Changing from Magnet to UPC?

Eglinton

Hi,

I currently have Magnet's 20Mb offering (€65 a month inc. line rental). I didn't mind paying this much as I wasn't paying for TV. (Old NTL analogue connection piped in to all apartments). Anyway, the NTL seems to have packed it in so I'm gonna have to fork out for TV. As UCP also offer broadband, I'm considering cancelling my magnet connection and getting a UPC bundle of Digital HD TV and their 30MB broadband. This seems to work out much the same as what I'm paying for Magnet alone at the moment.

Question is, am I mad to ditch Magnet? It's excellent broadband. Will UPC be up to scratch? (I've heard of some issues). I don't really want to pay any more overall so keeping magnet and getting the basic NTL digital will be more expensive.

Opinions welcome.

ssa2010

Eglinton wrote: »

Hi,

I currently have Magnet's 20Mb offering (€65 a month inc. line rental). I didn't mind paying this much as I wasn't paying for TV. (Old NTL analogue connection piped in to all apartments). Anyway, the NTL seems to have packed it in so I'm gonna have to fork out for TV. As UCP also offer broadband, I'm considering cancelling my magnet connection and getting a UPC bundle of Digital HD TV and their 30MB broadband. This seems to work out much the same as what I'm paying for Magnet alone at the moment.

Question is, am I mad to ditch Magnet? It's excellent broadband. Will UPC be up to scratch? (I've heard of some issues). I don't really want to pay any more overall so keeping magnet and getting the basic NTL digital will be more expensive.

Opinions welcome.

I also moved from Magnet to UPC recently and have no major regret. I switched to the 15MB package for 52 euros/month. Speed is excellent and consistent. The only snag is that wireless transmission on their Cisco 2425 modem/router can be unreliable. I am in the process of sorting this out. If you'll be connecting vis LAN cable you should be ok, at least much better than Magnet IMO.

Eglinton

ssa2010 wrote: »

I also moved from Magnet to UPC recently and have no major regret. I switched to the 15MB package for 52 euros/month. Speed is excellent and consistent. The only snag is that wireless transmission on their Cisco 2425 modem/router can be unreliable. I am in the process of sorting this out. If you'll be connecting vis LAN cable you should be ok, at least much better than Magnet IMO.

Thanks. Did you upgrade to 15Mb or was it a drop from Magnet's 20Mb? I think the UPC upload speed is faster than Magnet which would be nice. I'm a little reluctant to go with the 15Mb offering when I've already had 20Mb. Yet I'm debating the cost increase to 30Mb.

I have my own very good Wifi router. I presume I can connect this in to the UPC modem?

AntiVirus

Eglinton wrote: »

I have my own very good Wifi router. I presume I can connect this in to the UPC modem?

Yes you can.

vibe666

assuming it's a regular broadband router with an ethernet WAN port, not a DSL one cos them ducks don't hunt.

watty

Eglinton wrote: »

I have my own very good Wifi router. I presume I can connect this in to the UPC modem?

To elucidate on Vibe666

If you use a separate modem currently on Magnet in bridge mode and your WiFi+Router is a separate box with "WAN" ethernet socket and NO DSL modem built in, then you can use it on UPC with the UPC dumb modem or the alternate UPC Modem/Router (with UPC box giving DMZ IP to your router or Bridged mode).

If you have a single box connected to phone line that is your WiFi+Router+DSL Modem, then it's no use at all on UPC, usually. Some Modem/Routers can run OpenWRT and then some you can configure a LAN port as WAN port on the VLAN switch. Some very few DSL modems have a WAN ethernet port.

Magnet: Rory

Moving from a unconteded service where you are getting a solid 20Mb to a service which may or may not be contended can represent a real risk.

Magnet: Rory

Magnet: Rory wrote: »

Moving from a unconteded service where you are getting a solid 20Mb to a service which may or may not be contended can represent a real risk.

I was under the impression that the UPC 30mb package was uncontended.

Magnet: Rory

Deleted User wrote: »

I was under the impression that the UPC 30mb package was uncontended.

Honestly I cant confirm, all I can see is that it is "congestion free" there are no follow ups as to what this means.

Are they guaranteeing the 15Mb at all times?

In addition there are other elements to consider;

Ping speed
FUP policy
Switching costs and its switching implications

Eglinton

It seems from the UPC website that their 30Mb is uncontended. I could be wrong though. Magnet's 20Mb is very very good but I can't justify the price anymore. I'll get HD TV and 30Mb for the same price with UPC. It's the line rental that's the killer.

cros13

"Free of congestion" is just playing with words. They avoided saying uncontended. UPC is contended as are all cable (Cable TV) products. By the very nature of the DOCSIS technology they use bandwidth is shared on the local cable loop.

Eircom is now pulling they same "Free of congestion" marketing BS on the DSL products.

Wolverine_1999

cros13 wrote: »

"Free of congestion" is just playing with words. They avoided saying uncontended. UPC is contended as are all cable (Cable TV) products. By the very nature of the DOCSIS technology they use bandwidth is shared on the local cable loop.

Eircom is now pulling they same "Free of congestion" marketing BS on the DSL products.

Yes, contention is the word to look out for and not congestion.

Having said that, UPC have recently upgraded a lot of their equipment and the connection I was using was more or less "uncongested". I never experienced any slowdown.

Will depend on the area and recent upgrades also though.