BT Infinity & FTTx Discussion

parityboy · 28 Oct 2016 at 00:03

Caged said:
They're a business and Ethernet circuits make good money

True, but anyone buying (hideously expensive) Ethernet circuits will buy one for SLAs and guaranteed performance, and those who just need (or could do with) the raw bandwidth but can't afford an Ethernet circuit simply aren't going to buy one anyway.

One thing I will say though is that Virgin Media actually have a practical use...forcing OpenReach to compete.

EDIT:
Oh yeah, and one more thing. Without decent upload speeds, how are people supposed to make practical use of things like cloud-based backups? Who's going to upload their HD home video collection without tying up their connection for (potentially) weeks?

DragonQ · 28 Oct 2016 at 10:33

V_R said:
I've randomly lost about 5Mb off my download. My profile is fine hasn't changed from the max its always been for the last 4-5 years I've had FTTC on a stable line about 150m from the cabinet.

Plusnet can't see any issue. They said 'I'm sync'ed at 75Mb'

Its almost like I'm capped at 69.5 or 70Mb according to Speedtest.net.

Any obvious ideas chaps? Crosstalk maybe?

Going to reset my router etc this weekend see if it makes a difference as I'm beginning to wonder if it could be on my end. Asus N66U with Merlin FW FWTW.

I'm synced at 79999 kb/s and I still usually see 69-70 Mb/s on speedtest.net. I did see a game download the other day that went just over 10 MB/s though (according to its rate indicator anyway).

V_R · 28 Oct 2016 at 10:52

I dunno, its weird, I've been getting ~74Mb/s for as long as I've had 80/20 (several years, was on a trial with ADSL24 when it first released). My IP profile is still maxed and Plusnet say I'm synced at '75Mb'. My line is 150m to the cab and its silent with no interference.

I'm beginning to wonder if it may be my router or modem as it seems like some kind of forced cap. That or crosstalk maybe. I dunno, I'm not too up on this stuff.

Going to have a play this weekend and see if I can fix it. I might reset my router to factory defaults and try the official FW (from Merlins's build), just to rule that out.

FWIW, here's my results before and after I noticed the issue.

Now:

Before:

If anyone has any ideas, speak now!

Cosimo · 28 Oct 2016 at 10:52

Caged said:
That is one ugly cabinet

We'll be waiting for ages for those to be installed. I bet that we won't see that here until at least 2018 if not later.

Balb0wa · 28 Oct 2016 at 13:21

I see BT are including line rental in the pricing now, since when has Infinity 1 unlimited been £21 a month? used to be like £12.50.

Yes the reward card has gone up to £150, but still seems like a stealthy rise.

And quidco/top cash back etc.

DragonQ · 28 Oct 2016 at 14:38

Yep, 80/20 Mb/s being £50/mo shows how expensive it really is when you don't stealthily try to hide nearly half the cost.

Bobmunkhouse · 28 Oct 2016 at 16:38

QUOTE=HEADRAT;30149853]http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.ph...s-g-fast-broadband-cabinet-extension-pod.html

[/QUOTE]

I can see the objections from people like parish councils when they see that thing....

mdaw · 28 Oct 2016 at 20:37

Just signed upto BT last night just before the offer ended. Since reducing my sky to basic the package the price of standard ADSL went up totalling £25 from 17.50. so now I will be paying £30 and should be able to get 52 mb fibre and BT sport with basic TV package as well. One thing I'm meant to get is a voucher for somewhere between 120 and 150. Can't remember how much now. Not sure when I will get the info to claim this? But for an extra £5 all that seems good value for money and I will be getting the new BT smart hub which should be better than the old sky hub (sr102) I think. I have heard some bad things about BT so I hope i dont regret it as my sky connection has been solid but they wouldn't negotiate a good deal for me to stay so made the switch. What do you all think? Good move or bad move?

parityboy · 29 Oct 2016 at 14:33

Bobmunkhouse said:
I can see the objections from people like parish councils when they see that thing....

Hopefully the colours will match by deployment time.

To be honest though, I suspect that if they do indeed deploy the G.fast unit as an extension module to the PCP, they will simply re-shell the PCP.

Which brings me to a related point: why attach it to the PCP and not the FTTC cabinet?

Kei · 29 Oct 2016 at 19:13

V_R said:
I dunno, its weird, I've been getting ~74Mb/s for as long as I've had 80/20 (several years, was on a trial with ADSL24 when it first released). My IP profile is still maxed and Plusnet say I'm synced at '75Mb'. My line is 150m to the cab and its silent with no interference.

I'm beginning to wonder if it may be my router or modem as it seems like some kind of forced cap. That or crosstalk maybe. I dunno, I'm not too up on this stuff.

