Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => The Knowledge => Ctrl-Alt-Del => Topic started by: Redlight on 10 September, 2020, 09:05:30 pm
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I have a horrible feeling I may regret this, but here goes:
I'm wondering whether I should change my broadband provider.
I'm wth Virgin Media. Apparently, it has the best speeds on the market, but my own experience is that my BB connection drops several times a day and I have to reboot. And the TV etc package that comes with it is crap. I have both Netflix and Amazon Prime so Virgin's TV offer is negligible and the landline hasn't been used in years.
So, should I switch? Here's the issue - my teenage son likes playing Fortnite online and, at the moment, my wife spends a large part of the day on video conference calls.
Am I best sticking with Virgin, despite its hopeless customer service, or is the BT broadband fast enough to keep both son and wife happy when they are online at the same time?
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I'm sure there are lots of stories of BT awfulness, but I've been using whatever their FTTC service is called for the last seven years and it's been rock solid and full speed as advertised. The BT home hub is shit though (well, as a modem it's fine, but the wifi is puny). I've never needed to throw myself upon the tender mercies of their support.
This currently supports two people working from home, internet radio all the time, all TV through Netflix/Amazon. I've never noted any slowness. Plus it's my only option, I figure all the alternatives will be someone reselling the BT offering anyway. Virgin dare not tread nearby.
Caveat: the cabinet is at the bottom of the road, so there's probably about 50 meters of copper between me and it (maybe a bit more, the telegraph pole is further up the hill).
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Depends on where you are.
Openreach do have FTTP in some areas, which should be faster than Virgin. Or their are a few other companies building their own fibre networks, eg Cityfibre. Though maybe not much cheaper.
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FTTC should be fine for your use case.
I’ve had close to zero downtime in several years with Sky/NowTV, and their modem has never needed rebooting. I do use my own (Apple) Wi-Fi though.
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Was happy with Virgin for years, but since the US takeover became absolute crap.
Now happy with Zen, based on the Openreach (BT) network. Just broadband and land line, no TV.
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...Now happy with Zen...
Arf :)
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Make of this anecdote what you will.
We binned virgin a couple of years ago. Sounds like similar problems to yourself. Horrible connection issues, repeated reboots of router. Horrible, patronising cusotmer service and could not get anywhere. The fault was blatantly an old router on its last legs. Went to disconnect and it was one of the first things the retention team said to us. "I can see what you have and even I can see what the problem is."
Anyway, switched to EE, never had an issue since. 70 MBps consistently, only dropped service once or twice (always at night) so only notice when we get logs.
Bit of a palaver when we went to switch, but that was the fault of the OpenReach tech, who came with an attitude and lack of will. EE gave us a chunk of data to compensate.
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If you're switching from Virgin the first question is what technology is Openreach able to provide to your location, and how well is likely to perform. If the line's crap, or FTTP involves impractical installation costs, there's only so much that even the AAISPs of this world can do with it.
Then it's a case of choosing an ISP to provide you a service using that technology. This is about the performance of their own backhaul network, any associated services such as email hosting, customer service, any equipment you obtain through them, and indeed price. In the words of my CO505 Computer Networks lecturer, the rule here is "Use as little BT as possible.".
As usual, you tend to get what you pay for.
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Seems the Virgin router is often a bit crap. You can set it to modem mode, and connect it to a separate wifi router. It would probably be a lot more reliable.
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I have a technically competent friend whose Virgin router seems to need an awful lot of reboots. Mostly it's just the WiFi part that stops working.
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Lt. Col. Larrington (retd.)'s Virgin router (a rebadged Netgear) requires frequent reboots to restore speed to anything close to advertised levels.
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I’ve been with VM for years and suffered most of the issues reported upthread. Eventually we took two steps. First a new router (does a router really wear out? The old one was 7 years old). Second, I reduced the broadband speed from 200 to 100. WiFi now much more reliable, 2 of us working from home and no obvious loss in performance. Also, load time of stuff like iPlayer much quicker too
A
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Yes, routers wear out. Or rather components and joints in them start to fail. I reckon five years is a reasonable time for a router, the cheaper, the shorter.
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I've never had to restart a BT home hub. I presume it does itself occasionally when it hits a blip (it says connection time 21 days at the mo). It's seven years old now.
My parents have Virgin because they watch crap telly all day. It doesn't seem very reliable (though I suppose they offer the speed, despite being 50 metres for the cabinet, no one seems interested in offering FTTP here).
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We had Sky and their broadband was fine; only moved away because they made a monumental cockup of our satellite installation when we moved house. It was so bad that they tore up our contract. Now with BT who are also fine; supported 3 of us working/online schooling, Netflix, streaming radio plus whatever teenagers do.
When/if you switch be prepared for at least a portion of changeover day to be without service as the old provider turns off at midnight and the new one activates you sometime the next day. If your Virgin connection is by cable (as opposed to phone) you may be able to make the Virgin termination data the day after the new provider start date if continuity of service is important to you.
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Virgin's routers are indeed crap. For some reason they don't like apple devices. Multiple people couldn't connect to our router at all. We ended up adding another cheap wifi router for apple devices.
Paid for 128Mb down. Frequently this dropped to under 20Mb. That's a big problem when you have people twitch streaming.
That household is now being switched to ultrafast fibre. Should give them 910Mb down.
Bt? they are darn difficult to pin down on speeds.
BT signed up to provide the government's pledge about "min 10Mb for all".
Where I live now, BT will only 3-4Mb
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I'm with Virgin and have never experienced the problems others (upthread) have had. All depends
on where you're located I suppose.
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As with all these things, there will be hundreds of negative experiences for any major provider (because people only complain when they're unhappy, they're unlikely to publicly announce that something is OK, that being the expectation, after all). It's hit and miss, unfortunately.
We've been with BT for years, it's mostly been fine, they generally screw up anything you ask them do (they did something wrong when they installed their stuff here, I can't remember the details something to do with their being two lines, but it took a second engineer to undo what the first had done). I doubt that experience is unique to BT.
I assume with all utilities these days that customer and technical service will be poor. It's expensive and the main place they can save money and pad out their margins (the cost of the technology, or paying Openreach, is mostly inelastic). They also bargain that a majority of their customers won't need it and if they do, it's a simple turn-it-off-and-back-on. Once a issue goes beyond that, they're usually not set up to deal with it. Decent service comes with 'boutique' suppliers, but you're paying the real cost for knowledgable humans.
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We have Vodafone FTTC, with a 200yd copper string (those at the end of the village have another 600yd to go). Changed from the once excellent Plusnet, who's service had dropped off after the BT takeover, and because we have Vodafone mobiles, so get a bit of a discount.
As to speed - well it's sold on the sync speed to the modem being 70Mbps. It may well be, but actual real world download speed varies enormously, and is never at 70Mbps. Upload is pretty constant at 14Mbps. Given the physical limitations of our location, I doubt anyone else would be better.
It's reliable, and the (Cairo based) support were very good in sorting out a known issue where the network doesn't recognise the modem at first.
I think BB is becoming a bit like petrol, in that in a given location, most BB providers will be broadly similar, as they work with the same infrastructure, so you pay the least you can, or consciously go for something from A&A as a premium solution. Having said that A&A forecast speeds for my property are in line with the sync speeds quoted by Vodafone. I could possibly improve performance by buying a dedicated copper pair. But I'd pay for data (probably) as Vodafone in unlimited. It works out at £55/month for 2TB/month FTTC and a dedicated copper pair plus the line rental. My broadband at the moment is £26/month including line rental. I cant see that, for my case, an extra £40 a month makes sense. YMMV.
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BT signed up to provide the government's pledge about "min 10Mb for all".
Where I live now, BT will only 3-4Mb
I imagine there is a small print. Like "We deliver next day to the UK Mainland" except the Highlands
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As said upthread, the WiFi on the Virgin routers is flakey. With the hub in modem mode, and a separate router and wireless access point, our connection has been fast and stable.
The Facebook group for our road had a number of people complaining about the Virgin connection. Then there was a long discussion and some of the people went off and bought the TP-Link Deco M5, and since then the Facebook group has been silent on the subject.
Its pretty rubbish that the only way to get the Virgin connection to run reliably is to buy some extra kit, but the connection speeds from Virgin are several times what they are from BT for about the same money.
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Crappy wifi hubs seem to be standard. I just use a Deco system (I think M5) which has delivered perfect wifi throughout.
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I'm sure there are lots of stories of BT awfulness, but I've been using whatever their FTTC service is called for the last seven years and it's been rock solid and full speed as advertised.
In a similar position (even as far as Virgin not an option and the box being not far away), and we've been on BT Fibre 2 since moving in four and a bit years ago - have had the option to move as contracts have expired, but chose to stay.
Had no real issues with two of us working from home on video calls in and out of the day with the Sonos-es running in the background (TV also through a mix of NetPrimeFlix) with no slowness for the last six months - we did have a bizarre spell of a fortnight where both of our work VPNs automatically disconnecting and reconnecting at 9.30am and we never got to the bottom of why it did it...it's fine now!
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As said upthread, I think the WiFi on the Virgin routers is flakey.
FTFY.
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If you're switching from Virgin the first question is what technology is Openreach able to provide to your location, and how well is likely to perform. If the line's crap, or FTTP involves impractical installation costs, there's only so much that even the AAISPs of this world can do with it.
Agreed. My flat in the UK, there was a 50m or so length of aluminium, about 300m from the flat, that makes it a right pain to get anything quick.
Then it's a case of choosing an ISP to provide you a service using that technology. This is about the performance of their own backhaul network, any associated services such as email hosting, customer service, any equipment you obtain through them, and indeed price. In the words of my CO505 Computer Networks lecturer, the rule here is "Use as little BT as possible.".
Funny, my CO505 Computer Networks Lecturer said the same thing...
When I said this rule to some colleagues here in Dutchland, they looked at me weird. So the international variant is: "use as little of the PTT as possible"
As usual, you tend to get what you pay for.
Agreed.
J
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If you're switching from Virgin the first question is what technology is Openreach able to provide to your location, and how well is likely to perform. If the line's crap, or FTTP involves impractical installation costs, there's only so much that even the AAISPs of this world can do with it.
Agreed. My flat in the UK, there was a 50m or so length of aluminium, about 300m from the flat, that makes it a right pain to get anything quick.
Sometimes L2TP to AAISP over Virgin Media broadband can be a winning strategy. Gives you proper IP addresses, monitoring, etc and immunity to some forms of Virgin fuckery, at only double the cost and half the reliability.
Funny, my CO505 Computer Networks Lecturer said the same thing...
:D
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Currently playing with a 4g router to see if I can get useable speeds - even running a pair with unlimited data would cost no more than BT ‘Infinity’, which can be read as c.40Mb download this week - with dropouts.
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Very happy with sky.
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I was with BT for a few years without issues, until they ramped up the price beyond sense. I moved to Plusnet on the basis that 'its BT but cheaper' - considerably cheaper.
I saw no great change in the speeds until about three months ago I started getting drop outs occasionally, this coincided with some road works near my cabinet at the end of the road. These got progressively worse, until it was happening four or five times a day.
I'm not a great one for daft questions from 'tech help lines' so I just put a tweet up late one Sunday afternoon "@plusnethelp(or whatever) I'm getting lots of line drop outs - any advice?" - middle of the next day I get a phone call from Plusnet saying they'd checked my line, found no fault, asked me a couple of basis questions and offered me a replacement router.
I doubted this would be the solution - but yes, no more drop outs, and yes, it seems that routers can grow old.
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Unless you have actual fibre to your house, they're only as good as the phone line :(
I miss my rural broadband over WiFi - it was only 30Mb but it gave 30Mb upload and a static IP.
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As said upthread, I think the WiFi on the Virgin routers is flakey.
FTFY.
I know the wifi on VM routers is flakey. Plagued me for ages before switching it to modem mode with a relatively cheap separate router. Not a single problem since.
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I have an ongoing dispute with Virgin. Unfortunately they are the only show in town as far as I'm concerned, even though there's a "Citifibre" cable going past my front gate. The connection is fine, but I was paying too much for it (£88 a month for 250Mb, some TV package that we never use, and free calls of up to an hour in duration). I wanted to ditch the TV and change the phone to VOIP. Virgin don't do VOIP. I decided to go for one of their "Oomph" packages - 350Mb straight with no TV or phone line for £56. Then the retention team got involved and offered me what I had before for £44. They sent me a contract tying me in until Jan 2022 but are buggering me about with charges, and when I have a look at my account, they still haven't got it right.
I had a look at Andrews & Arnold but they reckoned the fastest connection they could offer me was 9Mb.
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A&A's speed depends on what type of string ”our favourite telco” –Ed. have in the 'hood. Fortunately they already had a fibre running up Larrington Towers Road so FTTP was quick and relatively painless.
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My experience. Of course your mileage may vary depending on where you live.
On VM,
* I've found the customer service to be excellent. Both times I've had a fault, they have had an engineer out the next day.
