Via Networks RADSL

parasite

78 euro !!
geroutta dat :mad:

BKtje

still no word on wether you can get fastpath for sure?

SkepticOne

Originally posted by B-K-DzR
still no word on wether you can get fastpath for sure?

Have you tried ringing them?

http://www.vianetworks.ie/contact.html

Sloth

Ok people this is the reply you've been waiting for. I've just gotten off the phone with the Via sales people and have been given the prices as followed including VAT:
512k service, no download limit 24:1 contention ratio comes in at €106 per month. Well worth it in my eyes.
1mb service, no download limit, 24:1 contention ratio at €169 per month. Mmmm, I'll probably try the 512k for the moment since the contract is only for 2 months.
Install costs come in at €165 for install as well as an aditional €229 for the modem.
The sales rep has just told me that they will email out the order form to me which I can then either fax or mail to them once it's filled out.
Altogether your looking at splashing out €563 for it. The sales rep admitted that this was a bit expensive but I think it's well worth it.
There was some cheaper service which she said was rate adaptive which I think refers to the €68 per month service which has a not very nice contention ratio of 48:1. I think you should all go for the 512k package since she said that the contention ratio pretty much doesn't come into this at all and I know it might be a bit on the expensive side but since you can buy a standard modem (which lets face it you'd have to buy anyway) and the contract is only 2 months long I can't see any major issues. I'm not sure about whether or not I'll need a router but was told that no I probably wouldn't but she'd provide full info on the order form.
At least give them a call, the phone call was great and the people at the other end actually seemed to know what they were talking about for once. I was told that it would take 11 days after they receive the form for the engineer to come which lets face it really isn't that long at all. Hopefully within 2 weeks I and most of you will be broadbandified via VIA.
Viva Via!

MDR

The sales rep admitted that this was a bit expensive but I think it's well worth it.

I think this only deserves a simily so ...

spongebob

Originally posted by Sloth
I think you should all go for the 512k package since she said that the contention ratio pretty much doesn't come into this at all and I know it might be a bit on the expensive side but since you can buy a standard modem (which lets face it you'd have to buy anyway) and the contract is only 2 months long I can't see any major issues.

harumppph 512/128 24:1 contention at over €100 a month and no CAP........will i tulips as the man once said to the bishop.

I note that Via are peddling the Eircom line on the self install modem. They are not letting the end user choose their own kit and then install it. Comreg should have this sorted out by the 11/04 as soon as someone formally complains about Via networks thru the complaints interface Here . You can be sure that no Linux software will ship with any Zyxel ....internal or otherwise. Having to buy a Grossly Overpriced Eircon modem in order to use their horrendously contended service is an insult to us all.

M

Sloth

MDR, you don't think it's worth it? I think it's dirt cheap considering how expensive it'd be to get an Eircom connection without a cap. Again the fact that it's only a 2 month contract and a standard modem makes it lovely dubly.
I think if via deserves a smilie is should be :cool:

MDR

it definitely doesn't deserve a :cool: , maybe a :rolleyes:

I am sure via are making a big fat margin on this product,
it is a product aimed at the business market I suppose afterall,
hence the static IP, Domain name and other crap the average joe would never use, and it is alot better than eircom's SOLO offering I do accept.

But infairness, compared to standard European telco DSL products offered from Portugal to Talinn, Copenhagen to Ljubljana, its a bit of a joke. They are stealing the march on the Irish Broaband market with a half-assed product, and good luck to them, but this is not really the market busting product we are seeking ....

dahamsta

C'mon Thomas, refute MDR's assertions!

adam

echomadman

Thank you for your enquiry regarding our DSL services. Presently our DSL
service is only available within Dublin and greater Dublin

sigh, same old, same old,

continue the research.........

Sloth

I'll take what I can get. How much does it take to satisfy you? I mean we've all waited so so long for this rollout to happen and now when a decent enough provider comes along people start complaining. Yes, I accept it's more expensive than most other countries but for the moment I don't care about the green green grasses of broadband that other countries, just the deals that actually apply to me. Compared to Eircom Via seems ten times better. I have yet to receive their form but hopefully it is on the way.

Sloth

Oh sorry echomadman, I live in Dublin and I kinda thought most people that post here did too. My line has been passed by Eircom so theres no problem in that area.

MDR

How much does it take to satisfy you?

I will never be satisfied, thats the nature of pressure group. I am reasonable to point, I won't walk in Dermot Ahern's office with a monotof (spelling) cocktail demanding everything by tomorrow, but I will always push for something better. Settling is how Irish ended up with the Quality of Life they currentily enjoy (or rather don't).

