Alternative broadband supplier questions

[Bozza]

2 hours ago, joe90 said:

@Bozzacan you point me at what you bought, my mobile signal is rubbish and i use a hotspot from my mobile for my iPad .

No problem :

 

 

router:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07ZFSX8LB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Antenna:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00C1DGFPS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Very much a diy install.  What I did was I got a selection of free payg SIM cards and tried them all alongside holding antenna outside every window to establish best combo of antenna location / provider.  In my case the antenna & router went at one end of house so a simple plug in WiFi booster takes the signal around the house.  Certain there will be more geeky ways to establish signal etc but I’m a simple person.

 

if you do go for this kit via Amazon & try with various existing SIM cards / free pay ones obviously if it just doesn’t work for you can return everything easily at no cost/risk.  That how I looked at it.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 14, 2022 by Bozza

[Kelvin]

It uses little bandwidth when he’s actually playing games on it and you can control when it downloads updates. If he’s downloading a new game then he does that at a convenient time for everyone else in the house. I don’t quite get the problem to be honest as there options to manage it. That said if you had a much faster service and didn’t change any of the settings on the Xbox so everything was as it is now then I doubt you’d notice a degradation of service for the rest of the house. It’s only noticeable just now because you are very bandwidth limited. 
 

I wouldn’t  mess about with multiple bonded setups. Talk to your neighbours that use the WISP service. If they have have had a positive experience then talk to the supplier. They will have several offerings including a guaranteed minimum speed offering I expect although that’s probably a business plan. 

Edited August 14, 2022 by Kelvin

[Kelvin]

12 hours ago, Temp said:

If you Google for Bandwidth limiting with BT you can find several posts saying it's not possible with BT Routers. Many replies recommend switching to a TP Link Router but point out you loose BT support (and possibly support for BT WiFi range extenders?).

If by BT Wi-Fi range extenders you mean like the Wholehome discs then they work fine. They don’t particularly care which router you plug them into. As far as losing BT support goes then that’s a positive reason to move to a different router. 
 

I’ve never used the BT supplied router and never had any problems. 

[Kelvin]

37 minutes ago, Bozza said:

No problem :

 

 

router:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07ZFSX8LB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Antenna:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00C1DGFPS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have this antenna. It’s pretty average imo and wasn’t much better than the TP-Link MR600 built in antenna. 
 

@ProDave You are welcome to borrow this antenna to trial should it be a consideration. You might be better located to a mast than I am. Unfortunately I don’t have a spare LTE router you can borrow. 
 

Alternatively if you have Amazon Prime order a suitable router and antenna to trial. If it doesn’t  work return it at no cost. 

Edited August 14, 2022 by Kelvin

[SteamyTea]

I still don't understand why we don't fit small wifi reperaters to all cars.  Most of us are never far from a car.

Then with some software trickery, hotspot to our phones and share a little bit of bandwidth.

 

OK, people in remote rural areas won't get much service, but if you move to an isolated area, you will know this in advance.

 

Bit about wifi here.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0014pgk

Edited August 14, 2022 by SteamyTea

[Kelvin]

Cost aside Starlink solves the problem for most. 
 

While Starlink don’t support it and it’s against their Ts&Cs it wouldn’t be too hard to share the bandwidth between a few rural houses. 

Edited August 14, 2022 by Kelvin

[joe90]

16 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

I still don't understand why we don't fit small wifi reperaters to all cars.  Most of us are never far from a car.

Yes, if my signal is bad I go sit in the car outside to make a call 🤯

[Gone West]

5 hours ago, ProDave said:

I wish there was a published schedule of when / if BT/OR are going to provide a fibre service here.

Don't know if you've seen this before but I used the broadbandchecker site and I was told no fibre in near future.

 

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

 

 

[ProDave]

35 minutes ago, Gone West said:

Don't know if you've seen this before but I used the broadbandchecker site and I was told no fibre in near future.

 

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

 

 

So what does this tell me?

