BT Infinity & FTTx Discussion

[david25]

Hello, I have a basic wireless question:

I had a recent external line fault which was fixed by Openreach. During their visit, they tested the internal wiring and master socket.

Master socket is fine. However, two recently connected extensions were nosily (think medium wave radio), can I simply "pull" the little wires from the back of the socket without messing up the master socket?

(1) While I wait for the builder to return
(2) To see if it improves the overall line speed

Thank you

 

[pcfarrar]

Master socket is fine. However, two recently connected extensions were nosily (think medium wave radio), can I simply "pull" the little wires from the back of the socket without messing up the master socket?

Yes just remove them, easy enough to put back anyway.

 

[david25]

Yes just remove them, easy enough to put back anyway.

Thanks, do I just pull the wire out, or do you need a "reverse" crimping tool?

 

[pcfarrar]

Thanks, do I just pull the wire out, or do you need a "reverse" crimping tool?

You just pull them out. Crimping tools often have a hook on the side for doing it.

 

[BigT]

Anyone using Zen internet and happy? I've heard good things about them. I can get the same package I'm on BT with for £20 less so if its decent its almost a no brainer.

I know @Housey here is a subscriber and has very good views of them. Well worth reading this thread of his to show you what Zen's superior customer experience can be like:

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/fttp-thoughts.18814496/

 

[platypus]

I know @Housey here is a subscriber and has very good views of them. Well worth reading this thread of his to show you what Zen's superior customer experience can be like:

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/fttp-thoughts.18814496/

Nice, thank you.

 

[Buckster]

Question please - save me spending ages on phone waiting.

I am at end of my contract with BT (was a few months back) - and now paying nearly double what I was

I am supposing that BT won't offer me a decent deal - so likely will jump to Plusnet - how do you sync the cancel/new contract up so don't end up with period of no service

Do you have to cancel BT or if you sign up with Plusnet do they do the transfer/cancel for you

Only looking for a 12 month contract but Plusnet have a good deal of something like 27.99 a month for 76mb including line rental on a 12 month contract which seems a good deal to me

thankyou for any advice

 

[bremen1874]

No need to talk to BT at all. Sign up with Plusnet (via TopCashback/Quidco for money off) and they'll handle everything.

 

[woppy101]

Question please - save me spending ages on phone waiting.

I am at end of my contract with BT (was a few months back) - and now paying nearly double what I was

I am supposing that BT won't offer me a decent deal - so likely will jump to Plusnet - how do you sync the cancel/new contract up so don't end up with period of no service

Do you have to cancel BT or if you sign up with Plusnet do they do the transfer/cancel for you

Only looking for a 12 month contract but Plusnet have a good deal of something like 27.99 a month for 76mb including line rental on a 12 month contract which seems a good deal to me

thankyou for any advice

Phone up BT cancellations, I had 2 months left on my contact and got an offer of upto 80mb, line rental and anytime calls from sky for £28pm and BT cancellations gave me the same package for £27.99.

 

[MissChief]

Sky have Fibre max (80/20) for the same price as their 40/10 at the moment, £27pm for 18 months. If you don’t want to go with Sky it at least gives you a target to aim at.

 

[familyman]

We as in me and my dad signed up for zen internet on the 15 of December 2018.

Picture above is the zen fritz box 7530 which is a half decent router a lot better than sky or virgin media router for sure and we are waiting for the telephone exchange to remotely activate the service.

We went with fttc 80/20 service from zen, i will let you know what i think about their service.

More pictures below, showing the router page one from the virgin media superhub 3 and the zen fritzbox 7530.

Dan.

Hi Dan, Just wondering how you are getting on with the move to Zen and if you could kindly tell us how that 7530 is holding up? I'm thinking of a switch to Zen myself as I have been with (an) entanet (resseller) since getting FTTC 3 years ago. if anything I'm hoping for an improved ping/latency rate as this appears to be one of Zens selling points.
On that note, are isps truly able provide better average latency results for their customers than others, if so how considering infrastructure is all BT anyway?

