Eircom eFibre VDSL/FTTC rollout – plans to reach 1.6m premises by mid 2016

kaizersoze

Frank Garrett wrote: »

Those connections in the cabinet, they go back to the exchange, right? So, at the exchange, wouldn't the technician just switch the connection from Eircom to Sky? Is that how it works?

Nope. It's all done through the same equipment. Each cabinet has 192 ports (can take 192 customers) and are fibre fed from the exchange. When the cabinet reaches capacity that's it. It's either wait for someone to disconnect from the service or if there is enough demand, eircom might install another cab.

ElNino

Originally Posted by HellboundIRL View Post
Why do I only ever see Vodafone customers with 70mb? I don't think I've seen anyone with Eircom post those kind of speeds, it's generally all 50mb. I know it depends on your line and distance from the cabinet but I still see all 70mb stats coming from Vodafone.

toptix wrote: »

think it has something to do with the tv rollout
they are giving lower speeds for stability

I think that I have only ever seen one person on here on 70mb from eircom. In my own case I ordered 70mb but I was only given 50mb even though I am only 50mb from my cabinet. The tv thing sounds plausible if they upgraded those people getting evision from 50mb to 70mb and reserved the extra 20mb for the tv but the ones I have seen they actually left them on 50mb and reduced their internet to a 40mb profile.

fat-tony

jca wrote: »

I thought L1 and L2 were unfiltered. Thanks for that info. Now its just a matter of getting efibre.

I got my VDSL install yesterday. The tech wired in the new NTU at the front door and looped in the alarm wires and phone extensions in the back of the box as expected.
I have a phone extension cable (about 10m long) running to the room where my PC and modem/router are located. It's not CAT5, but it's reasonable round cable with solid wire conductors so the tech was able to attach an RJ11 plug to it. This went into the DSL socket on the faceplate and I was up and running. He reckoned it would be better to replace the cable with CAT5 which I will do after we get some work done on the house - it's running around the front door frame at the moment.
I did a quick comparison test with the modem attached directly to the socket in the hall and then with it connected via my extension wire. As expected the signal to noise ratio (SNR) was worse with the extension (12.1dB versus 15dB downstream and 15.8dB versus 9.3dB upstream!). Attenuation figures were much the same as I would expect from such a short length of additional wire.
There's no noticeable difference in performance speed-wise, but the SNR dis-improvement definitely merits using proper twisted pair, so I'll definitely replace the cable with CAT5 once the work is done on the house. I can confirm that the NTU box will accept an RJ45 plug in the DSL socket.

raymix

I was told by Digiweb sales rep that Eircom requires all resellers to enforce FUP. This puts Eircom as the only ISP with true unlimited bandwidth. However, likes like Vodafone and Digiweb won't throttle or call you even if you get past the monthly limit, with the exception of "repeated offense" for really heavy users. This might change in future tho, I asked can I sit around 500GB/m as worst case scenario without being throttled, the answer was: "Yes for now, but this might change in future". They were unsure about it, so there's no definite answer.

I thought this info could be handy for someone, it's not much, but it wasn't there when I was looking for it

naughto

fat-tony wrote: »

I got my VDSL install yesterday. The tech wired in the new NTU at the front door and looped in the alarm wires and phone extensions in the back of the box as expected.
I have a phone extension cable (about 10m long) running to the room where my PC and modem/router are located. It's not CAT5, but it's reasonable round cable with solid wire conductors so the tech was able to attach an RJ11 plug to it. This went into the DSL socket on the faceplate and I was up and running. He reckoned it would be better to replace the cable with CAT5 which I will do after we get some work done on the house - it's running around the front door frame at the moment.
I did a quick comparison test with the modem attached directly to the socket in the hall and then with it connected via my extension wire. As expected the signal to noise ratio (SNR) was worse with the extension (12.1dB versus 15dB downstream and 15.8dB versus 9.3dB upstream!). Attenuation figures were much the same as I would expect from such a short length of additional wire.
There's no noticeable difference in performance speed-wise, but the SNR dis-improvement definitely merits using proper twisted pair, so I'll definitely replace the cable with CAT5 once the work is done on the house. I can confirm that the NTU box will accept an RJ45 plug in the DSL socket.

i plan on gettting the eircom tec to move the modem in to my batcave box room where all my laptops,pcs xbox are.
do i need to supply the tec with CAT5 cable or will he have it him self?

wheresmybeaver

naughto wrote: »

i plan on gettting the eircom tec to move the modem in to my batcave box room where all my laptops,pcs xbox are.
do i need to supply the tec with CAT5 cable or will he have it him self?

my understanding was that the tech can install the new plug point at another extension point if the line quality is ok and its not far? That's what I'm sincerely hoping as the main plug point is in the middle of the hallway on a hugely inconvenient spot with no room for a modem and no easy way of running cat5 cable around tiles etc. Hopefully someone who has recently had an install can chime in?

tarakino

This is confusing as some people are saying this can't be done and you need to get powerline adapters...but I found this on the E Fibre FAQ's on Eircom website:

Can I choose where the modem box is positioned?