Going to have a play this weekend and see if I can fix it. I might reset my router to factory defaults and try the official FW (from Merlins's build), just to rule that out.

I wish my drop in speed was so small. I've been a consistent 74-75 down and 18-19 up for well over 4 years and this last week it's plummeted. It isn't the router (Cisco 1921), so I'm wondering if it's the ECI modem OR originally supplied.

Before:

Now: (I've tried a variety of servers and speed test sites and it's all similar)

MissChief · 29 Oct 2016 at 20:47

Tried Speedtest.btwholesale.com ?

Caged · 29 Oct 2016 at 21:03

Has your sync rate dropped? Kind of the important information in diagnosing this.

Kei · 30 Oct 2016 at 10:16

I tried the bt wholesale test yesterday evening and it shows the same issue, and yes the sync has dropped based on that ip profile. Having done some further investigation, it seems the landline isn't working as there is no dial tone and ringing it doesn't get through so something is definitely amiss. Tested directly in the master socket and still no tone. Need to find the spare phone to double check now.

Type_R · 30 Oct 2016 at 10:33

mdaw said:
Just signed upto BT last night just before the offer ended. Since reducing my sky to basic the package the price of standard ADSL went up totalling £25 from 17.50. so now I will be paying £30 and should be able to get 52 mb fibre and BT sport with basic TV package as well. One thing I'm meant to get is a voucher for somewhere between 120 and 150. Can't remember how much now. Not sure when I will get the info to claim this? But for an extra £5 all that seems good value for money and I will be getting the new BT smart hub which should be better than the old sky hub (sr102) I think. I have heard some bad things about BT so I hope i dont regret it as my sky connection has been solid but they wouldn't negotiate a good deal for me to stay so made the switch. What do you all think? Good move or bad move?

I made the same move a few weeks ago. For me the change has been mainly positive:

1. Smarthub wifi is excellent so much so that I have packed my Asus RT-66u away!

2. Speed: Sky was at 43.5 Mbps BT are at 47 Mbps, upload remains at 10 for both.

The only bother I had was they 'forgot' to put my order through so had to badger them repeatedly, for by their own admission someone to 'click a button on a computer' to activate my broadband (as all the work had been done!).

So possibly worth 48 hours of broadband downtime for a faster connection, better wifi signal and so far a reliable connection. Also £100 vouchers and £100 cashback via Quidco

Sparx · 30 Oct 2016 at 11:03

Kei said:
I tried the bt wholesale test yesterday evening and it shows the same issue, and yes the sync has dropped based on that ip profile. Having done some further investigation, it seems the landline isn't working as there is no dial tone and ringing it doesn't get through so something is definitely amiss. Tested directly in the master socket and still no tone. Need to find the spare phone to double check now.

Kej, what do your actual router stats look like? Just for comparison.

You'll want to get on the phone to BT and report a line fault. Which in turn will likely remedy your broadband sync/speeds.

Kei · 30 Oct 2016 at 11:43

Unfortunately the ECI modem I have isn't as easy to unlock as the huawei HG612 so I can't get at the stats. The cisco router will only show the caller stats for dialer interface.

My spare hard wired phone doesn't work either. Having logged into the bt site and done a line test, a fault was actually found so fingers crossed things will be sorted out soon.

Upgrade · 30 Oct 2016 at 21:46

My TCB has been pending since the 22nd October. I guess I did something wrong when doing the order? Oops.

mdaw · 31 Oct 2016 at 12:08

Type_R said:
I made the same move a few weeks ago. For me the change has been mainly positive:

1. Smarthub wifi is excellent so much so that I have packed my Asus RT-66u away!

2. Speed: Sky was at 43.5 Mbps BT are at 47 Mbps, upload remains at 10 for both.

The only bother I had was they 'forgot' to put my order through so had to badger them repeatedly, for by their own admission someone to 'click a button on a computer' to activate my broadband (as all the work had been done!).

So possibly worth 48 hours of broadband downtime for a faster connection, better wifi signal and so far a reliable connection. Also £100 vouchers and £100 cashback via Quidco

Ok sounds positive and that I will hopefully have made the right move. Just out of interest when or how do you claim the vouchers?

Swinbag · 31 Oct 2016 at 14:57

Recently my BT infinity 2 connection has been a fair bit lower than 'normal'.

For years it's been 76-78 Down consistently, last few months it's been sat around 48-50; nothing has changed our end wiring-wise to my knowledge.

Worth trying a different router? Currently using a HH5 *shudder*...

HEADRAT · 31 Oct 2016 at 15:07

Bobmunkhouse said:
I can see the objections from people like parish councils when they see that thing....

Agreed, I live in a conservation area, getting the FTTP cab installed took about 3 years longer than the rest of the town