BRSK

BigChin1 said:
For those of you with BRSK, what's the reliability been like? I've been with Plusnet FTTP for 2 years and don't recall any downtime/peak time slowdowns/latency. I've looked at BRSK's reviews on Trustpilot (filtering out the 4/5 star reviews) but they mostly seem to be from people who don't know the difference between Wi-Fi and the actual connection. I won't be using the supplied equipment. Technical support gets slated but that's probably par for the course with home ISP's. Speed is nice but reliability is more important to me.
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Don't do it!!! I made the mistake so you don't have to.

I had Plusnet 300Mbit. It always worked fine, at any time of day it was fast, and I could download a file of a few gigabytes in minutes, update the OS, download games, stream, it always just worked.

I switched to Brsk 1000Mbit because it was cheaper - a no brainer right? But they have massively oversubscribed their service without the capacity.

Wanna know what my speeds were like tonight? 200KB/sec. I've had it as low as 20KB/sec. Since switching to Brsk, I've had the joys of watching images in a webpage slowly load from top to bottom in about 20 seconds - something I haven't seen since the days of 56K modems in the 90s.

I'm paying for 1000Mbit, but between 7pm and 11pm it's more like 1Mbit or lower. If I want to download something at 3am, yeah it's really fast. But in the evenings my internet is unusable. This is over ethernet cable to a high end desktop PC that I built this year. I bought an indie game on Steam this week which was "only" 1GB. It took me 6 hours to download it.

Brsk support is as bad as the reviews say, and don't assume every reviewer is an idiot. It's Brsk who are not technical. Although I'm sure a lot of their customers are morons trying to use WiFi in the garden, the Brks support staff don't know much more and just read a script. They don't know half of the terms I use. They'll tell you to restart the router and do a speed test, that's the extent of their support.

Last Sunday I couldn't get over 20KB/sec and the internet was unusable all evening until about 23.00. After about midnight, I could download files at 80MB/sec. But in the evenings and weekends it feels like I'm sharing my connection with 2000 other people. It's pathetic. I am stuck in an 18 month contract with Brsk now and it's pure hell. The ADSL broadband I had 20 years ago over copper wire was better, faster, and more reliable than Brsk.

God I wish I could undo this and go back to how things were when I had internet that worked. I'm currently waiting 1 week for a response from Brsk support in a support ticket I opened 3 weeks ago. But I don't even believe they can fix the problem or want to. They'll just keep adding as many customers as possible without having a network capable of meeting the demand in the evenings.

The upload speed is fine, because most people don't ever upload stuff. So in the evenings I can enjoy a connection capable of 80MB/s upload and 200KB/s download.
 
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maddness said:
Been perfect here over the last year and a half and even better since going to 2Gbps

...sounds like user error :D
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It's not user error. Everything works fine before, the only thing I changed was ISP. All the same equipment, and it works fine outside of peak times.

Perhaps it depends on area and they've particularly over-subscribed where I live. I have seen other people reporting similar problems of it being slow/unusable in the evenings.
 
beastman said:
Can you keep us posted on if it gets fixed? I've had Brsk for 2 years in Stockport and its been great. I wonder if there is some isolated local issue rather than the reasons you have provided which seem speculative and unsubstantiated.
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This. I had an issue a while back where my upload was fine, but had a 1/4 to a 1/3 of my 1GB service down. It affected a lot of people and they fixed it on that evening.

Carth said:
It's not user error. Everything works fine before, the only thing I changed was ISP. All the same equipment, and it works fine outside of peak times.

Perhaps it depends on area and they've particularly over-subscribed where I live. I have seen other people reporting similar problems of it being slow/unusable in the evenings.
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You could contact them and tell them you are taking it further elsewhere thenn do it and leave a review that you have to. It may get their backsides into gear. Hope you get somewhere with it :(
 
Recently switched from VM to BRSK and it's been great, only problem I have is that I didn't do it sooner!! :cry:

I was paying ~£75/pm with VM for a handful of TV channels (that nobody watched any more) and 350Mbps/35Mbps broadband though that was with the Hub 3 which absolutely sucked arse unless you were stood less than 6 feet away from it, not to mention the amount of times the internet would drop off completely for hours or even days at a time.

