Fastcom anyone ?

bennyc

gigino wrote: »

I agree. I have no connection, commercial or otherwise , to 3g / three.ie, but I must say I find them better value, faster and more convenient than Fastcom. Its a no brainer. With three its only 19.99 per month and no connection fee / no cost for the modem ( if you sign up for 18 months ), and no mess or holes drilled in walls. Plus its mobile - really handy sometimes.

What area are you in Gigino ?
I just went down to three for a walk and you can get the Home 3G router that has an ethernet out port on it so you could hang a hub of some sort of that for wired devices then the rest of wifi. The 30GB pack is 26.99 a month and the router is free otherwise 15GB for 20 a month and 50 for the router.
He said they do a 40 day money back if your not getting speeds and are not happy with the service.
I might pick this up tomorrow and give it a try as the fastcom offer runs out at the end of the month.

starbelgrade

I find them OK but I can't wait until they have some competition in my area so they will be forced to drop their prices.

For what they offer, they are extremely expensive compared to most ISPs.

starbelgrade

magnumlady wrote: »

We've been with fastcom since they first came to Coolaney.

We have no other choice though.

I just looked into this after reading the thread.

You can get 3G in Coolaney, but they limit you to 30G per month for roughly the same price.

It seems that the 3G speeds are much better, but I'd use 30G in a week, so the unlimited supply from Fastcom is actually a better deal than I had previously thought.

bennyc

starbelgrade wrote: »

I just looked into this after reading the thread.

You can get 3G in Coolaney, but they limit you to 30G per month for roughly the same price.

It seems that the 3G speeds are much better, but I'd use 30G in a week, so the unlimited supply from Fastcom is actually a better deal than I had previously thought.

I have vodafone at the moment with calls included for 35 a month, fastcom with the phone deal for 39.99 month (300 mins off peak) is a very good deal imo if the speed is good and unlimited. DO you ever get any complaints about using 120GB a month ?I wonder if 3G are strict on their D/L cap ?

Son Of A Vidic

bennyc wrote: »

Thanks for all that , is that 3g with three.ie ? do you get a wifi router with that on a 3g signal, does the router have any ethernet ports ? I see on the coverage map I am covered so might be an option. Also your worst on fastcom would be my average at night at the minute. Was that a once off or did you have that speed at the same time all the time ?

Yip it's Three.ie/3G, you do get a WiFi router and it has an ethernet port. That was the worst fastcom speed I posted. But lately it's been going backwards so I just got sick of it. If you do go with Three.ie/3G go with the Huawei router option and not the USB Dongle.

But if you're going to exceed 30GB per month they might not suit you. Since I've just officially switched today, I don't know what the charges/penalties are for going over the limit. But I download feck all so I shouldn't have a problem.

starbelgrade

bennyc wrote: »

I have vodafone at the moment with calls included for 35 a month, fastcom with the phone deal for 39.99 month (300 mins off peak) is a very good deal imo if the speed is good and unlimited. DO you ever get any complaints about using 120GB a month ?I wonder if 3G are strict on their D/L cap ?

I've never had any complaints. They do say that they reserve the right to restrict traffic to some sights if they're using up a lot of bandwidth, but I normally download overnight, so it's not a problem.

It's supposedly up to 3Mbps but I rarely speedtest at over 2Mbps, though it's usually enough for what I need.

bennyc

This is my vodafone up to 3 meg right now which is actually not as bad as normal, I have once seen it at 1.9.

Son Of A Vidic

bennyc wrote: »

This is my vodafone up to 3 meg right now which is actually not as bad as normal, I have once seen it at 1.9.

That's pretty crap alright, one thing you should know. Is if you do try out three.ie you'll get a free 14 day trial period - which commences once you receive your router via post. So you'll have a good 12 days of testing your speeds, online gaming ect,ect. If your not happy, let them know on day 12 or 13 and you can just return everything and get a refund. So it's potentially a win-win for you.

Here's my latest speedtest with the Galway server.

guinnessdrinker

Corvus keep us updated if you can, I'm thinking about switching from Fastcom to 3 myself, seems like much better value.

Son Of A Vidic

guinnessdrinker wrote: »

Corvus keep us updated if you can, I'm thinking about switching from Fastcom to 3 myself, seems like much better value.

I just switched on Monday, I've cancelled my Direct Debit online with Fastcom. Unfortunately I've paid for the month. So I just need to ring them and see will they take their equipment of my roof.

