BT Infinity & FTTx Discussion

Enigma123 said:
Randal they would probably tell you its normal and ask you to rest the modem or the best one they have found a fault in the exchange and are fixing it this is the best excuse ive heard from them lol Good luck let us know what happens
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Oh been there, reset that, received the t-shirt and the modem/router resetting certification.

I generally find that once you've waded through the 2 offshore desks and finally get an engineer sent out then you're as good as fixed, the previous engineers I've been privy too have all been excellent.

I'm half expecting them to turn around and say it's the copper pair from the house to the cabinet, or the run that the copper sits in as it seems to be affecting the dude next door as well.

Just a shame that you can't skip the triage and L1/L2 diagnostics and get straight to someone who'll take the information you're giving them on board. Instead you have to work through a process someone wrote 5 years ago when the network was being built, and was intended to be supported on shore by a skilled team. Then they sent it offshore to save money, and the process isn't really worth a damn to someone who hasn't got the foggiest idea how to use it to their advantage.

Well, that's how it works at our place anyway. :D
 
Westyfield2 said:
The BT Retail website said the 'engineer' will bring the VDSL modem with them, and I'll be sent the router a couple of days before install. That's good to know as I don't plan on using their router (but couldn't find any way of escaping the £6 delivery charge) and was worried that they might send me a combined modem/router rather than standalone modem... so them still using separate modem & router suits me fine.
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Nope only the home hub5 is combined but its not been released so you will get the Openreach modem and the home hub4
 
Exactly Randal the Tech manual just turns into a script and if it isn't in the Tech manual then their is no fault lol, which reminds me of the comedy sketch where the woman just keeps saying "Computer Says No"
 
guys, looking for some advice here.

the guys from bt are currently working on the new cabinets, i think they are feeding in the cable to the last one as we speak.

on bt wholesale im being told up to 73 mbps and up to 20 upload. it has told me what cabinet i am on but had a fair idea what one it was so went over and had a look and it is that cabinet (which is the one the guys are working on today).

i have drew a rough line on a map from my house to the cabinet and it is roughly 150 yards away so the question is how close to that 73 mbps download do you think i will see?

also the bt wholesale availability date says 31st of December where bt openreach says September what one do you think is more accurate?
 
Enigma123 said:
Nope only the home hub5 is combined but its not been released so you will get the Openreach modem and the home hub4
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Cool. "Home Hub 4" is what their website called it. Will be going straight in the bin whatever it is :p. Shame for the environment and my wallet in that I have to pay £6 for them to post it to me though!
 
opstrat said:
i have drew a rough line on a map from my house to the cabinet and it is roughly 150 yards away so the question is how close to that 73 mbps download do you think i will see?

also the bt wholesale availability date says 31st of December where bt openreach says September what one do you think is more accurate?
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That sounds about right for being that close to the cab, you may very well end up with around 76mb/s.

Take both dates with a pinch of salt, email them at [email protected] with your postcode, cab number and phone number (if you have one) and they'll give you a more accurate estimate for it going live. Might take them a week to reply.
 
randal said:
Just a shame that you can't skip the triage and L1/L2 diagnostics and get straight to someone who'll take the information you're giving them on board. Instead you have to work through a process someone wrote 5 years ago when the network was being built, and was intended to be supported on shore by a skilled team. Then they sent it offshore to save money, and the process isn't really worth a damn to someone who hasn't got the foggiest idea how to use it to their advantage.
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You can, it's called pay for a better ISP. BT will work great but you get what you pay for. They have to deal with the unwashed masses who do things like ask why their internet isn't working when they haven't plugged the router in because "it's wireless".

It's extortionate in comparison, but with the smaller independent ISPs, you ring up and the first person you speak to knows how ADSL works. Really really well. Or send them an email and you get a response in a few hours from someone who can understand your problem with MTU settings on IPv6 tunnels.