* Their network does offer low latency, but the peering isn't always great and I find I get higher ping times to lots of places on the internet relative to the vDSL (FTTC) line
* Latency is much more variable, compared to the vDSL (FTTC) line
* I get bandwidth usually (but not always) exceeding those advertised
* Rubbish routers (put it in modem mode and attach your own router)
* Staying on top of what they charge requires an annual phone call
* Offer a broadband only package
On TalkTalk,
* I think their network itself is actually pretty good in terms of peering/latency - it might be higher than VM but there's much less variance
* Bandwidth as advertised
* Awful customer service (over a month to get an ongoing issue resolved)
* Subject to multiple data breaches - getting phishing phone calls when you have an open fault is tricksy
* Rubbish routers (put it in modem mode and attach your own router)
On Shell Broadband,
* TalkTalk reseller
* No issues thus far
* Rubbish routers (put it in modem mode and attach your own router)
* Very well priced through Money Saving Expert deals, although you might have to insist in order to get the exit fee waived
* Rubbish routers (put it in modem mode and attach your own router)
On PlusNet
* Cocked up transfer to new provider - took a month to sort out
* Aside from the above, no issues with customer service (much better than TalkTalk)
* Although they are owned by BT, extra hops and latency thanks to their peering arrangements, so not the best choice for on-line gaming but absolutely fine for anything else
On BT
* Usually an expensive choice, but probably the best DSL (FTTC) service you will get in terms of peering and latency
* Routers do work, but very limited configuration options mean you may want to use your own
No ISP is perfect. Consumer broadband is consumer broadband at the end of the day. You can double your chances with a second disparate line (so VM and vDSL/FTTC) or 3G/4G and a router that can failover between them.
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Currently using BT FTTC with a fast Asus mesh, plus a 4g UPS backed up router for failover duty, plus it’s portable to the shed etc for turbo duty(!)
As much as BT frustrate me, it does generally work. Customer service usually falls into the not our problem it’s your router category, but the last engineer gave me a Gfast modem, which is useful and a smaller box than the BT router in modem mode.
Edited to add that both are fine for Teams use. 6Gb of data on 4g the other day...
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Are you sure it is the ISP... ;)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-54239180
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On PlusNet
* Cocked up transfer to new provider - took a month to sort out
* Aside from the above, no issues with customer service (much better than TalkTalk)
* Although they are owned by BT, extra hops and latency thanks to their peering arrangements, so not the best choice for on-line gaming but absolutely fine for anything else
I had terrible problems with PlusNet, perhaps not entirely their fault but they handled the situation very badly.
We signed up at a time when they were expanding rapidly (due to their very competitive pricing - the same reason we chose them), but they weren’t expanding their customer services to keep up.
This would have been fine if there had been no problems with our internet connection. Unfortunately, we were at the end of six miles of copper wire in those days so adsl was a non-starter.
After two months of being unable to get through to their customer services, I cancelled the direct debit - this spurred them into action: they sent the debt collectors round.
I’m sure they’re fine now, but I will never use them ever again after that experience.
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I have the same issue with virgin, speed good but wifi coverage really poor and always dropping off.
Can people explain in VERY basic terms what I can do to improve?
Even “put it in modem mode and attach your own router” is too complicated for me ,..can anyone recommend a router and what else I need?
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It's interesting how experiences stick with you – many years ago I was with a company called Demon Internet and for some reason it was paid through my credit card. Credit cards expire, it's a fact, so anyway, I inadvertently stopped paying.
Now, I'll admit my fault, but really some kind of notification would have been fine, or a call, or anything other than cut off my internet right there and then and tell me what I owed them had been passed along to a collection agency. Au revoir, dear long-term customer!
Same with EDF, with whom I engaged in a never ending battle to stop them sending a bill literally to 'the meter on the wall adj number 51.' They couldn't, for reasons impenetrable, give me online access (despite me being the company secretary of the business) and because the postie would simply leave bills by the wall, they would blow away. They would agree that yes, it was totally out of order, and singularly fail to solve what would seem an elementary problem of an address change. Just to taunt me, they did briefly manage it, and then reverted it for the next bill. I don't think it was ever solved.
As for droppy wifi, I had issue with a wilting radio signal for years, partly solved with an extender, but I did buy mesh system (TP-Link Deco M5) and it's been fantastic. Someone with better knowledge of Virgin modems will have to explain to precise details (I'm on BT), but it set-up was a pretty straighforward five-minute job.
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I have the same issue with virgin, speed good but wifi coverage really poor and always dropping off.
Can people explain in VERY basic terms what I can do to improve?
Even “put it in modem mode and attach your own router” is too complicated for me ,..can anyone recommend a router and what else I need?
Your router often does two jobs:
1. Encodes/Decodes the data going to/from the Internet (known as the Wide Area Network or WAN). That’s the modem part - it allows you to communicate with the outside world.
2. It routes this data to the correct devices in your home - your Local Area Network or LAN. So you can suffer 10 hours of Teams while your kids watch Netflix all day.
In ‘ye olde days’ you’d have had two boxes to do this - a modem and and a wireless router. The suggestion now is to disable the routing part of your supplier supplied integrated modem/router and only use it to communicate with the Internet. Then you can connect it with a network cable to your own shiny WiFi routing system.
This can be a simple, but more powerful, stand-alone router ( for example https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/networking/network-routers-and-switches/routers/asus-rt-ac88u-wifi-cable-fibre-router-ac-3100-dual-band-10145939-pdt.html?istCompanyId=bec25c7e-cbcd-460d-81d5-a25372d2e3d7&istFeedId=4d7eb93e-055f-499d-8ee5-1cdcc50d67d1&istItemId=xpwatpxrr&istBid=tztx&srcid=198&cmpid=ppc~gg~1014+(Shopping+Ads)+Networking+-+Generic~1014+(PLA)+NETWORKING+-+Adaptive+ad+group~Exact&mctag=gg_goog_7904&kwid=GOOGLE&device=m&ds_kids=92700057346631342&tgtid=1014+(Shopping+Ads)+Networking+-+Generic&=--present--&gclid=CjwKCAjwwab7BRBAEiwAapqpTJeTqMs3HRxTMDk5lWLntgyrWc8I0l98tylN57AOUoOp2li_LRddwBoC7pMQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds (https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/networking/network-routers-and-switches/routers/asus-rt-ac88u-wifi-cable-fibre-router-ac-3100-dual-band-10145939-pdt.html?istCompanyId=bec25c7e-cbcd-460d-81d5-a25372d2e3d7&istFeedId=4d7eb93e-055f-499d-8ee5-1cdcc50d67d1&istItemId=xpwatpxrr&istBid=tztx&srcid=198&cmpid=ppc~gg~1014+(Shopping+Ads)+Networking+-+Generic~1014+(PLA)+NETWORKING+-+Adaptive+ad+group~Exact&mctag=gg_goog_7904&kwid=GOOGLE&device=m&ds_kids=92700057346631342&tgtid=1014+(Shopping+Ads)+Networking+-+Generic&=--present--&gclid=CjwKCAjwwab7BRBAEiwAapqpTJeTqMs3HRxTMDk5lWLntgyrWc8I0l98tylN57AOUoOp2li_LRddwBoC7pMQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds))
Or it could be a mesh system, which does the same job but has several boxes that can be positioned through your house to ensure a good signal everywhere. The boxes ‘talk’ to each other by wireless. These are known as mesh systems, although some aren’t really a mesh (but I’ll stop there!!)
Mike
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I have the same issue with virgin, speed good but wifi coverage really poor and always dropping off.
Can people explain in VERY basic terms what I can do to improve?
Even “put it in modem mode and attach your own router” is too complicated for me ,..can anyone recommend a router and what else I need?
Nothing is ever simple, but I did this at the weekend.
I had bought a two box Asus mesh router. Tick
VM router - put 192.168.0.1 in your browser. Gets you to the VM router software. The password is written on the bottom of the router. Mine is 8 digits in a small white box on the sticker. There is a fairly obvious button marked Modem mode when you are in.
Network cable from port 1 on the VM router (now a modem) to WAN port on your new router
The Asus router was a bit of a PITA, and asked a difficult question about DHCP vs PPPoE . I put DHCP and nothing has exploded.
I needed an app on my phone to talk bluetooth to the router until it was set up. glitchy.
Then... turn everything off. Turn on VM modem. Wait. Turn on new router.
Internet molished
Note the new set up address for the VM modem is 192.168.100.1 - if you need to switch it back. Or poking a paper clip down the reset button for 15 seconds should do it.
The VM wifi is still present it seems. Also Virgin TV internet connection still goes to the back of the VM modem
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If you don't have special requirements (I do, everyone says I'm very special), the Deco M5 was simply a case of download the app to your phone, plug one of the nodes into a spare ethernet socket on the router, position the other nodes, and follow the instructions on your phone.
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I've been helping my neighbour on and off for the last few months to get his Ubiquiti home networking setup working with Virgin Media (and the thing stuck in modem mode) as the network provider.
Sheesh. Talk about overkill. Cloudkeys. Security Gateways. He's got about 8 switches with POE flying everywhere, 4 or 5 security cameras (which is the main reason for it all), 5 or 6 wireless base stations, and even a switch in a waterproof box outside for his outside wifi antenna and another camera.
And the UI is dense and it makes it very easy to screw up something by enabling some random property "Enable Jumbo Frames on 2.4GHz VLAN side channel frobnitz: Yes / No" with helpful tooltips that generally just repeat the same thing but slightly paraphrased.
I've got a BT home hub and one extra wifi disc (and I only use that because they sent it to me for free). I've got a single port forwarded to a bastion host to get into my network from the outside, and the Homehub does dyndns with no-ip.com. Don't need anything else.
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If they want to have a complex setup like the one you describe, then they kinda need to know how to configure and maintain it themselves!
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For simple use, as an 'add-on' network, the Deco couldn't be simpler. You need a smartphone though.
It was a bit more fiddly for me because I wanted to keep my current LAN with the BT homehub as a modem only (and it links to the primary Deco node via a powerline adaptor to escape the dark clutches of the under-the-stairs cupboard) – I have various items with static IPs etc. that I wanted to keep. That said, the biggest challenge was trying to escape the simple configuration wizard, once done it was very straightforward to apply my own settings with the app (a five minute job). It might not appeal to people who know what a 'bastion server' or 'jumbo frames' are though (I don't, ignorance is my co-pilot).
I was very impressed to be honest, I have a dim memory of trying to configure a TP-Link print server once-upon-a-time, which was an evening full of ad-hoc wifi networks and swearing. Also impressed that it just works, I've had perfect wifi ever since, full speed (for FTTC) throughout the house, even with a slightly dubious powerline link.
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We've been using some BT powerline extenders to provide wifi across the house but they're getting quite old now and seem to be very flaky.
Our internet provider is Sky, and we're getting upgraded to Sky Q this week. Apparently, the Sky Q TV box functions also functions as a Wifi extender, which is great because we'll be able to retire the powerline extenders. At least, that's the theory. Knowing my luck, the box won't be able to connect to the router (current box can't connect to current router, probably due to the fat brick fireplace blocking the line of sight). Looking forward to fun and games getting it all set up.
We used to have a selection of Apple Airport (Extreme/Express) devices for our home network and they worked really well but they had to be retired because they became obsolete.
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Honestly, I wish I'd got the bloody wifi mesh thing years ago (ok, they'd probably not been invented or cost a million pounds each), it would saved many hours of effort, months of frustration, and several rants about getting decent wifi throughout this bloody house.
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Honestly, I wish I'd got the bloody wifi mesh thing years ago (ok, they'd probably not been invented or cost a million pounds each), it would saved many hours of effort, months of frustration, and several rants about getting decent wifi throughout this bloody house.
I guess the Airport setup was a mesh, though I don't recall it being called that at the time. The kit was quite pricy but I got it relatively cheaply through ebay. Unfortunately, they stopped supporting them in.... <google> ...2013, so they've been unusable for some time and are now gathering dust in the obsolete tech graveyard.
It looks like much cheaper options are available now. My only concern with the Sky Q setup is that the TV box will want to talk directly to the Sky Q modem/router rather than via an intermediary. You can get a proprietary Sky Q extender but it's £150, which seems a bit steep.
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I don't think Airport was a mesh, I didn't think it had been 'invited' back then?
I have Airport things around a thick walled house, but instead of getting them to extend the network (which halves the bandwidth each time there is an extension) but by Ethernet, as I've used every opportunity to run cable around, when builders or I were rummaging around.
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I think there's some argument about what a 'proper mesh' is, but basically, the nodes just talk to each other rather than a central hub. So the one in my office is talking to the one in the bedroom upstairs, which is talking to primary node in the living room (that then links via a powerline adaptor to the cupboard under the stairs where the BT homehub has been confined, for its sins, in modem-only mode).
The downside, of course, is that the mesh nodes have to use up bandwidth to talk to each other (like extenders). But there's no shortage in most home scenarios. Three nodes cover my house and ensure I get a full signal in every room (and the back garden) and I've not had a single drop out since I installed it.
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I think there's some argument about what a 'proper mesh' is, but basically, the nodes just talk to each other rather than a central hub.
You could set up the Airport devices to resemble a 'mesh' in that there was just one SSID across the network, though as Jaded correctly points out, there was a significant performance loss, which I guess you don't get with modern mesh devices (or at least the performance loss is much, much smaller).
I enquired about installing ethernet when we had the house rewired but the quote from the electrician subcontracted by the builders was ridiculous. Should have taken that as a warning sign really, but that's for another thread.
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Your router often does two jobs:
1. Encodes/Decodes the data going to/from the Internet (known as the Wide Area Network or WAN). That’s the modem part - it allows you to communicate with the outside world.
2. It routes this data to the correct devices in your home - your Local Area Network or LAN. So you can suffer 10 hours of Teams while your kids watch Netflix all day.
