Eclipse broadband, any good, any bad ?

I'm thinking about migrating from Pipex and Eclipse offers seem to fit
the bill. Anything I should be wary of from that particular ISP ?

Bernard

I went from Pipex to Eclipse

Thoughts on Eclipse

Newsgroups are very poor, only 16k download (they say it's a free
service).Poor speed issues that are on going but with around 4 to 5 days
before "support"
get to you its hard to sort it out.

Currently I'm getting slower speeds than pipex, email issues and the news
group speed cap and paying more as well! and my on line gaming lag is much
worse.
But they were offering a months free at the time to see if thats still going
as Eclipse may work for you.

Me? I looking to migrate (again) :0/


"Bernard" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'm thinking about migrating from Pipex and Eclipse offers seem to fit the
> bill. Anything I should be wary of from that particular ISP ?
>
> Bernard

tpb <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I went from Pipex to Eclipse

I went from Wanadoo to Eclipse.

> Thoughts on Eclipse
>
> Newsgroups are very poor, only 16k download (they say it's a free
> service).

They actually use the basic Giganews service, which gives you 120,000
groups at 2x 16k connections. Although they now state it should be 128k,
so I suspect you're on an older package still.

Personally I use the usual German Server anyway, I only use Text groups.

........ just gone off to test, and getting up to 120k on a binary. It is
a bit erratic, but no worse than any other binary feed from an ISP or
free news server I've ever tried.

> Poor speed issues that are on going but with around 4 to 5 days
> before "support"
> get to you its hard to sort it out.

Huh? They did get a bit inundated during the transition to 8Mbps, but
seem OK now.

> Currently I'm getting slower speeds than pipex, email issues and the news
> group speed cap and paying more as well! and my on line gaming lag is much
> worse.

Newsgroups aren't capped, that's the feed they get, unless you're using
them during peak times.

> But they were offering a months free at the time to see if thats still going
> as Eclipse may work for you.

What package are you on? I have the basic £14.99/month account, and that
uses a 'contention' based system during peak times. This means your
speed will reduce when the network is busy during normal peak times. For
me that's OK, although I often see downloads getting around 400-500k.

http://www.eclipse.net.uk/index.cfm?id=fixedfup_res
http://www.eclipse.net.uk/index.cfm?id=fixedfaq_res

Of course, it all depends on what you need from your ISP? Eclipse do
offer fixed IPs, and they seem very lenient in their 'fair use policy',
and they do have a very good price.

--
Andy Hewitt
<http://www.thehewitts.eclipse.co.uk/Home.html>

Andy Hewitt wrote:
> tpb <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> I went from Pipex to Eclipse
>
> I went from Wanadoo to Eclipse.
>
>> Thoughts on Eclipse
>>
>> Newsgroups are very poor, only 16k download (they say it's a free
>> service).
>
> They actually use the basic Giganews service, which gives you 120,000
> groups at 2x 16k connections. Although they now state it should be
> 128k, so I suspect you're on an older package still.
>
> Personally I use the usual German Server anyway, I only use Text
> groups.
>
> ....... just gone off to test, and getting up to 120k on a binary. It
> is a bit erratic, but no worse than any other binary feed from an ISP
> or free news server I've ever tried.

I'm with Zen, and the news server seems to run at top whack most of the
time, binaries and all (I'm on 2Mb/s). Slows a bit at busy times, but not
unreasonably. There's sometimes threads in the support ng about incompletes,
but I've never spotted any significant incompleteness on the binaries groups
I've used (mainly the kind where sad old men like me download old episodes
of cheesey science fiction shows). The occasional missing part, but nothing
that can't be fixed with Quickpar. I think it's pretty damned good for an
ISP news server, one reason I'm prepared to pay the "Zen premium".

