Broadband advice

I'm considering changing my home broadband from Eircom to UPC (old NTL) for both cost and speed reasons.

What are peoples views on UPC/NTL cable broadband?

What is the wifi router they supply like?

What is performance like? Eircoms is pedestrian by international standards but on the other hand its been very reliable for the 3 years I've had it (I live in south central Dublin).

'Better the devil you know' has kept me with Eircom to date but its costing me lots keeping a landline connected that I don't even know the number for.

Thanks.

Wouldn't touch UPC with a barge pole from the feedback I've seen on them.

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Originally Posted by dahamsta

Wouldn't touch UPC with a barge pole from the feedback I've seen on them.

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Thanks Adam.

Haven't heard bad things about broadband specifically but my UPC digital cable seems to fall over alarmingly often.

It's not to much the quality of service - although UPC's Cork arm, De Multi, is notoriously bad - but the quality of support. It's better than it used to be, yet still awful. Support is support in a company, if it's bad for one arm it'll be bad for the rest.

Unfortunately the problem is endemic in Ireland, if that's the right word.

Hi, I'm in South central Dublin too and I use Irish broadband. Been using it since September and have had no problems whatsoever. You call them, they come and check out your house for signal etc, which should be no trouble where you live, and then install it for you. We use it with a router and four laptops and it's been top speed all the time. No complaints at all. There's a few different packages but we're on the 49EUR/month one. Hope this helps. Their site is: http://www.irishbroadband.ie/index.php

Tried Irish Broadband and they said we were covered(Dundalk) and two foreign fellas came up here said they couldnt get anything, ****ed off and never heard from them again. I am now on Digiweb and have no problems what so ever.:)

I was with Irish Broadband for about a year and Im also in south central dublin - i found the speed poor, particularly at peak times and the service was awful at all times. I had a good few problems

Switched to NTL - speed much much better - service good - would recommend

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Originally Posted by thischarmingman

Hi, I'm in South central Dublin too and I use Irish broadband. Been using it since September and have had no problems whatsoever. You call them, they come and check out your house for signal etc, which should be no trouble where you live, and then install it for you. We use it with a router and four laptops and it's been top speed all the time. No complaints at all. There's a few different packages but we're on the 49EUR/month one. Hope this helps. Their site is: http://www.irishbroadband.ie/index.php

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I find Irish Broadband to be an excellent service. I'm in North Dublin.

I was on irish broadband it was ok ( it was my first broadband package so i had no point of reference ) worked most of the time but was nt that fast and was quite expensive. Swapped to Digiweb got a faster line cheaper and works all the time. Ive never had a problem with them.

I've heard too many horror stories about UPC. id say stay clear. But at the same time i have my digital TV with UPC and ive not had a problem with that ( but i bet after typing that ill go home tonight to find it broken :D)

My digital tv freezes for a split second every so often. It happened about a year or two ago, got a new box and it was fine, but it's started happening again. Annoying when watching football.
I have UTV internet but lately I have to reconnect almost every time I switch my pc on. Plus it's dearer now than other providers so I'm thinking of switching - watching this thread with interest!

im in south central dublin too and have upc 2mb broadband and analogue telly
only problems were getting the cabels installed
bloke showed up with no ladder, said he's be back in 20 mins, didnt see him again. Rang up got a load of apologies and eventually had it installed a week later.
Broadband works fine and wireless router covers the 2 floors in the house so
14,99 a month for both broadband and telly for the first 6 months.
50 quid for router.
happy daze.

Have NTL/UPC Cable and broadband package for 3 years and have not had a problem for the most part. For the first year or so the package was supplied via an MMDS signal and there were intermittent loss of signals/downtime etc, but since they switched to suppling via cables the service is 99.9% satisfactory.


Summary

MMDS supply = don't bother/steer clear
Cable supply = recommend 99.9%

On a technical level, I'd agree with that 100%. After fibre, cable is the best broadband delivery mechanism. MMDS is one of the worst. (Wireless is generally a pretty good delivery mechanism, but MMDS wasn't really developed with internet connectivity in mind.)

adam

Thanks all for advice.

Irishbroad wireless is too expensive for high speed and I live it an apartment building which means high likely of poor signal based on their map.

I'll give the UPC 6mb service a go, and update here when its installed. I too have also suffered at the hands of their phantom installation visits from UPC/NTL in the past so fingers crossed.

Thinking of moving to NTL/UPC Broadband soon as feed up paying line rental when almost never use it.

While NTL range of channels not so great service has been good although analogue signal has been poor lately.