Using Open DNS
Have you ever had one of those issues where websites open slowly, some open and more often than not some don't? These issues can happen several times a month for some ISPs and as a (former) account holder of Eircom Broadband I was getting them quite regularly too. These issues are generally DNS issues.
So what is DNS? I wont go into detail of what a DNS is but here is a very informative link that will break the term down for you, but fortunately, you don't have to know what it is or how it works to fix your DNS issue.
This is a tutorial for Eircom users to help fix DNS issues by replacing Eircom's DNS servers with Open DNS servers.
> Click this link: http://192.168.1.254/
> The above link accesses your Netopia Router where you can change your DNS settings.
> Select expert mode on the left hand-side of the screen and select the option to enter it once it appears.
> Select the Configure option on left hand-side of the screen.
> Click Connection on the left-hand side of the screen.
> You should be able to see the two fields about mid-way down the page for Primary DNS Server and Secondary DNS Server
> Take down the numbers currently in those fields so you can revert to them should any issue arise.
> You will have to change the Primary DNS Server field to 208.67.222.222
> You will have to change the Secondary DNS Server to 208.67.220.220
> Make sure the entries you entered above are entered correctly.
> Click save changes.
> It may take a couple minutes to correct itself and the router may need to be re-started.
> Voila! That should fix any Eircom DNS issues!
(Please note that if you hard reset the router then it will revert back to original settings)
Hope this helps :)