Nova networks

[DelBoy]

Has anybody got any feedback on the nova networks. They are in the Cork city area and I need some informed information before I make a decision.

[gosh21]

I live in an area of Cork where no other ISP could/would get me a connection. Finally contacted Nova Networks back in Spetember and am a happy surfer since then.

Lots of promises from IBB about the connection which would go live in two weeks, just two more weeks, about two more weeks, ( this went on for months ).

Nova Networks give you what you pay for. Good value connectivity, nd the only outages I've had were notified to me in advance ( for upgrades etc ).
Now am using IP phone etc without problems. Can only recommend these guys.

[davenova]

Rommy667,

I am sorry to hear that you had problems with P2P. I would like to point out though that we do NOT have a policy of blocking P2P traffic. We DO use QOS software to prioritise and optimise VOIP, gaming and other traffic flows. No smoke and mirrors! Without this, nobody would be able to even surf or send emails. If you are having problems, you should contact tech support tomorrow morning and we will work with you to fix the issue. Please let them know the name you signed up under and they will look up your IP address and take it from there.

Or feel free to send me a private message on the forum and I will look after it personally.

Regards,

Dave Mc Donald,
Managing Director,
Nova Networks.

[blacknight]

Dave

Welcome to the site. It's nice to see a provider responding to users in a public forum

Michele

[anoble66]

Very refreshing indeed, IBB could learn a lot from how Nova are looking after their customers.

[davenova]

PMing you re your issue. Let's get it sorted.

Dave

[Jabblets]

I'm a NovaNetworks customer and unfortunately I have been very unhappy with the service so far. I have ran numerous speed tests on this site and the results I am recieving just don't match up to what I was promised.

For the past week the quality of the service has been terrible to the extent where I can't even browse the net at times. I have to ring customer services this afternoon and have a chat about it, hopefully it will be sorted.

I must point out though that, for the first month and a half the speeds and quality of the service were excellent. It is only recently that they have begun to suffer.

[Jabblets]

Ok, I rang customer services just before lunch. I was told that they would call me back during the afternoon. No phone call. I had previously e-mailed them and got no reply. Bit disappointed. Will ring again tomorrow and hopefully it will get sorted.

[peteg]

You are not alone, many people I know who are on Nova want to get rid of it. The speeds have been getting worse and worse and the QoS is terrible.

A few of these people have called, sent emails (when the net worked) to Nova and none get any response. This small operator has over taken IBB in terms of bottom of the pile for Internet connectivity in the Cork area. Down times been bad lately too and very high packet loss and latency.

All the talk used be of how bad IBB were, now its all about Nova and how bad they have become. A shame, it used be an ISP who was willing to get the job done locally and keep a good show going, now its all falling apart.

Just do what others have done, get service elsewhere I guess. Smart and Esat have very good service but, I cant make any suggestions on a wireless provider, they are all offer a pretty mixed service and no decent average speeds.

Cheers,

Pete

[davenova]

Hi All,

We at Nova have been working hard lately. We just completely replaced our core network with a robust, redundant solution. We went through a period where issues had been more common than we would have liked (we would have liked none!) but now thanks to major re-investment and hard work we have a great network again. So thanks to all of our valued customers. If anyone is having a niggling local issue, we would be glad to hear from them and to help out.

Thanks,

Dave Mc Donald,
Managing Director,
Nova Networks.

[falcon]

Libellous comment removed

[blacknight]

There's no need to be rude to him. Unlike the other ISPs that visit this forum Nova's MD isn't afraid to make himself known and respond to people's queries.

[gosh21]

Maybe it's just me, or maybe I'm a lucky one, but apart from one week ( when I was notified by Nova that the network was being upgraded ), I've had a very stable and reliable service.

With any BB service I would expect that most of the time I get good access to bandwidth, but am not silly enough to expect that my 2M is a clear channel to the internet with no contention. [ Get a price from BT/Eircom or even SMART for that and you'll see what I'm talking about ].

I've used BB in the UK, Germany, US and now Ireland, and the service I get from Nova is as good as any I've had before, and certainly as reliable as any. I'm connected for about a year now and could not do without the service.

Nova seem to use SMART for network access. I don't know who they use for backup, but during a major SMART outage in Cork (our office was down) my home was still connnected ( it was slower - but it worked ).

I haven't changed my mind, Nova do a great job for me.

[peteg]

It must be just you. Everyone I have spoken with has had problems with Nova, and many date back over 6 months without resolution. VoIP has been effected badly and that is the biggest complaint I hear. I hear the same about Eircom BTW.

Any reasonable person will know that their BB connection will never be at its maximum rate all the time. Although Smart are top of the pile for connection speed, at their advertised speeds. I always give credit where it is due and also give out the bad words where they are due too. Us Irish people are often too slow to make a complaint when there is a problem. I prefer to use the word problem and not issue as most do. We are not politicans after all

I too have used BB all over the globe, my business is microwave data links and has been since the 1980's. Ireland is indeed well behind and slowly playing catch upon coverage and service. It will be a while yet before we get realistic pricing. Our service providers are very slow to reinvest in infrastructure. And with bandwidth they are tight as hell, that I have seen first hand when it hits my gear.

Today I spent at a client site in Carrigaline setting up some links and took some time to look into the Nova service down there. My client works from home has some neighbours and friends who let us have a look and check it out for ourselves from two different locations in Carrigaline. My spectrum analyser showed some activity down there and I was able to establish two of these neighbours were on two different sectors. Looking at the antenna is useless when you cant get your bearings in a new location.

The problems people have reported in Cork city are in fact worse in the Carrigaline area. The web stops completely for long periods of time, no packets, nothing. VoIP as previously is terrible!

