New ISP process started!

[macabethiel]

After sorting out some new e mail address that are independent of ISP I have started the process away from Virgin Media currently @ £72.00 plus pcm to go with BT for TV Entertainment,Fibre Super Fast Broadband & phone package with extras on a 24 month contract @ £43.99. One off cost of £19.99.

Spent a bit of time looking at cheaper packages but this still saves me £316.11 in year one. Decided against Talk Talk as they seem to have poor customer ratings. Some sort of guarantee on my Broadband Speed that gives me a reduction if it does not measure up. Not sure what it means but also getting a one off £70 voucher - probably a supply of Vegan Magazines. lol

[macabethiel]

On Monday BT installed my phone line with internet & phone deal - I kept my number so it was transferred from VM.

The TV box seems okay I ordered a pair of BT Mini Connectors V2 for Ethernet over mains protocol connection to our rear lounge.

So far our phone has never rung though you can ring out okay. If I ring from my mobile the house phone stays silent. The self test number they gave me has not fixed anything - the ring back does not work.

BT are returning this Friday to check my connections. I had a text telling me they will charge me £85 if its an internal connection issue!

I assured them when I reported the fault that I had tried two different phones and had even removed the ADSL extender / plug to see if that made a difference (at their request).

Probably a related fault but the broadband is intermittent - speed is 50 Mb/s when it woks down to 9 Mb/s before it drops down to zero. Hopefully its just teething problems.

[solarman216]

Modern technology is just not all it seems, especially communications, so much is still running on old wires laid down many years ago, wish you luck, Rick

[macabethiel]

Originally Posted by solarman216

Modern technology is just not all it seems, especially communications, so much is still running on old wires laid down many years ago, wish you luck, Rick

I was with Sky about 5 years ago I had no land-line for about 10 days as they had to dig a trench across the road as not one nearby neighbour had a BT line. lol
They had to route a new cable through central shared ducting so I figured the wires would still be good. It's supposed to be fibre broadband - I guess the fibre junction is miles away so plenty of scope for signal loss.

[Blocky10]

Originally Posted by macabethiel

I was with Sky about 5 years ago I had no land-line for about 10 days as they had to dig a trench across the road as not one nearby neighbour had a BT line. lol
They had to route a new cable through central shared ducting so I figured the wires would still be good. It's supposed to be fibre broadband - I guess the fibre junction is miles away so plenty of scope for signal loss.

There's 2 ways for fibre broadband. Fibre directly into the property and fibre to the green cabs which then jumps onto your copper phone line. You then have a splitter/filter to divide your land line and router. The further you are from the cab, the slower your speed.

[macabethiel]

Originally Posted by Blocky10

There's 2 ways for fibre broadband. Fibre directly into the property and fibre to the green cabs which then jumps onto your copper phone line. You then have a splitter/filter to divide your land line and router. The further you are from the cab, the slower your speed.

Is this the case with VM as well ?
Our VM connection looks as though its Optical Fibre to the junction box on the street then a phone line type connection to our house.
I know BT did/do Fibre connections to business premises never seen it on private house connections.

Openreach visited today and have fixed my phone line - it now rings - he disconnected & reconnected at the exchange to fix this.

I will need to monitor the broadband over a few days as the drop out is intermittent.

[Banshee]

Originally Posted by macabethiel

Is this the case with VM as well ?
Our VM connection looks as though its Optical Fibre to the junction box on the street then a phone line type connection to our house.
I know BT did/do Fibre connections to business premises never seen it on private house connections.

We are in a 2 year old new build and have fibre straight into the house

200Mbps

[macabethiel]

Originally Posted by Banshee

We are in a 2 year old new build and have fibre straight into the house

200Mbps

If I understand you correctly you have a fibre optic cable junction box in your property - impressive must be well fast.

[Blocky10]

Originally Posted by macabethiel

Is this the case with VM as well ?
Our VM connection looks as though its Optical Fibre to the junction box on the street then a phone line type connection to our house.
I know BT did/do Fibre connections to business premises never seen it on private house connections.

Openreach visited today and have fixed my phone line - it now rings - he disconnected & reconnected at the exchange to fix this.

I will need to monitor the broadband over a few days as the drop out is intermittent.

Yes, VM does the same.

I work for Openreach
All new build sites have fibre direct. There's a box in the pavement with a connection, then a fibre to the property with a connection to an internal fibre cable.

The same can be done if you're fed from a pole too.


