Community Fibre

sony007 · 24 Jan 2025 at 07:36

moogle said:
Mine was done on the same day? When you say install a box outside the property, is it on it or is this something in the streets?

I was referring to the black box which needs to be connected to the property, which I suspect is where CF will run their cable from into the property.

So your service actually went live the same day they connected the black box against the property? Did CF test the line prior to install? You know sometimes you see them in their vans checking something, or is that just an initial phase and once the black box has been installed, it’s then just about connecting it up with the cable to run in the home?

I checked my address on CF website and it still says I’m unable to get their service, which is why I was just curious what the next stage was and how long it will take. I also phoned CF yesterday - 23/01/2025 after the black box was connected and the lady I spoke to said it can still take a few weeks which did surprise me - especially as my current virgin service should be terminated on the 12/02/2025, I thought it would have been the day after if not on the same day.

Also on another note - how do CF go about trying to get the best deal for the service they’re after? Can you negotiate? Is it like virgin, it depends who you speak with? I’m after the 3Gig and I’m interested to know what type of deal potentially I could get. A few months ago when I thought it was possible to get their service after talking to one of their representatives, even though is static wasn’t legit let’s say, so my actual address wasn’t the one being used at the time (which he claimed he could fix after), I was offered a deal for the 3 Gigs for 6 months free and £39 thereafter - would than seem like a reasonable deal in the whole scheme of things or are there move favorable deals possible? I thought that deal was decent to be fair, but you just never know until you see the overall picture.

TNA · 24 Jan 2025 at 10:55

sony007 said:
I was referring to the black box which needs to be connected to the property, which I suspect is where CF will run their cable from into the property.

So your service actually went live the same day they connected the black box against the property? Did CF test the line prior to install? You know sometimes you see them in their vans checking something, or is that just an initial phase and once the black box has been installed, it’s then just about connecting it up with the cable to run in the home?

I checked my address on CF website and it still says I’m unable to get their service, which is why I was just curious what the next stage was and how long it will take. I also phoned CF yesterday - 23/01/2025 after the black box was connected and the lady I spoke to said it can still take a few weeks which did surprise me - especially as my current virgin service should be terminated on the 12/02/2025, I thought it would have been the day after if not on the same day.

Also on another note - how do CF go about trying to get the best deal for the service they’re after? Can you negotiate? Is it like virgin, it depends who you speak with? I’m after the 3Gig and I’m interested to know what type of deal potentially I could get. A few months ago when I thought it was possible to get their service after talking to one of their representatives, even though is static wasn’t legit let’s say, so my actual address wasn’t the one being used at the time (which he claimed he could fix after), I was offered a deal for the 3 Gigs for 6 months free and £39 thereafter - would than seem like a reasonable deal in the whole scheme of things or are there move favorable deals possible? I thought that deal was decent to be fair, but you just never know until you see the overall picture.

From the time the black box is on the pole it can still take a few months unfortunately.

Go search for my posts in this thread from about 2 years ago. Went through the same thing on my previous property.

moogle · 25 Jan 2025 at 15:14

sony007 said:
I was referring to the black box which needs to be connected to the property, which I suspect is where CF will run their cable from into the property.

So your service actually went live the same day they connected the black box against the property? Did CF test the line prior to install? You know sometimes you see them in their vans checking something, or is that just an initial phase and once the black box has been installed, it’s then just about connecting it up with the cable to run in the home?

I checked my address on CF website and it still says I’m unable to get their service, which is why I was just curious what the next stage was and how long it will take. I also phoned CF yesterday - 23/01/2025 after the black box was connected and the lady I spoke to said it can still take a few weeks which did surprise me - especially as my current virgin service should be terminated on the 12/02/2025, I thought it would have been the day after if not on the same day.

Also on another note - how do CF go about trying to get the best deal for the service they’re after? Can you negotiate? Is it like virgin, it depends who you speak with? I’m after the 3Gig and I’m interested to know what type of deal potentially I could get. A few months ago when I thought it was possible to get their service after talking to one of their representatives, even though is static wasn’t legit let’s say, so my actual address wasn’t the one being used at the time (which he claimed he could fix after), I was offered a deal for the 3 Gigs for 6 months free and £39 thereafter - would than seem like a reasonable deal in the whole scheme of things or are there move favorable deals possible? I thought that deal was decent to be fair, but you just never know until you see the overall picture.

Ah I read TNA's post and maybe you're referring to the box on the pole? They also install a black box on the properly which is the CSP/Customer Service Point or something? The installer did a splice there in that box and tested the noise on the line before running the rest of the cable into the property.

However for the box on the pole, I think it was in October they were working on that and only in April I was able to order from them so yeah it might take some time.

sony007 · 25 Jan 2025 at 16:29

moogle said:
Ah I read TNA's post and maybe you're referring to the box on the pole? They also install a black box on the properly which is the CSP/Customer Service Point or something? The installer did a splice there in that box and tested the noise on the line before running the rest of the cable into the property.