I would say four jobs, and would add:-
3. Is the hub that connects all the ethernet cables that you need to connect to the different devices
4. Is the wireless access point that allow connects in the WiFi devices
Until recently, we had all four functions in separate boxes, as Plusnet used to send out a modem and a router that were different boxes. We now have one box that is all four, but there is also a separate hub and a separate wireless access point / hub, so that the wires and the WiFi reach the other rooms better.
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I think there's some argument about what a 'proper mesh' is, but basically, the nodes just talk to each other rather than a central hub.
You could set up the Airport devices to resemble a 'mesh' in that there was just one SSID across the network, though as Jaded correctly points out, there was a significant performance loss, which I guess you don't get with modern mesh devices (or at least the performance loss is much, much smaller).
I enquired about installing ethernet when we had the house rewired but the quote from the electrician subcontracted by the builders was ridiculous. Should have taken that as a warning sign really, but that's for another thread.
When we had the Asbestos Palace rewired the quote for adding ethernet was also very high (I can't remember, but four figures). They couldn't just bodge ethernet cable in the same hole. Who knew? OK, me. It's all wires.
All meshes and extenders have to 'backhaul' – so use up a proportion of bandwidth to communicate with each other. But unless you have super-duper gigabit fibre or somesuch, modern wifi networks are usually sufficient. That said, the more nodes you have, the more bandwidth they'll take for themselves, so more isn't necessarily better. Three nodes cover a decent-sized four-bed detached house in my experience.
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If they want to have a complex setup like the one you describe, then they kinda need to know how to configure and maintain it themselves!
Quite. The Ubiquiti access points are lovely, but they're in the class of things designed for people who know (or are willing to learn) what they're doing, who are willing to put the effort in for something that will do exactly what they need, and quietly keep doing it for as long as nobody fucks with it.
Plug and play it isn't. Other than by the standards of similar non-consumer products.
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When we had the Asbestos Palace rewired the quote for adding ethernet was also very high (I can't remember, but four figures). They couldn't just bodge ethernet cable in the same hole. Who knew? OK, me. It's all wires.
I think there's something in the regs about power and non-power wiring not sharing conduit, holes through joists and similar (and it's probably bad practice to run certain types of data alongside power for interference reasons). Given that electrical work is about 10% knowing what you're doing, 40% woodwork and 50% dust and spiders, it's not surprising that it multiplies the cost.
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I think there's some argument about what a 'proper mesh' is, but basically, the nodes just talk to each other rather than a central hub. So the one in my office is talking to the one in the bedroom upstairs, which is talking to primary node in the living room (that then links via a powerline adaptor to the cupboard under the stairs where the BT homehub has been confined, for its sins, in modem-only mode).
The downside, of course, is that the mesh nodes have to use up bandwidth to talk to each other (like extenders). But there's no shortage in most home scenarios. Three nodes cover my house and ensure I get a full signal in every room (and the back garden) and I've not had a single drop out since I installed it.
Yes, mesh allows the nodes to comunicate through each other, with multiple possible routes, to get back to the router/wan/lan connections.
The better current kit uses three bands, allowing one (5GHz) band to be dedicated for 'backhaul'. It's impressively fast - my asus kit is much faster than my broadband connection or my NAS drive. OTOH that allows anything and everything to work concurrently.
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Wot Jaded said. I've got a (wired) Airport Express, purchased for box-tops from the Bay of Thieves, in the kitchen for channelling Musical Tunes thereto. I ent averse to running cables around skirting boards, which helps.
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If they want to have a complex setup like the one you describe, then they kinda need to know how to configure and maintain it themselves!
Quite. The Ubiquiti access points are lovely, but they're in the class of things designed for people who know (or are willing to learn) what they're doing, who are willing to put the effort in for something that will do exactly what they need, and quietly keep doing it for as long as nobody fucks with it.
Indeed, but it keeps me in the occasional beer and also helps neighbourly relations.
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I think there's some argument about what a 'proper mesh' is, but basically, the nodes just talk to each other rather than a central hub. So the one in my office is talking to the one in the bedroom upstairs, which is talking to primary node in the living room (that then links via a powerline adaptor to the cupboard under the stairs where the BT homehub has been confined, for its sins, in modem-only mode).
The downside, of course, is that the mesh nodes have to use up bandwidth to talk to each other (like extenders). But there's no shortage in most home scenarios. Three nodes cover my house and ensure I get a full signal in every room (and the back garden) and I've not had a single drop out since I installed it.
Yes, mesh allows the nodes to comunicate through each other, with multiple possible routes, to get back to the router/wan/lan connections.
The better current kit uses three bands, allowing one (5GHz) band to be dedicated for 'backhaul'. It's impressively fast - my asus kit is much faster than my broadband connection or my NAS drive. OTOH that allows anything and everything to work concurrently.
The price differentials mostly seem to revolve around the number of radios and whether or not there's a dedicated one for the backhaul. Some also let you use wired connection, though that seems a little self-defeating unless you're just using the node for roaming devices.
For a non-fibre connection, the basic stuff seems to work. I get around 867 Mbps wireless and full speed internets on every connected device that supports that speed (some of the older kit only does 300 Mbps).
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Honestly, I wish I'd got the bloody wifi mesh thing years ago (ok, they'd probably not been invented or cost a million pounds each), it would saved many hours of effort, months of frustration, and several rants about getting decent wifi throughout this bloody house.
I wonder what the max distance it can cover is? The Sonos mesh I have can reach the shed some 30m away down the garden. It would be perfect if the Deco could do the same, and I could retire the powerline adaptors.
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Given that electrical work is about 10% knowing what you're doing, 40% woodwork and 50% dust and spiders, it's not surprising that it multiplies the cost.
Yeah, the builders told us they would have to chase new conduits into the walls separate to the power lines, and I guess that's what accounted for most of the extra cost rather than the wiring itself. Even so, it was excessively high.
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Given that electrical work is about 10% knowing what you're doing, 40% woodwork and 50% dust and spiders, it's not surprising that it multiplies the cost.
Yeah, the builders told us they would have to chase new conduits into the walls separate to the power lines, and I guess that's what accounted for most of the extra cost rather than the wiring itself. Even so, it was excessively high.
Yes, they told us it couldn't go into the same conduits. It would be like mixing up tagliatelle and spaghetti in the same meal. Plus I think they added more just because it's computers innit.
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When we had the Asbestos Palace rewired the quote for adding ethernet was also very high (I can't remember, but four figures). They couldn't just bodge ethernet cable in the same hole. Who knew? OK, me. It's all wires.
I think there's something in the regs about power and non-power wiring not sharing conduit, holes through joists and similar (and it's probably bad practice to run certain types of data alongside power for interference reasons). Given that electrical work is about 10% knowing what you're doing, 40% woodwork and 50% dust and spiders, it's not surprising that it multiplies the cost.
Does this mean that now I've relocated various bits of networky hardware to a cupboard, with the power and network cables going through the same 'ole, disgraced former International Development minister Piggi Patel can sent her Arrest-o-Bots round with 14lb hammers ;)
The 'ole was there long before the hardware, BTW.
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I hope not, in case she sees what's going on under our bathroom floor. Fortunately, the non-compliant wire-stuffing is well protected by spiders.
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Honestly, I wish I'd got the bloody wifi mesh thing years ago (ok, they'd probably not been invented or cost a million pounds each), it would saved many hours of effort, months of frustration, and several rants about getting decent wifi throughout this bloody house.
I wonder what the max distance it can cover is? The Sonos mesh I have can reach the shed some 30m away down the garden. It would be perfect if the Deco could do the same, and I could retire the powerline adaptors.
I only tried briefly, but I didn't have much luck with the Sonos using the mesh (admittedly, this was 20 minutes of research). It could have been down to the powerline adaptor which they don't recommend. It's all very timing signal sensitive.
For that matter I didn't have much luck with Sonos as its own mesh either. It currently lives on a Boost (it's own wireless network) for now (I still can't get all the speakers simultaneously, but other than for educational value, I don't really need that and I got bored jigging things around).
Sonos doesn't always like extenders (it did work with the Deco M5, but wasn't especially stable). Note that Sonos only uses 2.4 GHz.
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The rules about mains and low cables sharing conduit or holes is for safety. All the cables should be rated to the highest voltage present. Having mains appear on an ethernet plug can spoil your day.
If cables are pulled through conduit or holes, one can give a friction burn to the other. A sharp object could pierce both cables.
One house I owned had a live skirting board nail for a decade or so due to a nail going through into a hole which contained five 2.5 mm2 T&E cables. It wasn't found until I needed to move some of the T&E cables, but then people don't go around touching skirting board nails very often. Had it contacted a low voltage cable, that could have made something else live.
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We once stayed in a house in France that had a live wall - our parents, for I was a wee one at the time, spent a long weekend keeping us on the other side of the kitchen. There were also electrical storms outside I believe.
The electricians came on the Monday and made the problem go away.
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I have an ongoing dispute with Virgin. Unfortunately they are the only show in town as far as I'm concerned, even though there's a "Citifibre" cable going past my front gate. The connection is fine, but I was paying too much for it (£88 a month for 250Mb, some TV package that we never use, and free calls of up to an hour in duration). I wanted to ditch the TV and change the phone to VOIP. Virgin don't do VOIP. I decided to go for one of their "Oomph" packages - 350Mb straight with no TV or phone line for £56. Then the retention team got involved and offered me what I had before for £44. They sent me a contract tying me in until Jan 2022 but are buggering me about with charges, and when I have a look at my account, they still haven't got it right.
I had a look at Andrews & Arnold but they reckoned the fastest connection they could offer me was 9Mb.
My dispute with Virgin celebrated its first birthday yesterday.
Actually, that's not quite true. The contract they have failed to honour celebrated its first birthday yesterday. The dispute is slightly less advanced in age, but it's old enough for them to have been referred to the "ombudsperson" (cisas@cedr.com), to have been found at fault, to have written to me accepting that they are at fault, and to have done nothing in the intervening 5 weeks to rectify the faults.
In a nutshell, my contract states that for £44 a month, I will receive:-
unlimited broadband at 350mb
free mobile phone sim with unlimited 4G, calls and texts
a landline offering free evening and weekend calls
a TV package that I'm not interested in.
They have failed to connect the landline and, because they have failed to connect the landline, they decided I wasn't sticking to the contract and started charging me for my mobile phone use.
I have never known a company so utterly useless at delivering its core business.
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I was a happy user of Virgin Media (originally Telewest when I started about 20 years ago). Then it was flogged off to Liberty Global, a US company, since when the rate of price increase was exceeded only by the rate of deterioration in the level of service. I eventually gave up when they "lost" my email address for nearly a month.
Seems standard practice for US companies, in order to maximise short term profits.
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Been with SKY for 8 years. Got it because it was the best deal around back then. Have had 1-2 drops of service per year since. One drop because the postman knocked on the door, dog went mental, fell of sofa of pulled the cable out, which damaged the cable and I had to run and get new between meetings.
Area got flooded on 2.4Ghz that WiFi was unusable, even with daily channel hopping. Called up SKY to see what we could do. They said new router with 5Ghz should do, which it did, oh btw you can get fibre for less, so you want it? So our bill, only phone and internet, dropped to about £25 a month. For about 45 down and 5 up.
Oh yes we had some low speed and random drops about 3 years ago and it was a thing in the green box down the hill that was broken, SKY.gave us a free month for that issue.
I've asked them a question online via twitter and it took a week to answer, where they are keen at showing they are on social media they aren't the best with dealing with issues on social media.
Our contract came up in April I called and talked to them and got a new deal £18.50 a month. After I said I've been with you for long and it's silly that new users get better deals and it's cheaper to have a telly option on top of phone and internet.
Same speed as above and plenty for two to stream meetings etc at the same time.
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Been with SKY for 8 years. Got it becyit was the best deal around back then. Have had 1-2 drops of service per year since. One drop because the postman knocked on the door, dog went mental, fell of sofa of pulled the cable out, whic damago the cable and I had to run and get new between meetings.
That sounded like the setup for the old "dog barks before the phone rings" urban legend for a minute.
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I have an ongoing dispute with Virgin. Unfortunately they are the only show in town as far as I'm concerned, even though there's a "Citifibre" cable going past my front gate. The connection is fine, but I was paying too much for it (£88 a month for 250Mb, some TV package that we never use, and free calls of up to an hour in duration). I wanted to ditch the TV and change the phone to VOIP. Virgin don't do VOIP. I decided to go for one of their "Oomph" packages - 350Mb straight with no TV or phone line for £56. Then the retention team got involved and offered me what I had before for £44. They sent me a contract tying me in until Jan 2022 but are buggering me about with charges, and when I have a look at my account, they still haven't got it right.
I had a look at Andrews & Arnold but they reckoned the fastest connection they could offer me was 9Mb.
My dispute with Virgin celebrated its first birthday yesterday.
Actually, that's not quite true. The contract they have failed to honour celebrated its first birthday yesterday. The dispute is slightly less advanced in age, but it's old enough for them to have been referred to the "ombudsperson" (cisas@cedr.com), to have been found at fault, to have written to me accepting that they are at fault, and to have done nothing in the intervening 5 weeks to rectify the faults.
In a nutshell, my contract states that for £44 a month, I will receive:-
unlimited broadband at 350mb
free mobile phone sim with unlimited 4G, calls and texts
a landline offering free evening and weekend calls
a TV package that I'm not interested in.
They have failed to connect the landline and, because they have failed to connect the landline, they decided I wasn't sticking to the contract and started charging me for my mobile phone use.
I have never known a company so utterly useless at delivering its core business.
This is still dragging on. CEDR seem to be pretty much as useless as Virgin. I can see the dispute ending up in the small claims court.
