gone over the i-stream cap and charged?

alastair

just curious if anyone has actually been charged for going over their limit on i-stream?

My suspicion is no.

can anyone tell me otherwise?

eth0_

I haven't heard of anyone getting billed for going over yet, but i'm sure this is due to incompetence in Eircom's billing dept rather than them being lenient!

However you can be sure they'll charge you in the end, not like them to do anyone a favour

Hobbes

Can anyone tell me how long 3GB cap lasts in normal usage for typical heavy net user?

I'm planning on getting iStream want to know if the uncapped is worth it?

The price I was quoted was.

€165 + vat - Installation ( €199 )
€169 + vat - per month uncapped. ( €204 )

BTW, can someone also explain what the hell you hook up?

I had Cable in the US and all I had to do was hook up a cable modem then plug my 4 port router into the modem and run the machines from that.

I was being quoted a 4 port modem? for €270, and I was also being told that a router would cost me €900! (My LinkSys router in the US only cost me $150).

I take it I can get a 1 port modem and just hook a router off that?

... 3GB cap was quoted at €129 (?) which would amount to around 1.8GB extra before you would be reaching the uncapped price? (rough estimate).

De Rebel

I can't asnwer your questions, so I'll help by adding another one instead.


If you sign up for one of Eircom's three I-Stream offerings, and then find that one of the other plans would better suit your requirements, can you switch without penalty? e.g. you go for the entry level offering with the 3GB cap, and then find that you need uncapped, what happens?

maybe I should just go read the manual or phone-a-biddy

Kevok

I don't have i-stream i have IBB. But i can tell you, that I have downloaded GBs upon GBs of stuff since I got it. Linux alone was downloaded in oh about 4 maybe 5 hours. (i have 1 mbit just double the time for .5).

You will shatter the cap on many occasions. And that *I* believe is the reason that Eircom isn't charging. Because there are so many people breaking the cap, they'd hinder ADSL take up with enforcing the cap.

Hobbes

Originally posted by Kevok
You will shatter the cap on many occasions. And that *I* believe is the reason that Eircom isn't charging. Because there are so many people breaking the cap, they'd hinder ADSL take up with enforcing the cap.

Prehaps, but that means that if I get it uncapped I'm getting screwed by all you wasters sucking up bandwidth and not paying for it?

Prehaps I should then ask Eircom for a refund seeing as they aren't billing people for going over the limit?

sceptre

That question came up at the launch evening (for want of a better term) for IceCream in Limerick.

It wasn't really answered - all they were willing to say was that they "reserved the right" to charge (even when "what does that mean - you reserve the right?" was the question)

One of the technical guys addeded that they'd prefer to see you sliding up to another plan rather than charge you for the downloads so the impression I got was that if little Johnny is on the Solo plan and downloads 10 gigs worth of pictures and movies during May they'll probably phone him sometime over the summer and suggest he change to the unlimited package for the future rather than charge him for the earlier downloads. Obviously this isn't official - they do "reserve the right" and all that.

iwb

Originally posted by Hobbes

Prehaps, but that means that if I get it uncapped I'm getting screwed by all you wasters sucking up bandwidth and not paying for it?

Prehaps I should then ask Eircom for a refund seeing as they aren't billing people for going over the limit?
____________________________________________________

Now that isn't very friendly. It also doesn't make much sense as you are on the same DSLAM whatever plan you are on (AFAIK)
To answer your earlier question, if you supply your own modem, (highly desirable from a cost pespective) all Eircom did for me was replace the wall socket for the phone with one that has two outlets. One for the phone and one for ADSL. All it is basically is a two way splitter and one has a filter installed for the phone to filter out the higher ADSL frequencies.
You can buy many modems but it sounds like you need something like the DLink DSL 504 which is an ADSL modem with nat and firewall which has four ethernet ports built in to allow many PCs to connect. The DLink box will supply non routable DHCP addresses to the computers connected to the box.
It cost me 169 Euros including VAT at Peats in Parnell Street.

glimmerman

Well, i've exceeded the cap (but not by too much, prolly a couple of hundred meg at most) and haven't been charged for the excess.

