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Sasko Lazarov/Rollingnews

Eir says full service has been restored following fault that led to phone and broadband outage

The company has revealed that the issue was caused by a problem with an eir DNS server.

EIR HAS CONFIRMED that phone and broadband services have been restored following widespread outages yesterday.

Yesterday, eir customers around the country lost service for several hours after an issue arose at around 2.30pm.

This morning, the telecommunications company issued a statement to say that the issue was caused by a problem with one of its DNS servers.

A spokesman said that the company’s engineers worked for around 12 hours to resolve the issue, and that full service was restored by about 2.30am this morning.

“Service has been restored to those eir customers that were impacted by the internet access outage,” he said.

“We apologise again to our customers for the inconvenience this has caused.”

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    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gerard O'Brien
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:25 AM

    I presume all customers will be credited for the period of lost service.

    651
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    Mute Niall Sheridan
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:33 AM

    @Gerard O’Brien: lovely to see you’re an optimist!!!

    148
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    Mute Barry Somers
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:37 AM

    @Gerard O’Brien: so assuming 53e a month for broadband and 12 hour outage against approx 730hrs in the month, that means a customer can expect around 88cents off their bill :)

    It’s an outage, they do happen. They don’t guarantee 100% uptime.

    Any somewhat tech savy person just changed their dns servers…. Anyone worth their salt wasn’t using the eir dns servers to begin with.

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    Mute Artur Gurta
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:43 AM

    @Barry Somers: so tech dweebs are the only ones worth their salt then?

    125
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    Mute kjholt
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:45 AM

    @Artur Gurta: where does the salt come from?

    40
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    Mute Paddy Downey
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:48 AM

    @Barry Somers: your last sentence is the most important one, but would be quite rightly lost on vast majority of people, who should really need to do it in the first place.

    21
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    Mute Paddy Downey
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:49 AM

    @Paddy Downey: *shouldnt

    8
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    Mute Mark Fitzmaurice
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    Oct 14th 2018, 9:00 AM

    @Paddy Downey: which servers would be best?

    6
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    Mute Mick Mulligan
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    Oct 14th 2018, 9:33 AM

    @Artur Gurta: yes

    1
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    Mute Steve Mac
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:11 AM

    @Paddy Downey: you can’t change dns on phones

    17
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    Mute John Walker
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:27 AM

    @Niall Sheridan: Optimist? Delusional!

    2
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    Mute Gisbert Bayertz
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:29 AM

    @Gerard O’Brien: you’re funny

    1
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    Mute Chris Foley
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:46 AM

    @Steve Mac: yes you can change dns settings on all modern smartphones

    13
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    Mute Karl Curtin
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    Oct 14th 2018, 11:02 AM

    @Mark Fitzmaurice: Google Public DNS Server

    6
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    Mute Tommy Roche
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    Oct 14th 2018, 11:54 AM

    @Karl Curtin: In case there’s any confusion, Karl means use Google’s Public DNS server rather that search Google for Public DNS Server. Many reputable tech sites have lists of the best DNS servers which can keep you safe online, or help get around blocks on certain sites, etc. But some DNS servers are malicious in that they can actually redirect you to phishing sites. Like with everything else you do online, be careful with the services you use.

    6
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    Mute Anthony McGovern
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    Oct 14th 2018, 12:36 PM

    @Karl Curtin: Cloudflare’s public DNS server is also pretty good too (1.1.1.1)

    3
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    Mute rory burns
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:29 AM

    Lack of information and customer service during outage was appalling.

    419
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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:33 AM

    @rory burns: couldn’t use the interwebs sure how else are a phone company meant to tell people stuff?

    54
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    Mute Davy MacIomhair
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:37 AM

    @Dave O Keeffe: They send us enough promo via SMS, they could do the same for service issues. Sms was working fine.

    276
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    Mute Michael Mclaughlin
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:38 AM

    @Dave O Keeffe: Would have thought they could notify via phone/txt…. if you were late with a bill they wouldn’t be long sending you a txt!

