BT Infinity & FTTx Discussion

Soldato
Joined
9 Mar 2003
Posts
14,056
The person was specifically referring to game downloads which are normally compressed and then decompressed in the background and can take a load of CPU power if your internet is fast.
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Jun 2009
Posts
6,847
Check your CPU usage, they are decompressing at the same time as downloading and that can be the bottleneck sometimes.
I have an R7 3700X, CPU usage is fine. That is the problem though, particularly for smaller games: a lot of the "download" process is decompression rather than actual transfer, so the overall "speed" reported is way below what maxing the connection would be.
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Oct 2009
Posts
13,823
Location
Spalding, Lincs
Wow, looks a lot nicer than my FTTC connection:


Your FTTC looks a lot nicer than my FTTC :D

be8e04a01eeb797db0263acc3a886a477031dfa9.png
 
Caporegime
Joined
9 May 2004
Posts
28,551
Location
Leafy outskirts of London
My wifi has been shocking for a while now (upstairs disconnects, TV's all buffering on youtube/plex).

I see my Smart Hub 2 got a firmware upgrade on the 6th, could that be causing the issues?

My 2 machines that are wired have no issues at all with speed or anything, but wifi is really spotty now.
 
Caporegime
Joined
9 May 2004
Posts
28,551
Location
Leafy outskirts of London
I've given up on this bloody smart hub, what would be the best replacement for up to £100?

Ever since my hub did a firmware update a few weeks ago, my wifi has been dodgy, all streaming has started to buffer, and the black BT disc upstairs for MESH is now useless and had to be disconnected.

My wired connection to the router is fine, so it is definitely the wifi that is the issue.

19 2,4Ghz devices
5 5Ghz devices

Both frequencies are set to smart channel, and tend to stick to 11 and 36 respectively, but when I do a wifi analyser of channels, it says those are the worst.

If I change the channels to manual (1/6/11 and 36/40/44/48) everything is even worse.

I've no issue for 2 years, then suddenly it all goes to pot :(
 
Last edited:
Man of Honour
Joined
20 Sep 2006
Posts
33,883
Keep it, switch Wifi off and wire in a dedicated Access Point such as a UniFi one and put it on your upstairs landing. Let the UniFi handle Wifi and the BT hub do the modem and routing part.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
20 Sep 2006
Posts
33,883
My understanding is that the Smart Hub 2 doesn't have a modem-only mode though.
You don’t need it to be modem only, you’re just disabling the WiFi on it and using it on a product which can be placed better and as such is more than likely to give way better coverage.
 
Caporegime
Joined
9 May 2004
Posts
28,551
Location
Leafy outskirts of London
You don’t need it to be modem only, you’re just disabling the WiFi on it and using it on a product which can be placed better and as such is more than likely to give way better coverage.

Ok that could work, so my current set up uses all 4 ethernet ports of my Smart Hub, and that will still be ok when using a dedicated AP for wifi?

Though I'm guessing one of those ports will need to be sacrificed to connect to the AP, plus I'll need a POE injector as the Hub doesn't do POE.

I could probably move one of the current devices in to the office as I have 2 free ports on the switch that connects my PC and server.
 
Caporegime
Joined
9 May 2004
Posts
28,551
Location
Leafy outskirts of London
It'll work on the wall but you'll get much better coverage with it on a ceiling.

Yeah I know, but due to cable/power access, and my limited DIY abilities, it's the only real way I can get it to work.

At the end of the day, it will still perform much better than the Hub sitting in a cupboard (wife says ugly black hub being visible is a no-go, haha)
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Jun 2009
Posts
6,847
Mine's on the wall too because if I put it on the middle floor ceiling the top floor wouldn't get coverage. Works fine on the wall but the signal is weakest along the walls parallel to the AP, which is annoying since we have a nursery camera on one such wall. >_>
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2007
Posts
3,388
What's the general consensus on BT Full Fibre 900? Reliable, worth it etc?

I currently have Plusnet FTTC Unlimited Fibre Extra and get around 33mb down 7mb up, but due to the poor copper cabling coming into the house (it has been jointed twice), it's really hit and miss when it comes to packet loss. We currently pay £26/m and my intention was always to move onto FTTP when it became available later on, but it's available now and Plusnet will allow me to move over to BT free of charge. Fibre 900 is also on offer for £54.99 a month, so it seems like a no brainer to me?

Couple of other questions:

Do you have any input into where the ONT is placed?
How do BT route the fibre to the house? I was under the impression that the fibre is currently coiled in a duct underneath the pavement, so I have no idea how it's going to get from the pavement and across the driveway to the front of the house? Or does it come over the telegraph pole like the copper does?

I know the second question is something for BT, but I'd like to understand some of the experiences from users on here before I engage with BT.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
20 Sep 2006
Posts
33,883
I have 900 with Zen and it's excellent. I'd expect BT to be the exact same service in terms of latency and speed, the difference will come from a customer support perspective.

The ONT must be near a power socket. Openreach will try and put it where you want it within reason, but they won't pull up carpets etc.
How it's routed depends on how it is delivered, if it's underground it will probably use the same path as the existing copper, if it's overhead then it can be put anywhere within reason.
 
Back
Top Bottom