UTV Upgraded to 3MB

Due to Eircom Wholesales recent speed upgrades to upto 7.6MB my line was upgraded to 3MB last weekend :)

DownStream Connection Speed 3072 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed 384 kbps

Down Up
Line Attenuation 16 db 4 db
Noise Margin 27 db 19 db



Not bad :)

so far so good with UTV ADSL

So I got my username and password from UTV and setup my ADSL router when I got home but because I'm moving into a new house I haven't had much spare time on the net lately.

All is well and line is operating pretty good, pings are not as good as what I got with my old BT Business line or NTL 3MB service and of course as its a 2MB line its not as good as my old 3MB NTL connection but its a sight better then the 1MB connection I've been using the past 2 months on a temp basis.

Speed tests results ok too (see above), another benefit over other DSL providers is when using UTV's Northern Ireland proxy server on a UTV connection you can use BBC iPlayer which is very handy :)

Broadband enabled!

So during the weekend I connected up my ADSL router and noticed that my router was showing sync at 2MB/256K with pretty healthy looking noise margins so all looking good, unfortunately UTV support were closed Saturday & Sunday so I couldn't call them for my username & password.

I gave them a quick ring today and they said they hadn't received notification from Eircom yet that the service was active yet however they put me on hold then came back and advised it was and gave me my username & password and also e-mailed me the details, so far so good...I'll test it out this evening.

Line test passed!!!

So got an e-mail from Eircom today saying my account has been created and in the e-mail I got my new telephone number and eircom a/c number, I called somebody in my house and got them to connect a phone and sure enough it rings out!

So quick check on Eircom website shows line test passing for Broadband so another quick visit to UTV website confirms this also so I've placed my order for UTV Broadband 2MB Bundled, got confirmation e-mail from UTV just now and its due live in 10 working days!

Fingers crossed! :)

Broadband Saga: Getting a telephone line...

So here we are again back to the start of what historically has been extremely painful, those that know me know that I've recently bought myself a house and that I've moved out of my apartment.

Well as part of the usual moving of stuff I now have to get myself a new broadband provider as I can't get NTL in the town I'm now going to be living in and its pretty limited provider wise in the area its basically an unknown wireless provider or a ADSL provider who operates one of Eircom Wholesales resold bit-stream products.

After much reviewing of websites I have decided to go with UTV's bundled 2MB package which includes a "unlimited" option for 5e extra a month so I won't be restricted by set caps that other providers like Eircom, BT or Perlico offer and overall it works out decent enough value at a total cost of 55e per month for phone & Broadband.

So as part of this move I've once again had to get myself an Eircom phone line, those that know me will know I've gone through this saga THREE times before and they I really hate Eircon..sorry Eircom at this stage.

The first time Eircom kept sending the bills to somebody else's address so it took me 3-4 months to get my a/c number as Eircom flat out refused to give it to me over the phone, fax it to me or e-mail it to me and I needed it to change to BT Business, the second time it took a month to get the a/c number and the third time also took weeks to get the a/c number so in the end I canceled the lot and went with NTL's 3MB package.

So here I am, I've just placed an on-line order for a telephone line and based on the details on the site the install "should" be free.

If your home has never had an eircom phoneline but all line work is in place, the connection will be FREE (normally €49.99** inc VAT).

While my house has never had a phoneline as its just been built it does have all the wiring and I can even get an engaged tone off a phone when its plugged in, the nearest install date Eircom would give me is 2nd July so we'll see how things go and I'll keep you all posted.

Fingers crossed.....