IBB Trials - Conclusions:- 2Mb or 3Mb?

Mutant_Fruit

Steffano2002 wrote:

You complain about 256KB/sec... I have a "business connection" (only difference being: I pay twice what you pay...) and I'm getting >30KB/sec. I'd be DELIGHTED to get 256KB/sec!

i used a little b, that means bits. I'm getting less than 30KB/sec aswell. (256kbps).

This is damn annoying.

Steffano2002

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

i used a little b, that means bits. I'm getting less than 30KB/sec aswell. (256kbps).

This is damn annoying.

I wondered about the small "b" at first but I never talk in "Kbits". I always use "KByte" (why do we always have different metrics? It's stupid...). Sorry for assuming that!

So basically we have the same (slow) connection speeds... Sad ain't it? I'm blaming it all on these hateful QoS tools. I wish they would go away, even if it means going back to 1Mbit...

bk

Steffano2002 wrote:

I wondered about the small "b" at first but I never talk in "Kbits". I always use "KByte" (why do we always have different metrics? It's stupid...). Sorry for assuming that!

I won't go into technical details but the rule of thumb is pretty simple:

Things to do with networking are described in bits (i.e. 10/100Mb network, or 512kb DSL).

Things to do with storage are described in Bytes (i.e. 200GB hard drive, 16GB cap).

spooky donkey

Question for old titan. WIth the QoS system when you get droped to 512 k how will this affect pings when gaming?

Steffano2002

spooky donkey wrote:

Question for old titan. WIth the QoS system when you get droped to 512 k how will this affect pings when gaming?

I'm thinking (and hoping mostly!) that they'll remain pretty much the same. I say this because even when my connection was dead slow (250Kbps download/350Kbps upload) my ping was still quite good (except when I was getting my usual spikes but this is due to a different issue altogether...)

jesus_thats_gre

Bandwidth should not adversely affect pings unless the amount of bandwidth is so low that it cannot handle the quantity of data required to actually pay the game online... i.e. anything over 10 or 15 kilobytes which is similar to ISDN speeds.

Mutant_Fruit

When you're being traffic shaped, and max out your bandwidth, your pings go to about 2500. If you are not being traffic shaped, and you max out your bandwidth, the pings go to about 70-100ms on average. Maybe less.

Thats the easiest way of spotting when you're being shaped, that, and the fact you can onlt download at 25kBytes a second.

In either case, as long as your bandwidth isn't maxed out, you should get pings of about 10ms to boards, and about 30 in game.

optiplexgx270

Hey

Just wondering about this:

http://www.irishbroadband.ie/htmdocs/our_products/Breeze_1MB.htm

I've paid €48 for April for a 1Mb connection, so before i go complaining to the powers above in IBB about the service being changed without notice and being overcharged for April by €12

1. Can you tell me if existing 1Mb customers are 48:1 with a download limit of 30Gb?

2. Also when is this 2Mb/3Mb package going live?

3. Do current 1Mb customers get it by default or have to sign over to:

http://www.irishbroadband.ie/htmdocs/our_products/Breeze_2MBbusiness.htm

Mutant_Fruit

You're paying for the €48 product. Which used to be the uncapped 1 meg connection. That connection is now a 2meg uncapped connection, and we should all be upgraded shortly. Supposedly....

Phibsboro

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

You're paying for the €48 product. Which used to be the uncapped 1 meg connection. That connection is now a 2meg uncapped connection, and we should all be upgraded shortly. Supposedly....

I am still on the original 512/uncapped €35 product - anyone know if I will be automatically moved to the 1Mb/30GB capped product? I must install a meter and see if that 30GB cap will annoy me or not! After all the discussion, did we get any confirmation as to how the cap will be enforced? Daily/Weekly/Monthly? Drop to 256 or 512?

- C

Mutant_Fruit

We were told that no-one would ever be charged or disconnected as a result of traffic shaping. I#m pretty sure that there was an option given whereby there'd be a 1gig(or2gig) daily cap, and if you went over it, you got limited to 256/256. I assume thats what'd happen if you break the 30 gig cap.

