Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

9726_9726

Tzardine wrote: »

Engineers came today to install but said there was good news and bad news. Apparently I am getting great signal but can not be installed. Something to do with not being able to install us on a sector. I did not quite get what he was saying, he may have been spoofing, but then I don't know any reason why he would, but he said there are 3 sectors and they are not allowed to install on one.as it turns out that is the only one they can pick up. He said I will be able to get it in the future if they release this sector ????

Anyhow, no install for me today. €100 is being returned

They usually divide the site into three sectors. Imagine a mast at the centre of a giant pizza and the pizza divided into 3 X 120 degree slices. Your house is a piece of topping in one slice! It can't be in one of the others.

Each sector has a finite capacity, yours is full.


So this looks like a consequence of the small spectrum award. They can't easily overlay more sectors.

oscarBravo

9726_9726 wrote: »

So this looks like a consequence of the small spectrum award. They can't easily overlay more sectors.

The spectrum award isn't relevant yet. They're still operating on FWALA licences until July 31, and then we're into the transition regime.

seanvanseanvan

cornholio509 wrote: »

Cannot login to the LTE routers . IMagine have them locked and the only way to change settings is to email them .

I log in to mine all the time to make changes. Stop with the drama llama craic as you are embarrassing yourself

seanvanseanvan

Any one have Sky Q with imagine thinking of getting it ?

Dero

seanvanseanvan wrote: »

I log in to mine all the time to make changes. Stop with the drama llama craic as you are embarrassing yourself

He's not embarrassing himself. You seem to be very much in the minority with access to your CPE. Their policy is to keep customers locked out of them and have them request changes through support.

Occasionally they may forget to change the default password (such as in your case), but typically, they change it on every install. There also seems to be different CPEs in use with differing levels of access. If you read the entire thread, this will be quite clear.

In my case, I initially had a Huawei CPE, for which the default access credentials had been changed. More recently, I managed to get a proper bridged setup installed so I no longer have an Imagine router at all, just a Greenpacket radio with a PoE injector. In this case, access credentials are moot. :cool:

cold case

Did anyone have trouble with leaving vodafone for imagine. Imagine said they would do the changeover, we were to do nothing. Now vodafone say they need notice, and imagine are saying the opposite. They are both saying the other is incorrect.

Also, our speed with imagine is way better than vodafone, but coverage around the house on iphones is awful. Upstairs the phones start disconnecting after approx 3 minutes, and takes multiple times of retry to connect again for another few minutes. We have a normal sized house btw!

SkepticQuark

cold case wrote: »

Did anyone have trouble with leaving vodafone for imagine. Imagine said they would do the changeover, we were to do nothing. Now vodafone say they need notice, and imagine are saying the opposite. They are both saying the other is incorrect.

We moved over at the end of the contract, told Imagine we needed to wait a month or so before signing up. Phoned them about two weeks before our Vodafone contract ended, they came out and installed it all a week later and we told Vodafone we wouldn't be renewing. All sorted after that and Imagine dealt with moving the phone number over.

cold case

roddy15 wrote: »

We moved over at the end of the contract, told Imagine we needed to wait a month or so before signing up. Phoned them about two weeks before our Vodafone contract ended, they came out and installed it all a week later and we told Vodafone we wouldn't be renewing. All sorted after that and Imagine dealt with moving the phone number over.

Our 18 month contract with vodafone ended june 2016, but they didn't ring to renew, so we were just going month to month, so we thought that meant that we were free to move to imagine, and imagine said we didn't need to do anything, they would look after everything.

Vodafone took direct debit on 22nd june, we were installed with imagine on 20th june, so we then cancelled any further direct debit with vodafone thinking that was fair enough, all paid up with vodafone.

bennyineire

Can anybody recommend a phone to buy that's compatible with the router

Ninjakettle

we've noticed phones on Three network can't ring the VOIP landline we have. Other networks ok. Anyone have that issue?

Ninjakettle

Dero wrote: »

In my case, I initially had a Huawei CPE, for which the default access credentials had been changed. More recently, I managed to get a proper bridged setup installed so I no longer have an Imagine router at all, just a Greenpacket radio with a PoE injector. In this case, access credentials are moot. :cool:

Any chance you could outline the steps you had to take for this to happen, and did you notice any speed benefit from replacing their CPE with your own (presumably better) router? Also, can you port forward and access your network across the WAN etc ok?

Gooser14

cold case wrote:

Did anyone have trouble with leaving vodafone for imagine. Imagine said they would do the changeover, we were to do nothing. Now vodafone say they need notice, and imagine are saying the opposite. They are both saying the other is incorrect.

What does the VF T&C state? I wouldn't be surprised if there is a requirement to give a period of notice (usually 30 days) even if out of contract. Check the T&C.

Dero

Ninjakettle wrote: »

Any chance you could outline the steps you had to take for this to happen, and did you notice any speed benefit from replacing their CPE with your own (presumably better) router? Also, can you port forward and access your network across the WAN etc ok?

