info about irishbroadband.ie?

thegills

Fungus - Will that 3k radius not be increased now that they have raised their antenna to 50m on ther RTE tower.

Is 96kbs very slow in compared to what is advertised, i.e. 512kbs.

LizZard

I done the install its kBytes NOT Bits ;-)

Kevok

Yep LizZard speaks the truth

When I said 96k/sec i meant as in: 10 secs for 960k or 11 for 1 megabyte.

Its a wonderful change from the 3.5k/sec max i was getting with dial up.

LFCFan

96KBytes/s is the same as 768 kbits/s. ie. 8 bits to a byte. In other words, he's getting a lot more that the 512kbits/s.

JTMan

Originally posted by thegills
Fungus - Will that 3k radius not be increased now that they have raised their antenna to 50m on the RTE tower.

Yeah. Of course it will. However at best it will probably increase the range to 4 or 5 k. Still leaving it slightly outside my area. I have contacted them asking them to tell me when the put either the Dun Laoighre or Blackrock mast in place.

csaddict

Had them around today - ladder wasn't big enough for the roof so they couldn't do a proper test (it's a taller than usual house!)

Seems to be very LOS - I've no chance of getting the Sandyford signal but they're coming back in the next week or so with a bigger ladder & a 2m pole to see if I'll be able to connect to another antennae on 3 rock (not live yet but very shortly).

Thank god i'm patient *learned from dealing with Eircon* cos from reading Kevok's mails, it sounds sweet

Kevok - they were talking about different hardware options (USB being standard but Ethernet being available) - which do you have? The cable from the ariel is meant to be 1/2 inch co-ax - how did they run it into your house? Through the roof or a kanga-drill through the wall?

Kevok

Yep, was looking for a while like I'd need the ethernet option myself.

I assume he explained that with the Ethernet option, the fact that you plug it in means that theres little (no?) loss on the signal?

I got the USB version in the end myself. The Aerial was attached to my chimney and the 1/2 inch cable(10m) was run from it in through a wall (which they nicely grouted for me) and into the room with the computer. Just enough cable for the job. They tacked it to the roof too so no unsightly cables lying around.

The €265 (ex Vat) covers the cost of the the USB version, but apparently the Ethernet option is much more expensive, and businesses usually opt for it (hence the €365 for them).

I've had no problems with it since wednesday, the signal strength has been a constant 55-60% and the link quality has been 90%.

They told me about the Three Rock mast too, they've put me down for a test for it when it goes up, and if i get a better signal they will realign my aerial.

If you can get it, I would highly recommend it. I would NEVER go back to dial up.

Dangger

I would NEVER go back to dial up.

Why dilly dally aong with dial up when you can burn with broadband. Seriously though its great news to see people getting hooked up with a supplier ... for broadband of course.

Sure if that 3 rock mast comes on line I will probably jump ship to free myself from this ADSL hell

David C

Sure if that 3 rock mast comes on line I will probably jump ship to free myself

Same here..
If the 3 Rock site gets up and running I'll be waving good bye to "Hi-Speed" and Nolimits...
Also planning to sign up to Cinergi on the remaining €ircon line (no setup charges) and ditching that rented €ircon phone for a purchased one...
Anything to reduce the amount Eircon gets from us each month.. serves them right!

ando

just look to the south side and you'll see a big antenna up in the wicklow mountains, thats it. You cant miss it when its a clear day

sax0000

Originally posted by ando
just look to the south side and you'll see a big antenna up in the wicklow mountains, thats it. You cant miss it when its a clear day

I always regarded Three Rock to be in the Dublin "mountains" myself. But that's an aside. If you put a mobile phone cellsite on Three Rock it would be a total waste of bandwidth because it would spew all over the place. Cellular telephony depends on frequency re-use. The same applies to Wi-Fi and related technologies. You need to keep transponders at relatively low altitude unless you are in the Sahara Desert.

Sax0000

Dustaz

Originally posted by sax0000
I always regarded Three Rock to be in the Dublin "mountains" myself. But that's an aside. If you put a mobile phone cellsite on Three Rock it would be a total waste of bandwidth because it would spew all over the place. Cellular telephony depends on frequency re-use. The same applies to Wi-Fi and related technologies. You need to keep transponders at relatively low altitude unless you are in the Sahara Desert.

Could anyone confirm that this is the case? I seem to remember Leap planning on putting a transmitter in the same location. Could 2 companys get a business plan so fundamentally wrong?

Kevok

Although I can't speak in an official capacity, when the engineers came they told me that they were putting a mast up on Three Rock. They even put a note on the survey to come back and test the LOS to the Three Rock to see if it's any better than what I'm currently getting from Sandyford.

I don't see any reason for them to lie about that to me and several other people although Michael will probably be able to set the record straight.

SkepticOne

Originally posted by Dustaz
Could anyone confirm that this is the case? I seem to remember Leap planning on putting a transmitter in the same location. Could 2 companys get a business plan so fundamentally wrong?

If I remember correctly, Chorus used to say that they were planning something along these lines for their Powernet services. When people emailed about it they got a reply like "we are awaiting a release date for that quadrant" or some such.

ando

Originally posted by SkepticOne
If I remember correctly, Chorus used to say that they were planning something along these lines for their Powernet services. When people emailed about it they got a reply like "we are awaiting a release date for that quadrant" or some such.

Email from 20 April 2001:


Thank you for your enquiry. Our next base station will be launched from 3
rock mountain in July/August of this year there is a possibility that it
will hit Dublin 5 as it covers a 20 km radius but as our coverage is based
on line of sight the further you are from the base station the more
likelihood there is of obstructions. I will keep your details on file and
send you an e-mail as soon as I have firmer dates.