When it comes down to it, if you need that level of support you pay for it. It's there if you need it. As you say, they had to save money by sending it offshore, the result is you pay less than half for the same speed.
 
opstrat said:
also the bt wholesale availability date says 31st of December where bt openreach says September what one do you think is more accurate?
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Wholesale is probably cabinet date. Opeachreach is exchange date.

lozzd said:
You can, it's called pay for a better ISP. BT will work great but you get what you pay for. They have to deal with the unwashed masses who do things like ask why their internet isn't working when they haven't plugged the router in because "it's wireless".
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So true.
 
lozzd said:
You can, it's called pay for a better ISP. BT will work great but you get what you pay for. They have to deal with the unwashed masses who do things like ask why their internet isn't working when they haven't plugged the router in because "it's wireless".

It's extortionate in comparison, but with the smaller independent ISPs, you ring up and the first person you speak to knows how ADSL works. Really really well. Or send them an email and you get a response in a few hours from someone who can understand your problem with MTU settings on IPv6 tunnels.

When it comes down to it, if you need that level of support you pay for it. It's there if you need it. As you say, they had to save money by sending it offshore, the result is you pay less than half for the same speed.
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Any recommendations? I think I'd be a fool to renew with BT when my contract is up given my experiences, and what you're saying above.
 
randal said:
Any recommendations? I think I'd be a fool to renew with BT when my contract is up given my experiences, and what you're saying above.
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Personally I've been using Zen for almost 2 years on FTTC. They got me into the 80mbit trial early (I had it months before it was released). I've had other connections with them for the last 4 years or so with no problems at all. For the price you have a guaranteed "no touching" of your service (think no traffic shaping, plus you can still hit things the government block like The Pirate Bay).
The only negative I have is that they don't have native IPv6, and don't seem too bothered on rolling it out.

http://www.aa.net.uk/ have been recommended to me many times before also.
 
So L2 didn't call me in the end, I had to call them and then spent another 45 minutes on the phone listening to tests and performing restarts as requested. All to no avail.

One thing that was mentioned was the use of homeplugs, which I have been using for a couple of months with no issues. So I've removed those in the vain hope that my IP profile will improve before Tuesday when the engineer is scheduled to arrive. Hopefully he'll be able to tell me why my speeds have dropped.

In the mean time I'm back to fighting wireless issues on the HH3. My Mac Mini and PC are probably about 10ft away from the HH3 and the mini shows full reception and the PC 4 out of 5 bars. The mac was dropping packets all over the place earlier, and the PC refused to speedtest anything higher than 3mb down and 4mb up... Microserver cabled in to the HH3 gets 27mb down, and works as it should for everything.

So I'm damned (according to BT) if I use homeplugs as they supposedly affect my IP profile, and damned if I don't use homeplugs because the wifi is so utterly terrible.

I think I'll wait until Mr Openreach engineer has been on Tuesday to hopefully fix the sync speed, then splurge on a new router. The HH3 is a total ball ache.
 
I don't see why homeplugs would affect your IP profile as presumably you are only using them 'downstream' i.e. between your router and your home network, after the point at which the internet connection is terminated. Unless they are causing interference somehow?
 
Think you will find thats another BT excuse. But homeplugs use the same VDSL tech to transport signal. If your home plug is far enough away from your modem so it can't get on the DSL line and its not next to the master socket or the house wiring doesn't run parallel with your telephone cable for some distance then its excuses.
 
randal said:
Cheers for that lozzd, I'll have a read.

KIA - fast as I can get with £45pm which I think is what we pay BT all in. Unlimited, unshaped, unsucky service etc..
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How about PlusNet? £19.99/month for unlimited 80/20, plus the cost of the line rental (which I can't remember). I'm currently with them for ADSL service (having moved from O2) and it's the best ADSL service I've had in years - equal to O2 in support, faster than O2 in throughput; I actually hit the 8Mb/s limit of my line with every transfer.

My cabinet is slated to go live around September and I'll definitely be moving to FTTC, and all things being equal I'll be sticking with PlusNet for years to come. :)
 
parityboy said:
How about PlusNet? £19.99/month for unlimited 80/20, plus the cost of the line rental (which I can't remember).
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£14.50 evening & weekends

or add

£5.00 for anytime calls.

I'm just moving from BT infinity2 i hate dealing with the BT India script services i go live with plus net in 2weeks time. So i'll see if my speed takes a hit with them.
 
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