Recommendations for backup internet connection?

Squid Vicious

Squid Vicious

Squid Vicious

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I currently have a virgin media 200Mbps service which is generally pretty good - however when there are issues it can take them some time to identify or even acknowledge the issue - and then they have to fix it.... (currently on day 3 of severely degraded service with 2.5Mbps download and significant packet loss)

Goal is to minimize disruption resulting from occasional poor service - I need a solution that'll provide a 'good enough' backup to ideally allow online gaming and media streaming (including 4k content from the likes of Amazon and Netflix).

Is it possible to get another wired connection into the house from another ISP - in addition to the service from VM?

Or perhaps a much simpler/potentially less costly mobile broadband solution - any suggestions on suitable hardware and providers?

In either case would need to look at how this was integrated with the rest of the network - it would be nice to have but certainly not mandatory some level of automatic fail-over if the VM service was down - are there any 4G enable wireless routers that can provide this sort of functionality?

Currently just have the SH3 acting as modem/router/wifi - connected to an additional switch upstairs via powerline adaptors (and yes, they are terrible and I really should run some cable upstairs :)).

Obviously happy enough to spend a few hundred on kit plus ongoing cost for additional internet connection be it wired or wireless.
 
Can you get FTTC? Even a 40 Mbit connection can stream 4k, no point staying with VM if you're in a congested area which it sounds like you are.
 
Failover for a business makes complete sense.

Failover because you can't watch Netflix and/or play games for a couple of days a year less so. It may be annoying at the time, but hardly worth spending significant money on.
 
ChrisD. said:
Can you get FTTC? Even a 40 Mbit connection can stream 4k, no point staying with VM if you're in a congested area which it sounds like you are.
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Most of the time (> 95%) the virgin service is fine and I get close to the advertised 200Mbps service - it's just when it's not fine that I have an issue :)
Also I work from home a fair bit and it's pretty disruptive when I do lose connection.

Hyburnate said:
Openreach line in conjunction?

You can get 4G SIMs but you'll run up a hell of a cost with 4K streaming etc.
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Bah, I was hoping there'd be some decent uncapped options, similar to fixed line deals - seems that I can get an uncapped from three for £20 a month on a 12 month deal.
I think I'll measure some actual usage and then choose an appropriate package (remembering that this is only a backup :)) - 4k streaming is a luxury so wouldn't be an issue if I couldn't do it.

bremen1874 said:
If the Virgin is bad enough to need a failover option then it's time to leave them if there's any possible alternative.
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No ISP is perfect (though in my experience Zen came close) which is why I was looking at feasibility of adding some redundancy - like I say, most of the time they're pretty good but if I can get a backup solution for around £20 a month with a little capital outlay then I'd probably go for it.
 
Hyburnate said:
You can get 4G SIMs but you'll run up a hell of a cost with 4K streaming etc.
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As a VM cable customer you can get an unlimited 4G allowance for IIRC £25/m a bit expensive for a fail over but still.

I currently use that but with a 120GB allowance for £20/m as a backup in one location (yeah that is how much I like my Netflix).
 
Squid Vicious said:
Most of the time (> 95%) the virgin service is fine and I get close to the advertised 200Mbps service - it's just when it's not fine that I have an issue :)
Also I work from home a fair bit and it's pretty disruptive when I do lose connection.
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Since having FTTC installed in 2014 at my house I've had one outage. Apart from that I've never had a major issue with Sky, Zen or PlusNet.

I moved from a house which had Virgin Media and even though I now 'only' get about 65 Mbit, I would struggle to go back to that shoddy excuse of an ISP.
 
Rroff said:
As a VM cable customer you can get an unlimited 4G allowance for IIRC £25/m a bit expensive for a fail over but still.

I currently use that but with a 120GB allowance for £20/m as a backup in one location (yeah that is how much I like my Netflix).
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Thanks for the feedback - do you manually failover or do you have something sitting behind both connections that will do this automatically?

ChrisD. said:
Since having FTTC installed in 2014 at my house I've had one outage. Apart from that I've never had a major issue with Sky, Zen or PlusNet.

I moved from a house which had Virgin Media and even though I now 'only' get about 65 Mbit, I would struggle to go back to that shoddy excuse of an ISP.
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I've seriously thought about switching back to Zen - I was with them for 10 years at an old property and the very few times that I needed support I can honestly say they were superb.
The only thing really holding me back is that I have a bundle with Virgin - I'll have to revisit what they're actually offering me and the alternatives.
 
Squid Vicious said:
Thanks for the feedback - do you manually failover or do you have something sitting behind both connections that will do this automatically?
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I have setups for both - the router on my main connection (Asus RT-N66U) has automatic fail over to a backup connection and I also have a cheapy TP Link 4G (TL-MR6400) router for another setup that I manually swap over.
 
Draytek have routers that can fail over to mobile if a xDSL line drops, but not sure how it’ll work with VM being ethernet connected as it wouldn’t see it disconnect and sounds like it’s when it’s slow or intermittent than complete disconnection, so doubt many would allow that sort of level of measuring and auto failover at consumer / small biz level so you’ll probably have to manually switch it over.
 
Worth considering VM Business? 24hour response times for issues etc? Not sure if it would fix your issue, but gets them looking at it quicker.

Also gets for 350Mbps down ;)
 
JasonM said:
Draytek Routers can connect to multiple WAN's, I would look into those.
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Thanks - been reading up on draytek stuff all day and just ordered the Draytek 2862AC-K (will disable the A/VDSL WAN) with a USB 4G modem and a PAYG SIM from three to test things out with!

Figured having the A/VDSL as an option would be more useful if I move away from Virgin - and it's very similarly priced to the similarly specced V2926ac - which doesn't include the modem.
 
Squid Vicious said:
Thanks - been reading up on draytek stuff all day and just ordered the Draytek 2862AC-K (will disable the A/VDSL WAN) with a USB 4G modem and a PAYG SIM from three to test things out with!

Figured having the A/VDSL as an option would be more useful if I move away from Virgin - and it's very similarly priced to the similarly specced V2926ac - which doesn't include the modem.
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Lots of options on that modem, those things do pretty much anything and can drive whole office departments if required. The other good thing is Draytek support their hardware for years with updates.

I have an older 2860n it's been solid. If your running home business / servers you can separate internet with vlans, and use QOS to keep everything running smooth, so if someone in your house decides to stream a 4k video it will manage bandwidth to keep other things going!

BTW What does the 'K' mean on the end of AC-K, I searched but could not find the difference.
 
Duke said:
Draytek have routers that can fail over to mobile if a xDSL line drops, but not sure how it’ll work with VM being ethernet connected as it wouldn’t see it disconnect and sounds like it’s when it’s slow or intermittent than complete disconnection, so doubt many would allow that sort of level of measuring and auto failover at consumer / small biz level so you’ll probably have to manually switch it over.
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Agree that slow/intermittent is going to be a bit tricky - as normal detection methods will probably not recognise these.
However the recent degradation was an exception, normally it's full outages ranging from minutes to several hours which should be catered for adequately.

I'll have a little experiment with the load balancing and wan link aggregation as these maybe a more flexible solution.
 
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