Hardware & Technical Super Fast Fibre Optic Broadband

[Bomber]

Hi there,
I'm in Uk rural area about to get 'Super fast Optic broadband' next few months I'll believe it when I see it! supposedly 80Mb?

Just asking those folks with it already what to look out for and is it worth getting the Large fibre 78MB or is medium 38Mb OK? I've been told BT engineer will connect it from street to house using existing copper cable? Then its up me me to pick provider.
What are the engineer charges and do they check the speeds?
Is it easy to start with 38Mb and step up to 78Mb or will that cost double?
I've heard horror stories of people paying for 38Mb and getting a lot less etc.
I'm only about 100m from street cabinet so drop off via copper cable shouldn't be a problem, or is it?

I'm with TalkTalk at moment but broadband poor only use it am and late evenings so looking forward to playing Elite all day fingers crossed!

 

[sbdags]

I've had both and yes get the 80. I see about 50 down and 12 up in real use which is great. On the lower one I got about 24 down and 8 up.

 

[Surfinjo]

Sadly, copper will always be inadequate with the sort of bandwidths needed for the internet.

Get the best you can afford.

I had heard that our sticks dwellers were getting net connections courtesy of gov support.

Not sure why they didn't select Virgin.

 

[Commander Jameson's Ghost]

Started on the cheap 30Mb Virgin in 2010 and upgraded easily to the middle grade- 100Mb- a year or so later and get over what I pay for a lot of the time-just checked it at 107Mb download-which is a common figure.
Was with Talk Talk when it was Tiscali-absolute rubbish compared to Virgin in all respects-particularly customer service which I have always found to be excellent with Virgin.
The fact I am still with them after 4 years -although it is pricey-should speak volumes.
Suggest you buy the fastest you can afford and upgrade if you need to when you can-upgrading should be very easy to do so whoever you go with because it means starting a new contract-so the provider is guaranteed to keep you as a customer that little bit longer and is thus keen to help you switch. The routers used by ISP's can for the most part take up to 300Mb-so you do not have to wait for a new one when you upgrade-my upgrade was done (router remotely restarted) as I spoke over the telephone ordering it!
The cable that runs from the street connection to your house is actually copper-similar to, if not TV coaxial cable-you may have to pay for installation of this-around £50?- but often there are offers which do it for free.

 

[Bazil]

I've had FTTC (40Mb) for about 3 years. First property was just about at the furthest from the cabinet that they'll supply to. Was getting 30Mbit/s download at best but if there was rain it could drop off.

Now I'm a little closer to the cabinet, 37.5 download and 9.5 upload. Quite happy at the moment, I never find myself wanting for more speed.
It depends what you'll be doing, why you feel you need the extra speed.

 

[Bomber]

Thanks for the advice

Aye thanks for the advice guys. I'll post an update if they manage to get it to my cave in the sticks I must admit TalkTalk via Tiscalli via Pipex via homecall (long history of this lot getting taken over!) the support not great but any problems usually been with the line rental hardware BT end?
All providers still having to deal with BT?
I'll have another look at virgin was with them way back 90's? Cheers

 

[Commander Jameson's Ghost]

Aye thanks for the advice guys. I'll post an update if they manage to get it to my cave in the sticks I must admit TalkTalk via Tiscalli via Pipex via homecall (long history of this lot getting taken over!) the support not great but any problems usually been with the line rental hardware BT end?
All providers still having to deal with BT?
I'll have another look at virgin was with them way back 90's? Cheers

Virgin has its own system-runs on its cable TV system which it took over from "Telewest" etc.
Also believe BT was used as a convenient excuse far too often by Tiscali. It was used for 3 Months by them while trying to get a speed upgrade. All of the promises to contact me and keep me up to date by Tiscali broken-every one of them-had to phone them every time-all at my cost- In the end I told them graphically what to do with their internet and went to Virgin in Feb 2010. With Virgin phone-which I have as part of the Broadband package- my calls to customer and technical services are free at all times.

