Community Fibre

So far they're the only altnet showing interest in my area, but still could be a few years. I'm curious how your experience will be with them especially if they do use CGNAT, I run a local Minecraft server for a few friends so that will be an issue for me.
 
signed up to join communityfibre 500mb offer on the 11th Aug from Plusnet contract ending. CF have been in my area for over a year and there have been many offers (flyers through post) look forward to the switch as Plusnet are no longer value for money and no FTTP offering
 
Well not off to a good start for me, hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

First of all, someone in the household insists on a landline, oh well, no issue there, just want to port the number. Don't see the option in check out. Live chat, says they had the same issue with a customer earlier, but if you have phone package selected, it "should be there somewhere". Very helpful :rolleyes:.

Eventually found a tiny little text elsewhere on the site saying "complete the form after checkout", so tried to go through anyway.

Put all my details in, selected a time slot and got to processing order, before it tells me "there was a problem with your order" and the option to phone. Check emails etc, definitely didn't go through.

Thought I'd try again, maybe it just failed for what ever reason. This time, put address in, clicked the "check availability button" as normal, circle next to it just sits there spinning until the end of time, so can go no further.

Refresh the page for try number 3. This time it works, get all the way to check again, pick date, hit complete order. Placing order or whatever spins for a second, no "problem with your order", but instead just dumps me straight back to the "pick install date bit". Thought maybe that slot isn't available (even though it shows it is), click a different slot and before I can even hit place order again, it just jumps to "there was a problem with your order".

Will try again Thursday (maybe the website is having issues today), but if not will have to phone. Have a referral link I wanted to use, so not sure how I will use that if I have to phone.

So overall, not off to a fantasic start here.
 
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Armadillo said:
Well not off to a good start for me, hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

First of all, someone in the household insists on a landline, oh well, no issue there, just want to port the number. Don't see the option in check out. Live chat, says they had the same issue with a customer earlier, but if you have phone package selected, it "should be there somewhere". Very helpful :rolleyes:.

Eventually found a tiny little text elsewhere on the site saying "complete the form after checkout", so tried to go through anyway.

Put all my details in, selected a time slot and got to processing order, before it tells me "there was a problem with your order" and the option to phone. Check emails etc, definitely didn't go through.

Thought I'd try again, maybe it just failed for what ever reason. This time, put address in, clicked the "check availability button" as normal, circle next to it just sits there spinning until the end of time, so can go no further.

Refresh the page for try number 3. This time it works, get all the way to check again, pick date, hit complete order. Placing order or whatever spins for a second, no "problem with your order", but instead just dumps me straight back to the "pick install date bit". Thought maybe that slot isn't available (even though it shows it is), click a different slot and before I can even hit place order again, it just jumps to "there was a problem with your order".

Will try again Thursday (maybe the website is having issues today), but if not will have to phone. Have a referral link I wanted to use, so not sure how I will use that if I have to phone.

So overall, not off to a fantasic start here.
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expensive option adding a landline , that's one of the main reasons I am leaving plusnet and moving to fttp , No more land-line
 
Armadillo said:
Quick bump. So community fibre is finally live here, going to go for it, but just have two quick questions.

When ever I've changed isp, it's always been fttc, to another fftc, so the switch has pretty much been sign up to new isp, let them take care of it. With community fibre being it's own thing and not openreach network, I just order it, wait till it's up and running and then cancel sky?

The ONT (I think, the thing the fibre goes into), does it screw to the wall or is it more like a modem with feet and it just sits wherever. Community fibre videos seem like it just sits like a modem. Just sitting would be better, but can move stuff to accomadate it if it has to screw to the wall.
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Yes, you can leave your phoneline-based ISP running for as long as you like.

The ONT or media converter will be attached to the wall, they won't want you moving it around as that's what the fibre runs to. The router will be freestanding though.
 
nam said:
expensive option adding a landline , that's one of the main reasons I am leaving plusnet and moving to fttp , No more land-line
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£10 for anytime calls. Still no line rental because voip. Still expensive considering can get Asda Mobile unlimited talk and texts for £4. But I've lost this battle many times, family member insists on a "landline", no matter how much I point out that it's more expensive & to use a mobile like everyone else :p

Anyway, all issues above were caused by the website being bad apparently. Hours later got

1) Order confirmation, except with a different date and some waffle about the install date that the website showed not being available and earliest date is Friday. Also a text doing the same and saying to contact to confirm it's ok.
2) Two direct debit set up notification things, instead of one.

Sorted that over the phone, set for Friday and can cancel either of the direct debits, as long as one is set up, it's fine.

So yeah, all the hassle is because apparently the website was showing slots that aren't available, and rather than just say "unavailable" and ask me to pick another, it just broke.

TheVoice said:
The ONT or media converter will be attached to the wall, they won't want you moving it around as that's what the fibre runs to. The router will be freestanding though.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll just clear a big space and let them put it wherever it needs to be.
 
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I have been with them on 1gbit package since about October 2021.

Very pleased with the service, one sub one day outage when someone cut through a local fibre duct. Uploads and downloads 950mbit plus when cabled, 5-600Mbit on Wi-Fi.