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I've been with BT since forever. I had a number of disputes with them several years ago which resulted in some very low subscriptions. I've been on FTTP since 2016, and now have 300 down/50 up for about £30. The line will currently support 900 down, but at silly money - and I can't (yet) think of any reason to need it. They moved me to VOIP for the landline a few months ago, with a free (and quite good) phone, so the scam callers are at a rather better quality of sound than they once were.
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I've been with BT since forever. I had a number of disputes with them several years ago which resulted in some very low subscriptions. I've been on FTTP since 2016, and now have 300 down/50 up for about £30. The line will currently support 900 down, but at silly money - and I can't (yet) think of any reason to need it. They moved me to VOIP for the landline a few months ago, with a free (and quite good) phone, so the scam callers are at a rather better quality of sound than they once were.
A move to BT would reduce my bandwidth to something derisory, according to Andrews & Arnold, else I would be there like a shot.
Edit: I just checked.
New Home::1 ADSL up to 11.5Mb/s
ADSL service with forecast download sync speed of 6.7-11.5Mb/s from £35/month for 500GB/month, including line rental
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Have you checked Cityfibre? It is available from Vodafone Gigafast.
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Have you checked Cityfibre? It is available from Vodafone Gigafast.
Not available to us yet, despite a cable being laid 2 years ago which meant that we could not get into the house.
My latest entry into the ongoing dispute:
I telephoned CEDR again this morning to find out why the case had - yet again - been closed. Again, I had not been consulted. I was quite dissatisfied with the conversation and the person I spoke to was quite rude.
The current financial situation is that Virgin have charged me £26 for my mobile phone for four consecutive months (1st July, 2nd August, 31st August, 1st October), a total of £104. For my television, internet and landline account, as mentioned previously I was charged £62.12 on 23rd September and for the next bill, Virgin have projected a charge of £47.35. This is a total of £108.47, an overcharge of £20.47.
So Virgin currently owe me £124.47. Please ensure that they refund this money to my account forthwith.
Virgin need to link my mobile to the main Virgin Media account so that my SIM is included within the £44 that I am supposed to be charged each month. I have forgotten how many times I have had to repeat this request.
This brings us to Virgin’s non-compliance with the contract that they and I agreed on 27th July 2020, and CISAS’s dealing with this. CISAS describes itself as a “Disputes Resolution Service”. Yet according to Zak Lutaya, the person I spoke to this morning, your modus operandi is to set a “legally binding” demand to Virgin with a deadline, and when that deadline expires, you assume, without checking with either Virgin or myself, that they have complied with your demand and close the case. Virgin, of course, ignore you and you then raise another “legally binding” demand and close the case when the deadline expires.
As I pointed out to Mr. Lutaya, these demands are not legally binding if there is no sanction for non-compliance. Your “disputes resolution service” is no such thing when you do not treat the two parties equally: you are not resolving this dispute - you are putting the entire onus upon me to continue to chivvy Virgin via yourselves.
I now put you on notice that if, in a fortnight’s time, i.e. 19th October 2021, this dispute is not fully resolved to my satisfaction, I shall be taking it to the small claims court for compensation and I will be reporting CEDR to Trading Standards because you are not a “disputes resolution service” at all. You are merely a toothless buffer, an extra layer of bureaucracy between the dissatisfied customer and a grossly incompetent and inefficient company.
Yours faithfully,
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The rules about mains and low cables sharing conduit or holes is for safety. All the cables should be rated to the highest voltage present. Having mains appear on an ethernet plug can spoil your day.
If cables are pulled through conduit or holes, one can give a friction burn to the other. A sharp object could pierce both cables.
One house I owned had a live skirting board nail for a decade or so due to a nail going through into a hole which contained five 2.5 mm2 T&E cables. It wasn't found until I needed to move some of the T&E cables, but then people don't go around touching skirting board nails very often. Had it contacted a low voltage cable, that could have made something else live.
Hmmm, that probably explains why our electrical contractors at work keep referring to fibre as "low voltage" and seem to think that putting Cat-6 in a plastic conduit makes it OK to run it next to a 60A power cable.
If you absolutely can't avoid running power and ethernet together, you can use shielded cable/patch panels/modules. They're more expensive and fiddly but the cost might be worth it if the cable runs are horrible.
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An unlocked 4G USB-powered modem does the job and data SIM credit costs no more than monthly broadband subs. Mobile internet modems are sometimes sold as 'mi-fi'. You're not reliant on a house-based modem or an ISP contract, and since it's portable, it can come with you when you leave the house if you want.
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So, Wowbagger, have you heard back from CEDR? Ombuds/regulators are all underfunded, excessively slow and often a complete waste of time. Infuriating, cos it'd be easier to small claims the fuckwits from the start.
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Have you checked Cityfibre? It is available from Vodafone Gigafast.
Not available to us yet, despite a cable being laid 2 years ago which meant that we could not get into the house.
My latest entry into the ongoing dispute:
I telephoned CEDR again this morning to find out why the case had - yet again - been closed. Again, I had not been consulted. I was quite dissatisfied with the conversation and the person I spoke to was quite rude.
The current financial situation is that Virgin have charged me £26 for my mobile phone for four consecutive months (1st July, 2nd August, 31st August, 1st October), a total of £104. For my television, internet and landline account, as mentioned previously I was charged £62.12 on 23rd September and for the next bill, Virgin have projected a charge of £47.35. This is a total of £108.47, an overcharge of £20.47.
So Virgin currently owe me £124.47. Please ensure that they refund this money to my account forthwith.
Virgin need to link my mobile to the main Virgin Media account so that my SIM is included within the £44 that I am supposed to be charged each month. I have forgotten how many times I have had to repeat this request.
This brings us to Virgin’s non-compliance with the contract that they and I agreed on 27th July 2020, and CISAS’s dealing with this. CISAS describes itself as a “Disputes Resolution Service”. Yet according to Zak Lutaya, the person I spoke to this morning, your modus operandi is to set a “legally binding” demand to Virgin with a deadline, and when that deadline expires, you assume, without checking with either Virgin or myself, that they have complied with your demand and close the case. Virgin, of course, ignore you and you then raise another “legally binding” demand and close the case when the deadline expires.
As I pointed out to Mr. Lutaya, these demands are not legally binding if there is no sanction for non-compliance. Your “disputes resolution service” is no such thing when you do not treat the two parties equally: you are not resolving this dispute - you are putting the entire onus upon me to continue to chivvy Virgin via yourselves.
I now put you on notice that if, in a fortnight’s time, i.e. 19th October 2021, this dispute is not fully resolved to my satisfaction, I shall be taking it to the small claims court for compensation and I will be reporting CEDR to Trading Standards because you are not a “disputes resolution service” at all. You are merely a toothless buffer, an extra layer of bureaucracy between the dissatisfied customer and a grossly incompetent and inefficient company.
Yours faithfully,
I have just had an email informing me that a moderator, who was appointed a little before Christmas, has found in my favour in this dispute. Virgin have to refund all the overcharging (currently 7 lots of £26 for my mobile phone and a few other odds & sods for the main bill amounting to about £43 I think, and £150 in compensation for all the time wasted.
I'll believe it when I see the money. They are so incompetent that I don't trust them to pay me the correct amount.
I wish there was a viable alternative to Virgin as a supplier of of internet connection round here. Repeated communication with Andrews & Arnold have indicated that the best we could get from them is about 10Mbps. We are getting 420Mbps from Virgin.
My contract ends on 26th January. I shall be taking my mobile phone elsewhere I think, and just having a data-only connection with Virgin. We already have our landline supplied by Virtual Landline, a VOIP organisation, for £7.96 per month.
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Have Cityfibre cocked up if there's a line outside your house yet you can't get it, or is it full already?
Strangely Cityfibre seem to be installed on all the streets surrounding ours but on their website they claim they can't install it due to technical reasons. Not that we really need any faster than we have currently.
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I've been told that the Citifibre cable that was laid in September 2019 was a direct route from somewhere to the Civic Centre.
I've just accepted the ruling. Only then did it tell me that the amount of compensation can be a credit to my account. Given that I want to ditch the bastards, it means I am stuck with them for the foreseeable andd when my existing contract finishes in 3 weeks time, they can jack up the costs so that I end up with buggerall.
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And what do you do that requires better than 10mps?
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Why can't you you just stop the contract and ask for a refund?
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Why can't you you just stop the contract and ask for a refund?
This.
IMNAL, though I'm pretty sure if it's a refund they can't dictate how you spend it, it was always your money, even when they had it. They can't say we''ll give you your money back only if you spend it with us!
If it's compensation, I'm less sure, though it should have been clear what you were accepting.
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Why can't you you just stop the contract and ask for a refund?
Quite possibly I can. I've contacted the arbitration mob (who state that they are not an ombudsperson) to make that point.
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My dog they are a bunch of obfuscating bastards.
I started a Whatsapp chat with Virgin at 8am. They were still insisting that my contract is from August 2021 - Feb 2023, despite the fact that I have just won a dispute against them based on he contract I agreed on 27/7/2020. The chat ended at about 3.30. I didn't get anywhere, other than to learn that the contract they are working to is not the one I agreed to and the one to by which the arbiter's decision was made.
Talk about losing the will to live.
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Time to write to the Graun’s money pages?
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Time to write to the Graun’s money pages?
Not a bad idea. I'll probably do that tomorrow.
Meanwhile, I'm trying to transfer my mobile number using a PAC code. Message back from Virgin: "Sorry we can't give you a PAC code just now. Our team is on hand to help - please give them a call on 789". Have they put my number on a watch list as a prisoner likely to abscond? I haven't got the mental strength to deal with the bastards again today.
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We have just ditched Virgin earlier today. :smug: It took one 10 minute call, after they tried to keep us on with offers etc. Contract will end Mid February and we well have a BT fibre essentials broadband and landline, with our usual number - the one that BT gave to us when we first moved in 50 years ago, plus the extensions, - and we'll have access to BT wi-fi hotspots. A bit cheaper and enough broadband to do what we want now without noticeable slowing down.
Dammit! There goes the home network configuration again. ::-)
Good luck with your exit Wow.
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Do you have a faster non-Virgin connection than we do, Del? Ours is rubbish.
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I don't know if it's helpful, but when I moved into my current house in the sticks 6 years ago, I discovered that Open Reach had laid a fibre mainline not 100m away. I asked for and got an FTTP installation - without charge - while most properties nearby were getting by on a <1mbs 'broadband' copper connection. I have 300mbs reliably just now, with 900mbs available if I wish to pay for it. I have looked at other providers, but pretty much all have said 'max 10mbs' as their fibre maps are way out of date. Even showing them screenshots of speedtest data doesn't persuade them - computer says 'no'.
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We've got a redundant BT fibre "cable" running right through our village. It was intended as a dedicated line for, and indeed initially used by, the new Arla facility down the road, but it proved unreliable (so said the Openreach engineer who visited us last week) so another route was taken. Why we can't get hooked into the old one is anyones guess.
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For mine, they had to install two telegraph poles to fly the cable over the rural A-road that the fibre mainline was under. Fortunately there was a junction box within reasonable distance, but it still must have cost them a packet (probably offset by government grants for rural broadband improvements). Of the 20-odd houses and the pub in the hamlet, only a couple have taken advantage of the FTTP, so I doubt OR are making any profit from it!
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Have a look at Pulse 8 Wow. They have an online speed forecaster, no contract and rates seems to be reasonable. Phone line is included.
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Have a look at Pulse 8 Wow. They have an online speed forecaster, no contract and rates seems to be reasonable. Phone line is included.
Thanks. I phoned them but they can't offer anything better.
I have also looked at my Virgin account again. There is a £393.35 credit in there, but of course they have reinstated my old contract (less mobile). And next week, that contract runs out and the monthly charge goes up to £78 or so. So in 5 months, that credit will be used up.
The question is, should I let them tie me into a new contract at a lower price, which will no doubt last 18 months, at about £50 a month?
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A 4g hub arrived from Three this morning. I plugged it in and turned it on, and it just worked seamlessly. The Wifi access points around the house all work and at the last count we got 41Mbps download and 36 upload speed. We tested it with a Signal call with Kim and we were both agreeably surprised at how well it worked. There will have to be a Zoom call at some point to check that. Our VOIP "landline" seems to work extremely well. I shall have to do a separate review at some point, but as a replacement for the awful Virgin, and for £14 per month for unlimited data, it seems to be very good indeed.
I have switched the Virgin hub off. Interestingly, despite them telling me that my Virgin account had been credited with almost £400 in overcharges and penalties, as well as the contract offering everything at £44 per month having been reinstated, somehow they still managed to lift £54.35 from my account today. There seems to be no connection whatever between the people who have been dealing (or, rather, not dealing) with my complaint and the staff who obfuscate over Whatsapp. Once I have calculated the final figure, I shall write to them this evening in strong terms about what a massive pile of steaming ordure they are, and that I will expect every penny of their overcharging, and the penalties awarded, to find its way into my bank account pdq, and if it doesn't I will take them to court.
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My letter to Virgin:
Dear Miss Brennan,
I acknowledge receipt, via CISAS, of your letter dated 12/1/2022.
Firstly, let me say that, as a letter of apology, it is totally inadequate. You refer to “having let me down on this occasion”, but the occasion to which you refer was a whole litany of errors, omissions, obfuscation, evasion, excuses and untruths lasting for the entire 18 months of the contract which a member of your staff proposed, and I accepted, on 27/7/2020. An apology carries within it a promise to improve, but if anything the behaviour of your staff has deteriorated throughout. I have wasted vast amounts of valuable time in attempting to clarify the situation and make sure that I was charged the correct amount, but although, via CISAS, Virgin paid lip service to doing the right thing, that intention was never conveyed to the staff with whom I had to deal. This would appear to be company policy, so your “apology” is not accepted.