However, I have also had Bazil's experience before switching to Virgin. Every time it was damp or raining my internet would go down. Tiscali referred me to BT who were as useful as a chocolate fireguard.

I did some internet research of my own and came across a problem with corroded wiring connections/clips in the roadside cabinets-every timed it rained or it was damp/foggy they shorted out. Informed BT-they sent an engineer who lucky for me listened-he went an checked the box, replaced some cable connections-end of problem!

 

[Bomber]

Support problems

Virgin has its own system-runs on its cable TV system which it took over from "Telewest" etc.
Also believe BT was used as a convenient excuse far too often by Tiscali. It was used for 3 Months by them while trying to get a speed upgrade. All of the promises to contact me and keep me up to date by Tiscali broken-every one of them-had to phone them every time-all at my cost- In the end I told them graphically what to do with their internet and went to Virgin in Feb 2010. With Virgin phone-which I have as part of the Broadband package- my calls to customer and technical services are free at all times.

However, I have also had Bazil's experience before switching to Virgin. Every time it was damp or raining my internet would go down. Tiscali referred me to BT who were as useful as a chocolate fireguard.

I did some internet research of my own and came across a problem with corroded wiring connections/clips in the roadside cabinets-every timed it rained or it was damp/foggy they shorted out. Informed BT-they sent an engineer who lucky for me listened-he went an checked the box, replaced some cable connections-end of problem!

Aye the problems with support also not helped by being abroad. The times I called got an Indian guy with very poor English (not his fault) but very difficult to explain problems. They seem very reluctant to call BT and insist on checking everything at this end. Yet each time it was a problem with the street cabinet (joined connection with neighbour!, corroded wiring connections like you)
A few times its BT choking the speed and as soon as I've spent a week chasing TalkTalk its sorted by BT (for a while).
Had a long battle once. The connection box at house (BT's responsibility) needed replaced but trying to get TalkTalk and BT to 'talk' to each other and fix it
So will try and speak to Virgin when the time comes and see what they say. Thanks again.

 

[Commander Jameson's Ghost]

Aye the problems with support also not helped by being abroad. The times I called got an Indian guy with very poor English (not his fault) but very difficult to explain problems. They seem very reluctant to call BT and insist on checking everything at this end. Yet each time it was a problem with the street cabinet (joined connection with neighbour!, corroded wiring connections like you)
A few times its BT choking the speed and as soon as I've spent a week chasing TalkTalk its sorted by BT (for a while).
Had a long battle once. The connection box at house (BT's responsibility) needed replaced but trying to get TalkTalk and BT to 'talk' to each other and fix it
So will try and speak to Virgin when the time comes and see what they say. Thanks again.

You are Welcome. Hope it all works out OK whoever you decide to go with.

PS Have to be honest, Virgin does use India for its Technical Support.-But it also uses Scotland as well.
It is a lottery which one you get. However, the Indian one has been quite good so far as accents go in my limited experience-very business like and the Scots service outstanding and very friendly-always sounded like they care.
Customer Service, so far as I am aware, is UK.

 

[Surfinjo]

Re Commander Jameson's Ghost

I have to agree here. I have generally found all service calls to be helpful, but if I were to choose, I'd say India.

There have been one of two times when some Scots laddie seemed a bit stressed and not exactly interested. Generally, I hung up and called again later.

I have never had anything other than clam, helpful and polite service from Indians.

 

[GuruNot]

Hi there,
I'm in Uk rural area about to get 'Super fast Optic broadband' next few months I'll believe it when I see it! supposedly 80Mb?

Just asking those folks with it already what to look out for and is it worth getting the Large fibre 78MB or is medium 38Mb OK? I've been told BT engineer will connect it from street to house using existing copper cable? Then its up me me to pick provider.
What are the engineer charges and do they check the speeds?
Is it easy to start with 38Mb and step up to 78Mb or will that cost double?
I've heard horror stories of people paying for 38Mb and getting a lot less etc.
I'm only about 100m from street cabinet so drop off via copper cable shouldn't be a problem, or is it?