I told you quite clearily,

Yes, its better than eircom (but lets face it that not very hard)
No, its not alot better than eircom,

This isn't a market busting product, you may be sold on it, but it will take something alot better to prise my internet pennies from pockets, these guys are _NOT_ interested in being market leaders. They probabily are only targeting a fairy niche market in their business model ....

Mr. Fancypants

Just to point out that the product Sloth is refering to was actually available for quite a while. It is just Via's version of Eircom's original I-Streams offerings.

Sloth

Ok point taken MDR. What is the optimal (realistic) package that your striving for atm?

Dustaz

Originally posted by mbroaders
Just to point out that the product Sloth is refering to was actually available for quite a while. It is just Via's version of Eircom's original I-Streams offerings.

I was just going to post that. Sloth, that product is exactly the same as Eircoms original I-stream, just without the cap. which is fair enough of course. For people who dont exceed the cap (and theres more than you think) the product is as much of a rip-off as the original i-stream is.

Do you work for Via? You are sure pushing them very hard for a normal punter. Please stop thanks

Most of us here are aware of the 24:1 contention offers and its the 48:1 cheaper alternative that is 'news'.

Originally posted by Sloth
Yes, I accept it's more expensive than most other countries but for the moment I don't care about the green green grasses of broadband that other countries, just the deals that actually apply to me

You only seem interested in one deal tbh. What about Wireless? you dont seem to be worried about the fact that wireless is available in dublin and is a cheaper deal than via.
Are you in an NTL area? What about esats dsl, its the same price as vias, its uncapped and its lower latency.

dahamsta

Originally posted by MDR
I won't walk in Dermot Ahern's office with a monotof (spelling) cocktail demanding everything by tomorrow

[molotov]

I've got a loaded Kehoe and I'm not afraid to use it!

heh

adam

carbsy

Originally posted by Sloth
I live in Dublin and I kinda thought most people that post here did too.

You're away with the bird's kid :P

thomasb

The premium rate package that's been discussed (106 euro, runs at a contention ratio of 24:1).

I've just checked out Demon Internet's website (they are one of the UK market leaders and tend to be quite economical), and for a similar feature for feature service (focusing mostly on contention) their cheapest rate is 75 pounds sterling per month .http://www.demon.net/adsl/expresspackages/plus-home.html. I think that in fact, our 512k, 24:1 product compares quite well with our nearest neighbour in pricing.

I would also point out that the way Eircom are doing their bitstream product makes it much more expensive on a peruser basis for an OLO to supply DSL access than it is in the UK.

We are NOT "not letting the end user choose their own kit and then install it." (excuse the double negative). What our position is that we can only supply limited support on hardware we don't supply. If you want to use your own hardware to get connected, you're welcome to do so and we have no problem with you doing this. We are not going to talk you through configuring ObscureDSL modem using Roaring Penguin PPPoE though.

Sloth

Dustaz. Just to tell you why I'm choosing Via and seem so keen on it. I was thrilled by the news of Eircom's I-Stream but when I heard of the connection cap I was really put off by it. Then came wireless and again I was extremely disappointed to hear that games consoles don't support it. I live outside ntl's ludicrously limited area so that wasn't really an option.
Sorry if I seem over excited it's just that Via seems to be exactly what I want and the fact that it's out so soon is even more of a bonus. As for the lower latency for esat over via how do you know this since I thought esat was pretty much vapour ware?

BKtje

Originally posted by SkepticOne
Have you tried ringing them?

Yer but didnt get through, sent em an email tho

SkepticOne

Originally posted by Sloth
Then came wireless and again I was extremely disappointed to hear that games consoles don't support it.

Did you hear this from any authoritative source? I can't think of anything intrinsic to a wireless connection that might preclude X-box. It is just another means of providing broadband.

Have IBB said specifically that you can't run X-box?

spongebob

Originally posted by thomasb

We are NOT "not letting the end user choose their own kit and then install it." (excuse the double negative). What our position is that we can only supply limited support on hardware we don't supply. If you want to use your own hardware to get connected, you're welcome to do so and we have no problem with you doing this. We are not going to talk you through configuring ObscureDSL modem using Roaring Penguin PPPoE though.

Bit touchy touchy at the mention of Comreg are we ?

Simply publish the settings, link Karl Jeacles Page on the subject.

Assume we are somewhat tech literate in here or know someone who is (and responds to PM's).....

M

Dustaz

Skeptic has already asked the question i waqs going to ask about xbox

Originally posted by Sloth

Sorry if I seem over excited it's just that Via seems to be exactly what I want and the fact that it's out so soon is even more of a bonus.

