Broad band for a complete and utter thicko

[BSM-Williams]

Just been sat reading all the posts here and being thick I still don't understand a lot of them?

I am on plus net right now and on copper cable and I am looking to upgrade, possible to a fibre.
So questions are;

how can I foretell what speed I will get afterward, right now a speed test shows 2.8mbps down and up is 0.9mbps, so I do wish to upgrade. Being in a city I expect to get low rates as everyone is on the system. I will work out plans and prices later on.

The next one is I want to move the router box to a more central position. Is it worth me considering buying a different router box over the one they supply me?

please keep all answer words under 2 syllables and in crayon please, no joined up handwriting or thinking that I understand anything techie please

[Someone-Else]

You can't tell before you get it what your internet connection speed will actually be. (But they can guestimate)

Fibre is a bit of a con, since you can't have fibre to your house* so you still have to put up with copper. But what they do is use a fibre optic cable to the distribution cabinet, so you do get an increase in speed, but it would be even faster if you had fibre to your house.

* If you are lucky to live in Milton Keynes you can have fibre direct to your door as when they built it they put in ducts every where.

As for the router provided by your choice of internet supplier, keep / use it if it goes wrong they will change it at no cost to you.

Why move the router? you can use its wifi for which you can get wifi extenders or You can do as I do, run a cable and plug one end in the router the other in your pc / tv / phillips hue etc

[Dave54]

Most fibre is AFAIK "Fibre to the cabinet" or "FTTC"
That is (fairly obviously) fibre to the nearest "cabinet" the green box things that you see dotted around the streets, and wires from there to your house.
Speed will depend on what you pay for. Plusnet have two options I think. The "normal" fibre, and a faster offering. Check on their site. http://bit.ly/2onUeOb
I'm on their lower speed offering. Very rural place, and a long length of wire from the cabinet. I get 37.55 mbps down and 9.35 up.

The router needs to be plugged into the main socket, so if you need to move it you'll need to discuss it with Plusnet as it's BT job to move the socket. IIRC they replace the main socket anyway when they install fibre. I've had mine for a while.
I find the supplied router is fine. It works. That's about the end of my interest in it TBH. Wireless seems OK. I think the new routers are different ones though.

Too slow as usual!

[DIY_Johnny]

A lot of this "fibre broadband" is crap and a con.

Sky rang me last month and I upgraded to fiber, it just means they turned it on at the green box on the street. I live in zone two london so its nearby.

Just ran a speed test 17.6 They were talking about 60mbs when they were selling it. Most it ever gets to is 21mbs. I checked with Sky and it is activated but the excuses are plentiful.

[gas4you]

Thought Sky advertised a minimum of 55mb guaranteed?

[BSM-Williams]

thanks all. the general plan is I live in a terraced house and want to shift the router to the middle of the house. I can cable it to a second socket and some power points are nearby.
As you can see at 2.8mbps the speed is carp but to increase it I have to change plans and therefore costs. I realise the whole fibre thing is a load of bunkum but I still need to work out the best quality of speed and costs, before I change anything.

I did think of other options like changing their router box out or adding a new data point elsewhere, but I take it that is going to kill the speed even more.
That cracks me up. Is in a city they say I can get 20mbps as a basic, but there's 4 million people all on it at the same time

I have to sort something out as the house needs a decent wifi signal and internet connection to make every thing else work better

[DIY_Johnny]

Thought Sky advertised a minimum of 55mb guaranteed?

Do they? Will get on to them

Cheers.

[Someone-Else]

Thought Sky advertised a minimum of 55mb guaranteed?

Sure? doesn't say that on the sky ad

skybb.jpg (70.91 KiB) Viewed 7464 times

The first row is for broadband, the other 3 rows are for fibre broadband, none of them are 55mb

(Close up of average download speed) 11mb, 34mb, 34mb, 57mb see for yourself Here

[DIY_Johnny]

Thought Sky advertised a minimum of 55mb guaranteed?

Sure? doesn't say that on the sky ad

skybb.jpg

The first row is for broadband, the other 3 rows are for fibre broadband, none of them are 55mb

(Close up of average download speed) 11mb, 34mb, 34mb, 57mb see for yourself Here

all still lower than mine. I wonder does my phone line in my house need to be replaced

[Someone-Else]

all still lower than mine.

Don't you mean higher?

I wonder does my phone line in my house need to be replaced

Why?

BB can be slowed down via poor / bad connections, it would do no harm if you checked them all (see if any are loose) You could if you wanted run a new cable from where the phone line comes in, direct to you router and put a socket on the end and plug it in.

[gas4you]

I’m convinced it was on their tv advert, but then maybe I was not listening properly

[gas4you]

I’m convinced it was on their tv advert, but then maybe I was not listening properly

https://youtu.be/EHcssybt1vg

[Someone-Else]

Looks like they have changed their mind on that one. (The g'teed bit)

[darrenba]

Fibre is a bit of a con, since you can't have fibre to your house

You can on the newer Virgin Media installs or certain locations covered by Hyperoptic

[Someone-Else]

I only say you can't have fibre because a BT bloke told me you can't because the infra structure is not there, they would need to take out all the copper cables just to install fibre, and that would cost a fortune, but he also said his mate (Another BT bloke) lives in MK and they don't have telegraph poles, but ducting, so its easy to pull the cable out and pull in a fibre optic one, which his mate has.

So I guess if its a new build estate then yes ducting for fibre cable easy, but for those of us with poles, no chance, and I can't see virgin pulling out all the cables they have put in already to change them to fibre.