High latency and high packet loss was observed by both neighbours systems when we compared the tests. These tests were ran over the entire day and I was surprised to see the effect of how the QoS also is hurting the system (in my humble opinion). It is so obvious when you run a battery of tests and plot the data out.

It is not anything new to hear any service provider say there is no problem, Eircom have been doing this for years. Just because your ISP tells you there is no problem does not mean there they fixed it, or have even looked into it.

Only customer pressure in public forums gets problems sorted. If this one does not do it, take it up with the media and interest groups.

I am in Cobh tonight for a job in the morning and will check it out from there later. I hear they have service in Cobh so I will drive about with the speccy and locate the sector. My findings will be posted here to give the full picture.

It is a terrible thing to pay for service and not get what you expect, it is worse when others tell you there is nothing wrong, or nothing they can do. Get organised people and those in the same areas ought to apply pressure and force sluggish ISP's (whoever they are) to get real service restored. In fact since the Carrigaline DSL outage I got plenty business getting links in/out.

Rdgs to all,

pete

[gosh21]

Again, I can only report my own findings, and think Nova are getting a bashing here for performance issues which I genuinely do not see. I also use VoIP to provide an office extension at home, and use it continually at home.
The results of my speedtests, are visible to Blacknight who can tell us whether my figures compare well or not with other users and other providers.
Todays test shows: 2.76Mbit download and 2.24Mbit upload.

I take it that the last posting from Peteg was from a non-Nova user ( he reports on all the people telling him how bad the service is ). He appears to be an expert in wireless stuff.

"Today I spent at a client site in Carrigaline setting up some links and took some time to look into the Nova service down there."

Me, I'm just a user of the service, and would agree that we should not put up with a service which is less than the service we sign up for. I certainly would not. In my case, ( can't speak for anyone else - and don't have any wireless installation experience or wireless testers ), my service works fine. My downloads are fast ( frequently over the 2Mbit rate for which I pay - see todays figures), my VoIP works, and I don't live in Carrigaline.

[Jabblets]

Ok. As I have stated in this forum I am a customer of NovaNetworks. Recently I experienced some slow connection speeds. However, since Davenova's post about the maintenance they performed everything has been working well. My speeds have increased dramatically and the service has gotten much better. It is back to the standard that I was receiving when I first signed up and I am much happier now.

I am still having a slight problem which I think is related to just me but I have been in contact with Davenova and he is looking into it for me. So just to update things are looking much better. If you get Nova Networks and things run smoothly then I have yet to experience a better ISP. As I said I used to be with Amocom but when they changed their management things got really bad. I have also compared the speeds I get with those of a friend on Eircom and mine so far have been better.

Hope this continues as overall I have been happy with Nova Networks and they seem to want to provide a good service and keep their customers happy.

[Jabblets]

Download Upload
26/06/2006 10:24 69 kbps (9 KB/s) 0 kbps (0 KB/s) 56 % 1269 ms 1322 ms
14/06/2006 12:27 1057 kbps (133 KB/s) 673 kbps (85 KB/s) 50 % 53 ms 299 ms
12/06/2006 11:57 385 kbps (49 KB/s) 667 kbps (84 KB/s) 46 % 53 ms 594 ms
09/06/2006 11:19 532 kbps (67 KB/s) 504 kbps (63 KB/s) 76 % 102 ms 806 ms
08/06/2006 23:33 1104 kbps (138 KB/s) 1197 kbps (150 KB/s) 72 % 46 ms 187 ms
02/06/2006 00:20 966 kbps (121 KB/s) 879 kbps (110 KB/s) 63 % 47 ms 356 ms
31/05/2006 20:41 28 kbps (4 KB/s) 369 kbps (47 KB/s) 1 % 178 ms 6381 ms
30/05/2006 16:24 1183 kbps (148 KB/s) 784 kbps (98 KB/s) 70 % 52 ms 249 ms
29/05/2006 23:43 310 kbps (39 KB/s) 23 kbps (3 KB/s) 64 % 55 ms 510 ms
29/05/2006 13:52 546 kbps (69 KB/s) 217 kbps (28 KB/s) 72 % 42 ms 351 ms

Why does every ISP overload its exchange so that no one gets good service? They seem like cheap parlour trick artists who just want to make a quick buck. Don't they see from these forums that if they actually got their finger out and provided what they all claim to provide then they would corner the market and make a fortune?!?!?!?!?!?

[Jabblets]

Well I've just eaten humble pie and it tasted good. Emailed nova, got a very fast response (Im happy but surprised, never gotten a response before) and the network is back to full strength when they said it would be.

VERY IMPRESSIVE!!!!

[spud]

i must say that i have never had any major isseus wit nova networks i use it in blackpool and carrigaline i have a 3meg/down line from nova (busness line ) and i must say kudos to dave he is one of the soundest people u could meet never had any issues with him except when i want to ring him and he dont anser his mobile.. but thats ok cos i have been wit him for about a year and a half now and am very happy

Edit..... just a quik note about ibb DO NOT USE THEM before i new nova existed i tried out there service and it didnt work and they are still sending me out a bill for 29.99 unpayed.. and have no intenion of paying it i spoke to a customer care dude yesterday and he told me i had already payed 29.99.. so i told him they ow me that so and he said i should have giving a months notice what a muppet how can u give a months notice on the day it arives and itr dont work i just could not get it in to his head.... grrrrrrr well enough about them

[spud]

just to show those of u that nova has good dl speeds this is mine

this pic is from this site..


u do the math its obvious that the speed tst here is kinda outa wack? my line is 3meg down/up