The ideal location for your modem is either beside the main socket (which is usually in the hallway) or as close to the room where you are going to most use your internet connection. This will ensure maximum wireless coverage

However, you can move your modem up to 30 metres from the main telephone socket, through this will require internal wiring (the wiring is white in colour).


So is this correct or it only applies to some cases??

fat-tony

I'm not an eircom customer (Vodafone), but yes you can get an extension up to 30m from your main socket to run your modem. IMHO this is a much better solution than trying to use powerline adaptors. I had an extension socket about 10m away from the main socket in the hall. The technician checked that it was using decent solid core cable and put an RJ11 (telephone) plug on the end of the cable and this went into the DSL socket. My modem plugs into the other end. I've done some experimentation with proper CAT5 cable and I have found that I can get almost as good quality signal on the 10m extension as I got with the modem connected directly in the hall.

hellboy99

tarakino wrote: »

This is confusing as some people are saying this can't be done and you need to get powerline adapters...but I found this on the E Fibre FAQ's on Eircom website:

Can I choose where the modem box is positioned?


The ideal location for your modem is either beside the main socket (which is usually in the hallway) or as close to the room where you are going to most use your internet connection. This will ensure maximum wireless coverage

However, you can move your modem up to 30 metres from the main telephone socket, through this will require internal wiring (the wiring is white in colour).


So is this correct or it only applies to some cases??

They done it for me on Monday, they put in new CAT5 cable and a point in another room for my router.

tarakino

hellboy99 wrote: »

They done it for me on Monday, they put in new CAT5 cable and a point in another room for my router.

Thanks, does the cable run through the room, I mean is it an external wiring or does it run internally??

hellboy99

tarakino wrote: »

Thanks, does the cable run through the room, I mean is it an external wiring or does it run internally??

It runs internal via wall conduit. If you don't have conduit they will staple the wire into place for you.

gomamochi1

Anyone know when in reality efibre will be available in dromiskin, co louth? Castlebellingham exchange. Thanks

wheresmybeaver

Well I got my fibre installed by Vodafone yesterday evening, looked fine when the tech was leaving but since then (12+ hours) the connection is being dropped every 30 minutes. Each time requires a reboot. the router log says:
2013-11-14 7:46:24 Daemon Notice cms 1 WAN connection PTM_TR069_VOIP_INTERNET_R_VID_10 disconnected.(ERROR_NO_ANSWER)

More amazingly, I cannot for the life of me get through to Vodafone technical support. Whether I ring via landline or mobile it always asks me for my landline, I cannot proceed without doing this, and when I do I just get a looped message saying my order is complete! No option to talk to an agent! So I've sent them an email... via my phone of course.. this is disgraceful that I can't talk to an actual agent about a serious connection issue.

Meanwhile, any thoughts on these disconnects? I've reset the router to defaults, I've checked the cables and swapped out the phone line cable, no impact at all.

tdonegan1990

Got mine installed just now
http://www.speedtest.net/result/3100375476.png

fat-tony

wheresmybeaver wrote: »

Well I got my fibre installed by Vodafone yesterday evening, looked fine when the tech was leaving but since then (12+ hours) the connection is being dropped every 30 minutes. Each time requires a reboot. the router log says:
2013-11-14 7:46:24 Daemon Notice cms 1 WAN connection PTM_TR069_VOIP_INTERNET_R_VID_10 disconnected.(ERROR_NO_ANSWER)...

...Meanwhile, any thoughts on these disconnects? I've reset the router to defaults, I've checked the cables and swapped out the phone line cable, no impact at all.

Do a print screen of your DSL stats page and post it as an image - here's mine as an example:

Frank Garrett

fat-tony wrote: »

Do a print screen of your DSL stats page and post it as an image - here's mine as an example:

How far away from the cabinet are you? Does that Vodafone router tell you your attainable speed?

fat-tony

I reckon I'm about a 250m - 300m walk from the cabinet. The line attenuation figure would indicate I'm further so the cable might be taking a circuitous route. The modem does not indicate potential top speed, but it's syncing at 70Mb which is the best available on the line profile in use by eircom / VF. When vectoring comes in next year they will bump up available speeds to 100Mb+ I think.