First of all, to make it happen, I needed persistence and patience. I started on the day it was installed (some time around last August/September). I knew from the off that the supplied router was not going to work in my network. I had an existing bridged setup with another WISP, so was already using my own router & wireless access points. I stated up front to Imagine from the start that I was not prepared to modify how my network was set up and that I required a drop-in replacement of my existing ISP. In all communications up to install time, they assured me this was no problem (I didn't believe them).

Needless to say, they just installed the standard CPE in router configuration. I got on to support immediately, who informed me that there was no way to bridge it. After lots of back and forth with second line support (and beyond), they agreed to provide a proper bridged solution. However, that would take time. In the meantime, we compromised on turning off the WiFi & DHCP on their router and putting my router in the DMZ, thus essentially giving me access from outside, albeit with double NAT. It was kludgy and unreliable though. Some ports were unavailable due to being used on their management network, and occasionally egress on port 22 stopped working (which was bloody annoying. I ended up using a different port on an EC2 droplet as a workaround). The VoIP was unreliable also (SIP does not like NAT, nevermind double NAT).

Eventually, they contacted me to say they had a proper solution available, but it would not work with the Huawei CPE. They scheduled an engineer visit to swap the CPE, so I ended up with a Greenpacket radio and just a PoE injector to power it. This presents as Ethernet directly into the WAN port of my router with my external IP and full access to all ports in/out.

Initially it seemed to give a slight speed boost, but that was illusory. In fairness, I never expected any speed change. My drivers were control over my own network and external access.

For the record, my own router is a Linux box running Shorewall. I have a few wireless access points and other machines performing various network functions around the place.

I have to say, although it took a long time to set up correctly, they did take it seriously, and came up with a proper solution that gives me full Internet access and allows them to retain their management access to the radio. FWIW, I have no access to the radio, nor would I want any. It would be nice to be able to see the LTE connection metrics, but so long as I have proper Internet access and full control of my own network, I'm happy.

One thing to note is that you will lose the phone once their router is gone. I managed to get the SIP details from them and use my own IP phone, but YMMV.

Scruff

Dero wrote: »

In my case, I initially had a Huawei CPE, for which the default access credentials had been changed. More recently, I managed to get a proper bridged setup installed so I no longer have an Imagine router at all, just a Greenpacket radio with a PoE injector. In this case, access credentials are moot. :cool:

What PoE injector have ye? There was talk way back in this thread of the voltage and ampage for the PoE from their crappy router being non standard.

Dero

Scruff wrote: »

What PoE injector have ye? There was talk way back in this thread of the voltage and ampage for the PoE from their crappy router being non standard.

I didn't actually look at it to be honest. It's just a plain white box with the usual power and 2x Ethernet. I'd say it's the usual passive PoE rather than 802.3af. I'll post a picture later/tomorrow.

Dero

Here's the PoE injector. Literally just a white box. The only markings on it are that serial number.

IMG_20170629_184236.jpg

IMG_20170629_184158.jpg

deadl0ck

Hi all. Imagine just arrived in my area and I'm seriously considering it. I currently have Eir ADSL and get 5 Meg down and less than 1/2 Meg up.
What type or router / switch do you get with imagine?
I currently have the xyzel from eir which then plugs into an old cisco switch which then in turn links up to multiple cat 6 points throughout my house.
Can I plug from the imagine router into my Cisco?

Also - do they support dyndns on their router?

Thanks.

wotzgoingon

deadl0ck wrote: »

Hi all. Imagine just arrived in my area and I'm seriously considering it. I currently have Eir ADSL and get 5 Meg down and less than 1/2 Meg up.
What type or router / switch do you get with imagine?
I currently have the xyzel from eir which then plugs into an old cisco switch which then in turn links up to multiple cat 6 points throughout my house.
Can I plug from the imagine router into my Cisco?

Also - do they support dyndns on their router?

Thanks.

From reading this thread I would stay on Eir. I get slower ADSl than you barely 3Mb down but I would rather that than be capped and get slower speeds as reported in this thread.

But then on the other side of the fence people rarely speak about how good a service is but always complain about it if things go wrong.

It's up to you but if it was me I would stay with Eir.

deadl0ck

wotzgoingon wrote: »

From reading this thread I would stay on Eir. I get slower ADSl than you barely 3Mb down but I would rather that than be capped and get slower speeds as reported in this thread.

But then on the other side of the fence people rarely speak about how good a service is but always complain about it if things go wrong.

It's up to you but if it was me I would stay with Eir.

I've read the last 10 pages of this thread and see that people seem to be getting ok speeds.

I guess I need to keep going....

wotzgoingon

deadl0ck wrote: »

I've read the last 10 pages of this thread and see that people seem to be getting ok speeds.

I guess I need to keep going....

Maybe they are and I just remember all the bad posts. It's up to you. I would probably go on it too if it wasn't capped.