    114
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    Mute Keith Hutchinson
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:46 AM

    @Dave O Keeffe: they could of kept customers updated on their FB page. That seemed to be one of the only social media networks that was still working for eir customers yesterday!

    34
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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:31 AM

    Sorry, I thought the sarcasm in my comment was clear. Obviously not.

    8
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    Mute Shane Farrell
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:35 AM

    Finally families everywhere had to talk to each other in a Saturday night. Isn’t that amazing!

    237
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    Mute Gerard Moroney
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:41 AM

    @Shane Farrell: …Well said.

    46
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    Mute M.G Lochlain
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:45 AM

    @Shane Farrell: we had to resort to talking to each other ha ha ha ha ha

    38
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    Mute Margate
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:15 AM

    @Shane Farrell: Dead right! Crisis due to having to behave a bit Human-like..

    11
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    Mute Anastasia Ryan
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:58 AM

    Sarcasm…

    1
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    Mute Jp Murray
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:36 AM

    I was 24 minutes on hold listening to silly recordings when I was cut off after being told there was a problem connecting to call centre.
    Could they not have left recording telling us of the problem

    164
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    Mute Quentin Moriarty
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    Oct 14th 2018, 9:36 AM

    @Jp Murray: outage outrage

    19
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    Mute Artur Gurta
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:38 AM

    They’re the worst telecoms company in Ireland and that speaks for itself

    147
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    Mute Rhona Quinn
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:41 AM

    A couple of hours? Hmmm lets see wifi lost at 2:30pm Sat (roughly) & restored at 2:30 Sun morning…. by my crude calculations thats 12hrs not 2/3hrs.
    The situation was not helped by the fact their own website was completely down, as it seems also were their customer care lines. Twitter helps knocks off at 5pm (no help) & Facebook help hid in a corner.

    109
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    Mute Rónán O'Suilleabháin
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    Oct 14th 2018, 9:38 AM

    @Rhona Quinn: it’s not surprising if customer care was unavailable. A system can only handle so many calls at once, there’s ports for live calls and some reserved for calls in the queue. It can’t fill up forever, and while its frustrating to have your call rejected outright, that’s better than being in a 1-2hr queue hearing how about how important your call is to them every 30 seconds.

    Internet forums are the best place to get answers in this scenario, no point in being caller #3456 in the queue to tell their engineers what the already know, that their system is down. They won’t give you workarounds out of their policy, and venting won’t make you feel any better. If you’re unhappy vote with your feet at the next renewal.

    38
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    Mute Michael J Barrett
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    Oct 14th 2018, 9:07 AM

    Just wondering why it would take 12 hours to get the dns server running. Seems like a very long time for this.

    83
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    Mute Clear And Graphic
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:38 AM

    Businesses including restaurants, takeaways at shop or online couldn’t use credit card services. Some bank machines were reported down. Companies and self employed that use such machines as “Sumup” were unable to gain payments.

    Will any of these gain compensation? Like hell they will! Their fault could have others serious amounts of money.

    99
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    Mute Clear And Graphic
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    Oct 14th 2018, 9:26 AM

    @Clear And Graphic: Typo error – should read: “Their fault could have COST others serious amounts of money.”

    15
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    Mute Anthony
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    Oct 14th 2018, 9:33 AM

    I have to say in 2 years that’s the first time eir broadband has crashed on me. I find the service excellent. It even withstood storm Ophelia. I don’t hear people demanding a rebate from their electricity bill after the power has been down for a day etc These things happen, and not very often thankfully

    77
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    Mute DK Donnelly
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    Oct 14th 2018, 9:43 AM

    @Anthony: there was a similar outage in the last year, 4 or 5 hours I think.

    18
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    Mute Tertullian
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    Oct 14th 2018, 9:00 AM

    I changed my Eir DNS numbers to Google’s and they will stay changed until my contract is up and I change provider. Eir is a joke.

