BT Infinity & FTTx Discussion

HungryHippos · 7 Jul 2021 at 15:38

Steven Rimmington said:
Just checked and can get the full fibre 900? Price is £59 I currently am paying £23 for 80. May well go ahead and order this!

Try and negotiate with them, I'm getting 900 for £50/month with BT

You can play the "off to Sky for less card?" if still in cooling off. Speak to their thinking about cancelling team.

Steven Rimmington · 7 Jul 2021 at 15:41

Thinking out loud here but how is the WiFi on the smart hub 2? Ideally I will need ethernet what would the best solution be as the socket is at the other side of the room, ethernet cable to a switch or would BT move the socket for me?

With ordering 80 I have just a simple 100Mb switch this will be no good for 900!

the-evaluator · 7 Jul 2021 at 15:54

The existing BT socket won't be used, they'll install a new box called an ONT (Optical Network Termination) which can go pretty much anywhere, it doesn't have to be where the current socket is. Depending on the rollout in your area you may get moved over to BT Digital Voice at the same time, that'd mean that your telephone comes down the fibre rather than the copper that's connected to the existing BT socket. My parents have just been moved over to Digital Voice and the voice quality is so much better - the copper into their house is fairly poor.

Wifi is OK, nothing amazing and please don't expect to see anything like 900Mbps through the wifi. If the router is correctly placed then chances are you'll have fairly good coverage.

Gigabit switches are pennies, so time to go shopping

Steven Rimmington · 7 Jul 2021 at 16:31

the-evaluator said:
The existing BT socket won't be used, they'll install a new box called an ONT (Optical Network Termination) which can go pretty much anywhere, it doesn't have to be where the current socket is. Depending on the rollout in your area you may get moved over to BT Digital Voice at the same time, that'd mean that your telephone comes down the fibre rather than the copper that's connected to the existing BT socket. My parents have just been moved over to Digital Voice and the voice quality is so much better - the copper into their house is fairly poor.

Wifi is OK, nothing amazing and please don't expect to see anything like 900Mbps through the wifi. If the router is correctly placed then chances are you'll have fairly good coverage.

Gigabit switches are pennies, so time to go shopping

Thank you! I really had no idea what was involved, watched a few reviews and it all makes sense now. Hopefully I can get the kit installed a bit closer than the what the telephone socket is.

A gigabit switch is definitely require

exciting times!

the-evaluator · 7 Jul 2021 at 16:41

It's worth pointing out that unlike the BT socket you currently have, the ONT will need power. Handily for me, the ideal place to have my ONT installed was about 30cm from my UPS.

DragonQ · 8 Jul 2021 at 15:36

the-evaluator said:
It's worth pointing out that unlike the BT socket you currently have, the ONT will need power. Handily for me, the ideal place to have my ONT installed was about 30cm from my UPS.

How do fibre installs work? Can you choose where they install it or will they only run the cable to just beyond the door?

Ideally a fibre run would end in my under stairs cupboard where my other equipment is but that's quite far from the front door. Alternatively it could go in the electricity meter cupboard by the front door and then I'd need a Cat 6 run to my other equipment.

Caged · 8 Jul 2021 at 15:51

It depends on the engineer on the day how much effort they want to put in. What's the route from the cable entry point to the under stairs cupboard?

b0rn2sk8 · 8 Jul 2021 at 16:05

They will only get it to your under stairs cupboard if there is an easy duct or external/internal wall they can route it round.

They are not going to start lifting carpets or floor boards or anything like that. The cable wire will just be surface clipped to what ever it is running against.

the-evaluator · 8 Jul 2021 at 16:31

I'd be very surprised if they'd put the ONT into the meter cupboard, DNO's get grumpy when other kit is in there.

robj20 · 8 Jul 2021 at 17:03

DragonQ said:
How do fibre installs work? Can you choose where they install it or will they only run the cable to just beyond the door?

Ideally a fibre run would end in my under stairs cupboard where my other equipment is but that's quite far from the front door. Alternatively it could go in the electricity meter cupboard by the front door and then I'd need a Cat 6 run to my other equipment.

