Sorry I don't mean to lower the tone of this forum...

Dreamcatcher

Hi Guys,

At the moment, we have a broadband account with IBB. It was set up roughly 18 months ago. My bf set up the account and as far as I know, it's a small business account that he has with them, cos he does some work from home, and we have a small LAN, through which I connect with my laptop. We've never had any problems(maybe this is because it is a small business account...!?)
I am tech-minded to a certain extent and in certain areas, but I don't know much about the latest developments etc. Before I met my bf years ago, I was using a modem. Since I've been with him, I've left all the techie stuff up to him.

Anyway, here's my question. We are going through a break up now and when I have my own place, I want to get my own broadband account set up. I want to start looking into this now, and learning about what's "out there" etc.
Problem is, I haven't a clue where to begin. I mean if I call up esat, IBB for eg and ask them about their products, they'll just try to rope me in to being a customer, and I've read some stories on this board about the really crap customer service etc. that some people have experienced.
So where can I get impartial advice on which company to go with?
Maybe one of you guys could recommend a company which you have had no problems with..?
(Or maybe it would be best to learn all the jargon and make my own decision...could someone recommend any good resources/articles for newbies to the latest in internet technology, like myself? The only bit of jargon that I understand is "contention ratio". Sad I know!)

Basq

Did you really have to post this twice?!?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=246430

Fandango

Im with IOL but i wont say it was an easy journey. We had a good few problems setting the line up but once it was going, it has been great. Plus they have upped their speed from 512k to 2MB which is cool.

Fandango

basquille wrote:

Did you really have to post this twice?!?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=246430

Ah leave her alone...she might be hot :P

RapierX

Eircom have the best product, unfortunately.

Willymuncher

RapierX wrote:

Eircom have the best product, unfortunately.

Not really, EsatBT offer a higher download cap, even for basic users....I've had an excellent service from them...and i hear their contracts are good now too, although i don't know much about that side of things

Jammer

Willymuncher wrote:

Not really, EsatBT offer a higher download cap, even for basic users....I've had an excellent service from them...and i hear their contracts are good now too, although i don't know much about that side of things

Yeah, i love the ol' 1hr+ waits on hold to speak to a human being in the call centres! Have a month on my trial left, then its g'luck IOL!

Their cap isnt really better as its up/down combined. Depends what you use it for, i guess.

stagolee

im about to sign up for IBB Breeze myself. its got 1mb up ,1mb down ,unlimited cap and the only bad thing ive heard said about it so far is that to install it costs €150 and might take about a month

Willymuncher

Jammer wrote:

Their cap isnt really better as its up/down combined. Depends what you use it for, i guess.

Its not combined.....

You will be entitled to use 24GB in either direction without penalty. i.e. you can upload 24 GB and download 24GB in the same month without penalty. However if you upload 4GB and download 25GB then your account will be suspended.

This was cleared up last week here on the boards...

Broadband Cap

causal

Items on which to score the different providers include:

TECHNICAL ITEMS:
- Download speed
- Upload speed
- Monthly cap
- Contention Ratio
- Latency

FINANCIAL ITEMS:
- Monthly service charge
- Installation charge
- Equipment rental charge
- length of free trial
- Cost of phoning customer support

BLAMONGEY ITEMS:
- Customer care
- Illogical loyalty to a particular provider

Ultimately which one to go for is also influenced by what is available in your area , and also what you intend to use broadband for (surfing, VoIP, gaming, torrents, live webcam whatever...)

Mark all the providers and packages out of ten for each of the above items I listed, use weightings if you like, then whichever has the highest score - wins!!

hth,
causal

vishal

if i were you i would get broadband from smart telecom or ntl if you can.
if not then you should go with esat.

AdMMM

Generally you shouldn't read to much into whats said in these forums as only a small percentage of (recent) broadband connections have any trouble. It just so happens that these forums are used for complaining rather than praising i.e: if anything goes wrong, we'll know all about it, but if someones connection is set-up with no problems they don't come running onto the forums to praise that company!

As for whatever package you want, I would recommend Eircom if you want a relatively risk-free set-up because if anything does go wrong you only have to deal with the one company to get it fixed rather than ring both Esat and Eircom to get it sorted (like I did for ages).

Of course other providers that seem to be worth a look at are Smart and NTL, both are only available to limited areas and the former will have a long waiting list before you are connected!

bk

Hi Dreamcatcher,

My advice is to go with one of the following in order of preferrence:

1) NTL Cable BB (not available in many areas unfortunately).
2) RADSL either Eircom or EsatBT depeding on your needs.
3) IBB

It would help a lot of you told us how you use Braodband.

1) Do you play computer games online
2) Do you download a lot.
3) Or do you just surf the web.

Makaveli

stagolee wrote:

im about to sign up for IBB Breeze myself. its got 1mb up ,1mb down ,unlimited cap and the only bad thing ive heard said about it so far is that to install it costs €150 and might take about a month

Not any more.
30GB cap now.

Description  	Breeze 1MB
Download speed 	1024 Kbps
Upload speed 	1024 Kbps
Contention Ratio 	48:1
Line of Sight 	Yes
Download Limit 	30 GB
Installation and Connection 	€149 including VAT
Monthly Charge 	€35.99 per month including VAT

It also says free installation before 31st May.

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

causal

|.Murderer.| wrote:

Generally you shouldn't read to much into whats said in these forums as only a small percentage of (recent) broadband connections have any trouble.

Like your connection
If it's true that "only a small percentage of (recent) broadband connections have any trouble" then it's probably because so many people are told "Sorry, your line isn't suitable for broadband" - Now I'd call that trouble with a broadband connection :mad:

causal

stagolee

Makaveli wrote:

Not any more.
30GB cap now.

aww nuts... cheers for bringing that to my attention Makaveli.
now its a toss up between 30gb cap for 35.99 from IBB or 24gb cap from esatbt for about the same

Mutant_Fruit

Makaveli wrote:

Not any more.
30GB cap now.

Absolutely corrrect. The 1meg connection is now capped. But everyone who used to be on 1meg is now being put on 2meg, for the same €48 a month, and still with no cap.

stagolee

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

Absolutely corrrect. The 1meg connection is now capped. But everyone who used to be on 1meg is now being put on 2meg, for the same €48 a month, and still with no cap.

WoooHoo!! capless 2mb for me so