Imagine LTE Rural Broadband

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Dinerve wrote: »

How cme one of us downloads almost 60gigs with no warning? Others get throttled with no warning and I'm getting spammed?

Different highsites perhaps, maybe yours is much busier?

Dinerve

Reyansh Little Bandage wrote: »

Different highsites perhaps, maybe yours is much busier?

Well that's even better: "If you're in a busy area, we'll be breathing down your necks over spamming menacing emails"

I wonder what's next, monitor voip data and throttle that as well???

Dero

Reyansh Little Bandage wrote: »

Different highsites perhaps, maybe yours is much busier?

That's my guess. I wonder do they only trigger alerts if the mast as whole is above a utilisation percentage? Probably not, but there must be some reason for the inconsistencies.

TireeTerror

Reyansh Little Bandage wrote: »

Different highsites perhaps, maybe yours is much busier?

It shouldn't matter though. He has not gone over his allowance. They are probably sending the warning emails because they do not have the usage portal up and running yet. I would rather get a warning at 15GB than no warning and then go over and be throttled.

It does not explain why I never got one, but maybe it will come later, who knows.

Dinerve

TireeTerror wrote: »

It does not explain why I never got one, but maybe it will come later, who knows.

Yeah or your (very rightfull and logical) rants with them earned you 'some' flexibility; which is cool, but I would expect such flexibility or stance with all of Imagine's customers. Not the vocal ones only and I can be very vocal, I just hoped I would avoid the upset I had encountered with Eir...

I was given the false promises too over the phone when calling back in terror after the 1st warning emails. I was told that although the 00:00-07:00Am thing is at their discretion, I should not have issues especially since all of my traffic occurs at this time (I work till 00:00 5days a week) and even said they would take note of it having said I'm a PSN and Steam user....

Also, the mail was sent to me at 08:30 4-5 hours after I had ceased all activities, If I hadn't I would have been way over the cap and would have been throttled with no warning.

ItHurtsWhenIP

TireeTerror wrote: »

...
I forgot to mention this yesterday when I posted what had happened when I was speaking to David, the manager of Tech Support at Imagine. I asked him if we would be getting a portal we could log into that would better enable us to monitor our usage to avoid being throttled. He confirmed that it is actually in the process of being implemented right now, he was not in a position to guarantee precisely when it would be available, but that it could be next week.
...

What I find difficult to believe is that they obviously have the usage figures to hand, as they are generating warning e-mails (or not, as it would seem in your case), but they are taking weeks/months to be able to put these onto a webpage!!! Does anybody else think this should be simples?

Although with morgana getting warnings when nowhere near any limit, maybe they are "troubleshooting" their abacuses.

AH2016

I have recently signed up for Imagine in Longford. Whilst i have been informed i wont be installed until the end of this month i decided i would have a look into other peoples journey with imagine which has brought me here.

Whilst it seems that alot of people are happy with their speeds and service not alot are happy about the 12-7am free download period. When i signed up i was also informed of this and was specifically informed that it would be a good time for me to be downloading games/updates.

I currently have sky broadband at 3.5mb which does the job... just about...

My question would be is it really suitable for gaming online? I play the likes of call of duty and destiny online, sometime days i could game online for up to 5hrs i would watch some youtube videos during the evening and the odd bit of browsing.

Would this service be suitable for me or am i best calling to cancel and staying where i am?

Any guidance from people who have had this installed awhile would be appreciated.

ItHurtsWhenIP

Dinerve wrote: »

...
"Dear customer,

...
Below are some useful tips that may help you to control your data usage:

If you have a wireless or home network, it's important that your connection is secure and encrypted correctly to prevent other people accessing your connection and data usage.
Consider turning off automatic updates, instead controlling them manually
A virus or spyware that downloads onto your computer can chew up your usage, so you should ensure you have good security software that has both virus and spyware protection.
Be conscious of Using game consoles including Xbox and PlayStation® to play games online, as well as downloading files to your console.

Many Thanks,

Imagine LTE.
...

I'm sorry, but I find that advice incredibly reckless and should be immediately pulled from their e-mails. :mad:

Sure IT folks are familiar enough with Patch Tuesday, but normal people wouldn't be. Some IT folks may not even become aware of out-of-band updates for critical patches where a vulnerability is being exploited actively. I know we'll get people who will say "I had a patch break my PC, so I'll install them in my own time". Fine, if you are willing to then take the risk, then take it on, but don't come crying to me when a worm has peppered your pr0n collection with pictures of fully clad girls.

But here we have an ISP who, in the eyes of most of their customers, will be considered reputable and knowledgeable giving out these suggestions, one of which could seriously jeopardise their customers security profile. It's crazy.