 

[pastymuncher]

Finally close enough to my Sky Fibre contract end date (6th Jan) to start a switch. I am going back to BT which will be a blast of fresh air after the awful service from Sky. We have had the router constantly dropping the connection, slow downs and abysmal single threaded performance yet they can find no fault on the line or the equipment so that was 18 months of hassle. We were with BT before Sky and that was the best connection we ever had so going back to them was a easy choice. Ordered the Fibre Essential package (exchange is too far away for anything faster) through Topcashback and I am getting £115 cashback (which actually tracked for once) and a £70 reward card. Cost is £29.99 for 18 months which is a bit less than I am currently paying for Sky Fibre. Switchover date is 9th Jan which can't come soon enough.

We switched back to BT on the 9th and although we are still in the 10 day training period our speeds are 30.4/30.7 mbps (single threaded/multithreaded) and have had no problems with the hub dropping the connection. Speeds have been increasing a little day by day so we should be back to our max of around 32 mbps in a couple of days. It would seem that the problems were something to do with Sky just as I suspected so after the awful customer service we received from them we will not be going back to them again. Sky TV will be gone after my contract is up in April as well so good riddance to them.

 

[lltfdaniel]

Hi Dan, Just wondering how you are getting on with the move to Zen and if you could kindly tell us how that 7530 is holding up? I'm thinking of a switch to Zen myself as I have been with (an) entanet (resseller) since getting FTTC 3 years ago. if anything I'm hoping for an improved ping/latency rate as this appears to be one of Zens selling points.
On that note, are isps truly able provide better average latency results for their customers than others, if so how considering infrastructure is all BT anyway?

Well the 7530 for sure is a half decent router in my opinion better then the virgin media super hub 3 for sure which i am able to compare because i have both.

As for the ping, zen internet is much more snappy and quicker when compared to virgin and pings are indeed lower when compared to virgin.

I for one i am getting 50mbps down and 17-18 mbps up.

I forgot to say but standard adsl is a complete copper wire network and fftc is copper to the cabinet and the rest is fiber, thus better speeds and pings.

The internet is much more snappy compared to virgin, which i am happy about.

The only difference is i think but others may point out due to their better understanding on what i am on about, is that with adsl there is hardly a difference between isp and the only difference with fttc is the copper line going to the cabinet which means in the likely case, get the same speeds despite the isp.

Dan.

 

[V_R]

Bare in mind if you're moving from Virgin to a FTTC connection its a completely different network so ping will differ. Virgin is also a bit of a postcode lottery as to if its oversubscribed or not. Its rubbish round here.

If moving from one FTTC provider to another there will be less of a difference as its essentially the same network, bar slightly different routing. Things like G.INP and interleaving will have a far greater impact on your pings, and connection speed.

 

[Housey]

I know @Housey here is a subscriber and has very good views of them. Well worth reading this thread of his to show you what Zen's superior customer experience can be like:

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/fttp-thoughts.18814496/

Just saw this.

I am now getting consistent and high performance from my Zen service now we have worked out the creases in the network, mainly at the BT level. 310 downloads and 51 uploads are pretty much the norm when I run a speedtest using fast.com which is the best true indicator I believe.

 

[Avalon]

Just on the off chance I needed further amusement in the lull between Christmas and New Year, BT have kindly obliged... We've gone from two cancelled installs, one failed install (no show) and two missing faults tech's to... working g.fast (with the right faceplate as i'm on VoIP), to the total loss of my phone service because they did a cease on the POTS service and didn't restrict the number then restriction lift it over to VoIP (i'm *SO* happy the installer spent an hour driving to stores at double time to get me a VoIP faceplate now) and BT can't restore it for almost 3 weeks, oh and it's a number port that's RTD'd it may not be restorable at all. In other news the line has stabilised nicely and my latest 10 day training period will be up later today and I can get the modem swap done.

Dearly beloved, Stephen from Liverpool has fallen victim to the curse of the BT black hole, his last act was Christmas Eve when he set his voicemail to state he'd be back on the 28th of December which it still says to this day.

Apparently BT have managed to get my number back, but not allocated it because they think a VoIP service needs a live E & D, I know this because rather than provision it on the switch with COSAR etc. they sent an OR tech out to try and re-activate my line. He took one look at the VoIP faceplate and hard nosed on the whole thing. I've now resorted to the CEO's office, BT clearly have no idea what process is supposed to be followed for g.fast + VoIP, or how to deal with it. Touch wood, the g.fast service is still more or less as it should be.