In your letter, you state that there will be £150 in compensation added as a credit, and a refund of £89.70, for which I should allow 2-3 working days. I have checked my bank account and I can categorically state that, 13 days later, no money has been refunded. Even in the face of the CISAS arbitration service, your statements unravel. Your company is entirely untrustworthy.
Furthermore, I was informed last weekend, via WhatsApp, that the amount of money to be refunded/credited to me was £393.35, a figure much closer to my records. I asked your staff member how that figure was arrived at, but whenever I persisted with a question, the member of staff terminated the conversation and handed me over to someone else, which required a very long delay and submitting my security details again. This seems to be standard practice, to wear down the customer into submission. On 15th January I opened a Whatsapp chat at 8am and closed it at 3.30pm, the only useful piece of information that I was able to glean being the amount (but not the breakdown) of what you owe me. (The amount of £393.35 stated in my WhatsApp chat of 15th January at 14:12, by staff member Jeric).
I asked your staff what I would be charged at the end of my existing contract and I was told that it would be £81 per month, and that was the lowest figure that they would be prepared to offer. Yet Virgin does offer contracts at £24.50 for new customers, rising to £44 after 18 months, for 100gb but no phone line or TV connection. This was the package I wanted. Why was I not offered one of these? The answer is quite obvious: Virgin are price-gouging in order that the compensation I have been offered would run out more quickly. This is sharp practice of the worst kind - paying yourselves my compensation.
It is for this reason that I have now cancelled my direct debits and will not be renewing my contract with Virgin, terminating a 25-year relationship with your company. I therefore expect you to refund the £393.35 you owe me to be transferred to my bank account, since a large percentage of that money consists of the amounts you overcharged me. I expect that money to arrive in my account no later than Tuesday 15th February, three weeks from the date of this letter. If it does not, then I will pursue Virgin through the courts.
Yours sincerely,
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you missed the bit at the end: "In that event I shall hold you entirely liable for any additional costs incurred. Legal action will be instigated without any further notification. this is my last letter before action."
;)
Best of luck
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Not sure if this is relevant
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/01/virgin-media-is-actively-offering-customers-discounts-which-unde/?utm_source=MSE_Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=25-Jan-22-d092d8c6e324e04a071-61f072e50dbc60a163cef6688e128cb1&source=CRM-MSETIP-d092d8c6e324e04a071&utm_campaign=nt-hiya&utm_content=9
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Yes, I think it is very relevant. A neighbour did similar - just told them flat he wasn't paying more than £25 for a 100Mb broadband only service. The difference with me is that they are price-gouging so that they can recoup all the money that they owe me more quickly. Whilst that is going on, I'm a captive unless I make a clean break now.
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Do you have a faster non-Virgin connection than we do, Del? Ours is rubbish.
Not sure yet Wow it gets installed this Friday. However it is the cheapest option so I am not expecting anything over 30Mb/s. I do not yet think BT fibre has made it here yet, although it has got to Fairfax Drive I think. Current VM connection is 100Mb/s
Hub arrived earlier and I set it up so I'll be connecting with it as soon as the BT eng. has left.
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I had a reply to the email I sent on the previous page. Apparently, it's the OFCOM standard that refunds and compensation are added to the account to pay future bills. There was no answer as to why Virgin had taken >£54 from my bank account AFTER crediting my Virgin account with £393.35. However, where the account has been closed, then there will be a refund paid. However, it seems there is a Special Process required to close one's Virgin account: simply writing a really snotty letter telling them you want them to close your account and that you have already cancelled the direct debits isn't good enough.
I'll be very interested in your connection, Del. Our new SIM-based router is variable in speed, but mostly perfectly adequate for our purposes. I have found that there are antennae which ought to boost it a bit, and they are only £10, so I ordered a pair today and that nice Mr. Bezos has agreed to deliver them personally tomorrow, via rocket.
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I'll be very interested in your connection, Del.
I shall endeavour to keep you updated.
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I'm in the Special Process to cancel my account. I was on hold for almost half an hour and now a guy with a Welsh accent and a terrible phone line - so bad that I'm struggling to understand him - is taking ages to cancel my contract. Although it seems to be done now.
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The antennae arrived around 4pm whilst I was out for my constitutional. I fitted them when I got back.
Yesterday, I noticed a significant drop in speed around the time kids were coming out of school and others were on the move for one reason or another. Today, just around the time that I fitted them to the router, everything seemed to slow down. I'm not certain that the antennae will make any difference at all.
Ours is only a 4G connection. I could, at £40 per month, get an EE 5G connection giving me 200GB per month. My phone has a 5G EE SIM and out of doors I can easily get speeds of 200Mbps. It rather begs the question of why we are allowing so much disruption all over the place with Cityfibre digging trenches everywhere. There must be very few applications, domestically at least, where such speeds are necessary.
The router's own access point gave me an average download speed of 40Mbps for 20 tests taken at random times between 10.15am and 7pm. The upload speed was generally better than I would have expected. It would not surprise me in the slightest if, long before our 2-year contract is up, we are offered a 5G upgrade. I know there was a planning application for a mast less than half a mile from our house but I don't know what the outcome was. There was a petition doing the rounds, trying to stop it.
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I'm not certain that the antennae will make any difference at all.
If the signal's good enough without them, they probably won't.
Network congestion is independent of RF signal strength/quality.
It rather begs the question of why we are allowing so much disruption all over the place with Cityfibre digging trenches everywhere. There must be very few applications, domestically at least, where such speeds are necessary.
There's only so much radio spectrum, and if everyone tries to use it for everything, it won't be sufficient. The work-around for that is to have more, smaller cells so you can re-use the same frequencies. Which means you'd need to dig trenches to run fibre to all those cell sites.
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Morning Wow,
BT Kelly Communications/Openreach have been, connected and gone in about 30 minutes.
Speeds are:
Ping 11ms, Download 36.92Mb/s and Upload 9.07Mb/s.
Compared with soon to be gone VM:
Ping 16ms, Download 100.49Mb/s and Upload 9.30Mb/s
Although we now have a BT service the telephone line is in actuality VOIP. It works now when calling out but if we dial into the home phone number, which is still with VM, it is the VM phone that rings and will probably remain that way until mid February when our contract runs out with them (we cancelled the direct debit so if they want more money they will have to ask nicely).
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Sounds good. Much faster than we would get here in East Street. We have a neighbours' Whatsapp group. Most of us have a Virgin connection and pretty well everyone is dissatisfied with them.
There is a minor issue with the Three mobile hub we've got. It seems that the Smut Filter is turned on by default wit their SIMs. The account is in Jan's name and it seems the account holder has to make contact with them in order to turn it off. I asked Dez about it as well.
This brings an entirely unexpected meaning to the expression "Parental Control". ;D
Edit: re phone number transfer, when I left Virgin for EE on my mobile, there was short time - maybe a couple of hours - after I'd activated my PAC code in which I could phone out on the new sim but incoming calls were still being received by the old one.
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Parental control n. Feature for preventing your parents installing malware on their computer, being radicalised by Fox News, etc.
Meanwhile, barakta's been suffering a nasty case of Hearing People's Crap Internet™ (https://www.bslzone.co.uk/watch/two-deaf-yorkshiremen-in-lockdown) this morning. Her poor student's connection was so terrible that it couldn't maintain a Teams call, even with all the video turned off (I eyeballed it at something of the order of 100kbps symmetric for audio-only). Hard to work with at the best of times, but for bonus points the captioner hadn't turned up, and the student's situation was sufficiently fraught that they ended up crying at one point. :(
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The new VOIP connection is now fully functional in receiving and sending calls on our "landline" number. Now that we have VOIP when Chris, our local energy advisor, calls now we can block his number(s).
Still have VM broadband although we only have it connected on one machine.
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Do you have the capacity to block the number or do you have to ask the service provider to do so? It's the latter in our case, unfortunately. It actually means speaking to someone to get them to do it.
Apparently the Virgin retentions team called yesterday. Jan took the call as I was in the bog at the time. I'm quite looking forward to them phoning back. I wonder quite how low a price they will offer.
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Do you have the capacity to block the number or do you have to ask the service provider to do so? It's the latter in our case, unfortunately. It actually means speaking to someone to get them to do it.
BT have their own list of numbers* but if one does get through then we have a nuke them button that sends them to the Hell of the Un-listened to Voicemail Service. Which you can freely access to check if they really are unwanted callers.
I am now considering adding the Alexa portion of the handset so I can ask Alexa to dial out, check the weather and other things. I also have Siri which I do not use but can see the benefits of using both or either.
* I would hope this list is a merge of their customers blocked callers. Maybe it works like this: if enough customers block the same number then BT block it at the exchange end so it does not get too the end user.
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Speed not as good this time but BT say it could be ten days to settle down while they check the connection and do whatever they need to do.
Ping Download Upload
11 ms 21.88 Mb/s 9.08 Mb/s
See if post ten days makes a difference.
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Speed not as good this time but BT say it could be ten days to settle down while they check the connection and do whatever they need to do.
Ping Download Upload
11 ms 21.88 Mb/s 9.08 Mb/s
See if post ten days makes a difference.
... when we finally resolved the BT BB transition when we moved house (same phone number, moved about 1.3km, on the same exchange cluster!) the speed did pick up after a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed.
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Yes, it takes time for the DLM to assess the line performance and tweak the margins accordingly. The important thing is not to switch off / unplug the modem more than absolutely necessary, lest it be perceived as instability.
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Yes, it takes time for the DLM to assess the line performance and tweak the margins accordingly. The important thing is not to switch off / unplug the modem more than absolutely necessary, lest it be perceived as instability.
Does that also apply to SIM-based routers?
I took the router into our bedroom last night, as it has pretty much the clearest view across nearby rooftops to the south. It was a very disappointing connection, under 10Mbps. It's back here now, facing NE and doing OK.
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Yes, it takes time for the DLM to assess the line performance and tweak the margins accordingly. The important thing is not to switch off / unplug the modem more than absolutely necessary, lest it be perceived as instability.
Does that also apply to SIM-based routers?
No, it's an Openreach DSL thing.
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I'm quite restricted in options where I live.
No Virgin Media and all the major players can't guarantee me any more than 10Mb. Thankfully one company, Hyperoptic, provide FTTP and a few 1Gb synchronous connection. Thankfully they have been good in the 4 years I've been with them.
They supply quite a decent Nokia router and support VOIP. With the router positioned in a cupboard in the hall this places it near to the centre of the home thus giving good WiFi coverage and easy access to my CAT5e cabling and patch panel.
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Yes, it takes time for the DLM to assess the line performance and tweak the margins accordingly. The important thing is not to switch off / unplug the modem more than absolutely necessary, lest it be perceived as instability.
Does that also apply to SIM-based routers?
I took the router into our bedroom last night, as it has pretty much the clearest view across nearby rooftops to the south. It was a very disappointing connection, under 10Mbps. It's back here now, facing NE and doing OK.
Adding a decent external aerial can make a big difference. I have one at church about 0.5m per side facing out of a window to the nearest 4G post. Significant increase in signal strength and speed when I did it although I cannot remember the numbers now.
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I haven't been able to identify where the nearest masts are to my house. Presumably this data is available?
I'm not dissatisfied with the speed I'm getting, but a little more would always be nice. I'm not planning to climb a ladder to fit an aerial, and I have a suspicion that, since Three have a planning application to place a 5G mast less than half a mile from my house, to the north of us, such an aerial would be of benefit for a limited time.
My mobile phone, with EE, received a 5G signal. I've just compared the two: 4G hub - 37Mbps. Phone: 94Mbps.
I have just revisited my dispute with Virgin and informed the arbitration service that they haven't complied with the ruling. They were given 20 working days to do so. They haven't refunded any money, and I have told Virgin I no longer wish to continue with their services. I did this in writing via the arbitration service before my contract expired, but the Virgin droid I was dealing with said that it was not possible for me to terminate my contract that way and I had to dial a number. I'm sure, legally, she doesn't have a leg to stand on, but I want shot of the bastards so I did phone them up. The guy I spoke to told me that I had to give 30 days notice. I told him I had already cancelled my DDs.
Since then, I have found this rather useful web page, of which I was hitherto unaware:
https://www.cable.co.uk/broadband/guides/contract-end/
Between 40 and 10 days before a contract is due to end, the service provider should send the customer an "End of Contract" notice. Virgin certainly haven't done this, because of course they had an incorrect set of contract dates in place, which they had to alter retrospectively. I shall speak to my bank in the morning and double-check that no more money will be paid to Virgin.
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I haven't been able to identify where the nearest masts are to my house. Presumably this data is available?
Opensignal
https://www.opensignal.com/apps
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There were some rather dodgy/jerky/pixellated moments just then when I was watching live rugby and Jan was watching iplayer. But it was by no means intolerable. if push comes to shove, Jan has unlimited data on her phone and can use a hotspot. I have enough data on mine that I probably could as well.
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Do you have the capacity to block the number or do you have to ask the service provider to do so? It's the latter in our case, unfortunately. It actually means speaking to someone to get them to do it.
Apparently the Virgin retentions team called yesterday. Jan took the call as I was in the bog at the time. I'm quite looking forward to them phoning back. I wonder quite how low a price they will offer.
