Living in the countryside is great, except for one thing, the dreaded curse that is rural broadband.
Actually to be fair we weren’t tooooo bad and our 8 meg downstream speed was a lot better than many of our neighbours (lots of them have less than 1.0 Mbps).
Our upstream bandwidth was the main problem, which was stuck at around 0.25 Mbps for most of the time we’ve had ADSL. An unannounced change around a year ago (presumably some sort of upgrade at our exchanged) saw this improve to around 0.8 mbps. This still was pretty useless for streaming any sort of quality CCTV from the house though and was the bane of my gamer sons life.
Phat Pipe
Back in March, when the snow was still on the ground in the UK, I noticed a contractor pulling a new cable down our road and had my fingers crossed it was fibre. Once they had finished and gone I got a chance to look at the cable, the excitement grew.
BT Are Truly Awful
I contacted a few of our neighbours to tell them the good news and also to caution that it would be a nightmare trying to order from BT, but to stick with it as it would be worth it in the end. I was right on both counts.
This is maybe the 4th or 5th time I’ve had the misfortune of placing a Fibre order with BT. That includes a couple I’ve done for family members as well as in work.
I don’t think I’ve ever dealt with another company that’s in more disarray than BT. They really are a complete mess. And I’m talking about multiple orders over years now, with no sign of improvement. If anything they are getting worse.
He are just some examples of the sort of crap service BT gave us in this install…
Over the last maybe five years I have entered multiple email addresses in the BT checker system to be informed with BT Inifinty was available on my line. I never received a single email now that it is.
2 orders in a row were cancelled by BT because of their ‘system problems’. So I had to order a 3rd time before the process even started.
When an issue arose they said they couldn’t contact me – turned out they had ancient mobile number for me despite me putting my new number on the order in the box designated for alternative contact details.
Our first engineers visit appointment cancelled.
BT phoned me to apologise that the surveyor had not been out to survey our install yet and it would be another few weeks. This phone call came around 8 hours after the surveyor had been with us and completed the job.
I received a text from BT on the morning of the install with our engineers name and number. I rang him to discuss times and he told me I wasn’t on his list and he wasn’t our engineer. Phoned BT, they admitted ‘this happened’ but couldn’t give me actual engineers details.
Our actual engineers arrived 15 minutes after their 5 hour window to arrive (8am to 1pm) as I was about to head back to work.
One (of many) of their classic lines was ‘We might not have a long enough fibre in the van as the surveyor didn’t put down any measurements on his report”.
Un-prompted BT rang me to say they were reducing my one-off install charge from £29.99 to £9.99 and the monthly charges from £56.49 To 49.99 for the duration of our 18 month contract. So £137 saved over the duration, that’s good of them and goes some way to compensating for the hassle. But I’d love for them to just get it right from the start.
Replacing the Draytek Vigor with a….
The fibre comes into our Node Zero and emerges as Ethernet presentation to the BT HomeHub version 6A that comes with the service. It’s decent enough and a good step forward from any of the previous ones I’ve seen, but no use for the VPN, bandwidth limiting or a host of other features I needed. It won’t allow the 10.xxx.xxx.xxx IP range I use at home either.
I’ve had Draytek Vigor routers for countless years now and my first instinct was to buy another. Asking advice from some uber-geek friends turned up various great alternatives including these that are worth a look.
However none of them seemed to offer the one box, appliance-like solution of the Draytek, and a few seem to be mired in command line interfaces (life’s too short).
So I’ve gone with what I know and used a DrayTek Vigor 2926 (the basic version as our WiFi is handled separately with a UniFi system). The 2926 Firewall is rated at up to 400Mbps so should last plenty of years.
[amazon box=”B078YBKF3K”]
Installation is a simple matter of following the Ethernet cable out of the fibre wall box and unpluging it from the BT Home Hub. Then plug it into the WAN port on the router.
After that setting up the Draytek to connect to BT is a 5 minute job. There’s a useful guide on the Draytek site and the only details we needed was this generic login for the Infinity service…
Password: BT (I believe this can be anything, or even blank?)
The Need for Speed
Fibre to the Premises, Home, Building (FTTP/H/B) is becoming more widely available and is a truly wonderful thing. It was certainly worth all the hassle…
Down speed increased by 736% from 8.85mbps to 74.01mbps
Up speed increased by 2,376% from 0.86mbps to 21.30mbps
The improvement in ping time is a big hit for the gamer in the family too. The BT Broadband Availability Checker shows our line can support “Upto” 330/50 Mbps, nice. So I can have even more bandwidth if I pay more (although again the BT site elicits eye-rolling as the options seem pretty confusing).
My parents similar rural FTTP install is now reporting availability of the full-unicorn 1,000/220 option!
Gigabit broadband. Now there’s something to look forward to.
BT are the worst I ever had to deal with. Ordered 2 FTTC connections to an office both on the same order. BT engineer arrives to install the new lines. Speak to him but he only has one line on his job list. 15 minutes later a BT subcontractor who has driven from Cardiff to Gloucestershire has the other line on his job list. I wish I had taken a photo of both engineers (I use the term loosely) sat side by side on the floor in the server room each installing their own line. You just couldn’t make it up.