** not allowed **

Regarding install they run a fibre lead from the BT pole just inside your house and terminate it internally into a box with a faceplate. Then a small fibre patch lead to the free standing ONT (you could command strip or double sided tape it to the wall) then it goes Ethernet patch lead to the router (in my case Linksys Velop).
 
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Been with them since April. Luckily my install was a standard and easy one (phone line through VoIP, so no annoying landline ports causing issues). Just had a 30 min outage on Monday evening at midnight though, so no great reliability compared to TalkTalk or BT on FTTP as had them for years with only 2 or 3 outages due to maintenance for TalkTalk (none for BT). Still early though so will have to see.

Haven't yet got my £100 voucher and customer support seem a bit crap so far. However on the plus side it's £20 for 1GB for 24m so hopefully the less I have to contact them the better.

I did notice their support was rubbish before I joined as when you call up to sales, you'll get through within a minute, but if you choose the option for support you can be on hold for up to 30 minutes. Things to be aware, maybe because they're a new outfit and hopefully will improve. We'll see.
 
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morfmedia said:
I have been with them on 1gbit package since about October 2021.

Very pleased with the service, one sub one day outage when someone cut through a local fibre duct. Uploads and downloads 950mbit plus when cabled, 5-600Mbit on Wi-Fi.

Regarding install they run a fibre lead from the BT pole just inside your house and terminate it internally into a box with a faceplate. Then a small fibre patch lead to the free standing ONT (you could command strip or double sided tape it to the wall) then it goes Ethernet patch lead to the router (in my case Linksys Velop).
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Can i ditch the included router and directly attach the ethernet cable form community fibre to my own router and would it need configuration?

Do they offer static IP addresses?
 
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No that’s what I’m saying. Yes you can use your own router but no they don’t do static ip. However, it doesn’t change unless you reboot your router.
 
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No probs - if you want pics or anything like that of how they install send me a PM, happy to whizz across any specifics you might want. The router we got was the Linksys Velop, that's just in a box sat doing nothing as I assume they'll ask for it back if we ever switch.
 
Kol said:
No probs - if you want pics or anything like that of how they install send me a PM, happy to whizz across any specifics you might want. The router we got was the Linksys Velop, that's just in a box sat doing nothing as I assume they'll ask for it back if we ever switch.
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I have my install on 11th , would like to know how they terminate the box, does it have any poe or gigabit ports ? , is the performance of the router any good for WiFi or should I stick to separate AP setup
 
nam said:
I have my install on 11th , would like to know how they terminate the box, does it have any poe or gigabit ports ? , is the performance of the router any good for WiFi or should I stick to separate AP setup
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Depending on which spec package you choose there is differing hardware. For the 1gbit package they do Linksys Velop.

You can either plug straight into the ONT with a router that will DHCP from them or you can use the Velop in modem only mode and use your own AP. When I signed up they were doing a special with 2 * Velop. They only have 1 uplink port so worth saying at install time if you have more devices and I believe they will give / send you a 5 port small switch.

My house is cabled for CAT6 so I am just using their Velop devices with wired backhaul and covering a decent sized house (5 bed detached). Wifi coverage is good due to mesh system although if you already like your current AP's then just uplink them and disabled the Velop wifi.

If you do want static IP I believe it is available but you'd need to sign up for the business package which is more ££ but better SLA.

Only pain I had was some static IP devices which were on 192.168.0.x and the Velop defaults to 192.168.1.x but not a massive hardship to overcome :)
 
morfmedia said:
Depending on which spec package you choose there is differing hardware. For the 1gbit package they do Linksys Velop.

You can either plug straight into the ONT with a router that will DHCP from them or you can use the Velop in modem only mode and use your own AP. When I signed up they were doing a special with 2 * Velop. They only have 1 uplink port so worth saying at install time if you have more devices and I believe they will give / send you a 5 port small switch.

My house is cabled for CAT6 so I am just using their Velop devices with wired backhaul and covering a decent sized house (5 bed detached). Wifi coverage is good due to mesh system although if you already like your current AP's then just uplink them and disabled the Velop wifi.

If you do want static IP I believe it is available but you'd need to sign up for the business package which is more ££ but better SLA.

Only pain I had was some static IP devices which were on 192.168.0.x and the Velop defaults to 192.168.1.x but not a massive hardship to overcome :)
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thank you. I am signed up to 500mb showing as a linksys tri-band router which I will probably not use for wifi sitting in an old victorian house with 4 bedrooms the wired AP route is the way to go. Just purchased 2 x AX3000 TP-!link APs to replace my current Deco M4's to cope with the extra wifi bandwith capacity
 
My install happened today. Pretty much nothing to report.

External fibre from the pole to house. Small hole in the wall to let it in, that went into a faceplate looking thing. Then another fibre cable that has green tips, one end connected to the fibre faceplate and the other into the ont. Router is a Linksys Velop.

No issues. Speedtest shows 520/520, so a little above the 500/500 package. Wifi on my phone gets about 300/300. Ping is slight lower, but was fine one Sky as well. Sky got 5ms to bbc, community fibre gets 2ms.

No idea how to check if CGnat or not. Only says to check your ip vs routers "wan" ip, but I've gone blind and can't find it in the velop interface.
 
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