Mac friend ISP

Rumblefish

Can anyone advise on which of the Irish ISPs are Mac friendly.
i.e. which of them performs best with a mac and provide good mac support.

also wondering is anyone using the eircom or esatbt DSL services with a Mac ?

csaddict

Eircom.net & IOL dial-up work fine on the Mac (Classic & OSX) - rather, as fine on the Mac as on the PC (but now I'm heading into IrelandOffline territory!!)

Can't say I've ever required much support from them, but I'm fairly computer literate (especially with Macs), so I can't comment on their Mac Specific support.

In regards to the DSL - I've used the Eircon iStream on the Mac - it's grand on OSX (don't install the software they give you, just use the build in PPPoE in the Network System Preference pane). I had to install the eircom software it comes with on OS 9.2.2 to try it to work (maybe I missed something, but this seemed to be the only way to get it to connect), and the Extensions it installed caused the OS to freeze a fair bit. I can't remember how I actually resolved it because I pretty much went to using OSX exclusively.

IrishBroadband's wireless broadband connection (using the ethernet option) also works great on OS 9.2.2 and OS X - no additional software is required - just a few settings in the Network or TCP/IP control panel.

If you're thinking of going broadband, I'd recommend a visit to the IrelandOffline board here first. It'll give you a good idea of the actual picture of broadband in Ireland so you can be sure you're making an informed decision.

Rumblefish

Many thanks, ISP access was my last concern, so off to buy my first Mac this weekend !

Corinthian

I had a lot of trouble getting OS X to connect properly to eircom net. I spent some time talking to their technical support, but they were a bunch of total muppets.

Eventually I rang Apple support and they told me to switch to iol, which I did, and I've had no problems since then.

csaddict

I had a lot of trouble getting OS X to connect properly to eircom net.

Really? What version of OS X were you using? I've set up about 4 Macs (LCD iMac, Graphite SE iMac, PB Ti550) to Eircom net on OS X and haven't had much problems.

I know OS X did have inherent problems with PPP in the past - dropping connections after a few minutes, etc. - it was a problem pre-10.1.4 if i remember correctly, but they were resolved.

I never came across the problem myself - the settings I used in Network were (and forgive me - I'm on a PC at the mo' and I'm doing this from memory) use a PPP Server for the connection (i.e. no IP Address, Subnet Mask or Router entered) and the two DNS Server entries for Eircom:
159.134.237.6
159.134.237.17

Was using the subscriber number, 1891150150, which may have helped matters though.

(God - can't believe I'm actually sticking up for Eircon... /me goes to get a reality check)

Corinthian

I would dial up and everything would work fine for the first couple of minutes - but then DNS name lookups would stop working or the connection would drop totally.

I was using 10.1.something - not sure the exact version I was using at the time (at my pc at work at the moment so I can't check, I've upgraded to 10.2 since then anyway).

It's been a couple of months so I can't recall the settings I was trying, though I'm fairly sure that 1891150150 was my dialup number.

Dr_Teeth

I had DNS hassles in OSX about a year and a half ago (around 10.0.x I think) it would randomly forget it had a DNS server - so that cached addresses worked fine but trying to resolve a new address would fail.

This happened regardless of how I was accessing the 'net - ethernet or modem it made no diff. The only way to get it back working was to bring the interface down and up again.

It's been fixed for me for ages though, I can't remember which update did it. Btw I use that same Eircom number and it works just fine, apart from the 'normal' disconnects every now and then.

Teeth.

csaddict

Yup - sounds like that PPP bug that supposedly dogged OS X. Was solved pre-Jaguar - i _think_ it was 10.1.4.

Anyone buying a Mac now wouldn't have those problems, and I'd recommend anyone who hasn't yet upgraded to move up to Jaguar. It is a fair bit faster than 10.1.x versions, and there seems to be quite a bit of stuff coming down the pipeline that requires it.

/me waits for his retainer from Apple

Gordon

Originally posted by csaddict

I know OS X did have inherent problems with PPP in the past - dropping connections after a few minutes, etc. - it was a problem pre-10.1.4 if i remember correctly, but they were resolved.

I still have that problem on OSX Jaguar, whatever that version is. An ab-normal disconnect usually within the first 5 minutes of every connection. It only happened since I updated to Jaguar if I recall correctly.

Have fun with the Mac Rumblefish

timod

There's a thread in ie.comp at the moment about esat's €60 adsl offering, and apparantly is comes bundled with a windoze only usb modem.

(so the "residential"* offering is branded as Mac incompatible)


*residential being the marketing tag rather than cost orientation...