Faster internet connection.........options??

[mullin]

Not sure if this is the right section of this forum or not, maybe it could go in the computers section. If so then I apologise.

I want to speed up my internet access at home, currently I am working on dialup which typically gives me a connection speed of around 31k - which I'm sure you can imagine is a little frustrating at the best of times!!

Now due to my location (rural, well very rural ROI) broadband is a non runner - hasn't got out to us yet and knowing the speed things work at here probably won't be for another 5 years or so at least.

DSL is also out, the local exchange hasn't been upgraded yet and like broadband will take a while. Besides that the local exchange isn't really all that local to me

ISDN is an option but it'll see my phone line rental going up to around 40 euro per month, maybe if I get really desperate....

Wireless broadband is also out as the area I live in is not yet covered, again could be a while before it gets out that far.

So I guess one option is to sell up and move 15 miles down the road into the town where I could get all the broadband I could possibly need, more than you can shake a stick at as they say. This seems a bit drastic just to get a faster internet connection, besides that I kind of like having animals for neighbours - that's the four legged mooing kind as opposed to the two legged gobshite kind.

I could go for full satellite broadband, but that'll have to wait till I win the lottery. I can't really justify spend upwards of 150 euro a month on it!!

While trawling through the wonderful thing that is the world wide web I came across this site:

http://www.teles-skydsl.com/?action=switch_country&country=IE&langID=en

(not sure if that will work as a hyperlink or not, don't really know how to do them) which seems to offer one way DSL via satellite, if I've got it right you connect to the internet via dialup then download all the stuff through the satellite link which, from the website, appears to be much faster than both dial up and ISDN - but then again I guess they would say that on the website or no-one would sign up to it.

Does anyone have any experience of using this sort of thing, is it any good? Does it do exactly what it says on the tin?

Or are there any other options out there that anyone can think of I could try, I realise this is a UK site and some of the options you have over there may not be available over here but if anyone has any ideas I'd be most grateful.

Thanking you all...............

 

[Spark123]

Have you tried Onspeed? They currently have a 14-Day money back guarantee.

 

[Igorian]

I've only ever set this up for one customer and it works fine as long as you don't intend to send large files.

As you suggested, only the downlink is satellite, the uplink is done through your phone system, which can be POTS or ISDN.

It also looks like the price is reasonable too.

I've not tried the onspeed thing though.

 

[AdamW]

What about this? Two-way satellite internet.

Not sure if BT would be allowed to supply it if you are in Eire, but no doubt there are similar services available to you.

I also remember hearing that Ireland were trialling radio-broadband services a few years back. Perhaps that is worth investigating?

 

[Igorian]

What about this? Two-way satellite internet.

Not sure if BT would be allowed to supply it if you are in Eire, but no doubt there are similar services available to you.

I also remember hearing that Ireland were trialling radio-broadband services a few years back. Perhaps that is worth investigating?

I think that's the 'full satellite' he refers to. Check out the prices

 

[mullin]

Thanks for the replies chaps, funnily enough on the radio on the way to work tonight they were advertising onspeed, never heard of it before but looks ok as long as there is no big file downloading so a possibilty.

Igorian - is it much of a pain to set the skydsl thing up? Now I don't really know much about interent connection speeds, I only know I connect at 31k because the pc will tell me when I connect!! So would the speeds they quote on the website be typical. If I do go with this system I'd probably go with either the 1000k or 4000k packages. Obviously I'd notice a difference between that and my current dialup speed but would that be considered a fast connection speed? Not really too bothered about the lack of upload speed as most of my stuff would be downloading manuals and things for work.

Adam - there are similar two way satellite setups available over here, the ones I've seen so far have an install price of around 500 euro and then a monthly fee of around 150 euro. As it's only for home use I think this will probably be a bit on the expensive side. As for the wireless broadband you are right there is a wireless setup over here but at the moment it is quite limited in its coverage areas, specially around the midlands and even more so in the back of beyond in the midlands. I'm sure it'll get out to me eventually but it'll take a while due to the number of people living in the area it would be considered as low demand so will probably be a case of we'll get round there when everyone else is done.

 

[Freddie]

BT are ok.

 

[mullin]

Thanks Freddie,

You're right it isn't really a service oriented country!! Specially once you get out in the country. We get our post once a day, never before 3pm, think the latest so far is 10pm!! Bin collection day is Thursday, so every Wednesday evening the bin gets wheeled up the drive and parked at the side of the road, when the truck comes they may or may not empty it depending on how they feel. I could go on but that'd be taking it right off topic!!