Switched to BRSK about 3 weeks ago and paying £35/pm for their 2Gbps package which is less than half price of what I was paying with VM for much less. Their new WiFi 7 router that comes with that package is pretty decent by ISP standards but I switched it out for a 3 node mesh network working in wireless backhaul to cover the full house and to be able to hardwire my PC to the third node in the back office for a more stable connection (This one if anyone is interested)

Even in the furthest room on the third node I'm still getting almost gigabit speeds.

18471770050.png
 
maddness said:
for £5 more. not worth doubling the speed?
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That was my logic too, extra £5/pm for 2Gbps vs 900Mbps seemed like a pretty great deal honestly.

It also gives more overhead if you're using a mesh system or something like that since you'll lose some speed at each hop. With the 2Gbps package I can do three hops and still achieve almost gigabit speeds whereas on the 1Gbps package it would have dropped to around 300Mbps.
 
@Carth Oh my, how bad for you.

I have been with PN since the 90's. There have been cheaper but I have always been impressed with their support, when needed, rarely, and the connection has been rock.

However, I keep getting tempted by BRSK, considering their costs.
With a 500Mb FTTP connection it is good.

The temptation keeps calling, but I'm reminded that how solid the connection has been for so long.
I have read about BRSK, from those who it simply works. Then, like you, where it seems for others it is very much over subscribed to capacity, or that's how it can seen.

Good luck, PN welcomes you back
 
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Carth said:
It's not user error. Everything works fine before, the only thing I changed was ISP. All the same equipment, and it works fine outside of peak times.

Perhaps it depends on area and they've particularly over-subscribed where I live. I have seen other people reporting similar problems of it being slow/unusable in the evenings.
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If you want to DM me your postcode, or whatever data you're happy sharing, I will put it under the eyes of the architect team.
 
Hi guys.

A new joiner here. Thank you for a great forum. Well it looks like I've also been sucked into the Brsk bandwagon due to it's cheap offer for fast broadband (1gig).

I'm getting it installed tomorrow and have a few questions, so I would be very grateful for your help:

  1. Is there anything I need to be aware of during the install?
  2. How far maximum distance can there be between the ONT and the wifi router?
  3. I'm not too worried about the wired ethernet connections, but if there is poor wifi signal, what do you suggest?
  4. I've seen suggestions from users that we should get another router or mesh system - can you recommend any? Would I need both a router and a mesh system or just one or the other?
Thank you
 
Wifi router located centrally in your home gives the best chance of a decent WiFi signal throughout. I believe Brsk are resonably accomodating in installing the ONT where you want.

Maximum distance between ONT and router I guess technically would be 100 metres (certified limit of Cat6). I have my router in a downstairs study cabled to a UniFi access point ceiling-mounted in a central location upstairs.
 
BigChin1 said:
Wifi router located centrally in your home gives the best chance of a decent WiFi signal throughout. I believe Brsk are resonably accomodating in installing the ONT where you want.

Maximum distance between ONT and router I guess technically would be 100 metres (certified limit of Cat6). I have my router in a downstairs study cabled to a UniFi access point ceiling-mounted in a central location upstairs.
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Thanks for your advice. Much appreciated. Below is further info and a diagram:
1. My home is a large 1930's stone/brick built semi-detached with 4 floors (includes the lower floor basement).
2. The current setup is a Virgin Superhub which is in the office and is on one side of the room.
3. Even though the Superhub is on one side of the home I still get great wifi signal all the way to the attic, so not an issue at the moment.
4. However, having read that there are signal issues with Brsk's wifi 7 router, I am concerned how strong the signal will be.
5. To add to that worry, the superhub has 5 ethernet cables which the run around the home to give good wired connection and can't be moved.