I'm off to write a strongly worded e-mail to Imagine support now and I'm not even a customer!!! :rolleyes:

ED E

Get your usage figures from sky, double them, then if they're over 600GB stay put.

morgana

AH2016 wrote: »

I.

My question would be is it really suitable for gaming online? I play the likes of call of duty and destiny online, sometime days i could game online for up to 5hrs i would watch some youtube videos during the evening and the odd bit of browsing.

Would this service be suitable for me or am i best calling to cancel and staying where i am?

Any guidance from people who have had this installed awhile would be appreciated.

Yes it is excellent for online gaming, which is a pretty low bandwidth activity. We are 2 people, both online MMO gamers for several hours a day, and with usual other activities (Netflix (standard quality), YouTube, whatever in copious amounts) rarely get over 5 - 8 gig a day. Pings are good, no issues with (server) lag. The only time you can run into trouble is with large game updates / downloads.

The jury is still out in that regard, hopefully my throttling experience was due to system tweaks / setups and TireeTerror's will be the norm.
Haven't received any warnings since, but then I've been a good girl ^^ (not intentionally, lol).

Gonzo

Dinerve wrote: »

If you have a wireless or home network, it's important that your connection is secure and encrypted correctly to prevent other people accessing your connection and data usage.
Consider turning off automatic updates, instead controlling them manually
A virus or spyware that downloads onto your computer can chew up your usage, so you should ensure you have good security software that has both virus and spyware protection.
Be conscious of Using game consoles including Xbox and PlayStation® to play games online, as well as downloading files to your console.

Many Thanks,

Imagine LTE.

Seems like they are basically saying if you want to update your software/windows and play games online or have a console in general be very careful about updating.

This really goes against what is claimed on their website as 'the full fiber experience'. and 'LTE literally changes family lives, opening up a world of learning, entertainment and communication for all.'

I would encourage any gamer who has DSL upwards of 4 megs to just stay where they are. ADSL is still grand for gaming pings and while the download speeds of updates and digital downloads may be slow, at least you'll have it the next day/overnight or within a few hours and none of this cap nonsense to worry about.

Also anyone who has one of Eir's blue lines running past them and in an area included in the first 100,000 homes to stay put as well as Imagine is an 18 month minimum contract.

Dero

MMFITWGDV wrote: »

I'm sorry, but I find that advice incredibly reckless and should be immediately pulled from their e-mails. :mad:

It's the most ludicrous and irresponsible thing I've seen from an ISP. The irony is that on the very next line they say "...you should ensure you have good security software". Yes, you can manually manage patches and be fully secure, but it's not good advice for a non-technical audience.

Remember, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

Dinerve

MMFITWGDV wrote: »

I'm sorry, but I find that advice incredibly reckless and should be immediately pulled from their e-mails. :mad:

Sure IT folks are familiar enough with Patch Tuesday, but normal people wouldn't be. Some IT folks may not even become aware of out-of-band updates for critical patches where a vulnerability is being exploited actively. I know we'll get people who will say "I had a patch break my PC, so I'll install them in my own time". Fine, if you are willing to then take the risk, then take it on, but don't come crying to me when a worm has peppered your pr0n collection with pictures of fully clad girls.

But here we have an ISP who, in the eyes of most of their customers, will be considered reputable and knowledgeable giving out these suggestions, one of which could seriously jeopardise their customers security profile. It's crazy.

I'm off to write a strongly worded e-mail to Imagine support now and I'm not even a customer!!! :rolleyes:

lol, Indeed exposing to potential security threats less tech savvy people by asking them to disable automatic updates is insane...

Not to mention the bit about consoles where they essentially tell you that it won't cut it....This goes totally against what I was told to seal the deal when probing to switch from Eir to them and also by Tech support over the phone over my 1st inquiries about my warning emails.

Obviously this stance, covered by the infamous T&Cs, has become harder and rather invasive. I'm a single, moderate user with clearly under 600gigs even when living at the city centre enjoying UPC yet this daily allowance cap does not allow me to dispose of that allowance the way I want to.

That's shameful and their reputation from the WiMax era is not about to change. I thought that with new managment, investments and competition they would have changed and thought I would back them up, but the more I look at i, he more it looks like a moneygrab to save what they can until everything collapse.

It's insane that a thread this big, this active and with so many questions (and that they used to refer to on the intial hype initial good impressions had created) hasn't seen a single intervention from one of their staff...I think it says a lot....

morgana

Indeed. I thought "you must be joking" when I read that - disabling automatic updates is like a step back to dial up :P. They are rarely that sizeable either, except for the new Windows 10 Anniversary update (which I haven't gotten yet).
A usage portal would be welcome, that should have been in place in the first place.
Even Ripplecom, when they changed their plans from unlimited to metered (cursed them for days :P), had a usage portal in place before the change went live.