I'm with TalkTalk at moment but broadband poor only use it am and late evenings so looking forward to playing Elite all day fingers crossed!

I went with the Sky 38Mbit FTTC package (Virgin Media is not available at my end of the village) and dont do too bad:

I find it more than enough for the majority of tasks. Having a faster pipe will not help so much with the loading of web pages etc due to the multiple small files. Where it does help is with streaming (Netflix etc) and other large downloads from a good source. I would say that 38Mbit is good enough to start with and if you find you need/want more you can upgrade.

It should be a significant improvement over your existing connection.

 

[dumbo]

Just asking those folks with it already what to look out for and is it worth getting the Large fibre 78MB or is medium 38Mb OK? I've been told BT engineer will connect it from street to house using existing copper cable? Then its up me me to pick provider.
What are the engineer charges and do they check the speeds?

With ADSL:
- a copper cable goes from the exchange, to your local cabinet.
- your telephone line (usually copper) goes from the cabinet to your house.

With VSDL/FTTC:
- a fibre goes from the exchange to your local cabinet.
- your telephone line (usually copper) goes from the cabinet to your house.

So, the engineer doesn't normally run any new cables to your house - FTTC uses your existing telephone cable. (although he may offer/request to move the master socket).

AFAIR the engineer does run a speed test.

I've heard horror stories of people paying for 38Mb and getting a lot less etc.
I'm only about 100m from street cabinet so drop off via copper cable shouldn't be a problem, or is it?

Yes/no and maybe:
- the distance to the cabinet is the main problem, 100m is excellent.
- next comes line quality. Ideally, your master socket is at the point your phone line enters the house, and the VDSL modem is plugged into that. (rather than some horrible star-wired extension mess).
- finally, there is 'contention', if your cabinet has a high take-up, then you may get substantially less than the estimated amount.

But, at my previous "rural" property, I was quoted 80mb, and got 80mb - so I wouldn't believe all the horror stories .

 

[Bomber]

Which Router can you recommend?

Hi folks,

Been thinking of what router would be best. Just reading up on some of the providers own routers which dont seem to have very good reviews, (average to poor)?
If I'm getting superfast BB I'd like to make full use of it with a decent router...esp for Elite
I was thinking of getting my own router and would like to hear if you have any you'd recommend.

So far I've looked at Asus RT-N66U and Netgear R7000 Nighthawk. I'll be using both wired & wireless connections to pc's, printers etc.
Looking for something high powered, reliable and not too difficult to set up maintain.

 

[Dr Zachary Smith]

Hi there,
I'm in Uk rural area about to get 'Super fast Optic broadband' next few months I'll believe it when I see it! supposedly 80Mb?

Just asking those folks with it already what to look out for and is it worth getting the Large fibre 78MB or is medium 38Mb OK? I've been told BT engineer will connect it from street to house using existing copper cable? Then its up me me to pick provider.
What are the engineer charges and do they check the speeds?
Is it easy to start with 38Mb and step up to 78Mb or will that cost double?
I've heard horror stories of people paying for 38Mb and getting a lot less etc.
I'm only about 100m from street cabinet so drop off via copper cable shouldn't be a problem, or is it?

I'm with TalkTalk at moment but broadband poor only use it am and late evenings so looking forward to playing Elite all day fingers crossed!

I'm with Talk Talk too, used to be with Virgin on their fibre optic, I have to say Virgins network is horribly oversubscribed, I had to leave because of packet loss and lag after teatime, and their network management throttling is Draconian.
I get between 12 and 14mb on my Talk Talk line and to be honest have less packet loss and lag than I did on Virgins 20mb lol.

anyway you don't need much bandwidth to play ED I can't say I've noticed any lag on ED and I play Battlefield 3 too, never lag on that either.

