Yet another Broadband thread

[noby]

So broadband has recently arrived in our area, but I would imagine our house is at the end of the line. Eircom are sending out the bits'n'pieces, and switching us on next week, but we were told that if we can't get connected to send the stuff back. This doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.

So on the 1Mb eircom BB what would be good/average/poor speeds to get?

[paul_oshea]

So broadband has recently arrived in our area, but I would imagine our house is at the end of the line. Eircom are sending out the bits'n'pieces, and switching us on next week, but we were told that if we can't get connected to send the stuff back. This doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.

thats depending on yer distance from the exchange, if you are more than 5km it will be a problem. We were told back home we could get it, tried it, it didnt work and then we just left it. BUt a few months later Eircom came out and all of a sudden it started working......

Noby different things affect it such as, rats gnawing at cables etc, but the one you need to worry about is "contention rate", which is something you cant usually see clearly on any broadband providers site. So look up T&Cs and you should be able to find it. I would say in ireland its 1:20 or 1:50. The one being you, the number on the right being all the others you have to share it with......

With 1mb you should be able to watch streams handy enough, such as rte.ie or football match streams, but 1mb does not actualy mean 1mb/sec.

IF you cant get it, there are still loads of satelite companies that offer it but can be a little more difficult to find.

[noby]

Thanks Paul.

There is a local satellite company here too, who we've been on to, but in the mean time eircom are sending out the stuff.
Afaik eircom is 1:48, and I know 1Mb doesn't mean 1Mb, but I was wondering what the 'average' is, so I can compare when I get set up. I realise it's a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string?' question.