Doing away with BT. Is there a viable alternative?

[JockandRita]

EE isn't too bad, neither is O2 but the best is Vodafone

That seems to be the same round this way Mel.

Speed testing WiFi with a Vodafone sim in the MH MiFi, and a Poynting antenna on the roof, gave better results than the same speed test for my BT WiFi, being stood next to the Hub.
This makes me inclined to possibly go down the same route as donkey Geoff described earlier in the thread.

I just need to choose the right router which takes a sim card, that receives the best signal, with the strongest WiFi reception for around the house. Oh yes, and a box of Paracetamol for the headache I can feel coming on. .................

Other than the https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/3g-4g-router/archer-mr600/ already suggested, are there other contenders capable of the above requirements?

Cheers,

Jock.

 

[donkey]

That seems to be the same round this way Mel.

Speed testing WiFi with a Vodafone sim in the MH MiFi, and a Poynting antenna on the roof, gave better results than the same speed test for my BT WiFi, being stood next to the Hub.
This makes me inclined to possibly go down the same route as donkey Geoff described earlier in the thread.

I just need to choose the right router which takes a sim card, that receives the best signal, with the strongest WiFi reception for around the house. Oh yes, and a box of Paracetamol for the headache I can feel coming on. .................

Other than the https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/3g-4g-router/archer-mr600/ already suggested, are there other contenders capable of the above requirements?

Cheers,

Jock.

Hi

On the subject of WiFi for whole house coverage, I use TP-Link mesh. I find three units strategically placed gives whole house plus quite a large circle outside and our walls vary between 15 & 18 inches thick.

Geoff

 

[Otter Spotter]

Hi

On the subject of WiFi for whole house coverage, I use TP-Link mesh. I find three units strategically placed gives whole house plus quite a large circle outside and our walls vary between 15 & 18 inches thick.

Geoff

That would frighten my wife to death, she woukd be expecting to start glowing in the dark and hearing voices

 

[donkey]

That would frighten my wife to death, she woukd be expecting to start glowing in the dark and hearing voices

Funny you should say that, I never associated the warm glow and strange noises with having WiFi

Geoff

 

[Billyboy5758]

At home, we are currently with BT for our broadband and phone.
Our contract expires on 6th October 2022, and TBH, we are no longer happy with the quality of the broadband, causing streaming TV to buffer in the evenings, and constant delays in security door bell camera response.

A. Is there a better alternative to BT?

B. Having set up our own WiFi on the MH, can we do the same for the home, providing quality internet and WiFi for the security alarm, cameras, communications, and streaming. I think we would need more than just a decent MiFi with a decent sim card data allowance.

We don't subscribe to viewing platforms such as Sky, Amazon Prime, and Netflix but we do have access to the latter two.

Doing away with the house phone line is not a problem, as it is hardly used. Also, we are away from home for an accumulation of several months a year.

Any ideas or experiences of setting up one's own broadband and WiFi at home, as an alternative to BT would be welcome.

Cheers,

Jock.

I did some research a couple of years ago as BT could not deliver as I live in the middle of nowhere. So ended up buying my own router and a sim data card 4G I have Netflix and all the usual streaming services I normally get around 26 mps upload and the same download. Obviously occasionally it varies but generally better than any of the so called big names. So do your homework and get your own setup total cost to me was around £200. And £18.75 a month all in. Hope this helps.

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[Miggs]

If this is the company you referred to Miggs, then it's a no unfortunately.

Yes that is it. They recently laid new fibre cable throughout Northampton - a huge project. The service is then contracted out to various providers...my area was assigned to Vodaphone, who is now my new provider.
I don't find any difference at all to the service I was getting from Virgin, only I pay less.
I also download a fair amount of huge files via torrent and have not noticed any throttling.

 

[zac]

I would never use Virgin Media again even if they paid me to use it, they are truly shocking in every aspect. I even paid to get out of the 12 month business contract i had with them it was so bad. Went back to Zen internet and would never have left them if it not for the fact there was no FTTP at that point. As soon as FTTP arrived i went straight back and not had an issue since, its more expensive than most ISPs but they look after their customers and from my experience there is very little to complain about. Was with Zen for nearly 10 years prior to moving to Virgin with no issues, was with Virgin media less than 2 weeks and the problems started. Line drops, router reboots, incompetent support staff, not knowing their own business products. Getting fobbed off from one department to another.