I have received a cheque for £312.35 - £81 short of the total Virgin owe me. The £81 is what they said my bill would go up to at the end of my contract*, but I never accepted a new contract and told then I wouldn't. Furthermore, according to a website I was looking at (I think official - will have to find it again) telecommunications companies are now, as a result of some regulation introduced in 2021, obliged to let customers know when their contracts are about to expire (10 to 40 days' notice) to give them the chance of extricating themselves and finding another provider. Virgin failed to give me the prerequisite notice, almost certainly because they had unilaterally ripped up the contract I had agreed and imposed one that I hadn't.
Unless I receive an undertaking by 15th Feb (the date I originally set) for the repayment of the owed amount, then it's off to the small claims court I go.
*I told them that I only wanted 100Mb broadband with no frills. The price of that is £24.50 for new customers, rising to £44 after 18 months. They could have offered me £44 per month, but refused to do so.
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https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/features-and-news/firms-must-tell-you-about-best-deals
Broadband, phone and pay-TV firms must tell you when your contract is coming to an end, and must also tell you about their best available deals, under new rules announced today by Ofcom.
We want you to have choice when it comes to your broadband, phone and TV package, and also want you to be able to get the deal that best suits your needs. You could do this by switching provider or by agreeing a new deal with your current one.
To help you do this, broadband, TV, mobile and home phone companies must now send you information about your contract, when you need it, so you can choose the best package for your needs. These protections are the latest in Ofcom’s Fairness for customers programme.
So two breaches by Virgin: they didn't warn me of the impending end to my contract and they not only failed to let me know of the best deals available to me, but actively concealed the one I specifically asked for!
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Virgin have stated that I can whistle for the extra £81. They happily provided a Bradford address for my claim to be sent, so off it has gone. The total I am claiming is £81 refund, £200 expenses for wasted time and stress, and a£35 court fee. Oh, and interest at 8%. Where else can you get 8% these days?
If there’s any justice, I will win. Even if I don’t, the £35 it has cost me will keep someone employed defending it and it will surely cost Virgin vastly more than the £81 it would have done if they had simply paid up.
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BT update post ten days.
Very happy with the broadband speeds with one caveat: when connecting with the 5Ghz side of the wifi everything is full speed and runs nicely however the signal to this Mac Mini is not strong enough to hold onto the 5Ghz connection and the Mini drops down to the 2.4Ghz signal. The 2.4Ghz isn't full speed and runs at 1/4 to 1/3 speed and is noticeable when streaming. Bizarrely my MacBook Air can connect and hold the 5Ghz signal when it is sitting immediately in front of the Mac Mini (close enough for the lid to hit the Mini) without dropping onto the 2.4Ghz. Since I cannot find a way to force the Mini to connect only to the 5Ghz signal I have turned off the 2.4Ghz at the router.
Current speed report is:
Ping Download Upload
8 ms 35.51 Mb/s 8.89 Mb/s. :thumbsup:
P.S. VM didn't actually close their account at their end so they tried to bill us, with extra services, and we have just spent 44 mins on the phone sorting that out. Meanwhile we await their recycling bags to return their hardware.
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Very happy with the broadband speeds with one caveat: when connecting with the 5Ghz side of the wifi everything is full speed and runs nicely however the signal to this Mac Mini is not strong enough to hold onto the 5Ghz connection and the Mini drops down to the 2.4Ghz signal. The 2.4Ghz isn't full speed and runs at 1/4 to 1/3 speed and is noticeable when streaming. Bizarrely my MacBook Air can connect and hold the 5Ghz signal when it is sitting immediately in front of the Mac Mini (close enough for the lid to hit the Mini) without dropping onto the 2.4Ghz. Since I cannot find a way to force the Mini to connect only to the 5Ghz signal I have turned off the 2.4Ghz at the router.
The standard bodge for that is to run separate SSIDs for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. The downside is that you can't then roam between them.
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Having alternating connections from noticeably glacial to full speed today, I put it down to storm damage somewhere or the tree a few doors down tapping on the phone cable. ::-)
Ping Download Upload
8 ms 5.02 Mb/s 6.91 Mb/s
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I decided to redeploy a pair of rather good Ruark speakers from a room where they weren’t used a lot to the room where my computer resides. The reproduction of some Bach I was listening to via YouTube seemed to be lacking in bytes (or something). I think it’s more likely to be to do with a Bluetooth issue rather than bandwidth, so I have ordered a suitable cable to bridge the gap.
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Both Youtube and Bluetooth audio[1] use codecs that are likely to result in audible artefacts if you listen on decent equipment. Eliminating Bluetooth is a good start.
It's also possible that whoever created that particular video wasn't prudent in their preservation of bits before it got to Youtube.
[1] The Devil's Baby Radio has a confusing mess of standards that I don't really understand, but no doubt the one chosen by any arbitrary pairing will be a bit crap.
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I now have a cable, with a jack-plug at either end, and the problem seems to be a thing of the past.
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You know where you are with anbaric string.
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We have two pieces of Virgin kit (modem and TV box) which they told us categorically had to be returned to them. I was sent emails and stuff to state a convenient date for them to collect - from a list provided by them. We opted for last Wednesday, 16th. Jan was in all day. No-one called. The items of kit are still in side our front door awaiting collection. I'm inclined to charge the bastards rent at £10 a day.
Meanwhile, I have received a second demand from a debt collection agency for money (>£200) which it alleged I owe Virgin, but there is no explanation what it's for. I have written to the agency using a tracked delivery service telling them I owe them nothing, that I have "won"* and arbitration dispute agains them and that I am taking them to the small claims court for more of the money they owe. I have no idea whether this will make any difference.
*no-one wins against these bastards: it's a case of trying to reduce one's losses
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Hi Peter,
You might remember that we wrote to you recently with a few questions we've put together about how things went.
We would really appreciate your feedback.
Thank you for returning our equipment.
We’ll get to work on refurbishing it so it’s good as new, ready to use for another customer. It’s all part of our promise to be better for the planet – saving precious resources, materials and energy when we’re manufacturing our products. We would love to get your feedback on the equipment returns process so that we can make improvements where we can.
Based on your recent experience, how likely are you to recommend Virgin Media to a friend or colleague?
Not at all likely Extremely likely
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Virgin Media looks after the data collected and may use it together with information already held about you (e.g. the products you have) to make sure you're getting the products and services you want. This will be shared with the customer service team; however we will never share this information with anyone outside of Virgin Media without your consent. All the information collected is treated in accordance with the Virgin Media and Medallia privacy policies.
Can we help you with anything else? If you need any help or support with your products or services simply visit virginmedia.com/help. Or to get in touch, visit virginmedia.com/contact.
Thanks very much in advance for your help.
Yours sincerely,
The whole team at Virgin Media
Yes. Despite two messages, and two dates, suggested by you and agreed by me for picking up the equipment, it is still waiting for you inside our front door. No-one has been round to collect it. So how you are refurbishing it for future customers remains something of a mystery.
However, none of this surprises me. Virgin has, over the past two years, demonstrated quite clearly that it is a dishonest and dysfunctional organisation that cares not one jot about customer satisfaction or peace of mind and I would recommend anyone who asks to steer well clear.
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Mysteriously - no explanation whatever - I hAve received today a cheque for £16.20 from Virgin Media.
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Professor Larrington rang up Virgin to cancel Stuffs last weekend because her contract is coming to an end and they wanted lots MOAR zlotys when BT could provide higher speeds for less dough. She had to phone 'em because you can’t log into their poxy webshite using a non-Virgin e-email address. The clots cancelled one out of phone/broadband but not the other, probably because the phone hung itself up, so she had to call back the next day to cancel the other half.
Except that this time the more clued-in Virgin minion this time offered MOAR speed than BT for even less wonga, so she than had to cancel the move to BT who, perhaps surprisingly, did not offer their fastest available service for next to nothing.
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As of yesterday, we have a friendly purple cable snaking its way up the telegraph pole outside our house. At some point in the near future we may well have the option of using high-speed Openreach-style internet connections, depending when they switch it on.
We still have about 11 months to go on our £14 per month SIM-based router, which is OK but not wonderful.
The Virgin kit mentioned in my post of 22nd March 2022 is still awaiting collection.
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The Andrews & Arnold website states that, once the Cityfibre broadband is switched on in Southend, Vodaphone will have first dibs on its use for 12 months. This is not whelming. I've heard tales that they are as honest as Virgin are when it comes to internet provision and the honouring of contracts.
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I've been with Vodafone BB for several years now, no issues and, at the time I needed it, good support (from a call centre in Egypt, but understandable and competent).
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OK. That's good to hear. Apparently if I cancel my 2-year contract with Three (11 months to go, £14 a month currently) I still have to pay 97% of the outstanding amount. I wonder if I can use this as a bargaining chip to sign up with Vodaphone for a decent discount, once the cables become live... ?
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Since Mrs R's work stopped providing our broadband we've taken the cheapest deal
First talk talk, 100% reliable, at the stated speed or better, good WiFi coverage from their router.
Now on Vodafone, regular glitches and the WiFi struggles in some corners, definitely inferior to TT.
Sent from my motorola edge 20 using Tapatalk
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I confess to not using the Vodafone (or any other providers) router, that just feeds the Deco mesh base, and I have 2 others, one upstairs and one 100ft away in the shed. As for service outages, we’ve had a few, lasting no longer than 10 minutes and usually a lot less. But I’d wager that’s down to Openreach rather than Vodafone.
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My BT FTTP broadband is due for contract renewal on 6th May.
Wanna carry on with the current 150Mbs and EDIT: digital landline deal - and initially there appears to be lots of choice cheaper than the current £43.70/month
I've trawled most of the comparison sites and no other company can or will offer FTTP broadband and phone line to my property, after going through SEE THE DEAL process.
Can't understand why?
Openreach successfully connected the FTTP 2 years ago and it's been great.
There is no mobile signal here, if that's a possible reason? (like not able to have a Smart leccy meter)
It appears BT have a monopoly?
Any ideas folks?
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Could this be Openreach not taking orders for new POTS lines at your exchange, perhaps? Renewing the contract with your current retailer wouldn't create a new order.
The workaround would be VOIP, which you'll need to switch to eventually.
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I need to rant! Broadband (VM) went down this afternoon. I rang tech support to ask if there was an issue in the area (I actually asked 2 or 3 times as that's normally the case). He said not so we proceeded on a 1-hour diagnostic session including rebooting the modem 3 times and eventually doing a factory reset, all to no avail.
30m later I started getting a connection but at snail speeds - i.e. 1mbps down and 0.005 up. So I rang back and was told, yes, there is a problem in your area and the engineers will have it fixed in - 2 weeks.
An hour of my life I'll not be getting back and at a very bad time - I had a lot of work on.
******* *****
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Cityfibre still not turned on here.
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My BT FTTP broadband is due for contract renewal on 6th May.
Wanna carry on with the current 150Mbs and EDIT: digital landline deal - and initially there appears to be lots of choice cheaper than the current £43.70/month
I've trawled most of the comparison sites and no other company can or will offer FTTP broadband and phone line to my property, after going through SEE THE DEAL process.
Can't understand why?
Openreach successfully connected the FTTP 2 years ago and it's been great.
There is no mobile signal here, if that's a possible reason? (like not able to have a Smart leccy meter)
It appears BT have a monopoly?
Any ideas folks?
Maybe you need your road dug up?
Was with Talktalk in the Dido days. It was ok (10Mbps)until it wasn’t and then it was a nightmare.
Then Openreach dug up the road and ran fibre cables to the house, so we went BT and get comfortable 50Mbps, we could get faster if we paid more. The only other provider available through fibre were EE.
Now another company are digging up the road again. Since our BT contract ends in 6 weeks we will be nicely placed to take advantage of whatever new options appear.
The question is, do we have to have the road dug up every time a new provider appears?
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I am seriously considering going Three 5G home broadband. The 5G speeds here are really good. 200mbs.
Thank god I had my booster
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My BT FTTP broadband is due for contract renewal on 6th May.
Wanna carry on with the current 150Mbs and EDIT: digital landline deal - and initially there appears to be lots of choice cheaper than the current £43.70/month
I've trawled most of the comparison sites and no other company can or will offer FTTP broadband and phone line to my property, after going through SEE THE DEAL process.
Can't understand why?
Openreach successfully connected the FTTP 2 years ago and it's been great.
There is no mobile signal here, if that's a possible reason? (like not able to have a Smart leccy meter)
It appears BT have a monopoly?
Any ideas folks?
Now another company are digging up the road again. Since our BT contract ends in 6 weeks we will be nicely placed to take advantage of whatever new options appear.
The question is, do we have to have the road dug up every time a new provider appears?
The roads around here are being dug up by City Fibre - except when they go on extended vanishing trips and leave piles of crap on the pavements.
My reading of the way City Fibre work is that they work as a 'platform' for a variety of different ISPs - so once the City Fibre service is available at my address (if ever*) I'll have a new choice of providers that don't use OpenReach.
*Reading reviews it seems it could be months between the City Fibre work being completed and the services being offered
They've only dug up the pavement on the other side of our cul de sac, but their modus operandi seems very strange.
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Round here it seems they’re sharing some infrastructure. Gigaclear have been digging up the roads to lay a 10mm’ish duct, but where there are already BT ducts they are connecting to those, so hopefully once the fibre is laid (next year for terminations I believe) it can be shared (Openreach won’t get to us before 2024) or the same ducts used.
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My BT FTTP broadband is due for contract renewal on 6th May.
