Are there any recommended providers out there in general?

Hi all,

Have been mooching through the forums here on and off for a while. Usually see threads asking about who to go with/move to/etc. but it often doesn't take long before someone chimes in with a reason not to use a certain provider.


I've been with Irish broadband for, at a guess, about 6 years now (they're Imagine broadband now, I believe, but were Irish Broadband when I signed up with them).

I pay €50 per month (well, €49.20) and I'm on "Breeze 3mb 24:1 Residential".

I've been paying with Credit card each month for the last couple of years. Grand and handy, but now I'm moving away from the credit card (cancelling it) and have to set up another payment method with them.

In the course of doing this, I've been thinking that maybe it could be time to look at different ISPs, to see if there's any tasty competition out there that could be worth moving to. Having been with Irish Broadband for so long, I reckon it's possible my package is quite outdated at this stage.

On the other hand, however, I've never, ever had any trouble with my internet. It goes down for about an hour or two every year I'd say. It's very reliable, it always gives me the same download speeds, I can pretty much download as much as I want and IBB never say anything to me, and the only time I ever have any technical issues (extremely rare and usually my own fault) their tech support team have been spot on and very helpful.


So, with that in mind, I'm thinking maybe I should stick with them for the peace of mind of knowing I won't have any issues with them.


I was just wondering if anyone had any advice at all? Or could make any suggestions? I'd like to keep paying the same amount or less (obviously), as I wouldn't be too keen on spending more than €50 per month on my net, if I could avoid it.

The only people I won't touch are Eircom. I'm not a big pirate, but I hated their approach and attitude when IRMA came calling a while ago (and they caved instantly). Don't seem to act in the interest of their customers, so wouldn't go near them.

This is a quick Speed Test I did:





So I suppose in short what I'm asking is, is it worth moving away from IBB, and if so, are there any recommendations on who would be worth looking at?


Sorry for the long-winded post.


Cheers

Harry Deerpark

Deleted User wrote: »

Hi all,

Have been mooching through the forums here on and off for a while. Usually see threads asking about who to go with/move to/etc. but it often doesn't take long before someone chimes in with a reason not to use a certain provider.


I've been with Irish broadband for, at a guess, about 6 years now (they're Imagine broadband now, I believe, but were Irish Broadband when I signed up with them).

I pay €50 per month (well, €49.20) and I'm on "Breeze 3mb 24:1 Residential".

I've been paying with Credit card each month for the last couple of years. Grand and handy, but now I'm moving away from the credit card (cancelling it) and have to set up another payment method with them.

In the course of doing this, I've been thinking that maybe it could be time to look at different ISPs, to see if there's any tasty competition out there that could be worth moving to. Having been with Irish Broadband for so long, I reckon it's possible my package is quite outdated at this stage.

On the other hand, however, I've never, ever had any trouble with my internet. It goes down for about an hour or two every year I'd say. It's very reliable, it always gives me the same download speeds, I can pretty much download as much as I want and IBB never say anything to me, and the only time I ever have any technical issues (extremely rare and usually my own fault) their tech support team have been spot on and very helpful.


So, with that in mind, I'm thinking maybe I should stick with them for the peace of mind of knowing I won't have any issues with them.


I was just wondering if anyone had any advice at all? Or could make any suggestions? I'd like to keep paying the same amount or less (obviously), as I wouldn't be too keen on spending more than €50 per month on my net, if I could avoid it.

The only people I won't touch are Eircom. I'm not a big pirate, but I hated their approach and attitude when IRMA came calling a while ago (and they caved instantly). Don't seem to act in the interest of their customers, so wouldn't go near them.

This is a quick Speed Test I did:





So I suppose in short what I'm asking is, is it worth moving away from IBB, and if so, are there any recommendations on who would be worth looking at?


Sorry for the long-winded post.


Cheers

How come your upload speed is so good? Is that through those comreg-owned copper cables eircom use, or is it wireless?

Vodafone or UPC are your best bets.

smellslikeshoes

I see from your under your boards name you are in Drogheda, if you are right in the town there's a good chance you could get FTTC/VDSL when Eircom finally launch it sometime this year. If you were to swap providers now there is a pretty good chance that you might not get speeds as good or as reliable as what you have now. There's lots of people on these forums who would sell a kidney for a solid 3 down 3 up with good latency like what you have there. My advice would definitely stick it out for another while and see what your chances are of getting FTTC.

Cheers for the replies.


Upload/Download speeds have always been fairly consistent if memory serves me correctly. Pretty sure I'm wireless (antenna on the roof, wired to modem inside the house - have no phone line so IBB were the provider of choice at the time).

Suppose one other question I have, whilst I'm talking about my broadband, is with regards to online gaming. I never really play online gaming (not much of a gamer in general) but when GTA V comes out I intend to give it a bit of a lash. I remember playing GTA IV online a small bit, but can't remember if it ran smoothly or there was a lot of lag or not, to be honest.

Would the speed test above give any indication to an informed mind (ie; not me) as to whether or not my current connection would be good enough for online gaming?

smellslikeshoes

If that speed test is indicative of what you usually get you will have no problems whatsoever playing anything you want online. Problem with speedtests though is they are only a small snapshot of what your connection is like (they aren't always 100% reliable either). If you want to have a better idea, do them regularly for a few days and take note of the latency (ping) if it's always <100 you will have no problems.

Mr. G

That speed is actually quite good for your package. We have 12mb imagine dsl and it costs us €55 a month. We pay that in the post office and never had any issues.

Would definately recommend them and never ever had an issue. Eircom are dreadful, believe me!

I will make one comment though: Your ping is excellent for online gaming. I'm not fimilar with the game you play, but it would depend on the quality and bandwidth etc to determine whether your speed is ok or not.

smellslikeshoes

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

If that speed test is indicative of what you usually get you will have no problems whatsoever playing anything you want online. Problem with speedtests though is they are only a small snapshot of what your connection is like (they aren't always 100% reliable either). If you want to have a better idea, do them regularly for a few days and take note of the latency (ping) if it's always <100 you will have no problems.

Well that speed test was done about a minute or two before posting the thread (I was actually writing the OP as it was testing) so that'd have been about 5:15pm. I just did one there a second ago, too (1:55am):






So seems much the same, really. I'll give it a whirl tomorrow around 8pm (as that's when I'd imagine most people would be online and my 24:1 would start to get hammered) and see what it looks like then.

Mr_Grumpy wrote: »

That speed is actually quite good for your package. We have 12mb imagine dsl and it costs us €55 a month. We pay that in the post office and never had any issues.

Would definately recommend them and never ever had an issue. Eircom are dreadful, believe me!

I will make one comment though: Your ping is excellent for online gaming. I'm not fimilar with the game you play, but it would depend on the quality and bandwidth etc to determine whether your speed is ok or not.

Well based on that aswell, then I think I'll just stay put. No point in changing for the sake of it.

I plan to just try out GTA V online. Not really a big gamer so don't have anything I can play online at the moment to give things a test drive, so I'll just have to see how it goes when I get the game, I suppose.