If you dont need a stable connection like a fixed line will give then def go for a mobile router with a directional antenna pointing at the nearest mast. It will be cheap but as with everything mobile it may not be 100% reliable but then you will be saving quite a lot of money over the fixed line route.

 

[Coolcats]

Yes that is it. They recently laid new fibre cable throughout Northampton - a huge project. The service is then contracted out to various providers...my area was assigned to Vodaphone, who is now my new provider.
I don't find any difference at all to the service I was getting from Virgin, only I pay less.
I also download a fair amount of huge files via torrent and have not noticed any throttling.

You shouldn’t get throttling on fibre the reason any throttling was happening was to balance the network for all but with fibre bandwidth is pretty much limitless in-terms of kit use it’s just the boxes on the ends that are the current limitation. (Eg you pc or router.)

 

[Miggs]

Not surprised re City Fibre it’s owned by BT so users same connection.

CityFibre is based in London and is jointly owned by Antin Infrastructure Partners, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Mubadala Investment Company and Interogo Holding.

They have their own infrastructure. I know, because they've just dug up the whole of Northampton and laid it.

 

[Miggs]

You shouldn’t get throttling on fibre the reason any throttling was happening was to balance the network for all but with fibre bandwidth is pretty much limitless in-terms of kit use it’s just the boxes on the ends that are the current limitation. (Eg you pc or router.)

There was a rumour circulating that some providers would throttle the service when detecting torrent clients.
Well, I know there a lots of rumours circulating on the internet!

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[Coolcats]

If you dont need a stable connection like a fixed line will give then def go for a mobile router with a directional antenna pointing at the nearest mast. It will be cheap but as with everything mobile it may not be 100% reliable but then you will be saving quite a lot of money over the fixed line route.

Spot on regarding stability, also if you’re in an area with families/kids it’s noticeable when schools come out the performance of mobile data changes also time of day.

The number of times on a camp site we get a pretty good reception but once night comes the signal almost vanished or drops considerably

Radio waves are like puppies they go where they want when they want ! Most inconvenient lol. So MiFi is not always the best solution ( the caviate to this is some will say it’s fine for them).

 

[Justus3]

CityFibre is based in London and is jointly owned by Antin Infrastructure Partners, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Mubadala Investment Company and Interogo Holding.

They have their own infrastructure. I know, because they've just dug up the whole of Northampton and laid it.

So have they round here oddly they lay fibre at street level but then wire them up to BT poles and cabinets.
Much of the setting up round here has been done by vans and companies that do contact work for BT. They've also been working side by side with BT wiring things up. i'd read something about BT and them about have something to do with them if not direct owner.
They may have own infrastructure but not from end to end. They didn't offer any thing other than act as provider of a network.
The choice we have via them is limited and as I found have speed capped. So coastwise , speed and reality not a patch what we get now.

 

[JockandRita]

Update...........
I have brought the Cat 6 ZTE MiFi with a 160Gb Vodafone sim, in from the MH to experiment with.
In both the weakest signal areas in our house, I was able to connect and watch all 5 x iPlayers, Netflix, and Amazon Prime, without the use of an external antenna.

Spot on regarding stability, also if you’re in an area with families/kids it’s noticeable when schools come out the performance of mobile data changes also time of day.

The number of times on a camp site we get a pretty good reception but once night comes the signal almost vanished or drops considerably

Radio waves are like puppies they go where they want when they want ! Most inconvenient lol. So MiFi is not always the best solution ( the caviate to this is some will say it’s fine for them).

Yep, we experience that in late afternoons, and mid to late evenings with our BT Smart Hub 6 WiFi setup. It is so bl@@dy annoying.

So on that basis, while I am out later, Rita is going to try Catchup TV via the MiFi this afternoon when the schools come out, to check for buffering, and then again tonight.
If successful, it looks like expanding on that, but with a better quality router.

Any suggestions please regarding a decent router that takes a sim card?

Cheers,

Jock.

 

[Coolcats]

CityFibre is based in London and is jointly owned by Antin Infrastructure Partners, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Mubadala Investment Company and Interogo Holding.

They have their own infrastructure. I know, because they've just dug up the whole of Northampton and laid it.