Still having said that, once you get used to it it's a grand place. Local pub half a mile up the road, can go in for a pint, get the car filled with diesel, buy 4 new tyres and have them fitted, new pair of wellies and some weetabix for the breakfast all without leaving the bar!!

The saving all the work up and treking into town once a week is what I'm doing now, fine during the summer but I think it'd get pretty old fairly quickly in the depths of winter. From what I have found so far this skydsl thing looks to be kind of ok, starts at around 7 euro per month goes up to 60 euro per month, unless you want the "professional" package which comes in more expensive.

 

[breezer]

dont forget that is "anytime", not "all the time", as that is what happened over here in respect of dial up

 

[Igorian]

I've not had experience with the Sky deal, so you might want to ask for something in writing as regard to service levels with an ordinary dial up connection.

If you are only achieving 31Kb on your modem, I would guess you have a poor phone line or you are in need of a new modem. I would have expected something more in the region of 44-48Kb.

The system I installed used a single channel (64Kb) ISDN line for the uplink and the downlink was 512Kb. I can't remember the suppliers name as it was a few years ago, but a Dutch outfit I seem to remember. To be honest, it was a little difficult to setup, but it was early days and not well known. Although it did come with an installer program, there was a certain degree of manual intervention with respect to ports, routers and firewalls, but I would imagine the installation is somewhat easier now. The software I was supplied with basically used a Windows dial up connection to connect to the ISP. Once connected, the software negotiates a secure virtual private network (VPN) with the satellite.

 

[mullin]

31k is actually fast would you believe!! Back around Easter time I was lucky to get above 10k. Another one of the joys of living in the country, the modem is ok - well as far as I can tell anyway, it's the phone lines that are a pile of pants. I keep thinking there is an old woman called Dorothy sat in a room in the telephone exchange connecting and disconnecting calls as they come in!!

Have been on to the phone company many times to get them out to fix the line, seems like every 6 months or so it goes down for one reason or another - line is usally down for a week or so then comes back and I get a bit more connection speed. Their response is usually - well you are in a rural location!!! Plus, and this is for anyone else in Ireland that may not be aware of it - it's not published in too many places - if there is a fault on your phone line (excluding problems with the handsets) and Eircom don't fix the problem within 48 hours your are entitled to a refund of two months line rental!!

I think I'll send them off an email and see what the deal is if I use an analogue line to connect to my ISP. From reading the blurb on the website it seems fairly straight forward to install, the trickiest bit sounds like mounting the dish and lining up the LNB - fortunately I live in a bungalow so it's not quite as bad as mounting it to a two story house.

 

[Richardp]

Have you tried Onspeed? They currently have a 14-Day money back guarantee.

I tried 'onspeed" before we got broadband, it works if you don't need pictures but I use to turn it off and getting it off your pooter is not easy.

I was told that we wouldn't get broadband as we're so remote but our BT engineer decided that he would like to give it a go and it works great, he even rung me up to see how fast it was, so if you can find your local telephone engineer ask him what the options are.

 

[AdamW]

The system I installed used a single channel (64Kb) ISDN line for the uplink and the downlink was 512Kb. I can't remember the suppliers name as it was a few years ago, but a Dutch outfit I seem to remember. To

That wasn't "Europe Online" was it? I considered their service when it first came out as our telephone exchange was not yet ADSL enabled and I was desparate for broadband.

the local exchange hasn't been upgraded yet and like broadband will take a while

Have you noticed how successful the cable-company advertising has been? Their attempt to dominate use of the word "broadband", I mean. I have heard many people (including engineers) use the word "broadband" to describe cable modem, but then describe ADSL as "ADSL".

I'm not taking a poke at you mullin, just observing how cable companies appear to be on their way to making "broadband" mean "cable modem", in the same way many people would use the word "Hoover"!

 

[Igorian]

That wasn't "Europe Online" was it? I considered their service when it first came out as our telephone exchange was not yet ADSL enabled and I was desparate for broadband.

I don't think so. It was some derived "Satiorbiwhatnotsummat" name.

 

[mullin]

I'll have to try and track down a local engineer then and have a word with him.........I know there is a house around here somewhere that always has eircom vans parked outside it.

Adam, to be honest with you I don't really know enough about all this stuff to even consider you were taking a poke at me so no offence taken in the slightest!!

As an interim measure I went ahead and got "onspeed" the other day, as most of the stuff I'll be doing will be test based anyway the picture thing Richard mentioned will hopefully not bother me.

So far it seems to be pretty good, well pages seem to be loading a lot quicker anyway.