I ran mine to under the stairs. Drilled a hole in the floor boards in the corner ran the cable all the way under the floor to an air brick where it was then connected by the engineer. I did all that while he was up the pole running the outside bits.
My ONT is right next to my networking cabinet, have a double socket on there as well for everything.

DragonQ · 8 Jul 2021 at 17:47

Caged said:
It depends on the engineer on the day how much effort they want to put in. What's the route from the cable entry point to the under stairs cupboard?

Depends what the "entry point" is, surely? Can it be anywhere?

Caged · 9 Jul 2021 at 08:59

It depends. If you're on an underground feed the entry point for the fibre is usually through the wall where the duct emerges.

dubs · 9 Jul 2021 at 10:22

Finally have a date for my install. 21st July.

The pole was finalised last year, been sat waiting for it to go live.

Only getting the 300 (with bt) as I feel that's fine for our usage.

DragonQ · 9 Jul 2021 at 10:50

Caged said:
It depends. If you're on an underground feed the entry point for the fibre is usually through the wall where the duct emerges.

In that case near my front door. Getting to the under stairs cupboard from there would involve drilling through at least one wall or door frame and having the cable run along skirting and around two doorways. Bit annoying but I can't see any other way of doing it other than ripping the floor up (again).

Presumably the fibre is terminated to a modem near the entry point then a standard Cat 6 cable can be used from there to the router? I already have a Cat 6 cable running under the floor from the master socket to the under stairs cupboard but the cable connecting the master socket to the entry point is crap and never going to be suitable for gigabit speeds.

Steven Rimmington · 9 Jul 2021 at 11:33

Just order the 900 from BT and cancelled the 80/20 from onestream that went live 2 days ago. Speeds were much slower than I'm used to coming from VM200. It's surprising how much bandwidth is used from watching 4K content, daughter on her phone, laptop + Switch plus when I'm on the PS5 online, various smart home devices. 80/20 was grinding to a massive halt. I'm not sure how we ever managed on dial up. Wait we didn't

Bit excited tbh, the box will probably get fitted next to the socket then I'll just buy a 10m cat6 cable and run it under the floor.

b0rn2sk8 · 9 Jul 2021 at 11:33

They can terminate the fibre where there is a power socket. If you already have cat 6 running from there to your under stairs cupboard, that would be ideal and is all you would need. How is that cat 6 not capable of gigabit speeds?

DragonQ · 9 Jul 2021 at 14:13

b0rn2sk8 said:
They can terminate the fibre where there is a power socket. If you already have cat 6 running from there to your under stairs cupboard, that would be ideal and is all you would need. How is that cat 6 not capable of gigabit speeds?

The cat 6 is, the cable from the "entry point" to the master socket is not.

the-evaluator · 9 Jul 2021 at 14:49

DragonQ said:
The cat 6 is, the cable from the "entry point" to the master socket is not.

That cable is also irrelevant as a new fibre cable will be installed.

b0rn2sk8 · 9 Jul 2021 at 14:52

DragonQ said:
The cat 6 is, the cable from the "entry point" to the master socket is not.

Unless I have mid understood, you have CAT running from your master socket to your under stairs cupboard?

The ONT doesn’t use any of existing wiring but it does need power. It just takes the fibre from outside and gives you a Ethernet port which you can plug your CAT6 into which runs to your under stairs cupboard.

Think of the ONT as the modem, you can then plug pretty much any router in to them via Ethernet for your internal network.

DragonQ · 9 Jul 2021 at 17:30

b0rn2sk8 said:
Unless I have mid understood, you have CAT running from your master socket to your under stairs cupboard?

The ONT doesn’t use any of existing wiring but it does need power. It just takes the fibre from outside and gives you a Ethernet port which you can plug your CAT6 into which runs to your under stairs cupboard.

Think of the ONT as the modem, you can then plug pretty much any router in to them via Ethernet for your internal network.

Yes but according to previous posts, the modem will be near the entry point. The existing master socket is NOT near the entry point, hence the existing Cat 6 run from the master socket to the under stairs cupboard won't be useful.