 

[Martynt74]

Annoyingly my download seems to have dropped to 10mbs from around 50mbs. Weirdly my upload speed is still around 12mbs which is what it always has been.

Hopefully it's something simple for them to fix.

 

[bremen1874]

Start by using the test socket and checking for noise on the line.

 

[familyman]

Well the 7530 for sure is a half decent router in my opinion better then the virgin media super hub 3 for sure which i am able to compare because i have both.

As for the ping, zen internet is much more snappy and quicker when compared to virgin and pings are indeed lower when compared to virgin.

I for one i am getting 50mbps down and 17-18 mbps up.

Dan.

Thanks Dan. I took the leap and signed up yesterday. Moving because Zen works out cheaper for me actually.

Just saw this.

I am now getting consistent and high performance from my Zen service now we have worked out the creases in the network, mainly at the BT level. 310 downloads and 51 uploads are pretty much the norm when I run a speedtest using fast.com which is the best true indicator I believe.

Hi Housey just read your link.... ouch, the pain.. but glad to see it was worth it in the end as you said "for speed innit?".
Looking foward to my Zen line going live end of this month.

Whats interesting for me right now is that it just so happens I manged to borrow a friends Fritz!box 7530 German version for testing (until Zens Standard issue FB 7530 International Version arrives) with intresting results.
For background, I have been with Vivaciti for 3 years on an 80/20 since we first got FTTC. I'm about 550-575m from my Huwaei FTTC cabinet BDCM (broadcom DSLAM). My RJ11 modem cable is cat5e from a filtered face plate (cable is crimped in)
Now heres where things get interesting for me I have tried quite a few modem routers over the years on FTTC, Draytek (lowest sync speed, errors), Zyxel (meh), Asus 88U (software was rough prone to restarts and stutter), the small Cisco RV134W (nice solid line but very scant GUI that didnt even have an xdsl info tab built in), Billion 8800AXL R2 (meh, prone to slowing down after some time and errors) and most recently an unlocked Tim Hub DGA4132 (speedy but prone to stutter when surfing).
As you can see other than the draytek these are all broadcom xdsl chipset based.

With all these modems the fastest download speeds I had was
Attanable 65-67ish Mbps
Actual 63-67ish other than Draytek which was about 60Mbps
In all cases Upload never exceeded 7-8 Mbps (irresepective)

Now With the FB 7530 my down load speed is 71,01 Mbit/s and upload is 10,770 Mbit/s!!

below is my xDSL info page (in German)

DSLAM-Datenrate Max. kbit/s 80000 20000
DSLAM-Datenrate Min. kbit/s 128 -
Leitungskapazität kbit/s 71057(down) 10773(up) (MAX ATTAINABLE)
Aktuelle Datenrate kbit/s 71019(down) 10770(up) (ACTUAL)
SNR 4 down and 6 up

I find this interesting beacuse my research in trying to get a good modem has always lead back to the rule of thumb that you get best results with a modem with a xdsl chipset matching that of your DSLAM..... the FB 7530 has an Intel VXR 518 xDsl chipset.... and so far its been 24hrs no errors at all and its the fastest most stable modem for me to date. 7 of us all HD streaming surfing and gaming at the same time.

The only issue I continue to have is awful in-game lag and stutter in Arena of Valor (guilty pleasure ) on Nintendo Switch, even with prioritized port fowarding (poor latency?).

My post may be a bit of a bore for some and of course line stats will always differ from household to household due to the many variables, however for me at least it seems for now the rule of thumb for modem/DSLAM chipset match for best results seems a thing of the past.

At this stage the FB 7530 is actaully a decent piece of kit.

Will report how I get on with Zen and the Interational Version of this modem and also the lag.

 

[Housey]

My Fritzbox is still in its box. I use my Netgear Nighthawk and have no issues with that device. Direct cable from the BT wall mounted modem into the Nighthawy and then around the house it goes via 2 additional extenders and some powerline stuff.