Cheap Part Time BROADBAND

will broadband.is not cheap and only way some going to make money off you is via 12 months , ask around where you are there and get the wireless .... off some one are in the internet cafe ....

download via you uk phone is not cheap , 6euros per mb via O2 uk in spain

becareful ..... you calls would be 59 cent in spain

Get a spanish prepaid card or contract (In second case minim charge is 6?/Month) and a 3G modem. The modem you can better buy one that's unlocked, if you get it together with the SIM you're involved in keeping the line for minimum 18 months or you get a penalization. Also most of the modern good 3G phones server as a modem. Of course first check if you have 3G coverage at home!

Other option is the reduced dsl lines, telefonica 1 mb bandwidth is 29.9?/month + 18? line cost. Other option is iberbanda, 39? for 512 kb, 70? for 1 mb without line cost as it's a wimax system. If you need some more information about coverage etc PM.

Regards

many thanks for your reply

You're welcome! If you're going to stay often in spain it's perhaps also a good idea to get a spanish mobile phone, this will make your phonecalls a lot cheaper than the roaming charges.

Good call Pieter, I agree. Mobiles are so cheap and easy to aquire. See more mobile phones in Spain here (http://www.spainexpat.com/spain/information/mobile_and_cellular_phones_in_spain/).

You don't even need to buy a new mobile phone when you get here. Just get your current one (European or US models) unlocked for about 10 euros and buy a Spanish sim card. The Phone House (the Spanish branch of the UK-based Carphone Warehouse group) has it's own pay-as-you-go sim card. It's called 'Happy Movil' and is pretty good value: http://www.happymovil.es/

Cheers,

Paul



> Good call Pieter, I agree. Mobiles are so cheap and easy to aquire. See more mobile phones in Spain here (http://www.spainexpat.com/spain/information/mobile_and_cellular_phones_in_spain/).

Thanks everyone noted re unlocking my UK phone but will need that for incoming busiiness calls.

2 last questions!

If i go for mobile broad band using USB is it still cost effective to Skype?

Secondly members opinions on best rates (companies) re Spanish mobiles please pay as you go Many thanks to all for taking time and trouble and helping my family Thanks

As I mentiond in my message, 'Happy Movil' from The Phone House is worth checking out for pay-as-you-go rates. I provided you with a link.

As for internet: If you're only going to be here for short periods throughout the year, mobile broadband using USB is probably your best bet. Orange has a package for 40 Euros a month (inclusive of VAT), but you won't find any packages here as cheap as in the UK. Telefonica controls everything here, so internet is quite expensive for what you get. You'll also need to have a Telefonica landline to have internet (regardless of which company you choose). This can take a while to organize. If you sign up on the Telefonica website, you might be able to avoid the one-off sign-up charge. That's what I did. It's a big saving.

Cheers,

Paul




> Thanks everyone noted re unlocking my UK phone but will need that for incoming busiiness calls.

2 last questions!

If i go for mobile broad band using USB is it still cost effective to Skype?

Secondly members opinions on best rates (companies) re Spanish mobiles please pay as you go Many thanks to all for taking time and trouble and helping my family Thanks

Iberbanda can be also a cheap option, get lowest speed (512 kb for 39?/month), this is not vinculated to any landline or other cost, and if you need to skype or use a VoIP phone it's an excellent solution. PM for more info.

Regards

The problem with the Iberbanda solution is that it does not seem that reliable. Having bought a cavehome in Spain, with no land-line, we ordered Iberbanda which duly arrived. The first 2 weeks of our stay, it worked perfectly. We went back to the UK for a couple of weeks and then returned to Spain for a further 2 weeks - this time the connectivity was attrocious. I read in the "The Sierras" magazine one guy griping about their connection and wondering if it was due to power fluctuations, so next trip to Carrefour we bought an uninterruptable power supply and put the whole lot on that - including our WIFI router. No change. At one point we lost connectivity for a morning, another point we lost it for an afternoon. I wanted to complain and a local who's used this for some time said "well, you can complain" - indicating it would not do me any good. If you look up Iberbanda on the web you'll find countless stories saying the same thing - that it simply isn't that reliable. I'm off back to the UK shortly but I'm leaving the equipment on (you have to pay monthly whether you use it or not) with monitoring software to check connectivity regularly. If anyone is doing similar tests please do contact me (pete@scargill.org) especially if they have English-speaking contact information for Iberbanda as my Spanish is still almost non-existant.

While Uk suppliers would of course over-claim speeds, they would not get away with complete lack of service and that's what happens with this company sometimes - making it impossible to do anything serious. Even simple things like VOIP (Skype) become something of an experiment if you can't rely on minimal connectivity at all times! Without landlines we are totally relying on this service - as Satellite is simply too expensive unless you're here full time. It really is important to force this company to provide a reliable service.


