Finally getting fibre broadband!!!

[Harrison]

UK prices can be expensive. I've got mine with British Telecom (BT) on their Infinity 2 fibre connection. The other issue is that with Fibre (FTTC) you also are required to take out your line rental and phone call plans with the same company as the Internet connection.

Line rental is normally about £16.99 a month, plus £26 for fibre.. So that is £42.99. Then you have addons for phone calls, such as all inclusive calls for £7 per month. So it quickly adds up.

[Stephen Coates]

I've just been informed by my Mother that she is getting fibre internet next week, and they are sending an engineer and a router.

I do not want my mother or any 'engineer' messing with my networking hardware up here, so, should I just unplug my ADSL2+ modem on Monday, lock myself in here with a coffee, let them get on with it, and pray they don't want any free technical support?

[Harrison]

The engineer will just need to replace the BT Master Socket with an Openreach Fibre plate which will include a normal phone socket and a data socket. He will then need to go to the local FTTC cabinet and connect your house to that cabinet, then activate the connection with the exchange. Then finally come back to the house and plug the modem/router into the data socket and check the connection is up and running.

Normally they will ask for a laptop or computer to be connected directly to the new router so they can check the connection is working. The first time I had it activated the engineer wanted me to run the BT line speed test from their website and that was all. Subsequent visits when I moved my BT infinity with me they never asked. They just made sure their test equipment reported the connection was good and that the router light turned blue.

Remember however that if you want to connect to the router you will need to directly via ethernet or wifi. You cannot use a phone line extension to relocate the router elsewhere in the house, as you could with ADSL. You no longer use ADSL filters. Only the BT master socket can be used to connect the modem/router and any other phone lone extensions in the house will just work as a phone line, not for the internet. The engineer should offer the option to relocate the data connection elsewhere in the house if wanted. I had this done in my house so my router is located upstairs in my office. They run a data cable (basically a very thin ethernet cable) from the bt master switch to your new location (within 30 metres) and the cable just ends with a connector for the router (not a new socket). Mine runs along the skirting, up the stairs and they drilled a hole though the wall into the office.

Some engineers can be difficult and try to refuse to run a data cable, but luckily my house doesn't have an electric socket anywhere near the BT master socket, so the engineer was forced to locate the data connection elsewhere where there was one. In contrast, when I moved into the rented cottage last year (when we flooded) the engineer whom installed it there refused to run a data cable because he thought it would be too difficult and I guessed because there was a plug socket right by the BT master socket, so his job was easy and done in about 15 minutes. But it wasn't so great for me because the Master Socket in that cottage was in the master bedroom window at the opposite end of the house to my office, so I had to buy 30 metres of ethernet cable to run the length of the house to relocate the router. Annoying, but it worked OK.

[Stephen Coates]

Thanks harrison. I expect I can just leave them to do as they please with the master socket, and I'll just unplug my ADSL2+ modem. I expect my Mother will want her hardware downstairs near the master socket.

Do you know what kind of equipment ISPs tend to supply? My Mum just said that they are 'sending a new router out'. Of course, knowing my Mum, 'router' could mean anything, and I don't what what ISP she has gone with. Just asking out of curiosity really. I'd rather not get involved as I've been pondering moving house myself.

[Harrison]

If it's BT then it will be their BT Home Hub 5. This is what I'm using and it is quite good. Stable connection and fairly strong dual channel WiFi. Only downside is limited advanced settings to really mess around compared with my old Billion router.

Sky supply their own router, which I've heard is quite rubbish, has horrible wifi and drops the connection more than most.

For me though, Infinity has been really stable and nothing like ADSL. You don't constantly get line drops or the need to reboot the router, as is common for ADSL.

[Stephen Coates]

I just checked the current Plusnet account, and it looks like she is sticking with them... on a new 24 month contract.

I will report back with details on what happens.

[Stephen Coates]

Well, the ADSL got turned off yesterday morning, so I've been using the good old dial up modem (56k).

The BT 'Engineer' came yesterday and put a new master socket in, 2 metres away from the current one. My extention socket was wired in to the old master socket, so this morning, I had to run a wire from the new master socket back to the old one to get it connected. He also put in an Openreach modem.

No idea what my Mother is planning to connect to said Openreach modem. I tried connecting a PC to it, with the PC doing the PPPoE, but it didn't work. I tried to log into the Plusnet website and it failed, so I think she has changed the password.

Looks like I might be stuck on dialup for a while.

[Kin Hell]

<snip>
Looks like I might be stuck on dialup for a while.

In this day & age?

When the ADSL was turned off yesterday, your new Fibre service should have gone live. I hope BT are compensating you for this?

[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...