FTTC/VDSL - Installation Delayed

[.Griff.]

Hi peeps,

First post so go easy on me.

I submitted my order for Home Plus Fibre on August 6th. On the 9th I received a reply acknowledging my order and later that day another email confirming an Openreach engineer would visit on August 16th. The following day I received another emailing informing me that due to a lack of available engineers the installation had been delayed a month to September 14th. I thought this was fair enough as demand was probably high and after all we're all in the same boat and other people have probably had their orders delayed too. I'm no VIP and can wait like the rest of them.

However today I came home from work early to find an Openreach van had just pulled up outside my home. Excited that my installation had been brought forward I got out the car and chatted to the engineer only to find he'd come to install FTTC/VDSL at my neighbours. We had a brief chat and he was pretty clear that to his knowledge there was no shortage of engineers. An hour later I saw the engineer leave my neighbours so I went over and spoke to my neighbour about his installation and it turns out he only placed an order at the end of last week.

So my query is this.. If my neighbour can place an order for the same product as me less than a week ago and have his installation completed already why do I have another month to wait having ordered over two weeks ago? Should I shut up and be patient or is there any way IDNET can double check my installation date with Oprenreach?

[Rik]

Welcome to the forum.

Gives support a ring, they can chase the order for you.

[Glenn]

  Griff

[Simon]

[.Griff.]

Cheers for the welcome guys!

Brian (IDNET support) has asked BT/Openreach for a closer appointment date and he's calling me back tomorrow to let me know if the request has been successful.

[Rik]

 

[Glenn]

Hopefully next week.

[Ray]

 

[.Griff.]

Result!!

Brian called me back just as he promised and Openreach will now be here on Monday!

Awesome support so far.

(PS - I've been with Bethere for years now and their support was generally excellent too but IDNET is on another level so far)

[Rik]

We like to think so.

[MisterW]

Openreach will now be here on Monday!

BT Openreach must have suddenly found a load of spare engineers hiding somewhere

[Rik]

Or cancellations...

[Glenn]

The BT engineer at work, he is being moved to refit exchanges.

[.Griff.]

Rather than start a new thread I'll add my question here..

Not that I plan on doing so but what happens in I go over my download limit on the "Home Plus Fibre" service/product/plan ?

[Glenn]

when you get near the limit, you will be sent a warning email, once over the limit, bandwidth is charged at £1/Gb

[Steve]

Is there any package info for fibre.

[.Griff.]

Cheers Glenn. I guess there's always the option of upgrading to the next product if I find myself near the limit.

[Rik]

Is there any package info for fibre.

http://www.idnet.net/solutions/home/broadband/default-fibre.jsp

[Steve]

Cheers, Perhaps it was just me but it seemed well hidden.

[Rik]

It is a bit.

[.Griff.]

Openreach have been and what a nice guy friendly guy he was too.

I can't access the line stats from the modem but he was happy for me to have a look at the multifunction tester/device which reported a downstream attenuation of 10.4dB (cabinet is approximately 400 metres away).









I'll do some more speedtests in the evening and late tonight.

[Rik]

Takes up a bit of desk space doesn't it.

[Steve]

I like the speedtest figures

[Rik]

Ping's not bad either...

[.Griff.]

Ping's not bad either...

Very impressed with the pings -

Pinging www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.244.68] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 212.58.244.68: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=57
Reply from 212.58.244.68: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=57
Reply from 212.58.244.68: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=57
Reply from 212.58.244.68: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=57

Ping statistics for 212.58.244.68:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 13ms, Maximum = 13ms, Average = 13ms

Pinging www.idnetters.co.uk [212.69.36.28] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 212.69.36.28: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=59
Reply from 212.69.36.28: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=59
Reply from 212.69.36.28: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=59
Reply from 212.69.36.28: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=59

Ping statistics for 212.69.36.28:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 13ms, Maximum = 14ms, Average = 13ms

Pinging 85.236.101.22 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 85.236.101.22: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=123
Reply from 85.236.101.22: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=123
Reply from 85.236.101.22: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=123
Reply from 85.236.101.22: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=123

Ping statistics for 85.236.101.22: (Multiplay COD4 server)
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 13ms, Maximum = 14ms, Average = 13ms

[Rik]

Give us the address, we'll be round shortly.

[pctech]

I wouldn't mind running a fibre from his setup 

[Rik]

 

[pctech]

Apparently some trailists on Zen have had an integrated modem/router delivered but its the luck of the draw as to what kit BT send out.

[Rik]

Knowing my luck, I'll buy the router and they'll give me an integrated unit.

[.Griff.]

Speedtests seem to be all over the place tonight/early morning..

[Rik]

Try the BT tester, that will give you the most accurate result. Or, download a large file and time it.