However for the box on the pole, I think it was in October they were working on that and only in April I was able to order from them so yeah it might take some time.

Oh don’t say that, that means I might have to contact Virgin and will have to pay their excessive rolling month fee.

I did speak to a CF representative who said it should be three working days from when the box was attached. Apparently there’s an issue that they need to look into, something to do with no power getting to the box or something like that.

moogle · 25 Jan 2025 at 16:46

sony007 said:
Oh don’t say that, that means I might have to contact Virgin and will have to pay their excessive rolling month fee.

I did speak to a CF representative who said it should be three working days from when the box was attached. Apparently there’s an issue that they need to look into, something to do with no power getting to the box or something like that.

I don't want to dampen your hopes but that was my experience. I'm in East London and I guess a positive I could mention is that this was 2020 I think? So right at the beginning of CF possibly when you could see they were just starting up and things needed to mature (in terms of the sign up, installation and service). So it could mean by now they'll be faster at going live for customers once the street works are done?

It's good news if you got that from a CF rep, it must be a better process by now. At least you're on the road to getting it. I'm on my 2nd 2 year contract and this April will be 1 year into it, I'm still paying around £26 for 1Gbit which I think is great value and it's the longest I've been with an ISP, no more days of swapping every year when they have great prices.

sony007 · 25 Jan 2025 at 16:52

moogle said:
I don't want to dampen your hopes but that was my experience. I'm in East London and I guess a positive I could mention is that this was 2020 I think? So right at the beginning of CF possibly when you could see they were just starting up and things needed to mature (in terms of the sign up, installation and service). So it could mean by now they'll be faster at going live for customers once the street works are done?

It's good news if you got that from a CF rep, it must be a better process by now. At least you're on the road to getting it. I'm on my 2nd 2 year contract and this April will be 1 year into it, I'm still paying around £26 for 1Gbit which I think is great value and it's the longest I've been with an ISP, no more days of swapping every year when they have great prices.

Exactly, with virgin you constantly have to go through the usual shenanigans to try and get a deal that feels palatable when your contract expires. This is when if really sucks when you have no other provider to choose from if you want decent speed.

TheOtherOption · 30 Jan 2025 at 10:49

Seems CF are available on the roads around ours but they've not bothered to enable their service on our cul-de-sac! So annoying as would happily move to their £25 1gig line (nothing to pay for first 3 months too currently grrr) over paying BT £37 for 500mbps!

Chat rep said he had no idea when they might be available on our road which is soo annoying! Will keep pestering them about it but our BT contract isn't up for another year anyhow

doodah · 30 Jan 2025 at 10:53

Boooo, it was inevitable - CF lowering their referral voucher gift from £100 to £50.

sony007 · 4 Feb 2025 at 21:10

Finally getting my CF installed on the 11th of Feb

. I have no idea if i'll notice anything different now that i'll have symmetrical speed, but damn it just feels nice to know that it's there instead of my current VM 120mb upload speed. Hopefully it will mean that those who I have given access to my Plex media server might be able to stream 4K content without freezing as long as their device is compatible.

doodah · 5 Feb 2025 at 09:08

sony007 said:
Finally getting my CF installed on the 11th of Feb . I have no idea if i'll notice anything different now that i'll have symmetrical speed, but damn it just feels nice to know that it's there instead of my current VM 120mb upload speed. Hopefully it will mean that those who I have given access to my Plex media server might be able to stream 4K content without freezing as long as their device is compatible.

You'll be in good hands for that use case

.

sony007 · 5 Feb 2025 at 11:59

Thank you.

sony007 · 5 Feb 2025 at 14:08

Out of interest, has anyone got or are there routers which when connected to the CM hub in modem mode, will be able to transfer the 3Gigs speed wirelessly to compatible devices?

I currently have a RT-AC86U connected to my Virgin hub which I can get up to 112MB on their 1Gig, it’s not constant thought as would usually drop to around 90-70MB, different times of the day is a factor and the source of where I’m downloading from I know can be a factor, so I’m just going by when you know you could get the max speed your service can provide when you switch to using an ethernet cable for example, but instead prefer to use WiFi if the speed can be like for like.

Orcvader · 5 Feb 2025 at 15:53

sony007 said:
Out of interest, has anyone got or are there routers which when connected to the CM hub in modem mode, will be able to transfer the 3Gigs speed wirelessly to compatible devices?

I currently have a RT-AC86U connected to my Virgin hub which I can get up to 112MB on their 1Gig, it’s not constant thought as would usually drop to around 90-70MB, different times of the day is a factor and the source of where I’m downloading from I know can be a factor, so I’m just going by when you know you could get the max speed your service can provide when you switch to using an ethernet cable for example, but instead prefer to use WiFi if the speed can be like for like.

