ProDave Posted September 20, 2022 Author Share Posted September 20, 2022 I am on the verge of signing up with this new wireless ISP, but they dropped this into the discussion: "CFWN normally supply a Dual band router (ACB-AC) as standard for installs, however due to the ongoing global equipment shortages these are currently unavailable and and we are unable to even obtain an estimate for availability. Therefore, we propose to provide you with an alternative an ACB-ISP. This router is only single band (2GHz) but will provide your basic needs for internet connectivity and allow us to proceed with your installation" Just checking my present BT dual band router, I find it has currently got 6 devices connected to it's 2.4GHz wifi and 4 connected to the 5GHz wifi. Not all of these are in use, e.g an old out of contract phone used occasionally to stream music, my old Ubuntu PC turned on once in a blue moon. Would that many devices connect and work with the 2GHz only router? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted September 20, 2022 Share Posted September 20, 2022 (edited) That description sounds like this Ubiquiti airCube airMAX (the codes match if you google them one is 2.4 and the other is 5) If that’s the case it’s not a router it’s an access point that will be connected to whichever box they use to connect to their network. If that’s the case you could buy a different access point that has both frequencies. Worth asking them at least. As far as your question goes (will it make much difference) Probably none that you will notice. Edited September 20, 2022 by Kelvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted September 20, 2022 Author Share Posted September 20, 2022 Yes their quote says router and access point as 2 separate items. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted October 4, 2022 Author Share Posted October 4, 2022 Well we bit the bullet and our CFWN broadband was installed yesterday. We now get a blistering * 45 MBPS download and 20MBPS upload. As well as being faster, it seems more reliable, by that I mean I have had the Pi Music Box quietly streaming Radio Caroline for nearly 24 hours now without a single drop put. Previously it used to stop and start a lot, particularly early evening. There was a little "confusion" with how to cancel the old BT service. The advice from the new provider was cancel your broadband and keep your landline, and when you are ready to migrate the LL to VOIP let us knw and we will transfer it. So I phoned BT yesterday. "Yes sir you can cancel your broadband, but to keep the landline that will enter a new 12 month contract" and it appeared when you left you still had to pay the remainder of the 12 month contract. I argued and got nowhere, so I ended the call without cancelling anything. Another call to the new provider and you could hear the lady on the phone sigh, BT up to their dirty tricks again. So the result Is I have signed the forms for the VOIP transfer and just received an email from BT the landline transfers on the 15th October and on that day both my LL and BB contract with BT ends. So both ending together they can;t play the silly new contract trick. BT really are acting like a spoiled child. I have given them plenty of time to improve their service and finally lost patience and am leaving them. Their behaviour in this matter does nothing to make me want any dealings with them again in the future. I wonder if they will ever learn the way to get happy customers is give them good service? *Some of you lucky enough to get FTTP will wonder how we manage with such a slow connection, but it is 15 times faster than wired ADSL was here and all we are ever likely to get in the near future. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adsibob Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 1 hour ago, ProDave said: *Some of you lucky enough to get FTTP will wonder how we manage with such a slow connection, but it is 15 times faster than wired ADSL was here and all we are ever likely to get in the near future. 45 upload is VERY fast, and for many things it is arguable that upload and reliability is much more important than download. What is your latency like? I pay crazy money for Virgin Media and get 500mb download but only 34mb upload. Reliability is terrible. Last month i complained and they promised to discount my bill. Of course, when the bill came through yesterday, they hadn't. Shame CFWN is only available in the Highlands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted October 4, 2022 Author Share Posted October 4, 2022 24 minutes ago, Adsibob said: 45 upload is VERY fast, and for many things it is arguable that upload and reliability is much more important than download. What is your latency like? I got my upload and download mixed up (now corrected in quoted post) they say upload is capped at 20MBPS. Latency, if you mean ping time 43mS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adsibob Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 15 minutes ago, ProDave said: I got my upload and download mixed up (now corrected in quoted post) they say upload is capped at 20MBPS. Latency, if you mean ping time 43mS Ah. But 20mbps upload is still very decent. There is loaded and unloaded latency, with loaded being more indicative of real world usage. run a speed test on www.fast.com to see both figures (you need to click on "show more info" then wait for the second part of the test to complete to see those figures.