SkepticQuark

deadl0ck wrote: »

Hi all. Imagine just arrived in my area and I'm seriously considering it. I currently have Eir ADSL and get 5 Meg down and less than 1/2 Meg up.
What type or router / switch do you get with imagine?
I currently have the xyzel from eir which then plugs into an old cisco switch which then in turn links up to multiple cat 6 points throughout my house.
Can I plug from the imagine router into my Cisco?

Also - do they support dyndns on their router?

Thanks.

Depends on your use case if Imagine will benefit you. For us the cap is no big deal, just plan the big downloads out properly. We don't have any subscription streaming services either though. Our daily use is mostly YouTube, gaming, VOIP and uploading videos to YouTube and with that we use about 12GB a day. There does seem to be some inconsistency with the enforcement of the cap though, some people seem to be able to download what they want during the night, others get a bit of an increase but most people get an enforced 20GB per day cap so it might be best if you take that to be the case. Breach the cap and it's 1mbps down and up also.

They have various routers so hard to tell which one specifically you'll get. We got a white GemTek router (model number: WVRTM-127ACN) and they thankfully left us with the manual and didn't change the default login. On that router there does appear to be dyndns support but I haven't tried it myself. You will be able to connect the switch yes, the router we got had 2 ethernet ports so we have one go to the PS4 which is in the same room as the router and the other goes to our own N66U.

As for speed it really depends on your location, the only way to know is to pay up the deposit to get them to come out to the house or if you know anyone nearby with it you could ask them. For us though I just did a speedtest right now, bear in mind there are a few youtube videos on the go as well as someone on skype but with all that going on I got this result:

jcd5971

wotzgoingon wrote:

From reading this thread I would stay on Eir. I get slower ADSl than you barely 3Mb down but I would rather that than be capped and get slower speeds as reported in this thread.

wotzgoingon wrote:

But then on the other side of the fence people rarely speak about how good a service is but always complain about it if things go wrong.

wotzgoingon wrote:

It's up to you but if it was me I would stay with Eir.

They clamp hard if you go over 20 gig in a day it's a pain to manage but you will handy enough.


I had 1.5 down and about.7 up the difference for me is like going from night into day.

Stongly suggest you try it out, if it's not for you cancel within the 14 days

DredFX

Has anyone here ever gotten warnings about excessive usage despite hardly using the Internet? Nieces watched bout two hours of Netflix this morning, we left the house for most of the day, and came back to a 15GB warning (only received in the last few minutes).

Not a nice sight, on top of the 12-7am 'free hours' being a total lie.

vanman99

yes, got one on Wednesday, same scenario, kids where downloading a few kids programs on sky, everyone out of the house after 9, got an email at 11 to say 15GB download reached....rang them, they ran a report that just showed me the downloads where between 8 and 10. i'm thinking the sky box auto downloads programs, doesn't netflix do the same, it auto plays the next episode, might have been the issue.

DredFX

Right. I dove into Netflix settings and reduced the standard quality and disabled auto-play. Hoping that'll make a difference.

Another question. Has anyone ever downloaded something massive during the fabled 1am-7am free hour period recently and gotten away without a throttle?

SkepticQuark

DredFX wrote: »

Right. I dove into Netflix settings and reduced the standard quality and disabled auto-play. Hoping that'll make a difference.

Another question. Has anyone ever downloaded something massive during the fabled 1am-7am free hour period recently and gotten away without a throttle?

We've gotten away with it but only recently I don't know if it works anymore. It's honestly a gamble it seems because a few months back we couldn't do it and then suddenly we could. I wouldn't really try it on a day you'll be using the internet all day in case it throttles.

thefisherbuy

Anyone know the cheapest phone that works on imagine? Went through two older phones and no luck... just looking for a simple and cheap phone I could get in currys for example!

Cheers

vanman99

Argos - €6.50 - http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/3924358/Trail/searchtext%3ETELEPHONE.htm

(You don't need the add on)

deadl0ck

So I just ordered. It won't be available till mid August so they are preselling it.

I think I'll manage fine with the cap - I just looked at my Eir broadband usage history and it was:

Month		Bytes Uploaded	Bytes Downloaded	Combined Usage 
June 2017	17548 MB	266237 MB		283785 MB	 
May 2017	28460 MB	164565 MB		193025 MB	 
April 2017	24623 MB	114221 MB		138844 MB

So I should be fine with 20GB per day as that's about 600GB per month

Anything over 10MB would be like lightning speed compared to my current 5MB.....

ED E

deadl0ck wrote: »

Month		Bytes Uploaded	Bytes Downloaded	Combined Usage 
June 2017	17548 MB	266237 MB		283785 MB	 
May 2017	28460 MB	164565 MB		193025 MB	 
April 2017	24623 MB	114221 MB		138844 MB

So I should be fine with 20GB per day as that's about 600GB per month

Anything over 10MB would be like lightning speed compared to my current 5MB.....

Your usage will expand with the better connection. You'll do more and services like youtube will auto detect higher. Shouldnt push you over the cap but just be aware of it.