The infrastructure is just that an infrastructure, locally here the fibre is being installed under contract by Kelly Coms who BT / Open reach often contract out to. I noticed on one of their placards was Virgin but you get to choose the provider which people will look at based on need and services offered. I dont think Virgin offer hosted storage as part of thier deal where BT does although Virgin may offer you something you are interested in and so it goes........many of the companies just use BT wholesale white label products re-badge and provide thier own service centre, tesco mobile and others are just the same ID mobile provide a cheap SIM but no call centre you contact them by chat or FAQ's etc As they say you pay your money and take your choice.

 

[Coolcats]

Update...........
I have brought the Cat 6 ZTE MiFi with a 160Gb Vodafone sim, in from the MH to experiment with.
In both the weakest signal areas in our house, I was able to connect and watch all 5 x iPlayers, Netflix, and Amazon Prime, without the use of an external antenna.


Yep, we experience that in late afternoons, and mid to late evenings with our BT Hub 5 WiFi setup. It is so bl@@dy annoying.

So on that basis, while I am out later, Rita is going to try Catchup TV via the MiFi this afternoon when the schools come out, to check for buffering, and then again tonight.
If successful, it looks like expanding on that, but with a better quality router.

Any suggestions please regarding a decent router that takes a sim card?

Cheers,

Jock.

dont forget to use something like Ookla both for wifi and your BT service, just a thought here if you are having so much trouble with BT why dont you ask them for a smart hub 2 hub 5 is rather out of date and I suspect your socket may be as well.

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[Coolcats]

Update...........
I have brought the Cat 6 ZTE MiFi with a 160Gb Vodafone sim, in from the MH to experiment with.
In both the weakest signal areas in our house, I was able to connect and watch all 5 x iPlayers, Netflix, and Amazon Prime, without the use of an external antenna.


Yep, we experience that in late afternoons, and mid to late evenings with our BT Hub 5 WiFi setup. It is so bl@@dy annoying.

So on that basis, while I am out later, Rita is going to try Catchup TV via the MiFi this afternoon when the schools come out, to check for buffering, and then again tonight.
If successful, it looks like expanding on that, but with a better quality router.

Any suggestions please regarding a decent router that takes a sim card?

Cheers,

Jock.

Just checked my speed, first time I have seen 51Mbps im not telling them they may want that £20 back (I've spent it)

 

[JockandRita]

dont forget to use something like Ookla both for wifi and your BT service, just a thought here if you are having so much trouble with BT why dont you ask them for a smart hub 2 hub 5 is rather out of date and I suspect your socket may be as well.

Apologies, ie, BT Hub 6 (not 5), and the socket was changed a couple of years ago when my end was again checked out, after, all the copper to the pole was replaced.

Cheers,

Jock.

 

[IRHP]

I forgot to add, we are currently paying BT £35 a month, for broadband (up to 32Mbps) and call plan.

I'm sure we could do better for less.


I spent over an hour on the phone a few months ago with a very helpful lady from BT, who tweeked this and that, and carried out various tests and channel changes, but TBH, it's really no better.

Jock.

There’s really not a lot they can do over the phone other than “resetting” things. Keep at them ask for an engineering visit to prove ads speeds and quality. Many things can affect the quality inc line conditions and house wiring. If you go with another provider for wired broadband then you will probably still have the same issues. There are plenty other providers to choose from and most will be cheaper than BT. A simple solution may be a 4g router that takes a SIM card so no land line required. Be aware BT are changing from a PSTN to an ip based fibre network so depending on the area you’re in that could be happening soon.

 

[Nick555]

At home, we are currently with BT for our broadband and phone.
Our contract expires on 6th October 2022, and TBH, we are no longer happy with the quality of the broadband, causing streaming TV to buffer in the evenings, and constant delays in security door bell camera response.

A. Is there a better alternative to BT?

B. Having set up our own WiFi on the MH, can we do the same for the home, providing quality internet and WiFi for the security alarm, cameras, communications, and streaming. I think we would need more than just a decent MiFi with a decent sim card data allowance.

We don't subscribe to viewing platforms such as Sky, Amazon Prime, and Netflix but we do have access to the latter two.

Doing away with the house phone line is not a problem, as it is hardly used. Also, we are away from home for an accumulation of several months a year.

Any ideas or experiences of setting up one's own broadband and WiFi at home, as an alternative to BT would be welcome.

Cheers,

Jock.