 

Featured Products	Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)	Upstream Line Rate (Mbps)	Downstream Range (Mbps)	Availability Date	FTTP Install Process
FTTP on Demand	330	50	--	Available	--

ADSL Products	Downstream Line Rate (Mbps)	Upstream Line Rate (Mbps)	Downstream Range(Mbps)	ADSL Availability Date	Left in Jumper
WBC ADSL 2+	Up to 1	--	1 to 3.5	Available	--
WBC ADSL2+ Annex M	Up to 1	Up to 0.5	1 to 3.5	Available	--
ADSL Max	Up to 1	--	0.75 to 2.5	Available	--
WBC Fixed Rate	0.5	--	--	Available	--
Fixed Rate	0.5	--	--	Available	--

SOADSL Products	Downstream Line Rate (Mbps)	Upstream Line Rate (Mbps)	Downstream Range(Mbps)	WBC SOADSL Availability Date	Left in Jumper
WBC SOADSL 2+	Up to 1	--	1 to 3.5	--	--
SOADSL Max	Up to 1	--	1 to 3.5	--	--
SOADSL Fixed Rate	Up to 0.5	--	0.75 to 2.5	--	--

Observed Speeds	ADSL
Max Observed Downstream Speed	3.99
Max Observed Upstream Speed	0.44
Observed Date	2022-04-25

Other Offerings	Availability Date
ADSL Multicast	Available

Premise Environment	Status
Bridge Tap	U
VRI	N
NTE FacePlate	N
Last Test Date	21-04-2022

Exchange Product Restrictions	Status
FTTP Priority Exchange	N
WLR Withdrawal	N
SOADSL Restriction	Y

The exchange is not in a current fibre priority programme

WLR is currently available at the exchange

SOADSL is restricted at the exchange

 

 

FTTP is not available.

 

 

 

For all ADSL and WBC Fibre to the Cabinet (VDSL or G.fast) services, the stable line rate will be determined during the first 10 days of service usage.

 

At the top is says FTTP on demand is available and at the bottom it says FTTP is not available.

[SteamyTea]

As you have a bit of land, have you thought of offering to rent to to a Telco. They can put a 5G mast on it.

That way you get FTTP and a strong 5G signal.

[Kelvin]

Whichever cabinet you’re  connected to supports it. However, you’re not getting it and your existing service is rubbish as you already know. 
 

 

 

Edited August 14, 2022 by Kelvin

[ProDave]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

As you have a bit of land, have you thought of offering to rent to to a Telco. They can put a 5G mast on it.

That way you get FTTP and a strong 5G signal.

If only they would.  We are such a low density rural settlement that it is not financially viable.  I got my hopes up a couple of years back when EE installed a new mast close to us, quite possibly line of sight if there were not trees in the way and less than 2 miles away.  I had hoped it would have given us a super strong 4G signal.  But my daughters phone is with EE and the signal is poor and so is the speed.

 

At some point something has to happen with the O2 2G signal, but O2 have indicated they will be one of the last to shut down 2G not for perhaps another 10 years, so the hope of that being upgraded any time soon is not great either.

[Kelvin]

Having a mast in your back garden wouldn’t necessarily get you a fast mobile connection anyway. The EE mast here is at the bottom of the drive. If I walk down the drive to put the bins out the phone signal drops out. There are a few reasons for this but the primary reason is the way the mast shapes the signal. 
 

Go for the WISP service that’s available in your area and do what I suggested to stop the Xbox automatic downloads. 

[markc]

24 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

Having a mast in your back garden wouldn’t necessarily get you a fast mobile connection anyway. The EE mast here is at the bottom of the drive. If I walk down the drive to put the bins out the phone signal drops out. There are a few reasons for this but the primary reason is the way the mast shapes the signal. 
 

Go for the WISP service that’s available in your area and do what I suggested to stop the Xbox automatic downloads. 

