Cost of being online during working hours

jk2001

Hi guys,

I'm planning on working from home on the very near future - problem being that I need to be online from around 8am till 6pm every day.
I'm not really pushed about the speed of my connection (at the moment just working over a phone line, but considering upgrading to ISDN). What does concern me is the cost though - paying eircom 6c a minute for being online suddenly makes my business very unattractive - this will cost me about EUR 200,00 per week which does not seem reasonably.
Have spoken to eircom and they've told me there are no other options.
Anyone got any suggestions? Are there alternatives out there that I'm not aware of? NTL are not covering my area, have Chorus who I believe is a long way away from offering internet access...

Any help greatly appreciated!

Cheers
jayo

steve-hosting36

64k ISN for those hours will cost you about 200-250 euro per month.

Try to get one of the DSL offerings - it will actually save you money,

Steve

jk2001

Cheers...

ISN - could you clarify which type of product this is??

ADSL - I've checked out eircom's i-stream product - seems this will be charged at around EUR 107,00 per month, not bad.

Do you know if ADSL is available at this stage??

Thanks again
-jayo

Kali

1891 numbers are less than 6c iirc.

KdjaCL

you could get
1 a Subscription service from IOL or Eircom makes online during the day over 56k 3c a minute.
2 ISDN looks like getting cheaper but cant count on it.
3 DSL if you pass the "test" is 107 a month for the cheapest connection.
4 satelite from net system but uses dial up too and has some time restrictions
You could get a Fast DSL and get tax back on it if you have a legit buisness.
Kdja

jk2001

Thanks Kdja,

Do you have any idea how well the country is covered in terms of DSL coverage - I'm in Celbridge, Co. Kildare, called eircom Customer Services and they couldn't tell me if this is available here yet?

-jayo

KdjaCL

Not sure if you are or not.
1800 512 128 is the number.
its either ISDN or Subscription for you if DSL isnt available.
My wife writes off our DSL on the tax so we get something off it,try the same with ISDN but i think if you get ISDN to get DSL you have switch your phoneline type.
Someone else in here will know more about POTS and other hting than me.

Kdja

Defenistrator

depends on what your business is. If you have to remote control machines, or need an remote connection to work , you had best go with some kind of ISDN or DSL connection. If you just need the connection to be "available" i.e. e-mail, msn or the like....a satellite connection is a good alternative. I have one myself, and the €160 per month is well worth it.

plenty of choice if you shop around....

D.

Defenistrator

forgot to mention that the €160 is ex vat, and that the connection is 24/7, haven't had any major outages (yet), 400kbps downstream, 128K up, 640Mb daily limit and 3 Gb monthly cap.

Haven't reached either the 640M daily or 3G monthly cap sofar, and I am on all day!

when I was limited to my ISDN Connection, I would think twice before dl'ing a 20MB file. Now if I see something that takes my fancy, I download it, regardless of the size.

I do switch to ISDN for certain applications, (i.e. COUNTERSTRIKE) because the latency is too large for realtime apps.

D.

jk2001

Sounds good, I may look at the satellite option then - I need to download emails, general internet access, etc. so I'm sure the satellite option will do. Who offers this in Ireland - sorry for asking, but I'm not to clued in on this issue.... so far have just been paying my phone bill without looking for alternatives...

Thanks
-jayo

eth0_

Defenistrator - What satellite provider are you using? And do you need the phone to be connected for upstream traffic?

Defenistrator

you only need a phoneline for commisioning. so it is a once off. What happens is a particular number is dailed, and a kind of authentication key is downloaded from the hub. that enables your service, After that it is satellite all the way (up and down)

I am in a bit of a pickle here, because I know that commercial postings are frowned upon, and I resell the service. So before I post any company details, I'll wait for a comment from one of the admins/mods.

alternatively you could PM me.

I will give you my company mail addy, I don't want people dealing with defenistrator@clanbastards.com, if you know what I mean.


Regards,
D.

Gavin

Give us the details of the service. A once off statement where you are providing relevant info is no problem

Gav

Defenistrator

4 services in all, two single user and two multi user.

single user1:
400k down/128k up, 400Mb daily limit, 3Gb monthly limit, €169 per month ex VAT, security deposit €999 (will be refunded at end of service!)

single user2:
640k down/128k up, 640Mb daily limit, 4Gb mont6hly limit, €205 per month ex vat, security deposit €999

Multi user1:
768k down/128k up, 800Mb Daily limit, 5Gb monthly limit, €250, security deposit €1500

Multi user2:
1024k down/ 128k up, 1024Mb daily limit, 10G montly limit, €390 per month, €1500 security deposit


In the case of a single user setup, the transmitter/reciever is connected to your PC via USB. There are only drivers available for PC available (win9x, 2K, XP) so Linux and MAC users have no use for the single user system.

also contracts are for 18 months! if you terminate your contract within the 18 month period, you lose your deposit!!!!! Although they do say it depends on how far into the 18 months you are.


The multi user setup runs via a proxy, this is where Linux and Mac users CAN use the system. A dedicated gateway is set up, (usually a win98 machine with lansuite) and the other machines on the network connect to the Internet via the gateway.

by default you do not get a static IP addy, but you can get one for € 125 (once off charge)

It is not feasable to run public services on this system, like Webserver, ftp server, mailservers etc. on this system as your upstraem speed is only 128K. Some people have tried, and it does not work.

Also if you get the Single user system, apps like wingate etc. do not work. I tried, and my machine refused to boot. I removed Wingate, and the box was hunky dory again.

don't consider this system if you will be getting a DSL or Cable service in the near future, as you risk terminating your contract, and losing a substantial ammount of money. I myself am out in the sticks with no chance of anything like this coming my way until the new millenium, so for me it is an ideal solution.

/end of plug

Contact details: djohnston@crowhill-it.com

feel free to mail me if you have any queries, don't pm me as mentioned earlier, as I very rarely check!

also if you visit my website, I have not updated the info regarding the OrbitLink service yet, so those are old prices. I do not set the prices, I am just the go between!

Regards,
D.