If you already have UniFi then you probably should have gone with the EdgeRouter-X. I have an EdgeRouter-X SFP and it is great, I didn’t like the Draytek that I had in comparison.
Would love FTTP here but not holding my breath because FTTC is available – though it’s barely faster than regular ADSL for me since the cabinet is nearer to the exchange than it is to me.
Like you I’m using UniFi for WiFi (and a couple of PoE switches) so curious as to why you weren’t tempted by the UniFi Security Gateway. That seems nicely integrated with the UniFi management console, which you must already be using.
@David – I discussed the USG with some of the guys on IRC and there were a couple of features that either weren’t there or needed some setup that I wasn’t sure about. However looks great and maybe something I look at again in the future.
“An unannounced change around a year ago (presumably some sort of upgrade at our exchanged) saw this improve to around 0.8 mbps” – This sounds like a 20CN -> 21CN migration (ADSL2+ rather than Max ADSL which gives you the max 8 down). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_21CN
Trust me, the problems you’ve had with BT are nothing compared to those they gave me and my neighbours in our rural village. Total farce being managed by incompetent Indian head bobbers…
I’m living in a semi-rural part of Costa Blanca, Spain. Up until the last year or so, wi-max (wi-fi based) internet was on offer, giving a paltry 30 to 50Mbps, if you were lucky! Now, FTTH is automatico, and we have recently had it installed for the pricey sum of £30 a month. That gives us 600Mbps upload and download, and I have screenshots to prove it! Oh, and that also includes a mobile SIM and 15GB of data!
If you want to pay a bit more, then gigabit (1000Mbps) is on offer, again symmetrical – Speeds that you can only dream about……
Why the UK is lagging so far behind baffles me? Maybe because as long as BT still rules the roost, then nothing will change – envy of the world, ha ha!
It seems that all the talk of ‘breaking up monopolies’ and privatisation was just talk, and the big boys are still in charge, even though they continue to make a pigs ear of it, and make the UK the laughing stock of Europe.
Still that’s how we reward the great and the good – make a hash of it, get a knighthood, an increased bonus and a pat on the back for doing a $hit job! Trebles all round!
Last updated: November 5, 2020
Is the fibre cable BT brought just lying at the side of the road?!
I’m green with rural envy! Hopefully we will get this sometime soon, the fibre that is already have had the BT treatment!
@ Abby – it was lying like that after it was pulled down the road. Tidied up a few days later.
@Mark – well pleased 🙂 Hopefully you’re next!
BT are the worst I ever had to deal with. Ordered 2 FTTC connections to an office both on the same order. BT engineer arrives to install the new lines. Speak to him but he only has one line on his job list. 15 minutes later a BT subcontractor who has driven from Cardiff to Gloucestershire has the other line on his job list. I wish I had taken a photo of both engineers (I use the term loosely) sat side by side on the floor in the server room each installing their own line. You just couldn’t make it up.
@Nick – Crazy! 🙂
If you already have UniFi then you probably should have gone with the EdgeRouter-X. I have an EdgeRouter-X SFP and it is great, I didn’t like the Draytek that I had in comparison.
Would love FTTP here but not holding my breath because FTTC is available – though it’s barely faster than regular ADSL for me since the cabinet is nearer to the exchange than it is to me.
Like you I’m using UniFi for WiFi (and a couple of PoE switches) so curious as to why you weren’t tempted by the UniFi Security Gateway. That seems nicely integrated with the UniFi management console, which you must already be using.
@David – I discussed the USG with some of the guys on IRC and there were a couple of features that either weren’t there or needed some setup that I wasn’t sure about. However looks great and maybe something I look at again in the future.
PS – like your website, and house!
“An unannounced change around a year ago (presumably some sort of upgrade at our exchanged) saw this improve to around 0.8 mbps” – This sounds like a 20CN -> 21CN migration (ADSL2+ rather than Max ADSL which gives you the max 8 down). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_21CN
@Sam – our exchange still shows – “21CN WBC status: Not available”. Thanks.
Trust me, the problems you’ve had with BT are nothing compared to those they gave me and my neighbours in our rural village. Total farce being managed by incompetent Indian head bobbers…
I’m living in a semi-rural part of Costa Blanca, Spain. Up until the last year or so, wi-max (wi-fi based) internet was on offer, giving a paltry 30 to 50Mbps, if you were lucky! Now, FTTH is automatico, and we have recently had it installed for the pricey sum of £30 a month. That gives us 600Mbps upload and download, and I have screenshots to prove it! Oh, and that also includes a mobile SIM and 15GB of data!
If you want to pay a bit more, then gigabit (1000Mbps) is on offer, again symmetrical – Speeds that you can only dream about……
Why the UK is lagging so far behind baffles me? Maybe because as long as BT still rules the roost, then nothing will change – envy of the world, ha ha!
It seems that all the talk of ‘breaking up monopolies’ and privatisation was just talk, and the big boys are still in charge, even though they continue to make a pigs ear of it, and make the UK the laughing stock of Europe.
Still that’s how we reward the great and the good – make a hash of it, get a knighthood, an increased bonus and a pat on the back for doing a $hit job! Trebles all round!