Finally getting fibre broadband!!!

[Harrison]

This may sound like an obvious question, but do you actually talk to your mother? Actually asking her about the new connection might give you the answer much faster than guessing!

Why did bt need to install a new master socket at a new location? Normally they just replace the existing socket. For a new location it would normally mean installing a new phone line.

When you say openreach modem, do you mean a square white box with openreach written in large writing on the top? If so that is just a fibre modem and it's ethernet port needs connecting to a router. If it hasn't then maybe the router hasn't arrived yet. Any cable router works, but you would need the connection settings. Again why not ask her?

It does seem strange if it is a modem because in bt's case they ditched the separate modems and built it all in to one with the launch of their hub 5. It was annoying have 2 boxes and therefore 2 plugs.

[Stephen Coates]

I prefer not to talk to her about matters relating to technology. I won't go into detail here, but at the moment, there are several things I don't particularly want to get involved with.

No idea why they needed to put a new master socket in, but they did. Anyway, both the old master socket and my extension socket are now reconnected.

I am referring to the Openreach modem as you describe harrison. Not sure why they bother TBH, but they did. There was a missed parcel in todays post so I'm guessing that might be whatever Plusnet sent her. We'll have to wait and see...

[Kin Hell]

Hmmm. PlusNet is part of BT.....

[Harrison]

Indeed they are, but did they supply their own routers?

[Kin Hell]

I expect they would. I'm sure Home Hub 5 is just for BT customers.

Still doesn't excuse the fact the Fibre service should have gone live the day the ADSL service terminated.

[Harrison]

Wireless repeaters work ok. I used one at our rented cottage to get a wifi signal to the other end of the building. But they do tend to drop the connection fairly often. I would instead highly recommend using ethernet power adapters, where you plug one in a wall socket by the router, and another in your room. Then run an ethernet cable from the router to the adapter, and one from the adapter in your room to a switch. Works very well for me. I use one in the living room connected to a switch to connect up my tv, sky box, ps3 and Xbox. Get fairly fast speeds that are not much slower than directly wired ethernet. And not too expensive either. About £30 for a pair of 500mbps ones. Don't get cheaper 300mbps ones.

[Stephen Coates]

Someone on another forum offered me a spare Linksys WRT-54GL pre loaded with DD-WRT, so I will give that a go. I'll probably upgrade to something faster in due course, but this should be more than good enough in the mean time.

[Stephen Coates]

I got the WRT-54G with DD-WRT software earlier this week, and set it up as a wireless client, so it is basically acting as a router between my network and my mother's network.

Here is the internet speed:



Not bad. I guess I might be able to improve it a bit if I position the antennae better.

[Harrison]

I did that initially at our rented cottage last year using a Billion 7800N router in bridge mode, so in effect it creates a second bridged network. The downside of this kind of setup to that it is seen as 2 separate LANs and Wi-Fi gear can get a bit confused moving between the 2 zones. I didn't find it very fast or that reliable so purchased the power lan adapters. So much easier and at the time I was getting about 55Mb/s directly at the router via ethernet, and only just under that using the power supply lan adapters. I highly recommend you get a couple if you see them on offer. It makes a huge difference.

[Kin Hell]

I did that initially at our rented cottage last year using a Billion 7800N router in bridge mode, so in effect it creates a second bridged network. The downside of this kind of setup to that it is seen as 2 separate LANs and Wi-Fi gear can get a bit confused moving between the 2 zones. I didn't find it very fast or that reliable so purchased the power lan adapters. So much easier and at the time I was getting about 55Mb/s directly at the router via ethernet, and only just under that using the power supply lan adapters. I highly recommend you get a couple if you see them on offer. It makes a huge difference.

As an average, (file-size depending) 55Mb/sec is about as good as you get in real terms on a hard wired Gigabit Network Harrison. That's not to shabby at all for wireless, aside from the increase in Latency & the polling of course.