Assuming you 're going for the 3gb package you'll get the Technicolor router (model FGA5330 last time I checked). It only supports WiFi 6 (no 6E or 7) so you should at least be able to see ~1gb over wireless assuming your devices also supports WiFi 6 and close to the router (with no walls, etc. in the way), but you do want 6E/7 to see higher speeds. There is a 10G port if you do want to add your own router, but it might be easier just to get a WiFi 7 access point and plug that in instead.

RT-AC86U is pretty dated now, it's only up to WiFi 5, but with the right settings you should see ~500mb on WiFi (at least I did with mine). You will want to make sure 5Ghz is set to at least 80MHz width.

sony007 · 5 Feb 2025 at 16:43

Orcvader said:
Assuming you 're going for the 3gb package you'll get the Technicolor router (model FGA5330 last time I checked). It only supports WiFi 6 (no 6E or 7) so you should at least be able to see ~1gb over wireless assuming your devices also supports WiFi 6 and close to the router (with no walls, etc. in the way), but you do want 6E/7 to see higher speeds. There is a 10G port if you do want to add your own router, but it might be easier just to get a WiFi 7 access point and plug that in instead.

RT-AC86U is pretty dated now, it's only up to WiFi 5, but with the right settings you should see ~500mb on WiFi (at least I did with mine). You will want to make sure 5Ghz is set to at least 80MHz width.

Yes it’s the 3Gb that I’ll be getting. So just for clarification as I’m not familiar with access points, do these devices work in the same way as connecting a second router - still having the main CF router switched to modem mode only? Are there advantages or disadvantages in using an WiFi access point instead of a newer router that supported WiFi 7? That’s if what I’m saying is correct of course.

Orcvader · 5 Feb 2025 at 16:50

sony007 said:
Yes it’s the 3Gb that I’ll be getting. So just for clarification as I’m not familiar with access points, do these devices work in the same way as connecting a second router - still having the main CF router switched to modem mode only? Are there advantages or disadvantages in using an WiFi access point instead of a newer router that supported WiFi 7? That’s if what I’m saying is correct of course.

Access points are purely WiFi, so the CF router will still function as a router. All you'll have to do is turn off the WiFi on the CF router. Main reason I suggested that is because I'm not sure if the Technicolor will even offer a modem mode. I'm only on the 1gb plan where they supply an Adtran ONT (the modem) and a Linksys router, so if I wanted to go with a different router I just replace the Linksys directly, but in the Technicolor's case apparently it's both the ONT and router in one. All this could make adding your own router a little more difficult. Access points will be much more easier, you just plug in, set the WiFi name and password, and that's it.

jonneymendoza · 5 Feb 2025 at 16:55

sony007 said:
Yes it’s the 3Gb that I’ll be getting. So just for clarification as I’m not familiar with access points, do these devices work in the same way as connecting a second router - still having the main CF router switched to modem mode only? Are there advantages or disadvantages in using an WiFi access point instead of a newer router that supported WiFi 7? That’s if what I’m saying is correct of course.

Ditch the router they supply you and get a proper router mate. Like a mikrotik router or even a unify one that has 10gbit ports.

Is your main desktop wired ethernet?

SupraWez · 5 Feb 2025 at 17:01

jonneymendoza said:
Ditch the router they supply you and get a proper router mate. Like a mikrotik router or even a unify one that has 10gbit ports.

Is your main desktop wired ethernet?

This ^ you dont need to use the supplied CF router at all.

Also with the 3gb service unless you have 2.5/5/10gb LAN setup your not going to see more than 1gb

its crazy when your internet is faster than your LAN

sony007 · 5 Feb 2025 at 17:32

jonneymendoza said:
Ditch the router they supply you and get a proper router mate. Like a mikrotik router or even a unify one that has 10gbit ports.

Is your main desktop wired ethernet?

When you say ditch, do you mean I could literally replace the router that community fibre provide or do you mean like with VM you have to connect your own router to their one?

My main desktop would be wireless most of the time.

sony007 · 5 Feb 2025 at 17:36

SupraWez said:
This ^ you dont need to use the supplied CF router at all.

Also with the 3gb service unless you have 2.5/5/10gb LAN setup your not going to see more than 1gb its crazy when your internet is faster than your LAN

Hmmm… not as straightforward as I thought

Orcvader · 5 Feb 2025 at 18:16

sony007 said:
Hmmm… not as straightforward as I thought

Hence why I suggested the access point route. But it'll also require the PC to have WiFi 7 (with 6GHz support) and be in the same room.

It's one reason why I stuck with 1gb, almost all my gear is limited to 1gb ports, with the desktop being the only one with a 2.5gb port.