info about irishbroadband.ie?

maxheadroom

Sent an email to them regarding availibility in Knocklyon (D 16). Good news for most people in range of 3 rock, no good for me. Here it is:

Yes its true we do have a base station on Three Rock,(Line Of Sights and
Installations will start in a week) but it's not the masts right at the top,
ours is about half way up.

Unfortunately Knocklyon is not covered by our Three Rock mast because of the
lay of the land and various other factors.To be sure we did do a signal test
in the area. Our technicians picked up a faint signal but it was not strong
enough to install.

Boston

Sorry i havent read the whole topic, just the first page. I see it mentioned tiwice that the eircom adsl ratio is 20:1, this isnt correct, unless they changed it recently. When the service was first launched it was 25:1 for 1MB. Some serious disscussion about the issue of contention was had between me and hubson. IF you would like to do a search of this forum you will come accross a thread with a PDF file from the ODTR with many interesting facts about eircoms ADSL offering, Including all dublin exhcanges upgraded to adsl.

Pepe LeFrits

Good morning Michael,

We have recently installed a new transmitter on Three Rock Mountain which is pointing towards Dundrum, we should be able to offer you a service as long as you have clear line of sight of our transmitter.

Excellent

Should be calling them up sometime today or tommorrow

Matt Simis

Originally posted by maxheadroom
Sent an email to them regarding availibility in Knocklyon (D 16). Good news for most people in range of 3 rock, no good for me. Here it is:

I mailed them asking about D15, similar reply:

Hi there,

Unfortunately the signal can only be picked up within a radius of 7km or so
from one of our transmitters. We have 3 transmitters at the moment - Three
Rock, Sandyford and RTE but none of them would be close enough to give you a
signal. We are looking at a possible site for an additional transmitter in
the Dublin 15 area but it will be at least 3 months or so before we will be
able to provide a service to you. If you want I can put your details into
our database and let you know when we can do something for you.

Regards Angela




Matt

LFCFan

Originally posted by Matt Simis
I mailed them asking about D15, similar reply:

Hi there,

Unfortunately the signal can only be picked up within a radius of 7km or so
from one of our transmitters. We have 3 transmitters at the moment - Three
Rock, Sandyford and RTE but none of them would be close enough to give you a
signal. We are looking at a possible site for an additional transmitter in
the Dublin 15 area but it will be at least 3 months or so before we will be
able to provide a service to you. If you want I can put your details into
our database and let you know when we can do something for you.

Regards Angela




Matt

This is the reply I got:

Hi there,

We have a guy trying to acquire additional high sites for us and
Blanchardstown is one of the areas he is looking at, I reckon it will
probably be early in the new year before we will be providing a service in
the Dublin 15 area but I will keep your information on file and let you know
if anything happens.

Best regards
Angela


I guess this means they do actually reply properly and not just send a standard mail to everyone who enquires about an area. Let's hope D15 will be up and running in the new year and it'll be bye bye €ircon.

Thordon

Another non-standard reply...

Hi there xxxx,

Dublin 15 is an area that we're really interested in moving into (especially as I live in Littlepace!). We are in negotiations at the moment with a company in Blanchardstown to erect a base station on top of their building. <edited out>
As soon as I hear anything about progress in Dublin 15 I'll let you know, we have had a large amount of queries from the area and I know that it's somewhere that we would like to be able to provide a service.

Please do not hesitate to contact me on either 01 2063781 or at angela.colton@irishbroadband.ie with any further queries.

Regards Angela

LFCFan

I guess the building would be the Dunnes Stores Building that is unoccupied at the mo?

ugreevy

well im booked in for an LOS test towards the end of next week.

I'm apparently well within the range of the new 3 rock antenna

so fingers crossed that i have LOS.

Ill let you know how i get on (im in deansgrange close to the cemetary)

apparently if the LOS is ok they will do the installation same day....


ugo

Gunn4r

ugreevy I am very near you and also have a LOS test this week! They should call me today or tomorrow.

I thought I was too far out until they told me one of their directors lived nearby and had a signal!

phoenix2181

do you think it could reach cabinteely village? (were the horse & hound is)

Pepe LeFrits

I'm getting a signal test done on Taney road in Dundrum next wednesday/thursday. Apparently they are doing a batch of them in that area then.

Gunn4r

phoenix, call them and ask for a test, worth a shot even if it seems to far

csaddict

I got LOS'd and set up with them earlier in the week (their second residential customer I think!) - I'm in Stillorgan & pointing at the Three Rock mast.

It was set up during crappy weather (I was fearing for the life of the engineer on my roof at one stage!), and my LOS is obscured by a few trees, but I was getting a 28DB signal (apparently 30DB is an ideal signal) which is pretty good all things considered (I get the impression bad rain can affect the signal to a small degree - a DB or two either way).

Been busy with work & stuff so haven't had a huge amount of time to really put it through its paces (probably this weekend) - but so far I'm impressed (I was on the Eircon trial last year so I have a frame of reference to compare against)

Max download rate so far was about 65KB per second from Microsoft (max I ever got with iStream was 53KB per second-ish) - my CS setup is still set for 56K (rate & throttle) so I haven't sorted my ping out there properly, but I was getting a 60-ish ping off of irelandcs on Tuesday (and everyone on the server was complaining of bad lag anyway). AllSeeing Eye is returning a load of UK servers with 30+ pings but I haven't been on them yet.

Ping from my computer to the gateway is about 7ms, then from what Michael told me, it's straight down into fibre and any other problems after that are the internet's fault!