Um, the via offer you quoted has been available for about 8-12 months i think. They started re-selling i-stream just after it was launched. There is a new offer, but you dont seem to excited by that. Its thier version of eircoms RADSL offer.

As for the lower latency for esat over via how do you know this since I thought esat was pretty much vapour ware?

No, Esat have enabled a fair amount of exchanges for thier business (read expensive) DSL. This is provided over unbundled lines (i think, im sure i will be corrected) and they do not have interleaving running on thier lines which is what causes eircoms (and VIAs) DSL to perform disapointingly for games.

Esats residential dsl product (cheaper) is the one that is proving difficult to actually order. Im not sure if its vaporware as such, its just only available to an ntl-esque amount of people.

kamobe

ntl-esque

lol - coin that 'phrase'

ntl-esque: referring to a situation with plenty of promise, but which only relates to a small number of people

shinzon

received this from via this morning

---

Good afternoon

Thank you for your recent enquiry regarding our SOHO DSL Service. Presently
we have three SOHO DSL products all SOHO products include the following:

512k downstream/128k upstream
A fixed IP address
No download limits
2 month rolling contract term

Our SOHO Plus account includes 5 POP3 e-mail addresses, domain name
registration and all of the above. Contention ratio on this service is 24:1. Monthly Charges for this service is ?106

Our SOHO Multi account includes: SMTP E-mail (unlimited e-mail addresses), Domain name registration. Contention ratio on this service is 24:1. Monthly Charges for this service is ?106

On the 11th of April we will have a SOHO service which will include all of the above, however please note the downstream and upstream rates will vary according to your distance from your local exchange. This service will include 5 POP3 e-mail addresses and a domain. Contention ratio on this service is 24:1. Monthly Charges for this service is ?63.

Each of the above services have a once off installation fee of ?165. The SOHO product which we will have available on the 11th of April, will also have a self install option.

should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact myself or any member of the sales team.

Kind regards
Louise McKeown
Sales & Marketing Manager
VIA NET.WORKS Ireland
VIA NET.WORKS Ireland is a wholly owned Limited Irish Company. Although
connected to the VIA Global Network, VIA NET.WORKS Ireland is separate from
and is not owned by VIA NET.WORKS Inc. or any member of the VIA NET.WORKS
Inc. Group.

---

looks very promising

shin

kamobe

Contention ratio on this service is 24:1. Monthly Charges for this service is ?63.

I hope that's not a typo

If it isn't they may well have my custom (Should IBB continue to serve only the city/south-side)

spongebob

Originally posted by Dustaz
Esats residential dsl product (cheaper) is the one that is proving difficult to actually order. Im not sure if its vaporware as such, its just only available to an ntl-esque amount of people.

sub Ntl - esque . NTL have over 1000 customers for their Broadband Residential product, maybe twice as many.

By last month ESAT had enabled 32 out of 40 of their DSL exchanges for the residential product.

They had signed up about 32 customers by then too, giving their punters a stunning contention ratio of precisely 0 or 1:1 although there are 2 punters in Navan

If you ring the ESAT Business people and ask for it they will find the guy who sells it in Residential, his own colleages seem to have difficulties in doing so, usually asking you to mail in a phone bill before they will even discuss it which is most disconcerting on a first enquiry.

Alternatively mail Una Mc Girr, una.mcgirr@esat.com , a very helpful ESAT person if you say you were referred to her by Muck .

M

zynaps

Originally posted by shinzon
Monthly Charges for this service is ?63.

Are we to assume that this is €63 inclusive of vat?

How hard is it for them to bloody mention whether or not their pricing includes vat or not?
If it's not inclusive of vat, then they're being annoyingly misleading, especially if they're expecting to sell this to a residential market...?

zynaps

MDR

Ok point taken MDR. What is the optimal (realistic) package that your striving for atm?

Personally (not the opinion of the committee), 512 down/128 up, < 40 euro and around a 12 gig cap would be a market busting product at this moment. (it won't be forever though, as data volumne requirements change)

sceptre

Originally posted by MDR
Personally (not the opinion of the committee), 512 down/128 up, < 40 euro and around a 12 gig cap would be a market busting product at this moment. (it won't be forever though, as data volumne requirements change)

For what it's worth, that's a product I'd shell out for.

spongebob

Originally posted by sceptre
For what it's worth, that's a product I'd shell out for.