Mind you, I was with Plusnet, so usenet working at all feels a bit like
winning the lottery by comparison. Hehe. I remember when they finally got
the binaries groups working, and we all said "won't you get kind of swamped
by l33chers?" and they said "oh no, we're quite prepared, no problems" and
then the whole thing fell over within the month and never worked again.
Haven't they given up altogether now? LOLZ etc.

Anyway, for a light/moderate binaries user I'm very impressed with Zen's
usenet. Not sure what'd happen if somebody started maxing usenet 24/7 tho.
Maybe they'd get peeved.


Ian

"Andy Hewitt" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:1hiolnn.10b7mf0wszipeN%(E-Mail Removed). ..
> tpb <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> I went from Pipex to Eclipse
>
> I went from Wanadoo to Eclipse.
>
>> Thoughts on Eclipse
>>
>> Newsgroups are very poor, only 16k download (they say it's a free
>> service).
>
> They actually use the basic Giganews service, which gives you 120,000
> groups at 2x 16k connections. Although they now state it should be 128k,
> so I suspect you're on an older package still.

Really? Email only last week from them states the giganews basic package
which is 16k. No mention of 128k in the mail.
Any chance of a link to your info so I can chase it up?. The package I'm on
is still seems current, As downloading the message lists from servers is so
slow I don't even use it now (And I sure I saw 2x128k feeds mentioned in
Eclipse posts when I was looking round to see how good they are)

>
> Personally I use the usual German Server anyway, I only use Text groups.
>
> ....... just gone off to test, and getting up to 120k on a binary. It is
> a bit erratic, but no worse than any other binary feed from an ISP or
> free news server I've ever tried.
>
>> Poor speed issues that are on going but with around 4 to 5 days
>> before "support"
>> get to you its hard to sort it out.
>
> Huh? They did get a bit inundated during the transition to 8Mbps, but
> seem OK now.

I currently connected at 5meg + and yet the BT speed test via my eclipse
account gives me < 800kps. And in a email they ask to download
a file from
ftp://ftp.mirror.ac.uk/edunfs/mirror...2/i386/iso-cd/.
The best I get from that is between 90k and 150k and yes I've
tried many times.

But Email support is very slow and don't responed to all emails.

>
>> Currently I'm getting slower speeds than pipex, email issues and the news
>> group speed cap and paying more as well! and my on line gaming lag is
>> much
>> worse.
>
> Newsgroups aren't capped, that's the feed they get, unless you're using
> them during peak times.

Lol, a 16k feed it is very much capped (if the source is a capped it's
still capped)

>
>> But they were offering a months free at the time to see if thats still
>> going
>> as Eclipse may work for you.
>
> What package are you on? I have the basic £14.99/month account, and that
> uses a 'contention' based system during peak times. This means your
> speed will reduce when the network is busy during normal peak times. For
> me that's OK, although I often see downloads getting around 400-500k.
>
> http://www.eclipse.net.uk/index.cfm?id=fixedfup_res
> http://www.eclipse.net.uk/index.cfm?id=fixedfaq_res
>
> Of course, it all depends on what you need from your ISP? Eclipse do
> offer fixed IPs, and they seem very lenient in their 'fair use policy',
> and they do have a very good price.
>

I'm on the 24.99 Evolution option 3 ( I see they are runing the 3 month
reduced rate instead of the free month), to be honest the speed problems
aint a huge problem at the moment because
I'm not a big downloader but lag is a problem since I've joined Eclipse.
Pipex was much better in this regards (same game servers I play on just
different ISP). And the limits are good and
no limit really if used off peak and a 1 month contract.

Just not very good (or good ) for me at the moment the OP may have more luck
(as you seem to have). And 25 quid is expensive for BB these days..
Cheers

> --
> Andy Hewitt
> <http://www.thehewitts.eclipse.co.uk/Home.html>

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, Bernard says...
> I'm thinking about migrating from Pipex and Eclipse offers seem to fit
> the bill. Anything I should be wary of from that particular ISP ?
>
> Bernard
>
been here two years now, not without problems when the Max thing
happened but I stuck around.