But, do double check it. Nothing worse than a big bill for going over the cap, but afaik, thats not IBB's policy.

Ciaran500

Theres alot of confusion about this so, Old Titan will you please clear these up.


Will you be upping the speeds to 2mb or 3mb?

Will there be a cap introduced?

Will the QoS tool kick in every day during normal business hours?

Will there be a change in price?

Will there be any change of contract going onto the faster service?

Why am I limited to 235kb/s everyday during business hours no matter how much I download. Surely business customers don't need the 2mb/s constant because as you said none of them are heavy users i.e. 1gb a day. Why not distrbute the bandwith as needed throughout the day, with business customer as priority.

Phibsboro

Ciaran500 wrote:

Why am I limited to 235kb/s everyday during business hours no matter how much I download. Surely business customers don't need the 2mb/s constant because as you said none of them are heavy users i.e. 1gb a day. Why not distrbute the bandwith as needed throughout the day, with business customer as priority.

Looking at the IBB website, I find your comment confusing - the 2Mb/40+VAT option is listed as a business product. Whether you personally are a business or not is surely not relevant - your money is as good as anyone elses. If you are paying the full wack for a business product you should not be penalised because you are not actually incorporated

Perhaps I am misunderstanding what product you are coming from, but it is interesting to see the current offering on the website - Home product is 1Mb capped at 30GB for €35.99, Business is 2Mb uncapped for €48 and various levels of 3Mb and 4Mb products for loadsa money. So anyone who is still paying the €48 is now on a business package and presumably can expect their daytime service to improve accordingly...

C

Skud

so since were still on the 1meg atm we are paying the reduced price?

Ciaran500

Phibsboro wrote:

Looking at the IBB website, I find your comment confusing - the 2Mb/40+VAT option is listed as a business product. Whether you personally are a business or not is surely not relevant - your money is as good as anyone elses. If you are paying the full wack for a business product you should not be penalised because you are not actually incorporated

1mb residential users are meant to be upgraded to 2mb soon. Some of us already have.

Random

Was talking to someone in IBB today on the phone.. the new packages are:


Residential:
1Mbit - E35.99 pm with 30GB cap - 48:1 contention
2Mbit - E48.40 pm with NO cap - 24:1 contention

- Free install until 31 May
- 12 Month Contract
- Prices include Vat
- payment by direct debit, monthly, in advance
- if you break contract before 12 months you pay de-install fee of E150

They're just doing things manually at the moment but said that all the paperwork (website etc) should be updated within a few days.

She couldn't guarentee pings, or what the state with QoS will be though as she wasn't sure.


I am considering signing up though :O

Steffano2002

Honestly ciaranfo, if you go with IBB, go for the "2Mbit - E48.40 pm with NO cap - 24:1 contention" package.
It is a great package and even though I have had problems with it for the past 3 weeks, it is usually a great product and I would indeed recommend it.

And you get free installation! I had to pay for mine! Lucky you

Blaster99

So in summary you've had it for three weeks and it hasn't worked but it's a great package? If anything I would be worried.

Steffano2002

Blaster99 wrote:

So in summary you've had it for three weeks and it hasn't worked but it's a great package? If anything I would be worried.

No mate, "I have had problems with it for the past 3 weeks". I've had it for 6 months now.

Would I recommend something that never worked right?

Blaster99

You've had the 2Mbps package for three weeks (or less?), which is what we're talking about unless I'm mistaken.

optiplexgx270

Im just a bit annoyed thet they didnt send a mail to current customers informing us of the changes and how they plan to go about the upgrades. Then again the customer service is the worst thing they do. Although the mail would be more a marketing dept. thing.

Drapper

Steffano2002 wrote:

No mate, "I have had problems with it for the past 3 weeks". I've had it for 6 months now.

Would I recommend something that never worked right?

Dont think you will get a response from IBb on Boards stephano, DID YOU GET A SERVICE ENGINEER to come out and review the problem.......... there could be LOS problems, ariel problems, ect ect................