<Muck is taken aback as Sceptre invites Pimp attack by Casey/Chorus/NTL/IBB/Irishwisp who actually do offer that kinda package at that kinda price somewhere in Ireland right now>

<Muck volunteers to update sticky on Broadband pricing if asked nicely by Sceptre ...tad overdue that>

M

sceptre

Originally posted by Muck
<Muck is taken aback as Sceptre invites Pimp attack by Casey/Chorus/NTL/IBB/Irishwisp who actually do offer that kinda package at that kinda price somewhere in Ireland right now>

Repellant squid guns at the ready Muck.
(none of them do in Limerick but I'm open to PMs (that's "private message", wannabe pimpers) from any who do)

<Muck volunteers to update sticky on Broadband pricing if asked nicely by Sceptre ...tad overdue that>

Oh, yes please. The dustbuster and I always appreciate any help.

MDR

Muck is taken aback as Sceptre invites Pimp attack by Casey/Chorus/NTL/IBB/Irishwisp who actually do offer that kinda package at that kinda price somewhere in Ireland right now

NTL ... if you live in Tallaght wonderful
Casey .... if you live in Waterford wonderful
Chorus .... if you live in Kilkenny, Thurles wonderful
IrishWISP ... if you live in Ternure wonderful
IBB .... these guys are closer €50 in price ... if they dropped their about about 20%, continued with their agressive rollout, they could have something.

Even better,

anyone who offers 128kb down, 64 kbs up, with something like a 4gig cap for less than €20, and the same level of availablity as Eircom, and a half-decent advertising campaign, would own the market.

echomadman

information age eh?
Well the information superhighway is closed for resurfacing around here at the moment,

maybe if i set up a semaphore tower.........


anyway, does anyone know anything about all this fibre optic that the ESB is laying down

press release here..
http://www.esb.ie/main/news_events/press_release193.jsp

spongebob

Originally posted by MDR
NTL ... if you live in Tallaght wonderful
Casey .... if you live in Waterford wonderful
Chorus .... if you live in Kilkenny, Thurles wonderful
IrishWISP ... if you live in Ternure wonderful
IBB .... these guys are closer €50 in price ... if they dropped their about about 20%, continued with their agressive rollout, they could have something.

Even better,

anyone who offers 128kb down, 64 kbs up, with something like a 4gig cap for less than €20, and the same level of availablity as Eircom, and a half-decent advertising campaign, would own the market.

<Muck is pained at the al Fresco Irish Geography lesson from MDR>

NTL ... if you live in Tallaght OR Terenure wonderful
Casey .... if you live in Waterford TOUGH but Dungarvan, Co. Waterford wonderful.
Chorus .... if you live in Kilkenny, Thurles OR Clonmel wonderful
IrishWISP ... if you live in Terenure OR Rathfarnam wonderful
IBB .... these guys are closer €50 in price ... if they dropped theirs about about 20%, continued with their agressive rollout, they could have something.

Chorus have now dropped their Cap (it seems from their T&C's) so I wanted to point out that there are 5 Carriers offering Uncapped products in the Sub €50 space in Ireland, today. None of them further require that you also pay €21.15 line rental to €ircon. Most of them do a 512k product in the sub €50 space, the exception being Casey who do a Guaranteed 256k product in the sub €40 space instead.

All my prices INCLUDE VAT .

NTL have the cheapest one 128/128 No Cap and no line rental for €30 .

M

MDR

<Muck is pained at the al Fresco Irish Geography lesson from MDR>

Jesus Muck,

I amn't writing a press release ... just making an informal point.

p2p

Here is an email I sent to via on friday ...

Good afternoon,

I am enquring about your new DSL package
available after the 11th of april.

I have a couple of questions :

a.) what is the cost of the SoHo service including VAT
i have heard something in region of E63

b.) Is this service capped or is it likely to be in the near future?
I have heard it is not capped at present.

c.) is there an option with a fixed (static) ip adress
is there an extra charge for this? if so how much?

d.) is the interleaving algorithm turned on for this service?

e.) are you releasing this service in all eircom dsl enabled exchanges?


Thanks for your time,
<me>

And here's the response i received today ...

Thank you for your email. Apologies for the delay in getting back to you. In
anwer to your query,

Via Netsouce will be reselling the Rate Adpative DSL on the 11th of April.
Included in our package will be 5 POP3 email accounts and a domain name. Via
Netsouce do not have any download limits for this service, so the rate will
be a fixed monthly rate, and we also offer a 2 month contract for RADSL. Our
package also includes a fixed IP address with no addtional cost, this
package costs just 63 euro, VAT Exclusive.

Interleaving is switched on and cannot be switched off as it is a Eicom's
policy. DSL will be released on all Eircom enabled exchanges.