> Iberbanda can be also a cheap option, get lowest speed (512 kb for 39?/month), this is not vinculated to any landline or other cost, and if you need to skype or use a VoIP phone it's an excellent solution. PM for more info.

Regards

Hi Scargill,

We've got the same problems with some customers, in most installations the speed is almost 100% the contracted speed, sometimes it goes a little bit down but gets back to full speed in a few hours. On a few cases we've got the problem you explain, it get slow slow slow, almost useless.

I still got any official answer from iberbanda (We are representatives of them), but I expect that the problem gets at the base-station were the link is poor with the next base-station or the itself is overloaded.

Other things to check is that you need to have direct line of sight to the base-station, if there is no direct line of sight (trees, houses, etc) you will experience a bit loss of signal.

With most incidents i got good results writing email with speed tests to soporte @ avired . com , also attach your NIE/Passport number of the contracted iberbanda and if you have it by hand the "Orden instalacion" number.

For more tech people i can PM you how to access the antenna electronics and see the signal levels (You need to have knowledge how to change IP of the computer and some MSDOS knowledge).

Finally a good comment, iberbanda is undergoing big internal changes and we guess that now they will start to work in a better direction.


Regards



> The problem with the Iberbanda solution is that it does not seem that reliable. .......

I would appreciate the contact... we're packing up to leave now, back in a few weeks. Got the webcam etc running but of course tha's all in the hands of Iberbanda as to how well it works.

My contact details are pete @ scargill . org without the spaces - would apprecaite any technical info you can give me - next time we're here I'll check out the connection, with that and logs I'm sure I can make useful information available to others - it's not like we have a lot of choice here without telephone lines :-)

Thanks for the speedy response.. oh, we'er direct line of sight - from our cave on the mountain down to the village.



> Hi Scargill,

We've got the same problems with some customers, in most installations the speed is almost 100% the contracted speed, sometimes it goes a little bit down but gets back to full speed in a few hours. On a few cases we've got the problem you explain, it get slow slow slow, almost useless.

I still got any official answer from iberbanda (We are representatives of them), but I expect that the problem gets at the base-station were the link is poor with the next base-station or the itself is overloaded.

Other things to check is that you need to have direct line of sight to the base-station, if there is no direct line of sight (trees, houses, etc) you will experience a bit loss of signal.

With most incidents i got good results writing email with speed tests to soporte @ avired . com , also attach your NIE/Passport number of the contracted iberbanda and if you have it by hand the "Orden instalacion" number.

For more tech people i can PM you how to access the antenna electronics and see the signal levels (You need to have knowledge how to change IP of the computer and some MSDOS knowledge).

Finally a good comment, iberbanda is undergoing big internal changes and we guess that now they will start to work in a better direction.


Regards


[quote author="Scargill" date="1220702247"]The problem with the Iberbanda solution is that it does not seem that reliable. .......
[/quote]

>
Finally a good comment, iberbanda is undergoing big internal changes and we guess that now they will start to work in a better direction.

[quote author="Scargill" date="1220702247"]The problem with the Iberbanda solution is that it does not seem that reliable. .......
[/quote]

HI,
I just joined. Can you tell me more about the planned changes at Iberbanda. I've just heard a rumour that they're increasing their speeds ?
Thanks,
Bigyin

>
HI,
I just joined. Can you tell me more about the planned changes at Iberbanda. I've just heard a rumor that they're increasing their speeds ?
Thanks,
Bigyin


A few days ago they presented new road map, they start at some parts of Spain to drop prices (512 mb connection won't exist anymore, you'll have 1 mb for that price, and so scaled for the rest of the places).
Also they release other solutions as Internet over satellite for places where there is no Iberbanda coverage, and different packs for business (More guaranteed bandwidth and vpn between points).
Only disadvantage they presented is that now you're bound to a minimum of 12 months of contract (Before you could contract it without any minimal time).

Anyone interested in contracting Iberbanda PM me, if possible with exact address or GPS coordinates and I'll reply back with different options.

Regards

Pieter Vos

Hi

Well, we're still 512k here at W2.55224, N37.73699 (according to my Tomtom) just outside of Galera and the speed generally isn't capable of handling the BBC iPlayer - and even fails to reliably handly Skype sometimes. Any info on improvements or alternatives would be greatly appreciated.

