City Fibre

Lord Alibaski · 15 Jan 2025 at 16:55

Its not about assuming people are and want to live in the dark ages, its about not having objects poking out of the wall where the daughter can't get her wheelchair past. We have tried boosters/extenders when we were on virgin they worked fine but had to remove them they limited wheelchair accessa round the house the connection was also good enough when on virgin without the boosters, hence giving this router a chance but its failed.

I have told her we will just have to wait on this, we are having a lot of work done on the dining room in March so more sockets will be put in and hopefully get one put away from wheelchair access.

Avalon · 15 Jan 2025 at 17:39

Ah, the undisclosed extra criteria, I know it well. I live in a home that we have had to adapt for electric wheelchair use for my wife, I can honestly say - even pre adaptation - devices sticking out of sockets were never an issue for us, but obviously you have sockets in odd/inconvenient locations. Mesh nodes - which are a much better idea generally than repeaters - are corded, so tend not to protrude that much and can be sited somewhere sensible, obviously it's better if you can run a cable to them for wired backhaul.

Caged · 15 Jan 2025 at 19:04

If you've having work done in the house anyway then running network cables to places where access points can go would be a better use of resources than installing sockets in locations suitable for Wi-Fi repeaters

Lord Alibaski · 15 Jan 2025 at 20:02

We used to also have the VM router in the living room probably another reason why the signal was better. Though we had the living room done from scratch 2 year ago and I had the router put upstairs with with Ethernet behind the wall.

I only use a 5 port switch in the living room now with 3 items attached and need 1 more for a reolink home hub pro when we eventually get one.

When we have the dining room done I think it would be best to get Ethernet drop it through the ceiling the dining room is straight below where the router is, so like you say something like an access point would probably be best.

Hopefully 1 will suffice just need to pick the right one.

Type_R · 15 Jan 2025 at 20:18

no_1_dave said:
LOL I had issues with Yayzi, they're awful and ended up not connecting me and blaming CityFibre.

I placed an order with Aquiss instead and phoned them to explain what Yayzi had told me (something about CF refusing due to a blockage)...
Aquiss were great and within 2 weeks CityFibre came and cleared the blockage in the under-road trunking and the following week I was connected.

My BT ping was around 5ms and my CF ping is about the same, sometimes lower. I have 2gb/1gb and it's amazing
I was hesitant at first, so kept a very cheap, low tier, EE fibre package as a backup in case CF were not as reliable. But I never needed it and would actually say the CF network has been more reliable. I've not had any strange, random, disconnects like I would sometimes get with BT.

I’ve ordered the Aquiss 2500/2500 package for 12m today!

Jasseh · 15 Jan 2025 at 20:35

OverDrive said:
I've finally given my notice to Virgin Media (HFC), and I have placed an order for CityFibre via IDNet. Really hoping the install goes smoothly as they will need to bring a cable to my house via the overhead. I will request that they use an existing hole where I have removed an old phone line and socket.

I finally decided to leave VM too after my latest promotional discounts expired. I've opted for Vodafone's 2200/2200 package at £65 per month (VM had just jumped from £95 to £155). Install is due on Monday, hardware turned up about an hour ago.

OverDrive said:
I briefly looked at Vodafone too, however it seems that there can be latency issues when load balancing takes place.

Hope latency isn't too bad, never had issues with VM and would hate to start having issues now.

Jace007 said:
Congrats of getting rid of VM, How was the phone call, was it easy enough to do? Ddo you speak to retentions or the 1st person on the line? I plan to cancel my Vm service this week.

I used the live chat to find out my options for a better deal, then shopped around instead. Vodafone dealt with letting VM know I'm leaving and I got email confirmation from VM that Vodafone had updated them.

no_1_dave · 15 Jan 2025 at 23:29

Type_R said:
I’ve ordered the Aquiss 2500/2500 package for 12m today!

Nice!!
I can't get that one yet, but I chuck them an email every 3 months to see if anything's changed

Broken Hope · 16 Jan 2025 at 10:05

Jasseh said:
I finally decided to leave VM too after my latest promotional discounts expired. I've opted for Vodafone's 2200/2200 package at £65 per month (VM had just jumped from £95 to £155). Install is due on Monday, hardware turned up about an hour ago.

Hope latency isn't too bad, never had issues with VM and would hate to start having issues now.

I used the live chat to find out my options for a better deal, then shopped around instead. Vodafone dealt with letting VM know I'm leaving and I got email confirmation from VM that Vodafone had updated them.

Why would you choose Vodafone over IDNet or Aquiss?

DIABLO · 16 Jan 2025 at 20:55

Broken Hope said:
Why would you choose Vodafone over IDNet or Aquiss?

Price probably. Though i've heard that Vodafone is not bad unless you need to talk to them if you have a problem.

Broken Hope · 16 Jan 2025 at 22:44

DIABLO said:
Price probably. Though i've heard that Vodafone is not bad unless you need to talk to them if you have a problem.

£65 is more expensive than both the ones I mentioned though, I’m paying £60 for 2500/2500 with IDNet.

Jasseh · 17 Jan 2025 at 00:37

Broken Hope said:
Why would you choose Vodafone over IDNet or Aquiss?