AH2016

morgana wrote: »

Yes it is excellent for online gaming, which is a pretty low bandwidth activity. We are 2 people, both online MMO gamers for several hours a day, and with usual other activities (Netflix (standard quality), YouTube, whatever in copious amounts) rarely get over 5 - 8 gig a day. Pings are good, no issues with (server) lag. The only time you can run into trouble is with large game updates / downloads.

The jury is still out in that regard, hopefully my throttling experience was due to system tweaks / setups and TireeTerror's will be the norm.
Haven't received any warnings since, but then I've been a good girl ^^ (not intentionally, lol).

Thanks for this. I've been reading through this thread for the last couple of weeks but only recently have i become concerned that the 20GB per day of data may not be enough for me.

As you are installed and have 2 in your household gaming online and youre only using 8 gig this has set my mind at ease. I am fully aware that update days will be the ones to watch out for but i can live with that. Also if the 70gb once a week is actually in play i should be ok.

Dinerve

AH2016 wrote: »

Thanks for this. I've been reading through this thread for the last couple of weeks but only recently have i become concerned that the 20GB per day of data may not be enough for me.

As you are installed and have 2 in your household gaming online and youre only using 8 gig this has set my mind at ease. I am fully aware that update days will be the ones to watch out for but i can live with that. Also if the 70gb once a week is actually in play i should be ok.

That would be my stance as well, provided it's confirmed...I'm dreading being throttled down when I know I'm no way near any abuse of the service and these continuous emails don't help.

Or open up the full 600gigs allowance and let us dispose of it the way we like it over the month. If you go past it boom 1mb till the end of the month. With a proper portal To monitor it most of us should be ok I presume.

Bar that uncertainty, the service is generally good even for faster paced online games like Smite or Overwatch, let alone MMO's.

morgana

To add, when I got throttled, we both could still game (B&S & Rift) as usual at the same time. However, browsing and/or watching youtube / twitch on top of that is asking for trouble :P

AH2016

So my curiosity got the better of me and advised i just called sky to see what my monthly data usage is and to say that i am shocked is an understatement.

As i said i could game online up to 5 hours a day, I would watch some Youtube videos in the evening, download the odd torrent as well as browsing online from both myself and my partner.

My usage for Mid-May/June was 63GB, Mid-June/july 93GB and from Mid July to now is 47GB.

All in all the 20GB Data (Down/Up) should be fine for me. All i have to do now is wait and hope that the trees surrounding the house dont stop me from getting installed.

mass_debater

AH2016 wrote: »

So my curiosity got the better of me and advised i just called sky to see what my monthly data usage is and to say that i am shocked is an understatement.

As i said i could game online up to 5 hours a day, I would watch some Youtube videos in the evening, download the odd torrent as well as browsing online from both myself and my partner.

My usage for Mid-May/June was 63GB, Mid-June/july 93GB and from Mid July to now is 47GB.

All in all the 20GB Data (Down/Up) should be fine for me. All i have to do now is wait and hope that the trees surrounding the house dont stop me from getting installed.

Your usage will jump when your speed increases, sites like YouTube and Netflix will send you a higher quality unless you so take action to stop them doing so. Other sites like Facebook will pre load and automatically play videos.

df_h

Well I noticed Imagine antennae on neighbours homes while driving so they are growing in usage it seems, speeds are staying fairly reliable



I continue to test, here are my past tests
http://www.speedtest.net/results.php?sh=c97693cb25f42f9b316193caa3291d9d&ria=0

I havent yet received one of the infamous emails/texts posted above which are a concern if I start rsyncing work server to local (easily 10GB a day there)

AH2016

mass_debater wrote: »

Your usage will jump when your speed increases, sites like YouTube and Netflix will send you a higher quality unless you so take action to stop them doing so. Other sites like Facebook will pre load and automatically play videos.

Yea i was thinking that myself however i will try to keep my youtube and twitch streaming set to medium (what they are currently on)

I would Imagine this would keep me below the 20GB daily. based on the usage provided by sky for a month even if it was set to high i would find it hard to believe i would go over the 20GB of data.

Decent Skin

mass_debater wrote: »

Your usage will jump when your speed increases, sites like YouTube and Netflix will send you a higher quality unless you so take action to stop them doing so. Other sites like Facebook will pre load and automatically play videos.

That Facebook autoplay is vile and can thankfully be switched off.

Decent Skin

AH2016 wrote: »

Yea i was thinking that myself however i will try to keep my youtube and twitch streaming set to medium (what they are currently on)

I would Imagine this would keep me below the 20GB daily. based on the usage provided by sky for a month even if it was set to high i would find it hard to believe i would go over the 20GB of data.