My Talk Talk internet is actually free with my phone at £7.50 a month plus £12 line rental, for that I get my home internet, 100 minutes mobile calls and 500 texts, I think that's pretty decent

 

[Commander Jameson's Ghost]

I'm with Talk Talk too, used to be with Virgin on their fibre optic, I have to say Virgins network is horribly oversubscribed, I had to leave because of packet loss and lag after teatime, and their network management throttling is Draconian.
I get between 12 and 14mb on my Talk Talk line and to be honest have less packet loss and lag than I did on Virgins 20mb lol.

anyway you don't need much bandwidth to play ED I can't say I've noticed any lag on ED and I play Battlefield 3 too, never lag on that either.



My Talk Talk internet is actually free with my phone at £7.50 a month plus £12 line rental, for that I get my home internet, 100 minutes mobile calls and 500 texts, I think that's pretty decent

Odd. I have been with Virgin 4 years now and never had any of these problems-but Talk Talk looks a very good deal.
However, I was with their predecessor Tiscali, and had many long running problems with Customer Service-or rather the lack of same -one problem-a speed uprating order that I was charged for and never got- went on several months and many long expensive phone calls only ceased when I left them (after telling them very graphically what I thought of them and their service).
So I am not trusting enough to change back to essentially the same company and same customer service staff to save money.

 

[Dr Zachary Smith]

Odd. I have been with Virgin 4 years now and never had any of these problems-but Talk Talk looks a very good deal.
However, I was with their predecessor Tiscali, and had many long running problems with Customer Service-or rather the lack of same -one problem-a speed uprating order that I was charged for and never got- went on several months and many long expensive phone calls only ceased when I left them (after telling them very graphically what I thought of them and their service).
So I am not trusting enough to change back to essentially the same company and same customer service staff to save money.

Fair enough I think with Virgin it really depends where you are, in a big city like Liverpool their network takes a hammering come teatime, add their network management policy to that and its just bad, well for me anyway it got unbearable, I was with Telewest and Blueyonder for years it was great basically the same optical network, Virgin bought the network took thousands more customers and just killed it

 

[Bomber]

Over a year later update
Just been told I'm now at 'Enabled Area' ...However
"...your cabinet is not ready yet so you can't place an order today. It is in our plans to be upgraded and we update this info weekly, so please check back late".
We also got given the dunt by TalkTalk over to Fleur Telecom (without being consulted I might add) as "...they are better suited to mange our rural areas?"
What company would give up paying customers? It appears TalkTalk couldn't wait till we went to fibre?
Anyway I'll stick with Fleur till we get fibre and then see about switching to a.n.other.
Was hoping it would be in for Horizons. Anybody else managed to get fibre this year?

 

[huwthomas]

Anybody else managed to get fibre this year?

We got FTTC, unfortunately the cabinet is 2km away so still not exactly "super-fast". Still a big improvement though. Zen Internet advised when it was happening and (amazingly, to me!) cut the monthly cost, I guess it's cheaper for them to provide the service now. On the downside I believe they are dropping subscribers where there's no upgrade plan.

 

[Bomber]

I believe they are dropping subscribers where there's no upgrade plan.

Aye what sort of speeds do you get and do you get it 24/7 or is there a significant drop off say during the day?
It is strange we just had TalkTalk hand us over to Fleur only about a month ago. When they must have known we had fibre in the area and Openreach had us down get it sometime soon.
Very odd. I'll most probably go for BT just to get the BT sports pacakge as well as I like the collefge football.

 

[huwthomas]

Aye what sort of speeds do you get and do you get it 24/7 or is there a significant drop off say during the day?

We get about 10Mbps downstream and 1.1Mbps upstream, up from about 7Mbps/448kbps on the copper line. Subjectively I'd say than it's a bigger improvement than it sounds, the upstream is quite important. No significant difference during the day.