Service and support is OK, not offshored to India or wherever. Remember
that if you go for a cheaper package you get a discount for agreeing to
traffic management. I'm on Evolution 4 and I'm happy enough with it now
the bugs have worked themselves out.

FR

In article <(E-Mail Removed) >, tpb
says...
> Really? Email only last week from them states the giganews basic package
> which is 16k. No mention of 128k in the mail.
> Any chance of a link to your info so I can chase it up?. The package I'm on
> is still seems current, As downloading the message lists from servers is so
> slow I don't even use it now (And I sure I saw 2x128k feeds mentioned in
> Eclipse posts when I was looking round to see how good they are)
>

16KBps = 128Kbps

it's 2x 16KBps which is 2x128Kbps. Bits and bytes.

FR

> Andy Hewitt wrote:
>> tpb <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>
>>> I went from Pipex to Eclipse
>> I went from Wanadoo to Eclipse.
>>
>>> Thoughts on Eclipse
>>>
>>> Newsgroups are very poor, only 16k download (they say it's a free
>>> service).
>> They actually use the basic Giganews service, which gives you 120,000
>> groups at 2x 16k connections. Although they now state it should be
>> 128k, so I suspect you're on an older package still.
>>
>> Personally I use the usual German Server anyway, I only use Text
>> groups.
>>
>> ....... just gone off to test, and getting up to 120k on a binary. It
>> is a bit erratic, but no worse than any other binary feed from an ISP
>> or free news server I've ever tried.
>
> I'm with Zen, and the news server seems to run at top whack most of the
> time, binaries and all (I'm on 2Mb/s). Slows a bit at busy times, but not
> unreasonably. There's sometimes threads in the support ng about incompletes,
> but I've never spotted any significant incompleteness on the binaries groups
> I've used (mainly the kind where sad old men like me download old episodes
> of cheesey science fiction shows). The occasional missing part, but nothing
> that can't be fixed with Quickpar. I think it's pretty damned good for an
> ISP news server, one reason I'm prepared to pay the "Zen premium".
>
> Mind you, I was with Plusnet, so usenet working at all feels a bit like
> winning the lottery by comparison. Hehe. I remember when they finally got
> the binaries groups working, and we all said "won't you get kind of swamped
> by l33chers?" and they said "oh no, we're quite prepared, no problems" and
> then the whole thing fell over within the month and never worked again.
> Haven't they given up altogether now? LOLZ etc.
>
> Anyway, for a light/moderate binaries user I'm very impressed with Zen's
> usenet. Not sure what'd happen if somebody started maxing usenet 24/7 tho.
> Maybe they'd get peeved.
>
>
> Ian
>
>
Thanks for the feedback guys.
From what I have read, including your post Jaxtraw, Zen seems to offer
a reliable service... but, unless I am missing something, the choice of
residential packages is limited to what now seems to me a slow 256 kb at
£17.99 (!!!what's that all about ?), an 8Mb / 20Gb allowance £24.99 and
8Mb / 50Gb allowance £34.00.
I am not specifically looking for something at rock bottom price, and
expecting it to also have blistering performance & rock solid
reliability but (for me) Zen offers are just not providing value for money.