Screenshot-2025-11-19-220450.jpg



So with all the information and diagram my questions are:-
  1. Assuming the best location is centre of the house), What is the best way to connect all the wired 4/5 connections that are going into the superhub?
  2. Will I need to keep the Brsk router at the same location as the existing superhub?
  3. Where do you suggest the ONT should be located?
Thanks again
 
TBH if you're getting good signal everywhere with the Virgin router being where it is, I'd start with the BRSK router in the same place & get the ONT there too (assuming you'd rather it somewhere else for asthetics etc). If you'd be happy with the ONT being there, even if you ended up moving the router, then just go for it there & if you do move the router later on, you can put a small switch (probably 8-way) where the virgin router is, and run 2 ethernet cables from there (one from the switch, one from the ONT) to wherever you move your router to.

I personally got my ONT installed into my garage (lower GND floor), but that's where I have my homelab, and I run CAT6 to a couple WAPs elsewhere.
 
R.C.Anderson said:
TBH if you're getting good signal everywhere with the Virgin router being where it is, I'd start with the BRSK router in the same place & get the ONT there too (assuming you'd rather it somewhere else for asthetics etc). If you'd be happy with the ONT being there, even if you ended up moving the router, then just go for it there & if you do move the router later on, you can put a small switch (probably 8-way) where the virgin router is, and run 2 ethernet cables from there (one from the switch, one from the ONT) to wherever you move your router to.

I personally got my ONT installed into my garage (lower GND floor), but that's where I have my homelab, and I run CAT6 to a couple WAPs elsewhere.
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Thank you so much for such helpful advice. That is now my plan. However, you won't believe it, but I've had to cancel my installation due to brsk sending a severely drunk installer to our home.

His speech was seriously slurred, he was spitting and could hardly stand up straight. I could smell really strong odor of alcohol. I tried to reason with him and give him guidance as to the route of the cabling, but he became very aggressive saying that I shouldn't tell him how to do his job. I eventually had to tell him to leave as he scared my wife and kids. I've reported the incident to Brsk.
 
The engineer who came to install out ONT box for Plusnet really did not want to do much than the absolute minimum in where it could be installed.
I ended up with a 20m CAT 8 type braided cable to go from the ONT to the Asus router
It added absolutely zero latency to the connection and the speed remained the same.
 
BigChin1, I have complained to Brsk. Yes I should have reported it to the police, but it's an oversight on my part.

Yeah I agree Vines, not the best experience with the installer.

So I spoke to a number of agents about my complaint and they offered me the mesh system for free for 18 months and two months broadband. I accepted this, but since I didn't have this offer in writing, they are now denying such an offer was made and since I've raised the complaint, they now are saying they can't give me an installation date until the complaint is resolved, so for now I'm still stuck with Virgin.
 
overclockers said:
Thank you so much for such helpful advice. That is now my plan. However, you won't believe it, but I've had to cancel my installation due to brsk sending a severely drunk installer to our home.

His speech was seriously slurred, he was spitting and could hardly stand up straight. I could smell really strong odor of alcohol. I tried to reason with him and give him guidance as to the route of the cabling, but he became very aggressive saying that I shouldn't tell him how to do his job. I eventually had to tell him to leave as he scared my wife and kids. I've reported the incident to Brsk.
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Damn... Sorry to hear that! The person who installed my Fibre Cable/ONT came one hour early and did a brilliant job. He even hoovered the area where he worked a little bit (using my hoover, but I did a more thorough job of it myself). Very happy! BRSK hasn't let me down (only downtime has been scheduled maintenance as far as I know). 6 months and nothing but positive experiences here... Contact BRSK and the police to investigate who the installer is and make sure they get punished for that. I ran my own CAT5E cable across to the other side of the room the day before he came and he noticed that haha.
 
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