Limited shopping around while in the retention conversation with VM. Honestly wasn't aware of either of those 2 options at the time (didn't show up in my limited search).

Looking at options now, I probably would have gone for IDNet's Gamer Max option with the phone line added. £72 per month, but a better router than Vodafone have supplied.

The Vodafone package includes an automatic 4G backup and wi-fi booster in the price at least. Didn't realise the router only has 2.5Gb on the WAN port though, found that out when I unboxed it earlier

.

Avalon · 17 Jan 2025 at 08:54

Jasseh said:
Limited shopping around while in the retention conversation with VM. Honestly wasn't aware of either of those 2 options at the time (didn't show up in my limited search).

Looking at options now, I probably would have gone for IDNet's Gamer Max option with the phone line added. £72 per month, but a better router than Vodafone have supplied.

The Vodafone package includes an automatic 4G backup and wi-fi booster in the price at least. Didn't realise the router only has 2.5Gb on the WAN port though, found that out when I unboxed it earlier .

The issue with Vodafone has always been poor/hobbled hardware, poor CS/TS and load balancing traffic between Edinburgh and London poorly which can result in traffic being routed to Edinburgh and then back to London. So far you've only experienced once of those, but it's very early days. Personally, I would make different choices, I certainly wouldn't pay over the odds for Vodafone, but this is your party, and you get to choose the flavour of cake.

Avalon · 17 Jan 2025 at 11:24

Lord Alibaski said:
We used to also have the VM router in the living room probably another reason why the signal was better. Though we had the living room done from scratch 2 year ago and I had the router put upstairs with with Ethernet behind the wall.

I only use a 5 port switch in the living room now with 3 items attached and need 1 more for a reolink home hub pro when we eventually get one.

When we have the dining room done I think it would be best to get Ethernet drop it through the ceiling the dining room is straight below where the router is, so like you say something like an access point would probably be best.

Hopefully 1 will suffice just need to pick the right one.

So plugging a Mesh node or AP into port number 5 would literally solve your problem and presumably not inconvenience your daughter's access to the room then?

Jasseh · 17 Jan 2025 at 12:10

Avalon said:
The issue with Vodafone has always been poor/hobbled hardware, poor CS/TS and load balancing traffic between Edinburgh and London poorly which can result in traffic being routed to Edinburgh and then back to London. So far you've only experienced once of those, but it's very early days. Personally, I would make different choices, I certainly wouldn't pay over the odds for Vodafone, but this is your party, and you get to choose the flavour of cake.

Sounds like it would be sensible to use my 14-day window to cancel Vodafone and switch to IDNet. Too late to cancel the Vodafone installation now, had to give 2 working days notice and they are due to install on Monday.

Might also take the opportunity to deal with losing the landline... Never use it anyway.

bsoltan · 19 Jan 2025 at 12:25

Finally took the plunge and signed up to move to CityFiber with iDNet this week. It was a toss up between them and Zen, and when I called Zen they said it would take 3-4 months (120 days) for an install and an install cost £120!

Booked iDNet through the web for £0 install on 12 month contract and it should be getting installed on the 29th Jan.

Looking forward to the boost from FTTC to FTTH, my bill going down by about £20 a month, and no more phone line.

edit: going to browse some other threads but I'll drop an edit here too. What's is a good stable/easy router to use once on this connection? Usage in my home is about to increase too.
I'm currently going to continue to use the TP-Link AX300 (Archer AX50) that I already have but also considering updating.

Broken Hope · 19 Jan 2025 at 13:12

If the TP link does what you need then stick to it, otherwise something like the Flint 2 would be worth looking at.

Caged · 19 Jan 2025 at 15:34

bsoltan said:
Finally took the plunge and signed up to move to CityFiber with iDNet this week. It was a toss up between them and Zen, and when I called Zen they said it would take 3-4 months (120 days) for an install and an install cost £120!

Are you in a flat? That's the only reason I can think of why Zen were quoting 3-4 months to install. If that's the case then IDNet might not be any quicker but at least you have a date.

bsoltan · 19 Jan 2025 at 15:58

Caged said:
Are you in a flat? That's the only reason I can think of why Zen were quoting 3-4 months to install. If that's the case then IDNet might not be any quicker but at least you have a date.

Nope, not a flat. Just a home with the CityFiber box on the pavement at the edge of my driveway. Gave them my address so unless they put it in their system wrong. Shrug.
The combo of the wait and the cost lost them a customer. The person on the phone didn't seem that enthusiastic or bothered to get a new customer either.

docsonic · 19 Jan 2025 at 16:03

I'm on the fence between Zen, IDNet & Aquiss. We will be moving away from BT FTTC & I cannot wait to say goodbye to them, it was never amazing to start with but it's been getting progressively worse.

Zen was my first choice as I used to be with them years ago & they were very good. Not sure now based on the above comments. Plus calling is a pain, what's with that?

£40 - 45 will probably be the most we'll go to so just want the best deal in terms of supplied router & speed (we can get fibre 2000 with IDNet to give a snapshot of the connection potential).

Caged · 19 Jan 2025 at 16:04

I had the same experience with Zen trying to buy a business connection, made an enquiry via email and it was ignored, phoned them up and they didn't seem that fussed about making the sale