too long.

Nothing can be done unless pressure is put on eircom to do something about the ridiculous length of lines all around Drogheda. It's the Milton Keynes of Ireland.

Certainly, nothing will happen to speeds with simple complaining to customer care in the likes of Vodafone or UTV. Eircom customers could try lodging a complaint with eircom, and everyone else could write to eircom or politicians etc or local media. Somehow I can't see that being too effective either:o

Also, the Vodafone customers should head over to the Vodafone forum, http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1270 to raise the service issues some of you guys are having. You should get a better response over there than from some hapless helpdesk worker:)

cerbeus

Looks like they (presumably Eircom), have upgraded the Drogheda exchange. It was scheduled on their Broadband support site for last Wednesday 16th.

I'm officially on the 3Mb bitstream package from BT but as can be seen below I'm now getting 7Mb. Only downside is pings have gone up.

Speeds seem to be constant at 6Mb off peak falling to between 1.5 and 3Mb.

positron

Quick update:

After speaking to Vodafone Customer care a few more times, the new modem is here. And Eircom responded to Vodafone saying it's a 'CPU problem', meaning it's with the equipment, rather than the line.

The new Vodafone modem has been up and running for nearly 24 hours, no drop outs, no disconnections so far. So it does look like it was a bad modem-ititis.

This is the current speed I am getting, which is almost as good as it gets, and I noticed it was around 1mpbs mark yesterday evening (peak hours).



PS: Cerebus, I was also with BT 3mb, but I don't see anything like the speed you mentioned..!

cerbeus

Hi Positron,

I should have mentioned where I am, I live off the Beamore Rd so I think I'm on the Eircom exchange that's based in the Donore Industrial Estate.

lucernarian

Yeah, I believe the Donore Road exchange covers as far east as the Beamore Road. It's much, much closer than the Patrick st. one. Virtually everyone on that exchange can manage 7.6 mbps but I have no idea if eircom will do something about the Dublin Road distance issues.

cerbeus

Seems I spoke too soon.



Probably down to contention but I had hoped that the upgrade would have improved this.

positron

Ouch! May be Eircom's anti-efficiency team is monitoring boards for happy customers!

Bad news here too - with the new Vodafone modem, I am still losing connection time to time. It's just not as frequent as the old BT modem though. I will keep a close eye for next few days, and then I don't know what to do!

cerbeus

Looks like there are more upgrades to be done on the Eircom exchange(s) in Drogheda over the coming days.

http://broadbandsupport.eircom.net/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE/&/?St=56&E=0000000000203573893&K=1348&SXI=10&case=8109&branch=4

positron

That's the best news I've heard all this month! Thank you!

cerbeus

Don't thank me yet! It doesn't state what exchange(s) are being done.

Now I know there are two main exchanges in Drogheda, one of which I seem to be connected to.
And probably a number of smaller sub or mini exchanges. So only Eircom know exactly which ones are being upgraded.

Bottom line is to continue doing the speed tests to see if you're on one of the ones being done.

Just as an aside, my line jumped from 3Mb to 6Mb three weeks before the first of these upgrades which was on the 16th. :rolleyes:

Now if they just lowered the contention......