Imagine Wi-Max Initial Review
Last weekend I received a Wi-Max box from Imagine to replace my current DSL connection. Here are my initial thoughts on the device, the set-up and configuration, performance and some serious reservations about how Imagine have crippled the modem.
Delivery and packaging
I opted for the self-install option which is delivered by courier in a large jiffy envelope. Inside was an Imagine banded Motorola Wi-Max unit, a telephone handset adapter and a network cable.
The box itself is about the size of a hard-back novel (think a John Grisham airport edition), with a small swivel foot on the base to facilitate standing the device upright. It feels solid and well built. All antennae are internal, and there a series of four green LEDs on the front to show Wi-Max signal strength and one for Wi-Fi operation.
Connectivity: 1 x RJ-54 (Ethernet), 2 x Telecom (RJ-11), Wi-Fi. Disappointingly there is no hub built into the device.
Initial Set-up
Plug in and go (almost). According to the manual, as long as you have two of four signal strength LEDs lit, you are good to go. I had four, so I cannot comment on what performance would be like in marginally serviced areas.
Once up and running you plug in your PC (using the supplied network cable), open a web browser and you are automatically redirected to a set-up screen. From there you go through a series of five screens to confirm your PIN number (supplied by Imagine) and confirm your email address and activate the service. After that you are set up for Internet access. There is an additional step to activate and secure the Wi-Fi connection.
Annoyingly, the device kept dropping its’ Internet connection during the browser set-up phase and I was forced to start again from step 1. It took me several attempts to get through this step. This is a major irritation – I am in an area of high signal strength, so if you live in a marginally serviced area this step might get very frustrating.
Wi-Fi set-up was painless – just pick an SSID, a Wi-Fi radio channel and add a security password/key. However the limited access that Imagine give you to the device doesn’t really allow you to make a mistake here (See LAN Set-up).
Once I was through the set-up the device settled down and I was getting 7.5MB down and 0.5MB up with ping times of about 100ms. I’ll do a more rigorous test of this later.
I did not have a telephone handset to try out the VoIP service.
LAN Set-up
This is a major disappointment – if you want to customise anything for your local network, well, you just can’t. This includes setting your LAN network subnet (set to 192.168.15.x with no indication of what subnet mask is in use), port-forwarding, DMZ set-up, DHCP server settings.
I queried this with Imagine technical support and received two conflicting responses:
Access to the control panel and other features is restricted as changing some of these settings can cause the Wimax unit to cease functioning correctly.
and
There is proprietary technology there that we can’t let you see…
In my opinion both of these statements smell of bullshit – look at this review of Wi-Max and you can see screen shots of the Motorola browser interface.
What concerns me is that I see screen shots in that review for things like uPnP, firewall, enabling administrator access to the device (“Enable web login from Internet”) and port forwarding, but no indication from Imagine as to what the default settings are.
The rather idiotic response from Imagine is:
If you wish any ports forwarded please contact us either via email or phone and we can arrange that.
Seeing as you have very basic access to your own LAN using Imagine Wi-Max, this raises questions of liability if your network is compromised – especially in light of recent legal news over the “three strikes” agreement between Eircom and IMRA.
From a privacy and security standpoint there is no way of knowing what access to your LAN Imagine have given themselves.
Initial Conclusion
For a home user Imagine Wi-Max shows great promise. However the retarded attitude Imagine have towards the control panel, and the uncertain security set-up, make this of little use to the business or the technical user.
I signed up for the 3MB €40/month unlimited usage with free local national & U.K calls and no line rental deal just over eight weeks ago. I was told initially that the end of June would be when I would “go live”. A phone call a week later informed me that it would anyday now but after that they confirmed end of June. After today’s (30th June) call to them, they said there was a technical delay and it would be mid August.
Should I take this as a warning and pull out of the deal and go with UPC or another non Eircom based broadband supplier?
This is a common trait with ISPs: the sales drones they will promise you the sun, moon and stars to sign you up. For example, NTL/UPC have been “promising” in my area for about 5 years and Imagine “promised” me last December (I didn’t sign up to either on the basis of their aspirational statements). Eventually I signed up to Imagine in May when they could commit that Wi-Max would be in the area within two weeks. To fair to them (this time) they lived up to their word.
You are between a rock and a hard place here – if you go with an alternative provider you will be locked in to a minimum contract period (usually 12 months).
One thing which you can approach Imagine about (and I have used this in the past) is to ask them if it is OK to use a Ripwave device (yuk) until the Wi-Max service is available in your area. Get them to commit to waiving the Ripwave contract when you upgrade to Wi-Max. Note that you may be in an area of marginal Wi-Max coverage anyway, but in that case it would be difficult for them to enforce a minimum contract. Make sure you establish their policy (in writing) if you pursue this route.
Another option (and one I couldn’t possibly condone) is to sign up for a 3G trial. Most companies will give you a month’s trial without obligation – just make sure you end your trial before the month is up and make sure there are no hidden charges. There are enough operators in Ireland to get you about three months of connectivity using this method, by which time Imagine should be over their technical difficulties!