Wanna carry on with the current 150Mbs and EDIT: digital landline deal - and initially there appears to be lots of choice cheaper than the current £43.70/month
I've trawled most of the comparison sites and no other company can or will offer FTTP broadband and phone line to my property, after going through SEE THE DEAL process.
Can't understand why?
Openreach successfully connected the FTTP 2 years ago and it's been great.
There is no mobile signal here, if that's a possible reason? (like not able to have a Smart leccy meter)
It appears BT have a monopoly?
Any ideas folks?
Now another company are digging up the road again. Since our BT contract ends in 6 weeks we will be nicely placed to take advantage of whatever new options appear.
The question is, do we have to have the road dug up every time a new provider appears?
The roads around here are being dug up by City Fibre - except when they go on extended vanishing trips and leave piles of crap on the pavements.
My reading of the way City Fibre work is that they work as a 'platform' for a variety of different ISPs - so once the City Fibre service is available at my address (if ever*) I'll have a new choice of providers that don't use OpenReach.
*Reading reviews it seems it could be months between the City Fibre work being completed and the services being offered
They've only dug up the pavement on the other side of our cul de sac, but their modus operandi seems very strange.
Must say the contractors doing our road have been a model of efficiency (Heneghan). Of course there has been some inconvenience but the work was done remarkably quickly and everything left tidy. What benefit it gives us I don't know yet.
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Talktalk contract is up in 30 days. Going to go Three 5g. It's £20, and it's 150-300mbs download speed (upload is a bit slower than fibre)
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Talktalk contract is up in 30 days. Going to go Three 5g. It's £20, and it's 150-300mbs download speed (upload is a bit slower than fibre)
It's going to be very tempting later this month.
Reports on your experience will be much appreciated
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Do you have a 5g phone, on Three? Check coverage
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Do you have a 5g phone, on Three? Check coverage
And don’t trust the suppliers coverage map. We’ve apparently got “good inside and out” coverage. I get 1 bar indoors.
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Well, I've pulled the trigger on Three.
Talk talk have just bumped their price up to £31 a month for this:
(https://i.ibb.co/ncT47jd/Screenshot-20230403-162736-Samsung-Internet.jpg) (https://ibb.co/C7q4bQC)
Three will work out at £15 a month for this (assuming 5g speeds via their 5g hub are the same as on my mobile):
(https://i.ibb.co/xDBtmSg/Screenshot-20230403-162446-Samsung-Internet.jpg) (https://ibb.co/9N1kw94)
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No 5g here yet, otherwise I’d have switched already. BT’s latest round of price rises has led to ‘negotiations’…
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Funnily enough, when I phoned Talktalk the price suddenly dropped from £31 a month to £26.
It's weird though, in the grand scheme of things it's a very minor cost, especially when compared to energy or water, or council tax.
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Scoping out alternatives to BT following their huge price hike - was about to jump to PlusNet when I saw the posts about Three, but I can't even get past the idiotic postal address finder on the website, so I'm out on that one. Used to be with them on PAYG until they hiked all their prices by 400% to get rid of low spenders, and their web site and app were rubbish then.
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The postal address finder foxed me fir a moment. I had to put in first two lines of address.
What I would say is if you have a 5g phone, switch off WiFi and do a speedtest before you bother doing anything else
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We now have the option of City Fibre, it having been turned on last week. Several of my neighbours are already ditching Virgin. I had a look at the video explaining how it works, and there's a bit of an issue in the room where all our networking stuff is kept and that is a shortage of suitable power points. We are due to get this room decorated soon and that will involve lining the walls with damp-proof plaster board. I will also get them to put in some more power points, but that's non-trivial because it's a concrete floor - the rest of the house, bar the granny annexe, has floorboards, so the cables will need to be boxed in. So for the time being I think we will stick with our £14 per month Three 4g deal and hopefully get the decorating done in time for its second anniversary next January, and switch providers then.
Of course, if Three upgrade to 5g some time soon, then we might stay put, depending on the speed.
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Depending upon the existing layout Wow it may be possible to spur off an existing outlet to provide the required power point, involving a chase in the wall and some filler. Any existing single outlets can be doubled up. We are waiting for You Fibre to finish the network cabling in town as they seem to provide much better VFM than Virgin, including unlimited 'landline' telephone calls and no price increases during the contract period. They do not provide cable TV. However, they are taking their time about it.
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I assume they're doing the same "ONT must be fitted within $distance of a mains socket" thing as Openreach. Which is daft, because Power-over-Ethernet exists.
(They installed our ONT right next to a socket in the front room - coming perilously close to drilling through a load of mains wiring in the process. However, I'm powering it using a PoE splitter (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Splitter-Compliant-Surveillance-5-5x2-1mm-PS5712TG/dp/B08HS4NT13/ref=asc_df_B08HS4NT13/)[1] so it's supplied by the UPS that powers the router and other other kit in another room.)
[1] Disappointingly the ONT doesn't support PoE itself.
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The postal address finder foxed me fir a moment. I had to put in first two lines of address.
What I would say is if you have a 5g phone, switch off WiFi and do a speedtest before you bother doing anything else
Thanks, jumped through the address hoop to be told 'We can't offer Home Broadband at your address right now, but we're busy expanding our network to connect more homes. Check out our Mobile Broadband plans, or try a different address."
This despite the fact we have really good 5G here. I'll try the Speedtest later.
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Maybe your local 5g signal is not from Three?
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Good point! However, their coverage checker (for mobiles) does show our house in the zone, perhaps the home broadband is different.
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Well, it's up and running and it's awesome
(https://i.ibb.co/85tBxSH/Screenshot-20230404-205610-Samsung-Internet.jpg) (https://ibb.co/KqSGs3J)
how to check iphone screen resolution (https://whatsmyscreenresolution.com/)
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Good point! However, their coverage checker (for mobiles) does show our house in the zone, perhaps the home broadband is different.
I can imagine them not wanting to sell it to people if the cell they're in is near capacity. I can also imagine their database not getting updated in a timely manner.
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Couldn't do the 5G thing in the end, so I started the move to Plusnet. Very efficient UK call centre and moving along nicely towards changeover when I had a call from the BT retentions lady in Tyneside. Explained I was moving due to cost, PlusNet was the same package for almost half the price and so she explained they wanted to keep my business at any price and offered a 55% discount for 2 years and a £75 digital cash card. It would have been rude to say no, given this was £1100 saving over the old contract. PlusNet were helpful, cancelled the order and refunded my payment within a few days. As a further bonus, I now have a shiny BT Smart Hub 2, which has pushed my download from 64 to 74Mbps and a stronger wifi signal. Couldn't fault the service of either party.
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Plusnet are owned by BT. Make of that what you will.
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Plusnet are owned by BT. Make of that what you will.
Yes. It wasn't the exact point they started to go downhill, but the decline proceeded apace afterwards. I don't think BT have much input on their day-to-day running, thobut.
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I have to say that we've been with BT since, well, forever. In the last eight years since we moved to the Asbestos Palace it's glitched precisely once and for about an hour. Fortunately, they'd sent me a backup 4G router.
Of course, there must be a bit of BT involved, so the backup router didn't come with any acceptable credentials. And I think when we got the palace plumbed in, they managed to connect a line we didn't have. They fixed this by disconnecting someone else.
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My BT FTTP broadband is due for contract renewal on 6th May.
Wanna carry on with the current 150Mbs and EDIT: digital landline deal - and initially there appears to be lots of choice cheaper than the current £43.70/month
I've trawled most of the comparison sites and no other company can or will offer FTTP broadband and phone line to my property, after going through SEE THE DEAL process.
Can't understand why?
Openreach successfully connected the FTTP 5 years ago and it's been great.
There is no mobile signal here, if that's a possible reason? (like not able to have a Smart leccy meter)
It appears BT have a monopoly?
UPDATE: It seems that either BT or Openreach will not allow any other companies whatsoever to make use of the FTTP at my property. I've spoken directly to all the usual alternative providers who show up on various comparison sites - and they all say they can't access the Openreach infrastructure. On the Openreach website they say they share their stuff with all the providers I've tried. Something fishy goin' down methinks ☹️ Bastards!
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Have you tried AAISP? They have Shaun The BT Slayer and others who are skilled in getting sense out of our-favourite-telco well beyond the point where other retailers would give up. If nothing else they might be able to work out what's going on...
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Have you tried AAISP? They have Shaun The BT Slayer and others who are skilled in getting sense out of our-favourite-telco well beyond the point where other retailers would give up. If nothing else they might be able to work out what's going on...
Thanks Kim. Just tried and got as far as -
"Sorry, we cannot offer broadband services at your location"
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You could try emailing sales@aa.net.uk and see if a human can get any further.
Sounds like Openreach have cocked something up in their database or something.
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Ta again Kim - good suggestion - trying to involve a knowledgeable human response.
Am going to ask nearby properties if they have the same problem trying to get alternative deals and providers - and whether it's Postcode wide?
We most certainly only got FTTP in 2018 in our valley as the ancient Hydro Power station further up the 'line' needed it. The whole remote valley profited, but I seem to recall we had to contribute, via BT, to Openreach to connect separate displaced properties along the way, as well as BT/Openreach receiving Welsh Assembly grants?
At least zero roads or trenches were involved, unlike urban folks :thumbsup:
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Maybe something about the grants received - if it's not been wired up in the 'normal' course of business, maybe there's no obligation to allow other services providers to use the infrastructure?
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Maybe something about the grants received - if it's not been wired up in the 'normal' course of business, maybe there's no obligation to allow other services providers to use the infrastructure?
I wondered that and asked the remote rural village representative who coordinated the Welsh Assembly grants and BT/Openreach - who were only providing FTTP to our back of beyond properties cos at the end of the valley/line, there is a hydro power station that need it.
She said she couldn't remember and couldn't find the original 2018 contracts - but would certainly have not agreed to any tie in for long that 24 months, without out the agreement of all us oiks.
Any road up, I've discovered if I enter any of the details of nearest properties to mine, some off which come off the same overhead cabling lines, they have no problem being offered alternative FTTP suppliers.
So it appears to be my/our building only who are stuck with BT. It's a converted Victorian Coach House, in to 2 separate apartments.
More 007/FBI type investigatin' required🕵️♂️
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Have you tried AAISP? They have Shaun The BT Slayer and others who are skilled in getting sense out of our-favourite-telco well beyond the point where other retailers would give up. If nothing else they might be able to work out what's going on...
Thanks Kim. Just tried and got as far as -
"Sorry, we cannot offer broadband services at your location"
I had absolute horrors trying to swap out from Virgin and get BT / Openreach to sort themselves out.
I gave up with them completely and phoned AAISP after looking at the reviews on this site.
Got a very nice lady on the phone who unleashed the internet slayer onto my problem.
It took them a good few weeks to line it all up and get open reach to actually turn up instead of failing ( apparently if I failed
to be in then a £200 bill but if they failed to arrive then my hard luck for wasting my time and I cannot charge them)
Once it was sorted I am delighted with the AAISP service and internet speeds.
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A speed test on my 3 router indicates that it's a fair bit slower than using my mobile phone as a hot spot - 18Mbps compared to 37Mbps.
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We had FTTP installed last week - after many weeks of stalking Frontier Network vans and asking very nicely when they thought they'd be finished. I looked into the options and got Sky. Out in semi-rural Yorkshire we can't use any of the smaller providers like Community Fibre, Hyperoptic or Airband so from the big ones I plumped for Sky @ 150Mbps. I reckon it's much easier to increase a package than reduce one within the contract and it's still 5 times faster than what we had before.
My advice is to phone Sky and be reluctant, they're usually up for a mild haggle.
This is the broadband bit (I don't need a landline).
Subscription Name
Bill Period Date
Product Cost
• Sky Broadband Ultrafast 1 (standard price = £43.00) £27.00
• Sky Pay As You Talk £0.00
• Sky Talk Internet Calls £0.00
Total Subscription Charges (for this bill period) £27.00
I also got a "free" Sky TV Puck thingy with Sky Sports so we can swap it for the Now TV subscription and that worked out a couple of quid cheaper. Sky TV really does add up though!
The speeds and wifi are pretty good too, especially as I'm sitting directly between my PC and the router. Normally the laptops get full rate.
(http://www.lard.me.uk/PC/realspeed.png)
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A speed test on my 3 router indicates that it's a fair bit slower than using my mobile phone as a hot spot - 18Mbps compared to 37Mbps.
And recently we are struggling to get any response at all from fast.com. 2Mbps with the added statement "You may not be connected to the internet".
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I've just pressed the button on Cityfibre, with Vodaphone. I'm utterly fed up with a really crap connection and the Three website assuring me that there are persons working on masts nearby. £25 per month for 100Mbps with some sort of tablet thrown in as a special offer, and a £50 cashback card to spend with Mr. Bezos. Or someone. Installation date: 5th July. I will be terminating my contract with Three about 5 months early, and I could probably just haggle because their service has been so crap recently. But I'm not sure I can be arsed as long as I get a nice fast connection to the telegraph pole immediately outside the house.
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As reported in other threads, I fall in the twilight zone between the City of Aberdeen where 3 different fibre providers have run fibre, and proper Rural Aberdeenshire, where there are Scottish Gubbinsment funded fibre projects. Looking at the various provider's roadmaps, I'm not going to be getting any FTTP this side of the sun turning into a cold dark lump of coal.
So I've ponied up my cash to Space Karen's Starlink which Just Works, and I'm getting 250Mb download.
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Crikey! That's a lot of spondulicks!