Please give me a call if you have any further queries.

Thanks & regards,

Chorus Business Services

csaddict

They're not actually putting it on the big two masts that are at the top of Three Rock (that's what I thought which was grand because I have a direct line of sight to them).

They pointed out to me where the transmitter will be - looking from Stillorgan towards Three Rock, there's a smaller hill in the foreground to the right of the main masts, and it'll be on that right where the tree line meets the top of that hill.

Lizzard can confirm this, and exactly where it is, but that's a rough guide to where it is - it's at a lower altitude to the big masts. I'm no wireless expert but that would seem to make sense given what sax0000 said.

Kevok - is there any additional software required for the USB approach?

Moriarty

Originally posted by Dustaz
Could anyone confirm that this is the case? I seem to remember Leap planning on putting a transmitter in the same location. Could 2 companys get a business plan so fundamentally wrong?

It all depends on how they have planned their network. They will encounter problems if they think theyre going to link up the whole of south dublin to one mast. Mainly bandwidth being destroyed, along with the network admins pulling their hair out and looking for the nearest cliff to jump off.

The acknowledged way to roll out an 802.11b network to a high-density population is to site tens/hundreds/thousands (depending on demand and the bandwidth you want to supply to each customer) of small access stations. Some providers in the states actually have kit that makes every customer a relay node for others, and because of this they are more commonly known as 'mesh networks'.

The way 802.11b operates, you can have 3 totally seperate networks in the same physical area without creating any interference between them. If you try to add more into the same spectrum, it will just degrade the quality of the other networks until, concievably, none of them work.

Kevok

Originally posted by csaddict
Kevok - is there any additional software required for the USB approach?

Not that you need to download or buy no. They provide the software for you. Although as stated on the website, since you have an always on connection AND you have a static IP, you will NEED a firewall.

I've been using Zonealarm but I've found that it tends to interfere with the connection.

I've been hosting 12 player servers for Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force on it, and the players tell me that with ZA on, their pings are on average 20ms higher. I'm looking into getting a better one, probably Norton.

csaddict

Originally posted by kevok
They provide the software for you.

Thanks for that. I'll talk to Lizzard about it - but I'd be using both Windows & OSX on this setup so just want to make sure I'd be able to connect with both - I know I can with Ethernet.

Then again - if I get USB then with the Ethernet connection free on my Desktop, shouldn't have a problem connecting the computers together & use the Desktop as a proxy.

Hmmm....

melachi

WOaah, this is excellent.
I'm using EIRCON ADSL 1mbit / 256k atm fer €169 A MONTH!
I live in Stillorgan, going to see if it's possible to get 1mb here.
That 20-40 ping sounds sweet.

ando

that signal from 3 rock only goes 7km

no N.dublin coverage, yet

Kevok

Damn sorry to hear that

I'd imagine one of their planned sites is Howth Hill so there may yet be hope.

ando

hi kevok, yeah, I got an email from them today saying they had no plans yet for howth head, but their sales team are working on a

number of new high sites throughout Dublin and beyond

here's hoping I'll have me own Paddy Ef server up soon

Lex_Diamonds

How tall is the ariel they put on your roof?

Kevok

Originally posted by Lex_Diamonds
How tall is the ariel they put on your roof?

Erm it's not.....I'd actually compare it more to a sattelite dish than an Aerial.

I'll tell ya what, I'll take a photo tomorrow and post it here so i can show you. May as well take one of the cute little modem thingy too

michaelpwilson

My apologies if this information is known to everyone already.

I phoned Irish Broadband yesterday to enquire about the availability of their service in the lower end of Sandyford (i.e. close to Dundrum). The lady I spoke to (Angela) seemed quite knowledgeable. She informed me that although I would most likely be out of range of the transmitter in the Sandyford industrial estate, it was likely I would be able to receive an adequate signal from their new transmitter on Three Rock.

Angela spoke a little about their contention ratios: "[...] most service providers will contend residential clients at between 25 to 50 to 1 - we contend at 8:1. What this means is that if we provide you with a 512kbps connection, it will never drop below 64kbps, i.e. a normal ISDN connection speed, if all 8 users are using the line to capacity at the same time. 64kbps at 8 bits to a byte, translates to 8kbytes/s download speed, minimum [...]"

She also said that they run a fibre link from the transmitter in Three Rock to a 100mbps connection to [*1]West, and that I would get a call today detailing the time when an engineer would call to verify the signal strength at my home.

Michael

P.S. Has anyone had those "field service personnel" from Eircom call round begging to have your business back? Somehow I don't think they'll be returning to my address


[*1] City / Park / Wild - I can never distinguish them

melachi

They're using this equipment:

http://www.stelladoradus.com/2.4para.shtml#
http://www.smartbridges.com/products/wireless/airnic.php

SkepticOne

Nice to see linux drivers there.

Scruff

Originally posted by melachi
WOaah, this is excellent.
I'm using EIRCON ADSL 1mbit / 256k atm fer €169 A MONTH!
I live in Stillorgan, going to see if it's possible to get 1mb here.
That 20-40 ping sounds sweet.

but aren't you tied into a 1 year contract with €ircon regardless of whether u ditch the service or not?

melachi

Don't know, doesn't say anything about that anywhere on their worthless homepages.
Also, a payment didn't come through one month so they shut me down for a month without any intention of putting me back on, took alot of phonecalls like.. one every day. Will just stop paying the bastards.