Alternative broadband supplier questions

[Adsibob]

1 hour ago, markc said:

Out of use lines are often left powered up to make tracing or fault finding easier

Also, it might still work for 999 calls.

[ProDave]

10 minutes ago, Adsibob said:

Also, it might still work for 999 calls.

I was wondering that.  the new VOIP service will obviously not work during a power cut.  I was going to unplug the old landline phones, but if there is a chance it may still work for an emergency call, I might leave a wired phone connected to it.

 

Trouble is it is not as though you can make a test 999 call is it?

[Adsibob]

3 minutes ago, ProDave said:

I was wondering that.  the new VOIP service will obviously not work during a power cut.  I was going to unplug the old landline phones, but if there is a chance it may still work for an emergency call, I might leave a wired phone connected to it.

 

Trouble is it is not as though you can make a test 999 call is it?

Maybe try dialling a non urgent emergency number, like 111. That takes you through to an automated menu, so you wouldn’t be depriving anybody of the services of 999.

Or, if you really want to test the functionality of calling 999, but don’t want to trouble them with a non-urgency, injure yourself, but in a non fatal or life changing way, and then call 999.

[ProDave]

I have tried a few like 100, 111, 150 and they all say the number you have dialled has not been recognised.

[SteamyTea]

I read a story book many years ago about a kidnap.  The police used the landline to listen in on the kidnappers.

So maybe you are being spied on.

[ProDave]

So, our new broadband supplier has been going for over a month, and so far so good.  But just one little problem (that I had sort of anticipated)

 

When daughters boyfriend is downloading games to his XBOX (which he does very frequently)  I see this infernal XBOX zapps all the download bandwidth starving everything else.  I know this, because the Pi Music box that is usually streaming radio, starts stuttering on and off.  If I go and view the statistics on the router, you see the XBOX sitting there at a constant 50MBPS download

 

The Router is a Ubiquiti Air Cube ISP  I belive some users here are familliar with these?  I am wondering if there is a way to throttle one (or more) devices to a lower speed so there is some bandwidth always left for other users?  I tried enabling a guest wifi thinking that might give me some options to adjust settings, but I can't find any.

 

So is there a way to limit the download speed of this one device so the rest of us don't get starved when it hogs the lot?

[HughF]

Could you let me know who you are using for the VOIP phone service? We are moving from 3Mb ADSL to FTTP (when it eventually shows up, it’s 6 months late already) with Voneus (who also offer a WISP service), and my wife wants to keep the landline for incoming calls. I looked at Vonage, who appeared to offer a porting service for non-business customers.

[ProDave]

The VOIP phone service is organised by my wireless provider, so I don't know who they buy it from.  It seemed far simpler to buy it as a package.

[HughF]

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

The VOIP phone service is organised by my wireless provider, so I don't know who they buy it from.  It seemed far simpler to buy it as a package.

That’s very convenient, I will start communication with Voneus to see if they will offer the same package.

[dpmiller]

I'm going to throw in a hearty recommendation for www.voipify.net, their service is excellent, prices are good, and I had no problem with the porting.

[billt]

Recently moved to FTTP, was going to use the BT option that Zen provide but it wasn't likely to work with my VOIP system (BT apparently not giving out the credentials).

 

I moved the landline number to VoipFone for incoming calls, and using one of the Betamax services for outgoing calls (voipcheap.com, Powervoip, etc).

[ProDave]

My search for a way to limit the download speed of one connected device seems to show only a few routers will do that, and the air cube is not one.

 

So a bit of lateral thinking.  We all know wifi speed diminishes as you get further from the router and the signal gets weaker, you can test that by walking around with your phone and doing a speed test.

 

This XBOX is very close to the router, so the potential speed of the wifi link exceeds the total download speed of the broadband service, so for that device the wifi is as good as a wired connection.  Now if only it were further away and had a weaker, slower connection?  Well I can't change that, but what I have done is stick some sheets of copper clad PCB board to the "ceiling" above the router placed to try and block the signal from the router in the direction of this XBOX.  It has certainly reduced the signal strength it is getting and appeared to slow down it's download speed just a little.

 

I will have to wait until it is next downloading to see if it has slowed it enough that the other stuff can still work while it hogs as much as it can.

[SteamyTea]

8 hours ago, ProDave said:

My search for a way to limit the download speed of one connected device seems to show only a few routers will do that, and the air cube is not one.

Can you limit the speed of another router, then plug that in-between the main router and the energy hungry, time thief of a nerdy stay at homes Xpox?

[ProDave]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

Can you limit the speed of another router, then plug that in-between the main router and the energy hungry, time thief of a nerdy stay at homes Xpox?

Game boy's box connects via wifi presently to the Air Cube which is router and wifi in one box.

 

I do have an old BT home hub connected, presently serving as a network switch and giving access to my network drive.  all router and wifi functions are turned off.  I did think of enabling the wifi in that but I find that does not have the ability to limit speed either, so would not achieve anything.

 

I will see how the "passive filter" works out.

[jack]

@ProDave, I'd have stopped looking for a technical solution once it became clear that my hardware couldn't do traffic shaping.

 

Tell him to only download at times when others aren't using the internet. He can change the settings on the xbox so that downloads don't happen automatically. 