Totally agree, I used to live within 100m or one mast and about 50m to another … phone signal was terrible unless I was in the attic

[Remington]

Another nod for starlink here, we shifted onto it about 12 months ago and the difference to the "fibre" we had previously was night and day, it's 3 times the cost, but it's reliable and around 15x faster than the copper connection, which was also desperately unreliable based on our location.

[Simplysimon]

well i got this, and they've just installed fibre along the front of the house, according to openreach it will be done from apr '21-'26

Edited August 14, 2022 by Simplysimon
change of pic

[dpmiller]

Our road had had fibre run along it as part of the Project Stratum initiative- which is for externally-funded rural FTTP.

 

But I can't get it because there's currently no copper phone line to the house. And the local exchange is apparently now closed to new copper connections...

I'll be sticking with the 4g I think.

[Gone West]

14 hours ago, ProDave said:

So what does this tell me?

It answers your question,

 

"I wish there was a published schedule of when / if BT/OR are going to provide a fibre service here."

 

You have fibre at the cabinet you are connected to, but it won't be connected to your property in the forseeable future. Much like my situation.

 

 

[Pocster]

20 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

I still don't understand why we don't fit small wifi reperaters to all cars.  Most of us are never far from a car.

Then with some software trickery, hotspot to our phones and share a little bit of bandwidth.

 

OK, people in remote rural areas won't get much service, but if you move to an isolated area, you will know this in advance.

 

Bit about wifi here.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0014pgk

Because you shouldn’t be looking at pornhub whilst driving 

[SteamyTea]

13 minutes ago, pocster said:

Because you shouldn’t be looking at pornhub whilst driving 

I make it.  Your old Super8s I converted are doing well. "Show them on a Tuesday night, the Wendsday Wank they call them" (Don Logan, Sexy Beast)

 

Whole new meaning for 'hardware compression techniques'.

[joth]

Ignoring all the other users in the house, is gamer boy getting good gaming experience on the ADSL?

If so I suggest getting another (wireless) service in addition to the ADSL.

Gaming is much better over wired as it's lower latency.  A point to point microwave network will give very disappointing latency for gaming.

Reserve the new network for everyone else in the house, especially for video streaming, as that needs high bandwidth but doesn't care about latency.

Dedicate the ADSL for gaming. (And perhaps IP phones calls). And locking it to ADSL means there's no risk of the Xbox consuming anyone else's bandwidth.

 

And, if either service goes down (very likely in rural location) you have the other as a backup.

 

And zero incremental cost to you.

 

Edited August 15, 2022 by joth

[Kelvin]

It’s not the case that a WISP service will always have a lot of latency. In fact, it could be faster. I’ve used WISP previously and the latency was better than the copper connection. The latency of my Starlink satellite system is nominally mid 30ms and globally the mean is 43ms. That’s not ideal for gaming obviously but it’s pretty good considering the packets are going from my dish to the satellite 340 miles up, down to a ground station and then from there a main internet hub and then back again. You would expect any WISP service to have significantly lower latency. 
 

Your suggestion of two services (and making him pay for the ADSL service) is a good one. Albeit more hardware and more electricity usage. 

[joth]

3 hours ago, Kelvin said:

I’ve used WISP previously and the latency was better than the copper connection

I'd argue that was a short coming of the copper connection you used rather than a strength of the wireless.

 

A WISP will always multiplex users onto the spectrum available so while you may get lucky and have good latency one day, an increase in usage can disrupt that minute to minute and over a longer arc it can deteriorate as more users sign up.

OTOH copper is dedicated capacity to the ISP so you're only constrained by the backhaul contention ratio, which they can address much more easily than buying new radio spectrum and you can address by switching to a more premium ISP.

 

 

 

[Kelvin]

I understand the technicalities as I used work in that industry. From my one experience of using WISP for gaming it was great for the year we had it. I had two gaming teenagers in the house and they never complained about ‘lag’ which wasn’t surprising as it was nominally around 10ms. 

[ProDave]

If we were to get a second service, then game boy would have to pay for one of them in it's entirity.  No way will I finance two internet connections to the house.