Regards


Peter Scargill




> [quote author="bigyin" date="1223158369"]
HI,
I just joined. Can you tell me more about the planned changes at Iberbanda. I've just heard a rumor that they're increasing their speeds ?
Thanks,
Bigyin


A few days ago they presented new road map, they start at some parts of Spain to drop prices (512 mb connection won't exist anymore, you'll have 1 mb for that price, and so scaled for the rest of the places).
Also they release other solutions as Internet over satellite for places where there is no Iberbanda coverage, and different packs for business (More guaranteed bandwidth and vpn between points).
Only disadvantage they presented is that now you're bound to a minimum of 12 months of contract (Before you could contract it without any minimal time).

Anyone interested in contracting Iberbanda PM me, if possible with exact address or GPS coordinates and I'll reply back with different options.

Regards

Pieter Vos[/quote]

Hi Scargill. They should have upgraded you automatically. You need to pester them by phone and/or email. I've been on 1Mb for a few months now but I had to chase them.

By the way, you can't use BBC iplayer or any of the others here. Not permitted by the UK licencing deals.

Hi

Thanks for that - yes I know about the licencing issues, was using iPlayer just as an example... do you happen to have an email address and I'll start hammering at Iberbanda right now - I'm definitely still on512k - that would help a lot...

Regards

Pete

(if you prefer to email that info directly it's pete at scargill dot org thanks.





> Hi Scargill. They should have upgraded you automatically. You need to pester them by phone and/or email. I've been on 1Mb for a few months now but I had to chase them.

Hi,

If you need I can take a look at it, PM with your contract details and I can check internally with iberbanda to see when they proceed with speedchange.

regards



> Hi

Well, we're still 512k here at W2.55224, N37.73699 (according to my Tomtom) just outside of Galera and the speed generally isn't capable of handling the BBC iPlayer - and even fails to reliably handly Skype sometimes. Any info on improvements or alternatives would be greatly appreciated.

It seems the options I had were

1. 256K at 39 euros
2. 512k at 45 euros

I'm on the 45 euros version... so does this mean I should be getting 1mbps for 39 or 45 ???

Regards


Confused of Galera.





> Hi,

If you need I can take a look at it, PM with your contract details and I can check internally with iberbanda to see when they proceed with speedchange.

regards


[quote author="Scargill" date="1243702345"]Hi

Well, we're still 512k here at W2.55224, N37.73699 (according to my Tomtom) just outside of Galera and the speed generally isn't capable of handling the BBC iPlayer - and even fails to reliably handly Skype sometimes. Any info on improvements or alternatives would be greatly appreciated.

[/quote]

Hi again Pete,
I'm assuming you have the "AVI Pack" (Internet plus VOIP phone). If so, you should definitely be on 1MB. 1 Meg is now the minimum as the Government decreed that everybody should have that speed as a minimum and Iberbanda had to up the speeds of all sub 1 Meg for free. I Meg is now the minimum you can buy as a home user. See here EDITED READ RULES
Cheers,
Rog

Yup - that's it with the phone - got the contract June 2008 -and I'm definitely getting only 512k.

I'll contact them - thanks for this - very useful.



> Hi again Pete,
I'm assuming you have the "AVI Pack" (Internet plus VOIP phone). If so, you should definitely be on 1MB. 1 Meg is now the minimum as the Government decreed that everybody should have that speed as a minimum and Iberbanda had to up the speeds of all sub 1 Meg for free. I Meg is now the minimum you can buy as a home user. See here
Cheers,
Rog

Right since starting this year all iberbanda connections are upgraded to 1 mb for 45e/month. Other users are upgraded to next speed range, except 4 mb where the price is droped.

regards

I should probably update this. We've had Iberbanda in now for something like 2 years and it's actually been quite reliable overall. I know that because although we're only out in Spain part time, I leave a security camera on - this is a WIFI IP camera and it talks to the router. It means I can check on the property in my absense from pretty much anywhere - using the iPhone.

So I'd know if the connection was down. The fact is that most of the time it works. We've recently scrapped the phone option which was taking up 10 euros a month and so we now have simply the small Iberbanda box inside the cave - this is little more than a power supply - and that feeds our WIFI router. Clearly the 1 meg download limit is a pain for multimedia - having said that I've had several all-day video conferences back to the UK using SKYPE, pretty much without issue.

So there you have an update. For more info see www.bedrock.es which should get some major updating late October 2010 as I have new HDR camera software to give a good hammering in Galera :-)


> The problem with the Iberbanda solution is that it does not seem that reliable. Having bought a cavehome in Spain, with no land-line, we ordered Iberbanda which duly arrived.

Indeed that's all done - and we do get more or less 1 meg. Thanks.


> Hi Scargill. They should have upgraded you automatically. You need to pester them by phone and/or email. I've been on 1Mb for a few months now but I had to chase them.