 

 

[ProDave]

1 minute ago, jack said:

Tell him to only download at times when others aren't using the internet. He can change the settings on the xbox so that downloads don't happen automatically. 

Try instructing the person that has a total disregard for others.  e.g the other day I timed him in the shower, he continued showering for a full 30 minutes and only stopped when he had emptied all 300L of hot water out of the tank.

[jack]

Just now, ProDave said:

Try instructing the person that has a total disregard for others. 

 

I suppose it depends on how interested he is in continuing to have an xbox at your house.

 

6 minutes ago, ProDave said:

e.g the other day I timed him in the shower, he continued showering for a full 30 minutes and only stopped when he had emptied all 300L of hot water out of the tank.

 

Why did you time him for that long? At 10 mins, get your daughter to tell him he needs to get out of the shower. If that fails, turn the water off at the mains.

 

I'm a complete pussy about a lot of stuff, but I won't accept disrespectful behaviour from guests in my home. 

[ProDave]

I am just too nice, I hate telling people off, as I hate being told off.

 

The XBOX thing, he was not to know it was capable of hogging all the bandwidth of what is still a limited bandwidth service.  It is plain stupid that with standard equipment and protocols there are no settings or limits that ensure all devices on the network get a fair slice of the bandwidth available.  Setting on and off times to prevent that would pretty much be only allowing it to download when the rest of us are in bed or out of the house.  What is needed is the XBOX or similar devices to have a setting to restrict their maximum download speed or the router to be able to do the same.

 

I guess even at our new fast(er) 50MBPS broadband (the fastest we are ever likely to get here for a long time) that is by todays technology, FTTP or FTTC or even 5G a slow legacy service.  But out in the sticks we are unlikely to get any of those faster services any time soon, so we continue to be "forgotten"

 

The shower thing is just typical of someone that has no understanding of how things work, how much things cost and who has never had to pay for them.  Words have been had. We will see if it happens again.

[jack]

13 minutes ago, ProDave said:

I am just too nice, I hate telling people off, as I hate being told off.

 

I'm the same, but I don't think I'm alone about being serious about what goes on in my house. You don't need to start aggressively. Ask nicely once, instruct more firmly the second time, and then all bets are off if it keeps happening.

 

14 minutes ago, ProDave said:

The XBOX thing, he was not to know it was capable of hogging all the bandwidth of what is still a limited bandwidth service.  

 

I guess even at our new fast(er) 50MBPS broadband (the fastest we are ever likely to get here for a long time) that is by todays technology, FTTP or FTTC or even 5G a slow legacy service. 

 

50 Meg is fast. We typically only get 32-34 at best, and I don't think that's at all unusual.

 

What I don't understand is how a 50 Meg connection is being dominated like this by one device. My kids have had an xbox for 5 or 6 years and I can't remember once having any issues with it hogging bandwidth. Admittedly they don't do a lot of games downloading, but still, I'm surprised it's never been an issue based on your experience. Still, it seems like something could/should be handled on an out of hours basis.

 

17 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Words have been had. We will see if it happens again.

   

That's the main thing. I took from your earlier post that words hadn't been had, which is what I was reacting to.

[ProDave]

It might just me my Raspbery Pi Music box that is not very good.  On the previous (3 MBPS on a good day, frequently slower) ADSL broadband, the Pi would often stop and start it's streaming, very often around 5 to 6PM every day, and if someone started streaming tv or downloading then forget it.

 

This is the first time the Pi has show any issues since getting the new broadband.  Unlike the old BT router, this Air Cube shows you what devices are connected and what up and downloads they are using and the XBOX did indeed seem to be using all that was available.  I was hoping there would have been some hidden / advanced settings to set limits or priorities but lots of searching has revealed a big fat no.

 

Annoyingly, the Pi is connected by ethernet not wifi but that does not seem to give it any priority.

 

[Pocster]

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

Air Cube

The ubitique interface I thought had throttling support I.e you can limit bandwidth to a particular device ????

[ProDave]

1 minute ago, pocster said:

The ubitique interface I thought had throttling support I.e you can limit bandwidth to a particular device ????

Not the interface that you log into a 192.168.1.1  That just gives you basic information and basic settings, when you log in as "admin"  Is there another login user name that gives you more options?

 

Within that basic user interface there is a link to "UNMS" which opens a new tab and takes you to https://10.20.9.17/nms/login but I don't have a user name or password to log in there and no idea what it would allow me to do.

[Pocster]

1 minute ago, ProDave said:

Not the interface that you log into a 192.168.1.1  That just gives you basic information and basic settings, when you log in as "admin"  Is there another login user name that gives you more options?

 

Within that basic user interface there is a link to "UNMS" which opens a new tab and takes you to https://10.20.9.17/nms/login but I don't have a user name or password to log in there and no idea what it would allow me to do.

Not familiar with air cube . Assumed it’s a cut down UniFi type thing . Basic throttling you would of thought would be in there somewhere ….

I find a sledgehammer to an Xbox will limit download speeds .

[ProDave]

6 minutes ago, pocster said:

Not familiar with air cube . Assumed it’s a cut down UniFi type thing . Basic throttling you would of thought would be in there somewhere ….

the basic interface looks like this:

 

[SteamyTea]

21 minutes ago, ProDave said:

https://10.20.9.17/nms/login

Isn't that used to spy on you?