I've recommended to my friends that if they're within a shot of getting a LOS, they should go for it. I'd no qualms forking over my cash to these guys - they seem a very professional & knowledgable crew.

Now... if anyone can point me towards a decent PC-to-phone service for European calls, I can get Eircon out of my house completely!!

Gunn4r

CS Addict, thanks for the info.

They are doing my LOS on Monday so fingers crossed, I will keep y'all posted.

If people who already have the service msg me I will do up a map / list with a list of where people have / can get the service?

Kevok

Originally posted by csaddict
I got LOS'd and set up with them earlier in the week (their second residential customer I think!) - I'm in Stillorgan & pointing at the Three Rock mast.

Yup I was their first res customer.

I can tell you from experience that weather does not effect it. Not in any noticeable way at least. My signal quality has gone as low as 40%(once dunno why) but the service remained unchanged.

However I ping the gateway constantly at 3ms. At the Sandyford mast.

For the relatively short amount of time that I've had it, i've downloaded vastly more data than 3GB, so I'd imagine that with I-stream I'd probably be cut off by now :eek:

I got win2000 this week and have found it's much better at handling high download speeds. With win98 the connection would often throttle down if left on for a long time. But with win2000 that doesn't happen.

ugreevy

Gunn4r please post on monday and let us know how you get on! im getting the LOS on Friday morning - i have a pretty good view of 3 rock from my bk bedroom window so fingers crossed!

im even having problems with my 56k connection - 21kbs is the best connection i can get at the moment......

Pepe LeFrits

Ohhh, I MUST pass this signal test :eek:

Scruff

i've got the los test and and install if ots ok next friday too.
we've cleared it with the landlord to put the dish on the roof but do they have to drill a hole in the wall to bring the cable internally and do ye need a to plud the decoder(?) into a power plug?

i'm not too sure how the landlord would feel about drilling holes in his wall.....

l3rian

so ugreevy, how'd you get on, im close to the graveyard too, so i am eager to hear your result

ugreevy

l3rian my LOs in next Friday not today ;p

l3rian

ok, wishful thinking i suppose, if we both get this i guess you wold be one of the other 7 guys im sharing it with

csaddict

Originally posted by Scruff
but do they have to drill a hole in the wall to bring the cable internally and do ye need a to plud the decoder(?) into a power plug?

There was definite drilling of holes. The cable from the antenna is 1/2 inch co-axial, and this needs to be connected directly to the radio/receiver box, so unless you want to live with an open window and a cable sticking through it, you'll need to drill the hole. That said, they are offering an option of an external ethernet radio (i.e. right by the antenna) so instead of a 1/2 inch co-ax, you're just dealing with a standard ethernet sized cable, but that costs a fair bit more.

AFAIK you have to power the radio with a plug - I do anyway (internal ethernet) - Michael said you could get some sort of power through ethernet option (i think it's a joint cable so you can put the radio in the attic or something like that) but it'd cost more.

Kevok - is the USB one externally powered or can you power it from your computer?

Originally posted by l3rian
if we both get this i guess you wold be one of the other 7 guys im sharing it with

I could be wrong on this, but the impression I got from talking with Michael (LiZzard) was that the contention is managed at the network end, rather than the wireless side o' things so it's spread over all users of the network. So you won't get a situation where your mate on the other side of the city is always getting 512K but you're stuck on 64K because of 7 Limewire junkies that live beside you (no offense to Limewire users intended!)

He also said that contention only kicks in when the network reaches capacity, and the way it works is business traffic get network priority in the daytime, and residential traffic gets network priority in the evenings. (Anyone from IBB, please feel free to correct me if I picked this up wrong.)

NeoSlicerZ

Is there any chance that IrishBroadband would migrate down to Galway and cover the Salthill areas?

Kevok

Yes the USB version is powered by the PC.

And you are quite right about the contention I believe. I was told much the same thing.

Scruff

Just got word from Irish Broadband. LOS test that was scheduled for this Friday has been cancelled as there is no LOS from Blackrock to the Three Rock Mast.

So it looks like Blackrock is the broadband black hole of the south side as the Merrion exchange that services most of blackrock and parts of stillorgan can't be upgraded with esat DSL cause there's no shagging room.
:mad:

melachi

I'm in stillorgan aswell.
They did a LOS Test today but it was a no go.
Gah, I wonder if I'll ever be able to break away from eircom i-stream.

pork99

melachi, are you to the south of that tree line beside the reservoir?

I'm on Lwr Kilmacud Rd beside the 11 bus terminus and my LOS was blocked by those trees. Its beginning to look like Stillorgan is an almost total dead-zone for this. A guy up the road from me got it but it was a sheer fluke that he was aligned with a gap in the trees!

I wonder is there anyway everyone in the "Stillorgan Triangle" could get together and set up a co-op to share a leased line over a diy network a la http://www.irishwan.org/ ? (Havent a clue how that could work just a suggestion)

ando

Originally posted by melachi
I wonder if I'll ever be able to break away from eircom i-stream.

and here i am wishing i had i-scream :rolleyes:

Scruff

Originally posted by pork99

I wonder is there anyway everyone in the "Stillorgan Triangle" could get together and set up a co-op to share a leased line over a diy network a la http://www.irishwan.org/ ? (Havent a clue how that could work just a suggestion)

They said a few weeks ago they were trying to get a high location in blackrock. dunno if anything more has come of it.

l3rian

dammit i failed los test

i'd say you got that message Scruff after i failed at about 3 oclock today

well there is lots of tall trees around my house, when i suggested placing the dish ontop of one of them the guy thought i was joking

what do i do now?