If you would like any further information on our RADSL package, please do
not hesitate to contact me.

Kind Regards,
<customer rep>

spongebob

.........which goes to prove that VIA are not exceptional in offering an Uncapped 512k product .

Once Vat if factored in VIA will charge €76.23 and require that you pay €ircon €21.15 Line rental too.

Via are therefore offering the residential customer a 512k Uncapped product for €97.42 a month, I wished to point out that there are others doing so for around half that.

VIA probably cover as many potential customers (even though they are Dublin only) AS all the rest put together.

M

thomasb

You're probably paying this anyway if you have a phone.

dahamsta

Originally posted by thomasb
You're probably paying this anyway if you have a phone.

Heh heh, you'll live to regret saying that Thomas.

It's like a car crash, isn't it? You know you shouldn't be looking, but you'll look all the same.

adam

Trebor

Lets not start that argument again

i thought everyone agreed that if you are thinking about going ADSL then you are already paying line rental and that it should not be put in to the calculations as they should only state how much EXTRA it will cost to get it.

spongebob

Originally posted by Trebor
Lets not start that argument again

i thought everyone agreed ...

well they all ganged up on lil' ol me anyway but thats not quite agreement

Ardmore will be back soon to cheer me up.

M

BKtje

Just got a reply from VIA, gave the same answer as the one p2p got with this bit added on which is about contention ratios.

The 1 Mgb service is available at 169 euro per month, the reason it is more
expensive is that it works off a 24:1 contention ratio and the rate adaptive
service works off a 48:1 contention ratio.

Someone earlier got a reply saying the new product was 24:1, however the reply i got says the €63(exclusive VAT) one is 48:1.

eth0_

Originally posted by thomasb
You're probably paying this anyway if you have a phone.

I agree, i'm not really bothered either way if I have to pay line rental, yes it'd be preferable to have the whole line dedicated to dsl and not pay line rental to eircom but in most people's situations that's not very feasible.

Although i'll be sharing the connection price of dsl with two others so it'll work out cheaper than utvip if I got the Via product..

Nice to see they're offering DSL outside of Dublin now too!

Sloth

Originally posted by SkepticOne
Did you hear this from any authoritative source? I can't think of anything intrinsic to a wireless connection that might preclude X-box. It is just another means of providing broadband.

Have IBB said specifically that you can't run X-box?

From a recent support chat I had on the xbox website:

William (Tech Support): I really have been given no details about any issues retailed to LIVE being launched in Europe. So, I wouldn't pretend to know why it wouldn't be available in Ireland. Some of the other consoles even allow dial up, so it isn't a fair comparison. Here in North America, LIVE cannot be used with satellite or wireless connections, even though they are very fast, the connection isn't reliable enough still.

So there you have it, right from the horse's mouth.

As for interleaving, does anyone have any ideas on the performance difference between an interleaved connection and a non interleaved connection games wise?

Boston

Originally posted by Sloth
From a recent support chat I had on the xbox website:


So there you have it, right from the horse's mouth.

As for interleaving, does anyone have any ideas on the performance difference between an interleaved connection and a non interleaved connection games wise?

I'd ask what does he mean by wireless. sat makes sense sicne the lag is crap. also wireless services i namerica tend to have crap lag aswell because of volume. Maybe he should change that to shouldn't instead of can't. I bet i could make it work in all of five seconds.

Sloth

You get IBB, I'll get Via. Lets see who gets onto the Xbox Live servers first. If I can't and you can then since I only have a 2 month contract I can switch over no hastle. Live is one of the main reasons I'm getting bb and since the horse's mouth says that wireless conns aren't supported then I'm going with what seems like the option that gives me the best chance of logging into the xbox live servers.

BKtje

As for interleaving, does anyone have any ideas on the performance difference between an interleaved connection and a non interleaved connection games wise?

It's about double i was led to believe as each bit of data is sent twice or something. Im sure one of the more knowledgable people will give you a proper explanation to how this algorithim works.

Dustaz

Originally posted by Sloth


As for interleaving, does anyone have any ideas on the performance difference between an interleaved connection and a non interleaved connection games wise?

well, from personal experience i can say theres a noticeable difference. An interleaved dsl ping to an irish CS server varies from 50-80 ms. Non-interleaved pings seem to be about 20-40. Wireless pings are also about 20-30 when they are stable.

The support drone you talked to dumbed down his answer to you. You could use a satellite connection for x-box if you wanted but the latency would be so high it would be next to useless (2000ms+). As boston said there may be conditions in the US that make wireless not idea for gaming (such as oversubscription). This does not mean they are incompatible, just inadvisble.