NTL Questions

CuLT

Ubelievably, I haven't been able to find any information about NTLs service on any reputable sites; ntl.ie is a joke, no updates for months, IOFFL is a similar story, no useful up to date info;

I got a leaflet in the door about the service but unfortunately someone in the house threw it out with the recycling.

So what is the deal with NTL?

• What are the data rates of the 1.5MB product?
• What is the upload speed of the 1.5MB product?
• Does the 30GB cap apply to this higher service?
• How much does will this TV bundle cost me after the 12 month free subscription?
• If I split the cable signal to a couple of TVs, is the Internet speed going to be affected dramatically?
• Does VoIP work well with their service?
• Is there a fixed IP or is it a long-lease DHCP address?

I know it's a lot of questions, but ditching a landline altogether requires something of a leap of faith, and I'd rather lessen the gap between me and the cliff

Infini

Here are the answers......

In terms of data rate on the NTL 1.5 the average is 175kb/s although this can be higher on servers located in ireland. The upload for it's about 25kb/s (256kb/s) although 20 is best to avoid swamping you upstream. The actual cap is unknown as there have been other posts about people downloading up to 70GB and not hearing a thing about it from NTL. There is no enforcement of the 1GB a day limit. I actually heard this from the NTL salesman himself. There is no 12 month free subscription to the cable service or broadband that I know of although it costs 225 euros per year for the basic cable package. Splitting the signal with Y-splitters drastically reduces the internet connection and can knock it out entirely. Digital TV compliant signal boosters are recomended as they boost 2-way signals. VoIP I haven't tested on this yet so I don't have any information but in terms of IP addresses the settings for it are Dynamic IP which renews the IP every 24 to 48 hours although this doesn't change so long as the modem remains active.

Hope this helps.

CuLT

Ok, this clears things up quite a bit; thanks Infini.

Mantel

[*]What are the data rates of the 1.5MB product?

http://www.ntl.com/locales/ie/en/athome/internet_faqs_overview.html#6
"download speeds up to 1.5Mb and upload speeds up to 256kbps"

[*]What is the upload speed of the 1.5MB product?

http://www.ntl.com/locales/ie/en/athome/internet_faqs_overview.html#6
"download speeds up to 1.5Mb and upload speeds up to 256kbps"

[*]Does the 30GB cap apply to this higher service?

There's a cap? Well the cap of a gig a day is a suggested one, if you download 2 or 3 gigs over one day or over this 30gb cap they won't get the firing squad out to your house. Acutally I've never heard of anyone being cut off.

[*]How much does will this TV bundle cost me after the 12 month free subscription?

Don't have it, don't have a clue. Although could it be in this list

?
[*]If I split the cable signal to a couple of TVs, is the Internet speed going to be affected dramatically?

It shouldn't be effected at all. All your doing with the TV's is receiving a signal, the singal won't be boosted if you hook more TV's to the one cable. The NTL tech will connect the cable line the box the main cable comes in though, I've tired to use a splitter on the line I have for broadband inorder to watch TV aswell, didn't work at all for me.

[*]Does VoIP work well with their service?

Never tried it.

[*]Is there a fixed IP or is it a long-lease DHCP address?

http://www.ntl.com/locales/ie/en/athome/internet_faqs_technical.html#ip

"IP addresses will be dynamically allocated."
2 day lease (I think, could be 1 day) You'll generally keep it for awhile until you restart your modem or NTL restart it for you.

I know it's a lot of questions, but ditching a landline altogether requires something of a leap of faith, and I'd rather lessen the gap between me and the cliff

You could ditch the landline althougher for internet access and not have to worry about the landline unless you want to make one of those voice calls. 25 quid a month for one of the best broadband lines in Ireland? I said yes please a long time ago.

Infini

Mantel wrote:

It shouldn't be effected at all. All your doing with the TV's is receiving a signal, the singal won't be boosted if you hook more TV's to the one cable. The NTL tech will connect the cable line the box the main cable comes in though, I've tired to use a splitter on the line I have for broadband inorder to watch TV aswell, didn't work at all for me.

It is if your using Y-splitters. You need to keep the signal between -4 and +4 dbs. The NTL guy was only out to me today and found the two splitters between my CATV and my modem had caused the signal to degrade to -17dbs. As i said signal boosters that allow 2-way signals like that for digital TV help. I had 2 TV's and the modem all hooked up on the single point and the 2 Y-splitters had caused the signal to degrade by -14db.

Mantel

Infini wrote:

It is if your using Y-splitters. You need to keep the signal between -4 and +4 dbs. The NTL guy was only out to me today and found the two splitters between my CATV and my modem had caused the signal to degrade to -17dbs. As i said signal boosters that allow 2-way signals like that for digital TV help. I had 2 TV's and the modem all hooked up on the single point and the 2 Y-splitters had caused the signal to degrade by -14db.

Don't watch TV anymore so I can't be bothered setting something up. We have one line coming in for the TV which is split between two TV's (it was running two phones off it aswell but they're gone now) and then a seprate one for the cable modem.

Slutmonkey57b

You got the leaflet through your door eh? Hmm... what to do, what to do....


Hmmmmmmm



Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.



SIGN UP NOW. NOW! NOW DAMN YOU!


Some of us would kill for that leaflet you know.