What amazes me is, I had an 6 foot Fastcom antennae with line of sight to the transmitter and signal strength was 20% - 30%. Yet with the Three.ie router, I can be on my work Laptop downstairs and the signal strength is excellent.

daithijjj

bennyc wrote: »

Hi , I see fastcom are running a 39.99 Jan offer with phone included. I am very tempted but its an 18month offer and if anyone could answer any of the following it would be great.

Whats customer service like at the minute ?
Are the speeds consistant ?
Does the weather cause any issues ?
Are you able to stream live TV ok ie sopcast or any other live footie streams ?
Are you using PSN XBox Live or PC gaming and if so have you any lag issues ?

I have vodafone at the momnet and not really happy at all. I cannot watch sky player for example between 9 and 12 every night due to slow connection speeds. It is supposed to be up to 3meg but I would reckon 1.2 at the best.

Been with fastcom a long time so i will throw in my 2 cents.

The cust. service is grand, if i ring up with a problem i always get a call back within a few hours. The problem is, the issues i have to ring about are getting more frequent.

The speeds are fairly consistent and the weather does not affect mine.

I stream live footy all the time (you may have seen me post in the footy forum) , sopcast is no problem at all. Veetle rarely works but i havent really found out if thats my laptop settings, i never really use veetle.

I dont game online but my brother used to on this connection, he put up with it but it wasnt great he told me.

Im interested in moving provider to be honest but i havent got around to seeing if i have options yet, when this line went in fastcom were the only option. I know i cant get eircom due to the phone line, our road is getting updated lines shortly (alledgedly), my neighbour has eircom. My neighbours the other side of us all have fastcom, one is a home business. Im in the coolera area.

kkontour

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

I just switched on Monday, I've cancelled my Direct Debit online with Fastcom. Unfortunately I've paid for the month. So I just need to ring them and see will they take their equipment of my roof.

What amazes me is, I had an 6 foot Fastcom antennae with line of sight to the transmitter and signal strength was 20% - 30%. Yet with the Three.ie router, I can be on my work Laptop downstairs and the signal strength is excellent.

Could this be part of the issue? Did you get their techies to check the antenna was lined up correctly. Maybe it moved in the wind?
Im with fastcom and consistantly get approx 2.9Mb up and down.

Gipo3

What is the story with Veetle? I was trying it for my brother but it dosent stream. It must be fastcom problem. RTE Player works fine and RTE live streams.

daithijjj

Gipo3 wrote: »

What is the story with Veetle? I was trying it for my brother but it dosent stream. It must be fastcom problem. RTE Player works fine and RTE live streams.

Im not sure to be honest, sometimes it worked and most of the time it didnt. I never really investigated because sopcast is better anyway. Could be browser related, some streams only work in ie and some in chrome for example.

RTE streams are different, nothing to do with veetle, think they are just media player and real player streams.

@kkontour, are you getting 2.9 up and down on BB only package for 39?

Gipo3

Its nothing to do with browser either as I have it on my own computer.

daithijjj

Gipo3 wrote: »

Its nothing to do with browser either as I have it on my own computer.

The thing is, im not sure its fastcom because mine has worked in the past on veetle, could be many things. Anyway, sopcast is better and more reliable in my opinion, ive been streaming for around 5 years now.

bennyc

My one must sence now that I am about to get rid of it. My line is only capable of 2MB I am told and either the downloaders have nothing to download at the moment or something else has imporved. Was able to stream the liverpool game via sopcast on one of the 800kbps streams the other night without error.
Sky Player on XBox has given no issues this week at all which is great as I have my old mans account attached to it for Sky Movies saves me on the subscription fee for my own Sky. I reckon 10pm tonight will be a different matter.

As for the Veetle thing I have used it but always find better quality from sopcast.

kkontour

Just ran speedtest to dublin now

starbelgrade

Just did a speedtest a minute ago. It's not bad at all...



Had a 3ms ping result last night with just over 3Mb/s download.

Can't complain about that!

Son Of A Vidic

kkontour wrote: »

Could this be part of the issue? Did you get their techies to check the antenna was lined up correctly. Maybe it moved in the wind?
Im with fastcom and consistantly get approx 2.9Mb up and down.