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My contract with Onestream is up in a week's time - not that they've told me so (as required).
For several reasons I want to change supplier, not least because of lack of communication.
I'm still on fibre to the box at the end of the road, with string to the house, and despite being 2km from the exchange I get reasonable speeds (45 if the wind is blowing, 20 if it's raining).
For Reasons we want to keep our landline for incoming calls.
The choice seemed to be between "1p Broadband" and EE on speed / value / service
I can't take a provider called 1p Broadband seriously, even if they are promising the earth, no in-contract price rises, and mixed consumer reviews.
EE have pissed me off by cold-calling me at the worst possible times since I put my landline number into their checker on the website. Unfortunately what they seem to be offering sounds on the face of it very good value, and they seem very well regarded (despite being part of BT).
I'm running out of spoons to deal with this (daughter) but it has to be done, and it'll probably be EE in the end. Mondays job .
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City Fibre is coming to Rugby and so we held off this year from just jumping into Plustnet's fibre. We already get 70+ megabit download which is mostly more than sufficient. It would not have cost slightly more to go fibre but I hope to get a cheaper deal next renewal with a bit of competition.
The other consideration is whether to keep or drop the landline.
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We found, that when Three was working properly, that 30Mbps was quite satisfactory. Recent visits to Fast.com have seen the figure vary widely from 900Kbps to 12Mbps, but the latter figure is about the maximum it supplies now. This time it plumped for 4.7Mbps.
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I've ponied up my cash to Space Karen's Starlink
Crikey! That's a lot of spondulicks!
That's just a part of it!
The Starlink is just being used as a transit to my main ISP, AAISP.
The Starlink is just a tunnel-carrier to connect back to AAISP using L2TP in place of the Wet String.
I'm still paying AAISP, as my actual ISP for my IP routing of my assigned addresses.
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Still pretty happy with the 500-600Mps my Three 5g is delivering for £15 a month.
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Still pretty happy with the 500-600Mps my Three 5g is delivering for £15 a month.
As would I be!
According to their coverage map, we are right on the edge of an island of 5g, but our router is only 4g capable. Even then, it's just not delivering.
My phone is connected to EE 5g and, outside, I can get a very high speed. Inside, it's just shown a perfectly respectable 28Mbps.
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My contract with Onestream is up in a week's time - not that they've told me so (as required).
For several reasons I want to change supplier, not least because of lack of communication.
I'm still on fibre to the box at the end of the road, with string to the house, and despite being 2km from the exchange I get reasonable speeds (45 if the wind is blowing, 20 if it's raining).
For Reasons we want to keep our landline for incoming calls.
The choice seemed to be between "1p Broadband" and EE on speed / value / service
I can't take a provider called 1p Broadband seriously, even if they are promising the earth, no in-contract price rises, and mixed consumer reviews.
EE have pissed me off by cold-calling me at the worst possible times since I put my landline number into their checker on the website. Unfortunately what they seem to be offering sounds on the face of it very good value, and they seem very well regarded (despite being part of BT).
I'm running out of spoons to deal with this (daughter) but it has to be done, and it'll probably be EE in the end. Mondays job .
I was on EE before the lovely men in vans put fibre all round the estate. I had absolutely no issue with their service while I had it. I swapped to Sky because they showed availability before EE and I was able to save some cash on Sky Sports. I'll probably hop providers again at the end of this contract unless Sky make me an offer I can't refuse.
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We've been with EE, and Orange when they were Orange, for about 16 years. It's not too expensive and I don't believe we ever need to log into the website, let alone speak to a human*. The ADSL isn't wonderfully fast. especially for upload, so we also have internet over Virgin cable; I think the EE is a touch more reliable.
*Studied non-engagement with EE can work. They were issuing direful warnings for about six months about how they would stop offering 3G SIMs for my mobile and that I should choose a new contract. I sat tight and last month they upgraded me to 4G anyway, for a few pence less a month (which is less than anything on their website) and about ten times, I think, the data allowance. Lots, anyway.
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Got Virgin cable to the house, & nobody else could provide anything near the same speed until recently. We also had a Virgin copper landline which we rarely used, & when Virgin said that'd switch to the fibre connection (so wouldn't be powered down the wire), we thought we'd drop the landline, & investigate other providers.
Spoke to Virgin & suddenly we have a big price cut. Hmm.
Service has mostly been good. Speed as advertised.
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We are sitting around waiting for the Cityfibre bods(s) to come and drill a hole in our wall, run a cable from the telegraph pole about 3 meters from where we want the cable to enter the house, and just get it working. I need to go shopping at some point as well, so I hope they get on with it. They are supposed to be here between 8am and 1pm. No word yet as to when they will turn up.
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Chaps are here.
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I was quite impressed by how smooth and efficient the our-favourite-telco version of that process was. (It would have been all done in about half an hour if it hadn't been for some debate as to whether there was mains wiring buried in the relevant bit of wall.) They've got a cunning arrangement of pre-made cables with the dropwire plugging into the optical splitter on the pole, and a corresponding one pre-terminated for the ONT. They're brought together and spliced with the magic fibre-splicing machine, and the splice coiled up and protected in a little grey box on the outside wall.
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It’s all done. Impressed. Apparently it might be a bit flaky this afternoon because the new kit will be receiving updates, but I have this iPad and my phone on the wifi, which is showing 110mbps. That will do.
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The only things that were wrong about BT's installation of my FTTP were:
1. The multi-week between the dropwire being nailed to Larrington Towers and Nice Man Errol installing the ONT, and
b) The aforementioned Errol putting a nail through one of the doorbell wires.
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It would have been easier to get it in our village if Gigaclear had followed the principle of using the existing poles from when our copper comes, but for reasons best know to themselves they've laid new ducts in the road with a chamber at the boudary of each property. That means, presumably, digging across gardens for the actual install, which is sub-optimal for many.
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The only things that were wrong about BT's installation of my FTTP were:
1. The multi-week between the dropwire being nailed to Larrington Towers and Nice Man Errol installing the ONT, and
b) The aforementioned Errol putting a nail through one of the doorbell wires.
Errol the ponce from Brixton?
Can't trust nobody.
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He was certainly an Errol of Afro-Caribbean ancestry, and he roffled at my hand drill used to expand the hole in the window frame to allow the light pipe through, until I pointed out that extracting the power drill from the Sheds would have taken four times as long because Stuffs in the way. He'd left his own anbaric drill in his van, the daft get.
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I've had the EE broadband now for a week.
Speeds are slightly above the promise. The changeover happened seamlessly (at 5am, Wot?). Communication has been excellent.
The only hiccup is getting my Voip / Sip phone to work. Apparently it's a known feature with EE.
I haven't got enough spoons at the moment to jump through techie assistance. It's not that important.
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Hate to share this but EE are imo utterly terrible.
The FiL has EE which is AIUI actually BT. When this current contract ends I hope that we are able to help him to move.
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It has taken a couple of days for the landline to be transferred satisfactorily but that seems to be working now.
At some point I have to get my head around the allocation of 192.168.x.x slots around the network. I want the weather station's raspberry pi, if possible, to be 192.168.0.2. At the moment it's 192.168.1.7, but at least it's working and data is being transferred to the website.
It seems that Vodafone issue static IP addresses to business customers, so presumably that costs more.
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At some point I have to get my head around the allocation of 192.168.x.x slots around the network. I want the weather station's raspberry pi, if possible, to be 192.168.0.2. At the moment it's 192.168.1.7, but at least it's working and data is being transferred to the website.
It seems that Vodafone issue static IP addresses to business customers, so presumably that costs more.
They may charge for a static external IP address. But you could still use whatever IP addresses you like within your own network.
Depends on what sort of router you are using. Login to the admin page, and look for something like 'DHCP Settings'. Then should have an option for 'Address Reservation'. So you could assign an IP address for the Pi, based on its MAC address.
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I have been asked to advise some friends about BB - They are in a rented house with reasonable 4G and miles of copper to the Xchange, apparently it has been tested and rejected by A.N.other telco although neighbours get summat from BT..
Got 6 Mb/s from my phone propped in the winder wifi tether to my latop* I have suggested that one of these https://www.solwise.co.uk/TL-TCR100 (https://www.solwise.co.uk/TL-TCR100) would do..
For choice of SIM are there any GOTCHAS? - fair use with multiple devices may be one?
*10-12 Mb/s back home.
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I have been asked to advise some friends about BB - They are in a rented house with reasonable 4G and miles of copper to the Xchange, apparently it has been tested and rejected by A.N.other telco although neighbours get summat from BT..
Got 6 Mb/s from my phone propped in the winder wifi tether to my latop I have suggested that one of these https://www.solwise.co.uk/TL-TCR100 (https://www.solwise.co.uk/TL-TCR100) would do..
For choice of SIM are there any GOTCHAS? - fair use with multiple devices may be one?
I'd not consider the marginal copper.
Mobile 4g/5g hotspots might be their best choice. Regarding SIMs, yes, you'd need to make sure that the provider does not get shirty about the data being from multiple devices. I'm sure all the providers have plans for this kind of setup.
Otherwise, consider Starlink if they have deep enough pocketses.
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Posting this for my friend who has the thread link and is looking for a suitable SIM
Just done an OFCOM coverage check, good signal on Vodafone EE and O2
Three
mobile communication providers will use one of these networks via a wholesale arrangement. Examples include:
Lebara Mobile, Asda Mobile, Talk Mobile and VOXI use the Vodafone network.
Your Co-op, 1p Mobile, Utility Warehouse, Ecotalk, Plusnet, BT Mobile and Lycamobile use the EE network.
iD Mobile and Smarty, Freedompop and Superdrug Mobile use the Three network.
Tesco Mobile, Giffgaff and Sky Mobile use the O2 network.
Do the resellers throttle bw?
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I have 1p mobile and EE (both using EE's network). 1p mobile seems throttled.
EE SIM with 4G modem/router is fine for web browsing and watching Youtube. 37Mbps download with the modem in an upstairs room by the window, wi-fi connection to laptop. £10 top up currently buys 20GB of data which is available for one month. Their £15 pack buys much more. As I bought the modem (for approx £30) and the SIM (for £1), the top-up is the only monthly cost. There is no contract, and if another network becomes cheaper for data I could switch just by buying a different SIM.
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Thanks, UR is Netflix pix on teh big(ish) screen. Your post suggests it should work with 4G.
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Not aware of Netflix's data requirement, but I've seen a Roku stick (streaming TV via wi-fi) work in another place with slower download rates. That place was on copper wire and suffered from contention ratio issues IIRC. Busy times meant glitchy downloads.
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Fruitcake, I will recommend EE to my friend*, you do well as 4g tops out at 37Mbps. I suspect my phone maybe a throttle. The Teltonica 4g WiFi router upthread is £140.00, does have wired ethernet which maybe useful and solidly made. What did you get for £30 please?
*Though I hate their user control panel: Data hidden behind layers of shitvertising. I'm paying you to use this!
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I bought used via ebay from a company reselling ex office equipment. There are various brands available if you search on 4G modem. It's really just a standard modem-router with a 4G card inside: white oblong box with a pair of antenna on the back, network cable sockets on the back, mains powered, plus a slot on the side for a SIM card.
Interestingly EE is the only network that gives truly usable 4G speeds in my house. I've tried them all.
I also have a battery powered version, i.e. a mi-fi device, which doesn't work quite as well as the unit with proper antenna described above, but is OK in a pinch. Again I paid about £30 for a used example.
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I have suggested that one of these https://www.solwise.co.uk/TL-TCR100 would do..
My friends are really pleased with this, firstly 'it just worked out of the box'
It's quality, heatsink, power connector latches and packed with features, VPN's, SMS controls, email alerts, remote management, logging and graphical displays, GUI is well designed clear and intuitive.
Won't need much of this 'stuff' but as their only means of interwebby connection some may be nice to have and I certainly don't expect it to become e-waste after months/years of continuous use.
So, comes recommended.
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4G/5G is pretty good, unless you need low latency in which case it's not the best option.
However, for video streaming (as opposed to video conferencing) it's fine as the various players all buffer a few seconds of data to cover any gaps in transmission.
The biggest problem with 4G/5G is bandwidth contention. If the mast/node you are using becomes popular, or everyone starts using it at the same time then it suffers quickly. This is hard to predict but be prepared to hop around providers if necessary and you may not wish to share the secret with too many neighbours!
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I'll stay with A&A till doomsday. (https://medium.com/@jollygoodthen-75205/whats-in-a-name-796af8a5717e)
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I'll stay with A&A till doomsday. (https://medium.com/@jollygoodthen-75205/whats-in-a-name-796af8a5717e)
AIUI the unofficial explanation for 'gormless' and 'witless' is that those servers were the ones that connected to BT. Make of that what you will...
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For a relatively niche ISP, they seem surprisingly over-represented in the small self-selecting sample that is this forum.
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For a relatively niche ISP, they seem surprisingly over-represented in the small self-selecting sample that is this forum.
Yeah, but using forums is nearly enough to qualify you as an Old Internet Person these days.
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AIUI the unofficial explanation...
The cherry on top.
For a relatively niche ISP, they seem surprisingly over-represented in the small self-selecting sample that is this forum.
They kept coming up when we were frantically looking for a replacement for Zen (not infrequently as that exact pathway). I will admit to being initially put off by the fact that I'd never heard of them - thus proving, if such was necessary, that advertising works.
When it comes to IT in particular, I am perhaps absurdly grateful to get high quality customer service. In that regard my host is the best in the world, but that's another thread...