    72
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    Mute Clear And Graphic
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    Oct 14th 2018, 9:03 AM

    @Tertullian: Same here.

    29
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    Mute Margate
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:12 AM

    Adults on here (aside from those genuinely affected via business issues) need to take a grip. We wonder about our children’s issues and problems with screens, social media etc, Where do they take their lead from? Us! Missing tv, social media interactions etc etc seems to have caused a crisis in some homes. It was a Saturday, it was a few hours, problems DO happen with service providers. Get over it.

    65
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    Mute Barry Somers
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:20 AM

    @Margate: spot on

    20
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    Mute JesusMoreBullshit
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:35 AM

    @Margate: a few hours where there should be no outage at all if there was proper design in place for DNS .

    10
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    Mute James O'Brien
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    Oct 14th 2018, 1:49 PM

    @Margate: Yet you had time to read this and post this.. Thanks for the lol

    2
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    Mute Margate
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    Oct 14th 2018, 4:21 PM

    @James O’Brien: Eh????

    3
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    Mute James O'Brien
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:37 AM

    This company is just useless with its service and customer service. Only recently left them with broadband and mobile phone.

    84
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    Mute Finnster
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:40 AM

    The worst company I have ever had to deal with . Trained monkeys would do a better job . This is definitely a company where human replacement by robots would be a step up.

    86
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    Mute Super Ted
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:03 AM

    I’m just glad their “highest officials” lol managed to sort the problem and in only 12 hours! I’d also like to extend my gratitude to Hema, Fathi, Sankar and the rest of the eir care team in India for providing updates on their twitter feed.

    DNS server outage back-up plan ……

    Log into router with your password (wireless key is the default password unless you’ve changed it)
    VDSL WAN 1 / GE WAN 1
    Edit
    Static DNS (Tick Box)
    IPv4 Primary DNS Server
    8.8.8.8
    IPv4 Secondary Server
    8.8.4.4
    Save

    or

    Windows Users => Right click Internet icon => click on “Open Network and Sharing centre” => Change adapter settings => right click on ethernet or wifi (Whichever you are using), click on Properties => Double click on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and type 8.8.8.8, 1.1.1.1 in the preferred and alternate DNS server.

    32
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    Mute M.G Lochlain
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:47 AM

    Very poor service by Eir they are regularly down in my area.

    49
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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:08 AM

    I got my internet back and got an email from Eir, my bill. Classic timing

    28
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    Mute Conor Hayes
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    Oct 14th 2018, 9:00 AM

    Well guess what still no tv or broadband

    22
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    Mute Conor Hayes
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    Oct 14th 2018, 9:01 AM

    Still not back no tv or broadband

    20
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    Mute Elaine Walsh O'Regan
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    Oct 14th 2018, 12:18 PM

    I am STILL unable to sign in. Eir have NOT resolved the issue!

    21
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    Mute Alan Edge
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:27 AM

    Eir are the absolute pits. I’ve only been with them a month and this is the second time that I’ve been left with no service. Not a word of explanation or apology from them via SMS or any other means. A simple text explaining the pr born and saying ‘Sorry, we’re working on it’ would have been something at least. Incredibly poor service. If you’re thinking of switching to them, don’t.

    30
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    Mute Dominic Leleu
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    Oct 14th 2018, 8:52 AM

    Do they have HCL Indian company to support them ?

    18
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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:07 AM

    @Dominic Leleu: HCL Technologies Limited (Hindustan Computers Limited) is an Indian multinational technology company, headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is a subsidiary of HCL Enterprise

    7
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    Mute Random_paddy
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:28 AM

    @Dominic Leleu: HCL is the equivalent of having transition year students your business

    10
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    Mute The Irish Bull
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    Oct 14th 2018, 9:30 AM

    Worst provider in Ireland.