I'm getting good consistent speeds - my best was yesterday at 68Mb down, 16.9Mb up and 17ms ping. Here's a test from just now:

Mc Love

There were KN vans in Rosbrien, Limerick beside the railway line. Not sure what they were doing

wheresmybeaver

fat-tony wrote: »

Do a print screen of your DSL stats page and post it as an image - here's mine as an example:

I don't have access to the router right at this minute but those figures look quite similar.

In fairness to Vodafone they logged the fault immediately this morning with Eircom / KN and an engineer called this afternoon to take a look. He confirmed everything was hunky dorey with my installation and line stability (and interestingly noted that this line would be capable of up to 110MB at some point if Vodafone would enable it to do so). However the disconnecting problem persists so his own opinion is that the Vodafone-supplied modem is dodgy and crapping out after 30 minutes.

What I did this evening was follow the bridging instructions here with my old TPLink router and this has provided me with a stable connection for the last 2 hours. Whatever was wrong with that Vodafone modem and my network setup (about 10 devices of various vintages and OS, including a network switch) it seems that as long as all you're using it for is strictly a modem and you're using another router for DHCP, forwarding etc, then you'll be fine.

However I am still going to contact Vodafone tomorrow to see if they can send me a replacement modem as I'd rather not bridge if I don't have to. By this afternoon it wasn't just dropping the VDSL connection after 30 minutes but it was also having issues rendering the router page, and then eventually dropping wifi too. So I don't have much confidence in it lasting as a modem in bridge mode. Additionally the Vodafone tech support person temporarily moved me to a slower profile this morning (18MB down) to see if that would stop the disconnects (it didn't) so I must get them to put me back on the faster profile!

Apart from that, the speeds on fibre are great, especially the upload. Here's my before and after stats:

pointywalnut

When eFibre was launched in May, houses 1-100 were shown to be enabled in my estate on the eircom website. Now my house is being shown as enabled.

Should I trust the eircom's website, as only recently as September, eircom said there were no plans to upgrade my line.

jantheman91

I'll be getting efibre between Jan-Mar and wanted to know what speeds i can expect with the following line stats?

If anyone could hazard a guess i'd really appreciate it!

Frank Garrett

jantheman91 wrote: »

I'll be getting efibre between Jan-Mar and wanted to know what speeds i can expect with the following line stats?

If anyone could hazard a guess i'd really appreciate it!

Those stats do not matter. You need to locate the nearest cabinet to your house and figure out how long your line is. The line usually runs underneath footpaths.

NextYearIthink

toptix wrote: »

think it has something to do with the tv rollout
they are giving lower speeds for stability

Does anybody know if that's true? If that really is the case I will move from Eircom to VF as I have no intentions of getting TV via eircom

fat-tony

wheresmybeaver wrote: »

I don't have access to the router right at this minute but those figures look quite similar...

It would be good if you could post the DSL stats page as it would give an indication of error rate as well. The device information page gives the hardware and software version also, so it would be good to compare these also - here's mine for example:
Hardware version HG658BZV VER.A Software version V100R001C172B211

I would suggest not printing the whole of the device info page as the serial number, MAC address should be kept confidential.

My experience with this router has been excellent. I received it a week before I was switched to fibre and was using it on ADSL before the change to VDSL. No line drops, handled the overnight disconnect to change IP address without incident, no problems with port forwarding, good wireless performance, runs cool. It's not a triumph of visual design, though you could probably hide it behind a photo or something:)
On the other hand, the previous ADSL modem/router (I think the HG556?) was a total p.o.s. when I got it about three years ago. Wouldn't hold a stable connection for more than a couple of hours and never handled the overnight IP address change. Updated firmware on it a couple of times but was never any good, so I chucked it in a drawer and went back to my old eircom Netopia modem and used it in bridge mode with a Linksys wireless router.

You may well have a duff modem or maybe the firmware is not up to date. I really don't see the need to operate the modem in bridge mode unless you have a very good wireless router already in place or have specific needs in regards to wireless which the Huawei can't meet.
If it's not an issue with your modem, there may be a local problem with the DSLAM your line is connected to in the cabinet with the WAN infrastructure in VF's network, but that's for VF to investigate.

fat-tony

wheresmybeaver wrote: »

Well I got my fibre installed by Vodafone yesterday evening, looked fine when the tech was leaving but since then (12+ hours) the connection is being dropped every 30 minutes. Each time requires a reboot. the router log says:
2013-11-14 7:46:24 Daemon Notice cms 1 WAN connection PTM_TR069_VOIP_INTERNET_R_VID_10 disconnected.(ERROR_NO_ANSWER)

....