[Bill]

Admittedly it's only a few hours, but I'm finding speed tests are much more variable on the fibre connection.

I keep an eye on the Mac's network activity monitor during a test, and provided I didn't pick a known busy period it used to show a nice flat-topped graph. Now it often looks like the Alps... like it used to if I was hitting congestion somewhere.

[Rik]

Always possible Bill

[klipp]

OMG your upload is twice as fast as my download!! 

[Glenn]

It's 3 times faster than my d/l speed 

[Bill]

Always possible Bill

Makes me wonder again if the ping reduction is due to different routing, I could always rely on not seeing significant congestion after about 11am, when the local businesses had finished catching up on things.

I may have to start doing speedtests at about 4am... I often have to get up for a pee around then anyway, so it won't be a problem

[.Griff.]

Bill it might be worth you letting me know when and where you plan to carry out your speedtests so I can do the same for comparison purposes.

[Bill]

Bill it might be worth you letting me know when and where you plan to carry out your speedtests so I can do the same for comparison purposes.

The "where" is easy- I always use the tbb tester (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html) as it makes it easy to look back over past results, provided you're registered. The "when" will have to wait a few days until I find a consistently quiet time...

[sof2er]

I've found that the speeds are mostly a bit slow during the 22:00 to 01:00 period (especially as the clock just hits 0:10-15 they slow down alot) outside those times it's mostly at full speed.

[.Griff.]

Seems ok today (touch wood)..

[sof2er]

You might want to watch out with using a lot of speedtests as they can easily rack up 60 to 150 MB per test (the bt speedtests even use as much as 180 mb on full speed).

I've hit my peak-time usage last month because of 7 GB going towards speedtests  

[.Griff.]

Yeah good advice. I've already downloaded 4gig in 24 hours and most of that must be all these speedtests.

I think I'll go easy for the a while now lol

[pctech]

Thats the only downside to having so much speed available, you can get carried away doing stuff on the net that you wouldn't do on a standard broadband connection because its too slow.

I know I do when its quiet at work.

[kev445]

Openreach have been and what a nice guy friendly guy he was too.

Why did the BT engineer us an ADSL faceplate, that doesn't make any sense?

This news post on Think Broadband clearly shows the correct socket:
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/4011-aaisp-connects-first-business-on-bt-fibre-to-the-cabinet-pilot.html

[.Griff.]

Why did the BT engineer us an ADSL faceplate, that doesn't make any sense?

This news post on Think Broadband clearly shows the correct socket:
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/4011-aaisp-connects-first-business-on-bt-fibre-to-the-cabinet-pilot.html

Just called IDNet support to check and they're confident it makes absolutely no difference either way as it's "just a filter".

If you know otherwise then let me know and I'll call them back.

[kev445]

Just called IDNet support to check and they're confident it makes absolutely no difference either way as it's "just a filter".

If you know otherwise then let me know and I'll call them back.

In practice it won't make any difference, as the ADSL socket is ALWAYS "unfiltered", it is the telephone socket which is filtered, to stop the phone(s) interfering with the broadband.

The engineer must have run out of the VDSL faceplate filters.

[.Griff.]

The engineer must have run out of the VDSL faceplate filters.

A quick Google suggests there's significant stock issues so that might explain the different FF.

[kev445]

A quick Google suggests there's significant stock issues so that might explain the different FF.

That would explain it...

[Bill]

Takes up a bit of desk space doesn't it.

Just had a closer look at my VDSL modem and there's a couple of screw/keyhole-slots in the back for wall mounting. 10cm on centres.

Might try that tomorrow- gets it out of the way, cooling should be better and it's easier to see the indicator LEDs

[pctech]

I really wish someone would come up with a small version of a data centre cabinet to house a tower PC, router and the associated power and data wiring.

[Bill]

... and the associated power and data wiring.

Standardising everything on 12 volts and a multi-outlet PSU to get rid of all those damned wall plugs would be a good start.

I've got 11 13A outlets in my little computer corner and 6 of them have got PSUs plugged into them

[Rik]

I know how you feel, Bill.

[pctech]

If I win the lottery and have my dream bungalow built I will have a comms room with the router, consumer unit and all that gubbins in there and have structured cabling throughout the house so I just have an etherrnet port to plug into.

I may even opt for a thin client setup and have the server in the comms room too.

[Rik]

Thin!! Don't mention that word in front of me.

[pctech]

 

I'm trying desparately to go on a diet as I'm a little heavier than I would like but I keep falling off the wagon.

[Rik]

I'm a lot heavier and the wagon keeps collapsing under the strain.

[Glenn]

You are both, just too short for your weight.

[Rik]

That's what I keep telling the doctors.