    30
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    Mute Catherine O'Shea
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:27 AM

    Still offline this morning…

    17
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    Mute Patrick Fitzgibbon
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    Oct 14th 2018, 5:30 PM

    The outage caused me to go downstairs in my house and meet the other people ….they seem nice

    15
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    Mute Lad_The
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    Oct 14th 2018, 9:20 PM

    @Patrick Fitzgibbon: Nice one!

    1
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    Mute Aire Dezamba
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    Oct 14th 2018, 11:55 AM

    Well still no wifi here in Co Clare…are EIR even aware that some of their paying customers are without broadband?

    15
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    Mute J
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    Oct 14th 2018, 2:35 PM

    @Aire Dezamba: WiFi is not the same as broadband.

    6
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    Mute pierre roncuzzi
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:23 AM

    “Eir says cr@p service has been restored”

    18
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    Mute DK Donnelly
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    Oct 14th 2018, 9:46 AM
    12
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    Mute pierre roncuzzi
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:21 AM

    “Eir says poor service has been restored” there, fixed it

    13
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    Mute Lobert Rester
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:27 AM

    They turned it off and back on again. Solved.

    11
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    Mute CryptoSteve
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    Oct 14th 2018, 12:01 PM

    The whole network was brought down due to an issue “with one of its DNS servers”?? One??????? Eir are hanging on in there with ONE DNS server?????????

    12
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    Mute JesusMoreBullshit
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:33 AM

    DNS has redundancy after redundancy there is no excuse for a DNS outage except planned. What EIR didn’t say was most likely poor design or lack of investment

    12
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    Mute James Reidy
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    Oct 14th 2018, 11:04 AM

    I will be going back to Vodofone.ie tomorrow morning!

    10
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    Mute William Blackall
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    Oct 14th 2018, 6:03 PM

    This is fake news on the part of Eir as their email ‘service’ is still down at 18.04hrs Sunday evening in many parts of the country

    9
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    Mute Thomas Martin
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    Oct 14th 2018, 12:02 PM

    Still no service at 12.00. Yet news keeps saying. ‘service has been fully restored’. Restored my arse.

    24
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    Mute Dublin Gooner
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:33 AM

    What an utterly useless company

    19
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    Mute Marie Byrne
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    Oct 14th 2018, 5:15 PM

    Still can’t log into emails

    6
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    Mute Lad_The
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:31 AM

    Techie heads, any advantage or disadvantage to switching the router dns settings back to the Eir settings?

    5
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    Mute JesusMoreBullshit
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    Oct 14th 2018, 10:34 AM

    @Lad_The: absolutely none just use something like OPEN DNS to avoid incompetence from EIR.

    7
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    Mute William Kelly
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    Oct 15th 2018, 7:39 AM

    Maybe it’s as well that Eir are a non runner in the national broadband stakes, if they cannot have basic backup for the system. This service is safety critical for so many people & business, it is simply not adequate to just post apology.
    The regulator needs to have sufficient power to fine these companies for non performance, & ensure that all outages are automatically credited to consumers.
    That alone will force them to ensure that adequate backup is in place to minimise disruptions.

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    Mute Earth Traveller
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    Oct 15th 2018, 12:51 PM

    Their web site is down today and a long wait to talk to customer services. I asked the person I finally spoke to at Eir if the company was facing financial difficulties but he was understandably non-committal. I am switching my mobile to another service provider in case of the worst.

    2
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    Mute liz
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    Oct 16th 2018, 8:40 PM

    when did all this start, spent 2 days trying to contact their staff, their email down phone lines wait so long no point, have been outsourced so not that bothered, if there is anything they answer, just they hang up, the twitter seems to automated as just go off without a I’m finished work now Can someone please investigate what’s happening Their staff were one of their best aspects, super pros last time I had reason to call just few months ago. Now no one anywhere phone email etc. News on this be very helpful, people need to plan if there’s a problem, has there been redundancies, be really really bad if they got rid of excellent staff and outsourced to random call center. Really bad

    1
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