BT Infinity & FTTx Discussion

Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
26,053
No. It's the queuing algorithm used in the router that is responsible for handling links once they get congested. If you want to be able to tweak things then you're better off with a router distribution running on a mini PC.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Jul 2007
Posts
6,085
No. It's the queuing algorithm used in the router that is responsible for handling links once they get congested. If you want to be able to tweak things then you're better off with a router distribution running on a mini PC.

I don’t understand why my pings are okay while uploading when using the Sagemcom as both a router and a modem though? Why does the use of an external modem break things?
 
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
26,053
At a pure guess, the Sagem router knows your upload speed because it can see the sync rate, whereas when you use an external modem it just sees a 1Gbps WAN
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Jul 2007
Posts
6,085
At a pure guess, the Sagem router knows your upload speed because it can see the sync rate, whereas when you use an external modem it just sees a 1Gbps WAN

Cheers. That does sound plausible.

It's a shame that Mini PCs are so expensive, but running OPNSense/pfSense/Untangle etc. does sound like a good long term solution.
 
Associate
Joined
12 Sep 2017
Posts
7
Gave my notice yesterday on my Gig1 VM and getting 900 Full Fibre installed next week. Anybody use the TP Link Deco M5 mesh devices with BT and can give me some really life feedback. I currently have my PC hardwired into one of the M5 nodes about 6 metres away from the main node which is plugged into the SH in modem mode. The max i can get is 300Mbs. Even standing right next to the main node I get 350Mbs from my Iphone 11.
 
Don
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
22,697
Location
Wargrave, UK
It's a shame that Mini PCs are so expensive, but running OPNSense/pfSense/Untangle etc. does sound like a good long term solution.

You don't need an expensive mini PC. I built an OPNSense setup recently with a Dell Optiplex 3010 and an Intel quad NIC. It came in at less than £100 all in. The PC has a fan but is pretty much silent.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Jul 2007
Posts
6,085
You don't need an expensive mini PC. I built an OPNSense setup recently with a Dell Optiplex 3010 and an Intel quad NIC. It came in at less than £100 all in. The PC has a fan but is pretty much silent.

That's a good price, but I need something smaller because it has to fit inside the TV unit. I have an old laptop I could use if it's possible to use a USB NIC adapter for the secondary NIC.
 
Don
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
22,697
Location
Wargrave, UK
I wouldn't recommend using a USB NIC. You can try it and see how you get along but issues with NICs with roll-you-own routers always seem to be related to the NICs and the cheaper chipsets such as Realtek.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Jul 2007
Posts
6,085
I wouldn't recommend using a USB NIC. You can try it and see how you get along but issues with NICs with roll-you-own routers always seem to be related to the NICs and the cheaper chipsets such as Realtek.

Makes sense since the NIC is the most important part of the solution. Since this is a long term solution (maybe, just maybe we'll get FTTP here by 2025) then it softens the blow to buy a decent Mini PC that is silent and efficient.
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Dec 2003
Posts
16,057
How accurate (or not) is the BT "Fibre First" page and availability checker?

I'm really confused what's going on in my area now. I'm right on the Solihull/Birmingham border, connected to the Shirley exchange. A couple of years ago they announced that this whole area was to be provisioned, including Solihull, Shirley and the adjacent Birmingham area of Hall Green. At this point, entering my postcode into the checker said that it was coming which made sense. Obviously I knew it would be a good while as it's a large area.

Sometime last year however, checking my postcode has started reporting "no plans to come to your area" etc. This is despite the map clearly still covering me as that hasn't changed.
As I'm down a cul-de-sac, I was a bit concerned that perhaps not all roads within a given area would be cabled up and that maybe they'd decided my road wasn't worth it.

I've since tried plugging in a few postcodes and addresses out on the main road from which my cul-de-sac branches. If I work my way down the road away from my road, it shows the same "no plans" and then suddenly changes to "available now".
This seems very odd, both that it should change literally from one extreme of "never" to the other of "already there" instantly and also that this change doesn't correspond to any boundary of any sort.
I guess the houses showing available could be connected to a different cabinet that's been upgraded but it still feels weird that they'd stop there and then have no plans to carry on up the rest of the road.

I'm just trying to gauge whether I will actually get done eventually or whether what they're reporting is accurate and I'm screwed.
 
Caporegime
Joined
17 Jul 2010
Posts
25,658
How accurate (or not) is the BT "Fibre First" page and availability checker?

I'm really confused what's going on in my area now. I'm right on the Solihull/Birmingham border, connected to the Shirley exchange. A couple of years ago they announced that this whole area was to be provisioned, including Solihull, Shirley and the adjacent Birmingham area of Hall Green. At this point, entering my postcode into the checker said that it was coming which made sense. Obviously I knew it would be a good while as it's a large area.

Sometime last year however, checking my postcode has started reporting "no plans to come to your area" etc. This is despite the map clearly still covering me as that hasn't changed.
As I'm down a cul-de-sac, I was a bit concerned that perhaps not all roads within a given area would be cabled up and that maybe they'd decided my road wasn't worth it.

I've since tried plugging in a few postcodes and addresses out on the main road from which my cul-de-sac branches. If I work my way down the road away from my road, it shows the same "no plans" and then suddenly changes to "available now".
This seems very odd, both that it should change literally from one extreme of "never" to the other of "already there" instantly and also that this change doesn't correspond to any boundary of any sort.
I guess the houses showing available could be connected to a different cabinet that's been upgraded but it still feels weird that they'd stop there and then have no plans to carry on up the rest of the road.

I'm just trying to gauge whether I will actually get done eventually or whether what they're reporting is accurate and I'm screwed.
If you have Twitter the comms guys on atOpenreach seem very responsive. I'm sure there will be an email address you can find too somewhere on the site.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
20 Sep 2006
Posts
33,887
Any idea why sometimes my firewall connects to the WAN I get 5ms ping and then if I disconnect and reconnect it I get 9ms ping? This is Zen 900.
 
Soldato
Joined
23 Mar 2004
Posts
8,337
Location
Up t'north
With my VM200 contract up and I'm looking to leave this looks very good:

Screenshot-2022-01-10-at-02-46-49.png
 
Back
Top Bottom