The first antenna was ripped of the roof, they then put up a new solid steel antenna. So I can assure you the antenna is not the problem. Their technicians have been on my roof 4 times since November, so I concluded that they are incapable of providing the service I was paying for. Because it just keeps getting worse and worse. I can move my Three.ie router anywhere around the house and the speeds make Fastcom look laughable.

gigino

+1. The three.ie broadband is the way to go, as its cheaper too. 9.99 or 19.99 a month, with no installation costs or aerial or people on roof. I am very impressed with it, and have no commercial ties to it.
Its amazing the advances in technology...its handy to be able to use it in any room in the house or outside too.

fastcombb

Hi Everyone

Thanks for all your comments both the positive and the negative. As a local provider we continuously strive to provide our customers with the best service and value. We aim to be as competitive as possible having launched our Home Phone & Broadband bundle @ €39.99 late 2010. As with any provider there can be service issues from time to time which we have tried as much as possible to eliminate through a significant investment program which will continue over the coming months and years. If there any new services that you would like to see us offering, please let us know. Thank you all for your custom, it means a lot to all of us here in Fastcom.

Ross Palmer
Managing Director

BulliteShot

Sometimes fastcom is really good, like when your techs come out to play and look for problems. Sometimes it's worse than dialup. This is not an isolated issue. Everyone on the colooney mast gets this ****...



fastcombb, get your finger out. There is a serious issue here.

BulliteShot

You can see my speed tests here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=70634256&postcount=39

It usually happens after school hours and at weekends. Maybe your contention ratio limiting isn't working? Whatever the problem is, please don't deny it's there and look into getting it fixed at least. Your service isn't cheap.

chris254

It has now got to the point were i cant even watch youtube in the evening's
I have to pause youtube go away for about half n hour comeback and watch it whenever it has loaded. It is way beyond a joke what's happening, cant use the internet for gaming cuse the contention and it seems as the weeks/month's go on it is getting worse it is a total downward spiral if you ask me ! they dont have a concern about contention and if they do it does not show and the way fastcombb/ross palmer put it (no plans to cap the usage limits)
(enjoyable surfing experience) surfing experinence ! I am assuming what he means if you want ur internet connection for for a we surf or to constantly download torrents/movies your luck's in but if not i am sorry to say .... seem's to be the way he is putting it and i think that is very sad from a bussniess point of view as he can see there are many posts about fastcom and gaming and whats it like ect ect ! but it is obvious they dont care about it but now when u cant even watch youtube u have to w8 onit loading thats it like. I do not mind people taking the piss but not when i am paying for it. FASTCOM can you's guarantee me in the future that i will still be able to send email's ! This is what it has come 2 !

BulliteShot

It could be that we're situated too far from the mast.

However, i'd rule that our because some days it's good quality.

Second reason is that if i renew my DHCP license, the router gets the IP address from fastcom, but there is no internet connectivity. The link seems fine. The issue is probably at the mast or beyond.

I will send fastcombb a PM with this thread link. Hopefully we will start to get an explanation and an ETA for a fix.

chris254

It seems after 11/12 o'clock hear at night it is flawless the next day it is just about ok then 5 o'clock dredfull thats the way it is hear and has been for a long time i have pingplotter samplesets and they all have recorded that same sequence over and over and over again fastcombb can comon and say what he wants but it is a deadend as far as fixing the contention problem ! I have talked to him before about it with no joy just had to deal with it. No online gaming but now when i put youtube on and its not loading right after 5 o'clock.... its sux but finally eircom seems to be moving in the right direction covering more country area's at long last and are a advertising a 24mb line. I just wish fastcom would improve but i cant see it happening ! I really dont think i will be with them for a great amount of time to come. In my opinion fastcom was a great SP but as have others on the forum hear have also stated the change was about 2 years ago and i totally agree with that thats when things started to go belly up/sink/decay! The point of no return.

BulliteShot

Well Chris, i think you're completely right. 2 years ago, very few people had fastcom in my area. Now, everyone has it. We've also all been bumped up from 2MB to 3MB not so long ago.

The way the connection goes bad during certain hours simply means overselling or the traffic filtering isn't working correctly. That's my opinion though, i obviously can't say what the real problem is without taking an internal look into their network.

cranog

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/20492-irish-broadband-costs-are/

cranog

chris254 give the tech support a call, keep cool and explain clearly what the problem is, they should be able to connect you to a different vector. Are you in a built up area or rural?