In terms of usage, it depends. Using something like p2p will run you up a few hundred meg in a few hours if you fancy an mp3 or two. Normal browsing is fine, you probably won't go near the cap. FTP a few iso's and you may feel pain. Gaming doesn't much affect the cap either (although I don't game more than a few hours online a week) : eg MOH might put me back a few tens of megs after a good few hours during the day. If you play 10 hours a day though you might use the cap up like that.

bricks

I've gotta be carefull not to download ISO's.
Normal web browsing doesn't seem to clock up much.
(I can only read so fast)
Listening to radio on the web would also have to be limited.
What would really do it would be Kazza or downloading mp3z continuously from mirc.
But since I don't really have the time to download 100's of gigs of music I'll never listen to or movies I'll never watch so I'm ok.
Its anoying that I have to keep track of it tho:(.
Netgaming doesn't seem to clock up much traffic either.

MDR

they'd hinder ADSL take up with enforcing the cap.

are you sure they want people to take up ADSL ?
Hence capping the product in the first instance,
wouldn't people be much happier using hi-speed their broadband ISDN product ... .

I could very easily see em enforcing a cap, just to send the message out there that the basic product is still metered, providing even less incentive to move over from hi-speed ....

I would put it down to shoddy accounting (they do have an extensive history for this), those charges are in the post make no mistake.

captainpat

This being Ireland, everyone knows someone who knows something...
I recently heard from someone who knows someone in Eircom that when i-Stream was launched, there was no usage accounting or even metering. Since then, the elves have been busy, and they now have a package in place which they could use for billing. Why they are not doing it is not clear. Take your pick from the opinions above!

Praetorian

I have 1MB adsl. It would not be unusual for me to download 3GB in a day....nevermind a month!

Take for example the new Earth and Beyond game demo. 1 GB download.

When I heard about the 3GB cap, i honestly thought someone was joking

DC

1mbit ADSL from eircon has a 6GB limit or no limit for the unmetered version.

Dustaz

Originally posted by MDR

I would put it down to shoddy accounting

Im fairly certain its not for this reason. Ive seen an internal webpage that measures individuals dsl traffic so they can certainly measure it and i have great faith in eircons ability to charge people for services.

Since day 1 of this service, the sales team have been fairly ambigous about the cap. Any statement or qualifier they make is vague and features "eircom reserves the right" type of language. Reading between the lines, ive always assumed that they will use the cap to try to control bandwith hogs. If your downloading 30gb a day, then they might start to enforce it. If you go to 5gb a month they might leave you alone.

God only knows tho, this is eircon after all.

Boston

Originally posted by Hobbes
BTW, can someone also explain what the hell you hook up?

I had Cable in the US and all I had to do was hook up a cable modem then plug my 4 port router into the modem and run the machines from that.

I was being quoted a 4 port modem? for €270, and I was also being told that a router would cost me €900! (My LinkSys router in the US only cost me $150).

I take it I can get a 1 port modem and just hook a router off that?

... 3GB cap was quoted at €129 (?) which would amount to around 1.8GB extra before you would be reaching the uncapped price? (rough estimate).

Why dont you jsut get the single ethernet port option, and hock it up to your linksys yourself. that 900 euro charge is something called site survey charge. I'd say screw it but i think they force you to get it done.

Bascially theres nothing stoping oyu getting the cheap ethernet modem/bridge/whatever they call it, and banging a basic router onto it. Its what i did.

BTw why dont you get esat, most eircom exchanges should be upgraded to esat

Dustaz

Originally posted by Boston

BTw why dont you get esat, most eircom exchanges should be upgraded to esat

Not if hes in dublin. Most dsl exchanges in dublin are purely eircom

captainpat

Not if hes in dublin. Most dsl exchanges in dublin are purely eircom


__Above From Dustaz_______________

This is a bit suspicious (again). Since Eircom got the head start on Esat with enabling exchanges through the test program, you would have thought that EsatBT would try to catch up and out-smart them by doing the Local Loop Unbundling where Eircom had already put in the DSLAMs. Or do EsatBT have to provide their own DSLAMs? I thought the Wholesale product Eircom provided included capacity on installed equipment, so that EsatBT could immediately compete where Eircom had a Retail product.

Are EsatBT only offering ADSL where they have their own DSLAMs in exchanges? Is this the sign of a Duopoly, with some cosy exchange allocation? We'll never get real competition if the two keep coyly avoiding competitive areas until there is nothing else left.