Thank you for your fast reply and good advice.
And yes I agree Ripwave (yuk)!
UPC looked like a good alternative but it’s not available in this area yet.
3G looks like an option but it limits itself to one user per dongle which means having to share and that’s an argument starting already!
The 3g dongle has an upgrade path too! Vodafone have a router device which takes the 3g signal from an inserted 3g dongle and wifi’s it along with allowing up to four Ethernet connections… Obviously the issue now becomes one of speed since four people cannot share 3g speeds happily… but they do try to claim up to 7.5Mbs… I doubt it… I’d say 3Mbs would be absolute tops!
either way at the moment the fastest, cheapest and most reliable from my travels in this sphere is Vodafone home phone and broadband… and they are pretty much as crap as all Irish ISP’s…
Wi-max seemed a good tech and i took the dive after expiencing Landline, G3 and UPC, Land line??? well good if you live next door to the exchange and the cable which connects you goes direct, I lived 2K from exchange yet when eircom tested the line themselves they told me i was 9.2K from exchange. G3 ups and downs. UPC good for a few months then had packet loss within 50K distance of 59.2% and outside ireland 89.5%, customer service ??? YES what customer service, got so bad asked them to cancel contract after 14 months, took 3 months more of billing, and eventualy forced them to terminate account when I told them that i would like the cable removed from around my house, if they did not remove it “I Would”. Then i got 2 visits from there cable teem within 24 hours. Still goile on, Now they are interested in my problems. Finally Wi-Max No accrss to Router, No access to ports, no access to torrents,no access to what the internet is about, SHARING INFORMATION FREELY. In my opinion there all good at selling and crap at servicing. Back to pidigons.
My general experience with ISP’s is the same – they all appear to go for the 90% (or even 80%) rule – 90% of your customers will take 10% of the effort. As a result if you need any level of customer support they just can’t manage.
As far as your access to the Wi-Max control panel goes – stick to your guns. I have been told “we aren’t geared up to give customers access”, “you might break it”, “it’s confidential”, “this isn’t a business class product” among other excuses. I asked about port forwarding and was told “you can call tech support and we’ll do it for you”. I use the device as a gateway to a LAN and server so I do need to be in control of my network. In the end I got the password to the unit.
I complained to Imagine about not being able to download a Fedora torrent on their Wi-Max network and was told “we don’t support your torrent software”. When I pointed out that I was able to download the same torrent using a Breeze connection at another location (also part of the Imagine network) and that I was able to support my own network and software (thank you very much) they fixed the issue.
Also this generic “torrents are evil” attitude really annoys me. Client-server downloads are network inefficient and, for a server, especially bandwidth hungry. Peer-to-peer networks make very efficient use of all this broadband we are suppose to have – think “green downloads”. I use torrents in preference to ftp/sftp anytime I can. And seeing as you are getting something like OpenOffice, CentOS or Ubuntu for free it is nice to be able to contribute in a small way by seeding for others. As you say Gthe1 that is what the Internet is about.
Blaming copyright infringement on torrents is akin to blaming drunk driving on cars – and banning cars will certainly eliminate drunk driving.
Traffic shaping, port blocking, firewalling just frustrate legitimate users and in my opinion turn your Internet connection into a crippled one – in other words not “of merchantable quality” and not “fit for its normal purpose”.
I have had my copyright infringed in the past, and was not happy about it. But I would wholly disagree with the tactics of IRMA and their overseas counterparts. Attacking our Internet connections will not protect a dying business model.
I just had a quick meeting with the chap from Imagine and initially I was charmed by the price and the range of service. However, I asked about torrents and P2P and the guy said not a bother and now I read your feedback and am rather dubious. Can any of you confirm beyond doubt that torrents are/aren’t available? I was rather puzzled by the announcement of Eircom blocking access to piratebay.org, where’s Imagine on that?
I had previously broadband with UTV Internet because using eircom lines they provide the same speeds plus the fact I can go unlimited after the promotional period (in the promotional period it was free for 3 months) for only €5.99 and I get the full access to MY router (if what I read here about imagine is true, well, it’s laughable) and suck the whole internet backwards and forwards without anyone telling me OH HEY THAT’S NOT ALLOWED.
I don’t remember what exactly is the contention ratio with UTV (chap from Imagine mentioned 24:1) but I can honestly say that never ever did my connection drop down below the designated speed, network was unreachable for no reason or the service was crippled in any way unless there was some huge problem with the equipment. I should also mention I had it at various locations over the past 3-4 years and at only one place I couldn’t get the full speed due to the fact that eircom haven’t got the right gear in place and once I found that out their customer support team adjusted the pricing plan to what it should be over the phone within the matter of few minutes and gave a refund for the time in between.
If what’s already said here proves to be a sad fact than I think I will go back to UTV, especially now that eircom is putting fibre power in my area anytime now and I can get all that via UTV without drawbacks from eircom.
Any other thoughts?