I had to make do with Vodafone's 30 gig a month and haven't hit it yet.

It obviously depends on how many are in a house, but I honestly cannot understand how people who couldn't previously get anything decent and were desperate would suddenly jump to using it non-stop and need 20 times that; even a full HD movie or game every single day wouldn't get you remotely near that.

mass_debater

Decent Skin wrote: »

I had to make do with Vodafone's 30 gig a month and haven't hit it yet.

It obviously depends on how many are in a house, but I honestly cannot understand how people who couldn't previously get anything decent and were desperate would suddenly jump to using it non-stop and need 20 times that; even a full HD movie or game every single day wouldn't get you remotely near that.

Some games are 60GB, Movies are compressed to make them smaller. The untouched contents of a Bluray disk can be 50GB

Gonzo

with Imagines 24/7 cap restricted to 20 gigs per day this is roughly how large steaming/ gaming can take up.

Netflix: steams at 1GB per hour standard definition and 2.4GB per hour high def.
thats 9 hours of HD streaming per day one one device if no other internet activity happens in those 24 hours.

YouTube:
480p ~ 400 MB per hour
720p ~ 800-900 MB per hour
1080p ~ 1.2 -1.4 GB per hour

1080p/60fps would use more.

Online gaming can be anything from 50mb to a few 100mb's per hour depending on the game.

Game Updates:
On the ps4 at least some of the updates are just huge. Some are so big that I just haven't bothered to update them. The last Street Fighter 5 update was something like 16GB. Games like Destiny and The Division often have updates of 3 or 4GB.

PSN software updates sometimes can run into several GB's as well.

Steam/Console digital downloads.
Many games these days can be anything up to 70GB's in size.
Most new titles are around 50-60gigs.

robert muldoon

Gonzo wrote: »

with Imagines 24/7 cap restricted to 20 gigs per day this is roughly how large steaming/ gaming can take up.

Netflix: steams at 1GB per hour standard definition and 2.4GB per hour high def.
thats 9 hours of HD streaming per day one one device if no other internet activity happens in those 24 hours.

YouTube:
480p ~ 400 MB per hour
720p ~ 800-900 MB per hour
1080p ~ 1.2 -1.4 GB per hour

1080p/60fps would use more.

Online gaming can be anything from 50mb to a few 100mb's per hour depending on the game.

Game Updates:
On the ps4 at least some of the updates are just huge. Some are so big that I just haven't bothered to update them. The last Street Fighter 5 update was something like 16GB. Games like Destiny and The Division often have updates of 3 or 4GB.

PSN software updates sometimes can run into several GB's as well.

Steam/Console digital downloads.
Many games these days can be anything up to 70GB's in size.
Most new titles are around 50-60gigs.

I have SkyQ and I might stream a tv program on my iPad with headphones while the wife watches Master Chef and download the odd box set- is streaming tv a heavy mb user?

mass_debater

robert muldoon wrote: »

I have SkyQ and I might stream a tv program on my iPad with headphones while the wife watches Master Chef and download the odd box set- is streaming tv a heavy mb user?

A few GB per hour in HD quality

Gonzo

Sky HD is around 3GB per hour

Sky On Demand in HD: most tv shows are about 2.5GB per episode and movies anything up to 4GB per movie.

TireeTerror

Decent Skin wrote: »

I had to make do with Vodafone's 30 gig a month and haven't hit it yet.

It obviously depends on how many are in a house, but I honestly cannot understand how people who couldn't previously get anything decent and were desperate would suddenly jump to using it non-stop and need 20 times that; even a full HD movie or game every single day wouldn't get you remotely near that.

You dont use a lot of data, that doesn't mean there are loads of us who do. Imagine advertise this as if its like fibre, the fibre experience they say. Well its nothing like fibre at all, not even close.

I feel like Im constantly having to think about what I am doing, always double checking my usage, and that just spoils the experience. Its 2016 and somebody somewhere told me this is the first world.

Gonzo

TireeTerror wrote: »

You dont use a lot of data, that doesn't mean there are loads of us who do. Imagine advertise this as if its like fibre, the fibre experience they say. Well its nothing like fibre at all, not even close.

I feel like Im constantly having to think about what I am doing, always double checking my usage, and that just spoils the experience. Its 2016 and somebody somewhere told me this is the first world.

have to agree their webpage makes it read like its Eir/Voda Fibre or Virgin Media. With the restrictions and technology it's nothing more than a fancier Meteor/Vodafone 4G just with a bigger daily allowance.

Everyone takes for granted that mobile 4G is only for light use on phones but Imagine are marketing this as if you can do everything you want on it and claim that the 20gb allowance is 'huge'.