I was sort of intrigued by the error message (ERROR_NO_ANSWER) and went googling, but didn't really turn up anything. Apart from an issue with your modem hardware or software (see previous post), would you have any software running on your PC which is trying at intervals to make VOIP calls or similar (Skype perhaps?). Maybe there is some SIP configuration issue or whatever. The reference to "PTM_TR069_VOIP_INTERNET_R_V10" in the error message is just the interface in use, it's not specific to VOIP. Just a thought...

BeerNut

NextYearIthink wrote: »

Does anybody know if that's true? If that really is the case I will move from Eircom to VF as I have no intentions of getting TV via eircom

If you're not getting eVision it won't affect you. It's only eVision customers that are given the lower speeds.

Mc Love

pointywalnut wrote: »

When eFibre was launched in May, houses 1-100 were shown to be enabled in my estate on the eircom website. Now my house is being shown as enabled.

Should I trust the eircom's website, as only recently as September, eircom said there were no plans to upgrade my line.

I put in my number and I am with VF now and its saying efibre is available now on the home section however if I put it in the business section it says its available but the packages are greyed out

raymix

pointywalnut wrote: »

Should I trust the eircom's website, as only recently as September, eircom said there were no plans to upgrade my line.

you should give them a call, each apartment gets different installation dates. There was a month difference between apts where I live, and we only have 9 apts per section of the house. You seem to have a lot more...

Try this number - 1800503303, it's the one I used to get to customer support fairly quickly and they were able to explain me whole this apartment thingy.

domeld

@Mc Love
PM You phone number and I will tell You if it is available for 100%

wheresmybeaver

fat-tony wrote: »

It would be good if you could post the DSL stats page as it would give an indication of error rate as well. The device information page gives the hardware and software version also, so it would be good to compare these also - here's mine for example:
Hardware version HG658BZV VER.A Software version V100R001C172B211

I would suggest not printing the whole of the device info page as the serial number, MAC address should be kept confidential.

My experience with this router has been excellent. I received it a week before I was switched to fibre and was using it on ADSL before the change to VDSL. No line drops, handled the overnight disconnect to change IP address without incident, no problems with port forwarding, good wireless performance, runs cool. It's not a triumph of visual design, though you could probably hide it behind a photo or something:)
On the other hand, the previous ADSL modem/router (I think the HG556?) was a total p.o.s. when I got it about three years ago. Wouldn't hold a stable connection for more than a couple of hours and never handled the overnight IP address change. Updated firmware on it a couple of times but was never any good, so I chucked it in a drawer and went back to my old eircom Netopia modem and used it in bridge mode with a Linksys wireless router.

You may well have a duff modem or maybe the firmware is not up to date. I really don't see the need to operate the modem in bridge mode unless you have a very good wireless router already in place or have specific needs in regards to wireless which the Huawei can't meet.
If it's not an issue with your modem, there may be a local problem with the DSLAM your line is connected to in the cabinet with the WAN infrastructure in VF's network, but that's for VF to investigate.

fat-tony wrote: »

I was sort of intrigued by the error message (ERROR_NO_ANSWER) and went googling, but didn't really turn up anything. Apart from an issue with your modem hardware or software (see previous post), would you have any software running on your PC which is trying at intervals to make VOIP calls or similar (Skype perhaps?). Maybe there is some SIP configuration issue or whatever. The reference to "PTM_TR069_VOIP_INTERNET_R_V10" in the error message is just the interface in use, it's not specific to VOIP. Just a thought...

I can't reach the Vodafone router directly anymore since I put it into bridging mode, I suspect it would involve disconnecting the tplink router and plugging back in via eth but honestly I'm not bothered. I know for a fact that there were never any error stats on that page. I did an experiment yesterday where I disconnected all wired and wifi devices from the Vodafone router, rebooted, and left it alone for 30 minutes. The internet light went red after almost exactly 30 minutes.

It's looking more like it's a fault with the router as since I've bridged the modem I've had 100% uptime and no disconnects in 24 hours. If there was an automatic change of IP during the night it obviously went ok as my internet was active all night and any scheduled network activity went as planned. The TP Link router has great range in my house compared to my (limited) experience with the Vodafone router.

I'd still rather just use one device instead of two so I've asked Vodafone to send me out a replacement router (I'll have to send the old one back). If the disconnection problem exists even with the replacement then I'll know there's something odd about my actual connection. But as it stands, bridging the modem has provided a stable connection. 48 down and 16 up, very happy!

FYI for those moving to fibre; Vodafone (and perhaps Eircom) use ports 8081 to about 8085 for their ACS service, which I believe is for remote administration and updates. I had to reconfigure some sabnzbd services etc to work around it. The Vodafone router will prevent you from forwarding these ports but I'd watch out if you are bridging that you don't use these ports in your bridging router as at the very least it may cause problems in future.