OV9

Our 35Mbps max (so 25mbps on a good day) broadband is really creaking under the load of having two teenagers in the house, an internet-of-things with 30+ devices on it and general increase in streaming everything. Not to mention the fact that I work from home a lot so could do with a faster connection for the thing which brings money in.

• There's no fibre-to-the-premises available from BT.
• Virgin have stopped their recent cabling at the outskirts of the town which is a mile down the road.
• My phone gets 25Mbps or so on 4G.
• There's a 3rd party who does Gig connections for the bargain price of circa £300 per month.

Is there any viable option I'm missing to sort this out? Best option I could come up with was to pay for a 3rd party company to do a proper survey about laying fibre to the village and seeing about splitting the costs with other residents. Which obviously will be a ball ache as many of them are cvnts.

You don't necessarily need to lay your own fibres; is this any use? https://www.fifeeconomypartnership.com/ ... broadband/

Jobbo wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 12:58 pm You don't necessarily need to lay your own fibres; is this any use? https://www.fifeeconomypartnership.com/ ... broadband/

Yeah thanks for the link.... it all comes under the Scottish programme - but they consider what we have to be "super fast fibre". Doesn't look like there's any other initiatives like the Fife one in our area unfortunately.

I came across this when searching for antennas to point at phone masts
https://www.wifiscotland.co.uk/how-it-works/
You need line of sight and it doesn’t look that much faster.

Mito Man wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 1:30 pm I came across this when searching for antennas to point at phone masts
https://www.wifiscotland.co.uk/how-it-works/
You need line of sight and it doesn’t look that much faster.

Yeah, I found that site somehow too. Unfortunately we're up a hill... and the nearest phone mast is up on top of another hill.

I got so excited when a Virgin Media surveyor came round to do a quick survey last year, but they've confirmed there's no plans to progress it at all.

Are you on the max your ISP will serve?

ETA - Who is your current ISP?

Yip, am on the max I can get which is 35Mbps, in practice its about 25Mbps on a good day!

We're with EE just now, but have been with BT and Sky in the past which makes no difference to anything unfortunately.

Ascender wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 2:33 pm Yip, am on the max I can get which is 35Mbps, in practice its about 25Mbps on a good day!

We're with EE just now, but have been with BT and Sky in the past which makes no difference to anything unfortunately.

Have you checked what plusnet can offer you?

I think the cheapest and best way is to keep your existing broadband and then have a second 4G WiFi hub with an unlimited data plan. That way you’re spreading the data use between 2 independent sources.

I'm in the same boat. Unfortunately without someone investing in the infrastructure or paying for your own Leased/FTTP at mega cost, you're stuffed.

You can try here:
https://availability.samknows.com/broad ... nge_search

Find out what providers have LLU installed, as they might be a 'bit' better.

Alternatively, you can have a second line installed? It'll be 2x 25mb rather than 50mb, but it can help with the load if somone is smashing a 50GB download on XBox, leaving the other line for Netflix, or WFH. Note, you may need to look at a router that can manage 2 lines.
Note, FTTC bonding is an option too, but that can be costly.

What are your 4 and 5g options?

scotta wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 4:08 pm

Ascender wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 2:33 pm Yip, am on the max I can get which is 35Mbps, in practice its about 25Mbps on a good day!

We're with EE just now, but have been with BT and Sky in the past which makes no difference to anything unfortunately.

Have you checked what plusnet can offer you?

Just the same - all the ISPs are constrained by the infrastructure.

No chance of 5G yet, 4G isn't great, but I did have the thought of a 4G router for some devices to use. I'm also assuming you could aggregate a couple of broadband connections, but not really looked in to that.

Ascender wrote: Thu Mar 05, 2020 8:15 am

scotta wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 4:08 pm

Ascender wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 2:33 pm Yip, am on the max I can get which is 35Mbps, in practice its about 25Mbps on a good day!

We're with EE just now, but have been with BT and Sky in the past which makes no difference to anything unfortunately.

Have you checked what plusnet can offer you?

Just the same - all the ISPs are constrained by the infrastructure.