Broadband service does take a few days to settle down. It's best to not switch off the router in that time.

It's amazing the amount of customers who wander around the house switching everything off every night. Not that it's the wrong thing to do but it plays havoc with broadband service.

[macabethiel]

Originally Posted by Blocky10

Yes, VM does the same.

I work for Openreach
All new build sites have fibre direct. There's a box in the pavement with a connection, then a fibre to the property with a connection to an internal fibre cable.

The same can be done if you're fed from a pole too.


Broadband service does take a few days to settle down. It's best to not switch off the router in that time.

It's amazing the amount of customers who wander around the house switching everything off every night. Not that it's the wrong thing to do but it plays havoc with broadband service.

I leave my Wi-Fi router on 24/7 I am hoping over the next few days that it will settle down. I think I have to treat today as Day 1 then hope the speed improves as BT suggests.

Up to now the wife has not had an issue with the new broadband but this weekend I will get the blame if it falters - my fault for switching!!

[macabethiel]

I have had no Broadband for most of today tested speed has been around 9 Mbps on download, upload about the same. BT did a system test with me over the phone and agreed there is an issue. Engineer booked for this Wednesday morning -5th February.

Thank goodness I still have my VM Broadband working until the 6 th Feb or I would be fuming. Not sure if it's talk to put you off but the guy BT on the phone intimated it could be slowed down considerably as I have my TV plugged into the router via a BT Mini Connecter (EOMP). Well that rich as its a BT TV deal box that's plugged in!

Not sure if this is twaddle to get me to upgrade !

[rayf3262]

If you are using powerline ethernet adaptors these have been shown to play havoc with the VDSL/DMT connection you now have. I would advise not having them powered on for the first 14 days of service and one the stable norms are established, then reconnect them and check for VDSL line impact.
I am not suggesting this is the underlying problem, but can be the cause of serious performance degradation.

[macabethiel]

Originally Posted by rayf3262

If you are using powerline ethernet adaptors these have been shown to play havoc with the VDSL/DMT connection you now have. I would advise not having them powered on for the first 14 days of service and one the stable norms are established, then reconnect them and check for VDSL line impact.
I am not suggesting this is the underlying problem, but can be the cause of serious performance degradation.

I'm lost I have no idea what VDSL/DMT is ??

As all the gear was supplied by BT I assumed they are compatible.

If I do not use the Powerline Units I will have some seriously long Ethernet cables everywhere! Her indoor is already unhappy a Spaghetti Wiring loom would go down badly. lol

[Mav96]

Anything added to your home network will not effect your download speed unless its consistently using band width, if you use your phone on wifi to check your speed it will be more or less accurate providing wifi is set up right, or better still use a pc (laptop) via Ethernet cable direct to router.

One cheap option that can make a difference is to make sure you use a vdsl face plate on your main socket instead of using filters.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Solwise-ADS...s%2C147&sr=8-2

Before we moved we were with talktalk we had consistantly bad dropouts when the 5th engineer turned up to sort the problem he listened to what I guessed to be the problem, ok he said easy to check, out comes a meter & sure enough it told him how far away the fault was which happened to be where the phone line passed through a tree from the pole, just what I had been telling talktalk from the start. One new cable from pole & all good.

Then we moved similar problem but no trees this time it was a junction box between the pole & our home.

[macabethiel]

Originally Posted by Mav96

Anything added to your home network will not effect your download speed unless its consistently using band width, if you use your phone on wifi to check your speed it will be more or less accurate providing wifi is set up right, or better still use a pc (laptop) via Ethernet cable direct to router.

One cheap option that can make a difference is to make sure you use a vdsl face plate on your main socket instead of using filters.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Solwise-ADS...s%2C147&sr=8-2

Before we moved we were with talktalk we had consistantly bad dropouts when the 5th engineer turned up to sort the problem he listened to what I guessed to be the problem, ok he said easy to check, out comes a meter & sure enough it told him how far away the fault was which happened to be where the phone line passed through a tree from the pole, just what I had been telling talktalk from the start. One new cable from pole & all good.

Then we moved similar problem but no trees this time it was a junction box between the pole & our home.

Openreach visited this morning - engineer changed the wall socket and filter to a socket like the one in your link.

It took almost an hour and a half to identify the main problem to a faulty Modem - apparently they have had issues with some new units having out of date software. That seemed to do the trick with a direct cable rate at 55 Mbps it was a tad over 50 Mbps when checked wireless by me using the Ookla speed checker.