Boston

Originally posted by Dusty Claus
Not if hes in dublin. Most dsl exchanges in dublin are purely eircom

MAybe you know more then me, but my local exchange is allready esat upgraded, and it wasnt meant to be untill january. I'd imagine most eircom adsl ready exchange would be operating with esat as well at this stage.

Dustaz

Captainpat, what i meant was that Esat operate in some of the eircom exchanges, while mostly its just eircom doing dsl in upgraded exchanges.

I could be wrong but afaik the only exchanges that Esat are in in dublin are eircom ones.

As to how many there is, esat seem to be proceeding nicely, but there is a real lack of information flow as to what exchanges are ready or not.

Snaga

CaptainPat - Esatbt do have to get their own DSLAMS in place as they are not using the wholesale dsl product from eircom.

Boston

Originally posted by Dusty Claus
Captainpat, what i meant was that Esat operate in some of the eircom exchanges, while mostly its just eircom doing dsl in upgraded exchanges.

I could be wrong but afaik the only exchanges that Esat are in in dublin are eircom ones.

As to how many there is, esat seem to be proceeding nicely, but there is a real lack of information flow as to what exchanges are ready or not.

this makes little to no sense to me. What are you calling an exchange?

I'm not flaming btw, just that esat have these little sub exhcange things beside afew exchanges i know of, and is this what you talking about. Its basically an interconnection thing, about 2foot by a foot hole in the ground with a cover over it. Some are on walls and are abite bigger.

Dustaz

Hmm, im not sure actually boston.

afaik up to this point, the exchange is a little room owned by eircom with racks of gear in it. In some of them there is a rack belonging to esat which holds its DSLAMS.

I think the only rooms that have Esat DSLAMS also have Eircom DSLAMS. Whereas there are exchanges where there are only eircom DSLAMS.

Im pretty confused now

captainpat

Originally posted by Dusty Claus
Hmm, im not sure actually boston.

afaik up to this point, the exchange is a little room owned by eircom with racks of gear in it. In some of them there is a rack belonging to esat which holds its DSLAMS.

I think the only rooms that have Esat DSLAMS also have Eircom DSLAMS. Whereas there are exchanges where there are only eircom DSLAMS.

Im pretty confused now

Welcome to the club, (although you are more of a member than many).

Whether the equipment is a hole in the ground operation or not, what I have been trying to find out is whether EsatBT are "shadowing" Eircom at the Exchanges that Eircom upgraded. If they are putting in a presence in those exchanges, then they presumably can take advantage of the Wholesale rate from Eircom. (Incidentally, it's not as awful a margin as the EsatBT Retail price suggests, at somewhere around €64 for a port which can give up to 1 Mb). Check out the Eircom Business section. I found their Wholesale agreements there. I wouldn't complain of a 30% mark-up on another guy's service if I was providing it to Business customers. But apparently they are not.

Of course, if EsatBT are not using Eircom Wholesale for ADSL, they have their reasons, including "saving that for later". In the meantime, they can go for their semi-exclusive exchanges and get their own LLU DSLAMs in place.

A lot of speculation. Does anyone know of EsatBT now offering an ADSL service from the same exchange as Eircom are offering i-Stream?




If EsatBT are

captainpat

I installed a metering program to show me what speeds I was getting from my Eircom Solo 512/128 i-Stream connection. A week or so later, I was foostering with the settings and options and discovered that the prog had been measuring my Up/Down volumes, connect times etc.

I was a little bit bothered to discover that I had exceeded the cap limit in my first week of the month. So I had a look at the arithmetic of the cap for a Solo user, if the axe was to fall.

Including VAT, the charge is a possible €0.036 per Megabyte above 3 GigaByte/Mth. A Gigabyte being (arguably) 1000 times a Megabyte, the price to a domestic user would be €36.00 per Gigabyte.

This Gigabyte of additional data could, given a matching speed source, with a 70% achieved data transfer rate, be used up in approximately 4.5 hours of perfect Downloading. So, if you were really dedicated, and had perfect sources (not Kazaa!), you could run up a Cap Excess bill of €180.00 per day. The €5400.00 per month possibilities must have been what influenced our Eircom friends to reluctantly allow the introduction of i-Stream.

For those of you with the mad calculations in your sigs, here's one for you!

The real mathematicians among us will probably find that my sums are wrong. But they will probably have worse answers when corrected.

I live in fear.