No chance of 5G yet, 4G isn't great, but I did have the thought of a 4G router for some devices to use. I'm also assuming you could aggregate a couple of broadband connections, but not really looked in to that.

Might not be financiallyb viable, but look at 4g bonding solutions.

DeskJockey wrote: Thu Mar 05, 2020 8:30 am

Ascender wrote: Thu Mar 05, 2020 8:15 am

scotta wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 4:08 pm

Have you checked what plusnet can offer you?

Just the same - all the ISPs are constrained by the infrastructure.

No chance of 5G yet, 4G isn't great, but I did have the thought of a 4G router for some devices to use. I'm also assuming you could aggregate a couple of broadband connections, but not really looked in to that.

Might not be financiallyb viable, but look at 4g bonding solutions.

Yeah that's the thing, where do you draw a line under it finance-wise.

Ascender wrote: Thu Mar 05, 2020 10:34 am

DeskJockey wrote: Thu Mar 05, 2020 8:30 am

Ascender wrote: Thu Mar 05, 2020 8:15 am

Just the same - all the ISPs are constrained by the infrastructure.

No chance of 5G yet, 4G isn't great, but I did have the thought of a 4G router for some devices to use. I'm also assuming you could aggregate a couple of broadband connections, but not really looked in to that.

Might not be financiallyb viable, but look at 4g bonding solutions.

Yeah that's the thing, where do you draw a line under it finance-wise.

Throughput increase versus increase in cost. Find your pain point and then look for solutions! A quick Google suggests that bonded routers start from about £150-160 (without ISP lock-in). But there are many different versions.

We only get c25mbps here, with the only other option currently being Virgin. We're with IDNet and have to say it rarely causes any issues - albeit no teenagers and no IoT devices. We both WFH regularly though, and I have few if any issues running CAD software over a VPN. IDNet have no contention, throttling or shaping though and prioritise VOIP etc.

Not sure how that stacks up to the more mainstream ISPs, but we've rarely had any issues. Any we have had have been Openreach related and IDNet always seem to be able to get an engineer out first thing to resolve. Costs a bit more but fvck it. Worth it alone to speak to someone in the UK that actually knows their schit when you do need them.

Swervin_Mervin wrote: Thu Mar 05, 2020 11:33 am We only get c25mbps here, with the only other option currently being Virgin. We're with IDNet and have to say it rarely causes any issues - albeit no teenagers and no IoT devices. We both WFH regularly though, and I have few if any issues running CAD software over a VPN. IDNet have no contention, throttling or shaping though and prioritise VOIP etc.

Not sure how that stacks up to the more mainstream ISPs, but we've rarely had any issues. Any we have had have been Openreach related and IDNet always seem to be able to get an engineer out first thing to resolve. Costs a bit more but fvck it. Worth it alone to speak to someone in the UK that actually knows their schit when you do need them.

This. This this this.

Interestingly (for me), I noticed today when out running that I can get 4G downloading at about 50Mbps if I'm a couple of hundred yards away from the house - its kind of better-line-of-sight but not really, so I am now wondering if some sort of mobile aerial is the answer.

Ascender wrote: Wed Mar 11, 2020 1:04 pm Interestingly (for me), I noticed today when out running that I can get 4G downloading at about 50Mbps if I'm a couple of hundred yards away from the house - its kind of better-line-of-sight but not really, so I am now wondering if some sort of mobile aerial is the answer.

Data costs are the killer on 4G tho - Netflix, music streaming, gaming all smash data at a crazy rate.

Often wondered whether a proper 4g with decent aerial would be much quicker than a phone. You'd like to think so really.

I looked into it a while ago when staying at a farm occasionally with no phone line, was pretty pricey and most 'unlimited' plans throttled to a lower than basic adsl level once you reached their arbitrary limits.

I think I'd just get another line put in and keep it for personal / serious bizniss and leave the existing one for everyone else.

I have sneakily set most of the streaming boxes in our house to 720p to limit bandwidth in the hope that YouTube etc will only bother choosing up to 720p videos to limit bandwidth, whilst still looking nice and crisp and HD compared to normal telly.