Steffano2002

Blaster99 wrote:

You've had the 2Mbps package for three weeks (or less?), which is what we're talking about unless I'm mistaken.

The problems I'm referring to are latency related. They started before the whole QoS/2Mbit upgrade issues. I was delighted with IBB prior to 3 weeks ago.

Drapper wrote:

Dont think you will get a response from IBb on Boards stephano, DID YOU GET A SERVICE ENGINEER to come out and review the problem.......... there could be LOS problems, ariel problems, ect ect................

Hi Drapper! My connection problems (speeds & latency issues) are all being investigated by IBB. Yesterday evening, my connection was working pretty well so I trust them when they say they are trying to resolve my problems. I will consider an engineer call-out as a very last resort (i.e. if my connection is crap tonight I'll ask for one! )

jesus_thats_gre

I have also been a very happy customer up until I decided to move house..

Now my service will not break 60 kilobytes. This is more than adequate for day to day use but I am paying for a 120kilobytes service, possibly a 240KB service going by the previous posts..

Ah what to do, what to do...

Drapper

Hi Drapper! My connection problems (speeds & latency issues) are all being investigated by IBB. Yesterday evening, my connection was working pretty well so I trust them when they say they are trying to resolve my problems. I will consider an engineer call-out as a very last resort (i.e. if my connection is crap tonight I'll ask for one! )

Stephano.........there may be a flock of seaguls nesting on your ariel !! this could be giving you a bad signal................... ;-)

Tippex

guys I'm on the breeze business 1mb 8:1 at the moment.
Any ideas which of the new products I will be upgraded to. I have called my account manager and he is gonna check it out but it could be a few days. And I'm an impatient bugger.

Steffano2002

Hi Tippex,

I had the same connection as yourself and I'm pretty sure I've been upgraded to 2Mbit with 8:1 contention. That's what we should be upgraded to (and none of that "contention ratio will become 16:1 as the lines are twice as big now" shenanigans!) :mad:

Jim_No.6

Well, it seems like I'm a little late in on this debate, but anyway...

I've had the 1Mb 20:1 uncapped connection for about 2 months now, and I love it. In general (almost always) my connection speeds have been excellent. That said, I haven't noticed any QoS, but I'll look into it (We have two computers, probably downloading quite a lot, but I'm not sure). As it is, I honestly don't care about an upgrade - the status quo is great!

That said, 2Mb can't be a bad thing - unless it comes with a cap, or this QoS I've seen mentioned. Now, I'm all for some extra speed*, but I'm very dubious about the effects of a cap or QoS. Personally, I went with IBB for a constant uncapped connection. Despite warnings, I have been able to game quite easily on my connection, with pings of around 20 or so at the best of times. I definitely don't want this to end up miles higher (surely 2700 was exaggeration!) after a bout of downloading! This can't possibly be seen as an upgrade - rather, I'd view this as a downgrading of my service. Also, an uncapped 2Mb looks far more tempting than a capped 3Mb - Boston said it perfectly; what's the point of speed that you can't use after less than an hour.

In conclusion; I'd much rather stick with my 1Mb and the reliability I've had than go faster and lose it. However, if 2Mb is possible, with this level of reliability that'd be nice!

Is it just me, or have OT and TWM been absent from this thread for a while..?


*If it works as, quite worryingly, it appears not to be particularly reliable based on posts here!

Edit: Oh, and in case it wasn't obvious; I'm not interested in a capped 3Mb line at all...

spooky donkey

You shouldent get any QoS as you are not on the 2meg trial that only appalies there for now. And i agree id rather 1 meg with no restrictions i rearlly get up the the 2 meg type speeds anway more like an average of 1.5 where as when on a meg i almost always got the meg.

badvlad

An uncapped service IMO is what really differentiates IBB from other Irish ISPs.
I would be happy with 2MB if it worked properly.

Unfortunately my experience with IBB has not been so good for the last while. I'm on the 1MB up/down and right now I'm downloading open office at 28KB/Sec . Slowwwww.

Edit: Called their support, it back to 113KB. Hurray