Bernard wrote:
>> Andy Hewitt wrote:
>>> tpb <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I went from Pipex to Eclipse
>>> I went from Wanadoo to Eclipse.
>>>
>>>> Thoughts on Eclipse
>>>>
>>>> Newsgroups are very poor, only 16k download (they say it's a free
>>>> service).
>>> They actually use the basic Giganews service, which gives you
>>> 120,000 groups at 2x 16k connections. Although they now state it
>>> should be 128k, so I suspect you're on an older package still.
>>>
>>> Personally I use the usual German Server anyway, I only use Text
>>> groups.
>>>
>>> ....... just gone off to test, and getting up to 120k on a binary.
>>> It is a bit erratic, but no worse than any other binary feed from
>>> an ISP or free news server I've ever tried.
>>
>> I'm with Zen, and the news server seems to run at top whack most of
>> the time, binaries and all (I'm on 2Mb/s). Slows a bit at busy
>> times, but not unreasonably. There's sometimes threads in the
>> support ng about incompletes, but I've never spotted any significant
>> incompleteness on the binaries groups I've used (mainly the kind
>> where sad old men like me download old episodes of cheesey science
>> fiction shows). The occasional missing part, but nothing that can't
>> be fixed with Quickpar. I think it's pretty damned good for an ISP
>> news server, one reason I'm prepared to pay the "Zen premium".
>>
>> Mind you, I was with Plusnet, so usenet working at all feels a bit
>> like winning the lottery by comparison. Hehe. I remember when they
>> finally got the binaries groups working, and we all said "won't you
>> get kind of swamped by l33chers?" and they said "oh no, we're quite
>> prepared, no problems" and then the whole thing fell over within the
>> month and never worked again. Haven't they given up altogether now?
>> LOLZ etc.
>>
>> Anyway, for a light/moderate binaries user I'm very impressed with
>> Zen's usenet. Not sure what'd happen if somebody started maxing
>> usenet 24/7 tho. Maybe they'd get peeved.
>>
>>
>> Ian
>>
>>
> Thanks for the feedback guys.
> From what I have read, including your post Jaxtraw, Zen seems to
> offer
> a reliable service... but, unless I am missing something, the choice
> of residential packages is limited to what now seems to me a slow 256
> kb at £17.99 (!!!what's that all about ?), an 8Mb / 20Gb allowance
> £24.99 and 8Mb / 50Gb allowance £34.00.
> I am not specifically looking for something at rock bottom price, and
> expecting it to also have blistering performance & rock solid
> reliability but (for me) Zen offers are just not providing value for
> money.

Well, that's always the equation. I think their £34.99 2Mb/s which I'm
currently on (but isn't available to new subscribers) was/is excellent. I'd
be less pleased paying the same for an "up to 8Mb" capped product; if I'm
ever forced onto that I'll look at the other ISPs offering something
different, e.g. Griffin or ICUK. I'm much more interested in a high quality
connection than the cheapest.

Right now there's a bloody price war going on, and if it overwhelms the
market, we'll all end up with very low quality connections for a very low
price; and that's not good value for money. I hope the quality providers can
weather the storm. You gets what you pays for and all that.

It seems to me that most of the people are hunting around for "value" as in
a wonderful product for as little money as possible, like they have ADSL
ADHD... "I want a stable connection, high quality support, top quality
usenet, and... HEY! Dirtcheap.net are a pound a month cheaper! Sign me up!"

ADSL's cheap enough already. What it needs now is more capital investment in
bandwidth, and it seems we're not going to get that because prices are being
driven to ridiculously low levels. Which of course is similar to what
happened in the energy utilities, and look how fucked we are with them now.

Just a general rant, not directed at you, sorry. I'd just like to hear some
of the industry talking about how they're going to drive bandwidth provision
up, instead of how they're giving "broadband" away free in every cornflakes
packet.

Ian

"Bernard" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'm thinking about migrating from Pipex and Eclipse offers seem to fit the
> bill. Anything I should be wary of from that particular ISP ?
>
Very reliable, persuaded me to"upgrade" to RADSL offering 3.5 Mbs as
expected speed, I am lucky to get 1 Mbs and usually 512 Kbs!!! They won't
let me change back and do not seem to be able to help beyond making the
obvious comments "Disconnect your Sky (tried that), phone (tried that),
connect to master socket (am connected there already), disconnect every 24
hours (in the hope that thing MIGHT get better?)) In other words NO
constructive advice! The problem is probably BT who have wired our area with
Aluminium wire and don't give a damn for their customers but nonetheless
Eclipse don't seem willing to take up the issues professionally.

This is just my experience and they may be OK for others.

Roger Matthews, Aberystwyth.