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 Thought I would check my speed. I am out at the moment. Pretty poor. I think my life will be unaffected though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 Yeah BT can be twats . My 900mbps was 18 months late so I am due compensation. They are playing me so gone to the ombudsman ( like I did with Scottish power ) - a win for me is guaranteed . Just for @SteamyTea …. I’m on WiFi aswell so this is slow 🤣 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 1 minute ago, pocster said: I’m on WiFi aswell so this is slow WiFi of mobile internet? You can see why they call me Slow Hand now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 8 minutes ago, SteamyTea said: WiFi of mobile internet? ???? I’m connected wirelessly to my hub ( intranet ) ; though actually I have a mesh network . A wired connection would give me that 900mpbs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 4 minutes ago, pocster said: ? I am nowhere near a hub. Just me and the Atlantic Ocean, and the smell of Newlyn, which is like a Hull brothel at closing time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adsibob Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 15 minutes ago, SteamyTea said: the smell of Newlyn, which is like a Hull brothel at closing time how would you know what that smells like? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 7 minutes ago, Adsibob said: how would you know what that smells like? I was around in the 60s, in Holland. When the girls were not working, and my parents wanted a night out, they came around and did the child minding. Very liberal family. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocster Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 1 hour ago, SteamyTea said: When the girls were not working Red light ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 4 minutes ago, pocster said: Red light ? Strange, usually we stop on a red light, but sometimes it means go, or on. Must account for the twats that cross the road when their sign is red, they are in a hurry to get down onto the dock area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted October 5, 2022 Author Share Posted October 5, 2022 So (hopefully) last bit of network reconfiguration done so everything has been swapped to the new provider. I have repurposed the old BT router. All it's broadband and DHCP services have been disabled as has it's wifi been turned off. This leaves it pretty much as just a dumb 4 port network switch, which I need as I have 4 hard wired things on the network and the new router for the new broadband only has 3 ethernet ports. So that is working and all hard wired devices are connecting and seeing the new broadband. but the reason I repurposed the old router rather than replace it with a simple ethernet switch, was I have a HDD connected to the USB port on the BT router and that can be seen by any device on the network as a cheap and cheerful (if a bit slow) Network Accessible Storage, and I wanted to keep that. So that was the reason to keep the old BT router in circuit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted October 5, 2022 Share Posted October 5, 2022 7 hours ago, ProDave said: I have repurposed the old BT router They may ask for it back. When a relative died and we cleared their house we lost the router. Some months later Virgin called wanting it back. It was many years old. I said we had lost it and they made some noises about charging £30 but I don't think we ever did get billed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted October 5, 2022 Author Share Posted October 5, 2022 10 minutes ago, Temp said: They may ask for it back. When a relative died and we cleared their house we lost the router. Some months later Virgin called wanting it back. It was many years old. I said we had lost it and they made some noises about charging £30 but I don't think we ever did get billed. If they do ask for it back, I will refer them to the email telling me "if you joined after December 2019 you must return your kit" If they still insist I will send it back and seek another BT hub with the same USB port from freecycle or not much money on ebay. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted October 5, 2022 Share Posted October 5, 2022 Yes they’ll probably ask for it back. If they do I think I have one somewhere in storage you can have for free if I can find it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted October 10, 2022 Author Share Posted October 10, 2022 Well in case BT are spiteful and want their router back, I picked up another one from freecycle and have set that up to provide my network drive facility. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 52 minutes ago, ProDave said: Well in case BT are spiteful and want their router back, I picked up another one from freecycle and have set that up to provide my network drive facility. Post the old one back to them, but without any stamps on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted October 14, 2022 Author Share Posted October 14, 2022 Today the phone line transferred to the VOIP service with the new provider. That should end all my services with BT. Just got to wait for the final bill to see if they have tried to sting me for any silly charges. I have had clarification of equipment returns, the only thing they want me to return is a 4G router that they sent to give coverage during a line fault. Well they are welcome to it back, it never worked at all. They are sending a postage paid return bag to send that back at no cost to me. No mention of returning the router so I won't. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted October 24, 2022 Author Share Posted October 24, 2022 One little oddity left. The old landline is still active, as in it still has a dialing tone. Dialing 14707 it reports it's telephone number which is now a different number to what we had, but it won't make calls and dialing this new number from another phone says unobtainable. Is this normal? I expected it to just go dead with no dialing tone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markc Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 Out of use lines are often left powered up to make tracing or fault finding easier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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