I am in a remote area where BT are poor. I use a 4G router (Vodafone gigacube) which is good with unlimited high speeds (60mbps) for £25 per month. For our holiday chalet I bought a Netgear Orbi which is even better, The Netgear Orbi was expensive, but very fast & excellent wifi. I have an unlimited Vodafone SIM in it for £25 per month. The Orbi is more flexible than the Gigacube & very easy to set up.

At home I have a Nest doorbell, smoke alarms & thermostat, watch only Netflix & Amazon Prime (legally TV licence free) plus a lot of remote computer work. I also have a Synology NAS backup system which also uploads to the cloud. (I'm a computer engineer).

I wanted to keep a landline number, so I went with Vonage & moved my BT number to them. Vonage costs me £10.25 per month.

 

[IRHP]

CityFibre is based in London and is jointly owned by Antin Infrastructure Partners, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Mubadala Investment Company and Interogo Holding.

They have their own infrastructure. I know, because they've just dug up the whole of Northampton and laid it.

Maybe confusion with Fibre Cities which is the name BT has given to the project to switch off the pstn by 2025. It’s being replaced with an ip backed fibre network. If that goes to plan all traditional telephone exchanges and all the millions of pounds worth of copper cable in the ground will be redundant.

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[Ninjabob]

If you can test the connection speed using a laptop connected to the router directly using an ethernet cable - that should establish straight away if the poor connectivity is down to your provider (BT). Until fairly recently routers provided by providers were a bit c&#p and your best bet would be to purchase a decent router like an ASUS RT-86U or to cover the whole house a WiFI Mesh System. Then you can place your providers router into "modem mode" which will turn off the radio systems and your devices will then connect to the new router/mesh you have set up. Next use a free App like WiFi Analyser to establish which channels in the 2.4 and 5ghz bands are free of major interference and set the system to those channels. Using 2.4ghz on fast systems will always throttle your speed so where possible use the 5ghz band on all your devices. There are an awful lot of reasons for poor connectivity that have nothing to do with to your provider - a badly set up system will always perform badly. Living in a densely populated area will cause you problems because there a so few channels available on the 2.4ghz band with most providers routers choosing one of three channels 1,6 or 11 in their auto mode.

As someone else mentioned BT Wholesale/Openreach provide nearly all the connections for the copper cable to your house. Virgin have their own cables but offer the above (BT Wholesale) for anyone not covered by their network.

As far as speed is concerned if your use is not specialised i.e. your not downloading huge amounts of data a 100mgb connection (even 50mgb) will more than suffise for your needs. Providers love trying to sell you speeds you think you need but frankly don't. To obtain/use those high speeds (1gb) is very hard to do especially with anything connected by WiFi.

 

[Coolcats]

Update...........
I have brought the Cat 6 ZTE MiFi with a 160Gb Vodafone sim, in from the MH to experiment with.
In both the weakest signal areas in our house, I was able to connect and watch all 5 x iPlayers, Netflix, and Amazon Prime, without the use of an external antenna.


Yep, we experience that in late afternoons, and mid to late evenings with our BT Hub 5 WiFi setup. It is so bl@@dy annoying.

So on that basis, while I am out later, Rita is going to try Catchup TV via the MiFi this afternoon when the schools come out, to check for buffering, and then again tonight.
If successful, it looks like expanding on that, but with a better quality router.

Any suggestions please regarding a decent router that takes a sim card?

Cheers,

Jock.

if your connecting via wifi on your BT router its probably the router its an older technology which I am sure you are aware

EE do pretty good routers

5G & 4G Routers

Introducing the 5GEE Home Router, delivering ultrafast speeds through our 5G network with no need for a fixed line. We also offer the 4GEE Home Router.

shop.ee.co.uk

 

[JockandRita]

if your connecting via wifi on your BT router its probably the router its an older technology which I am sure you are aware

As replied to you above, it's a BT Smart HUB 6.

They did provide one of these...............

...............but as I wasn't connecting the extra amplifiers/boosters to it, BT exchanged it for the one above, advising at the time it was the best solution. What do I know?

Cheers,

Jock.

 

[Coolcats]

As replied to you above, it's a BT Smart HUB 6.

View attachment 671393

They did provide one of these...............

View attachment 671394
...............but as I wasn't connecting the extra amplifiers/boosters to it, BT exchanged it for the one above, advising at the time it was the best solution. What do I know?

Cheers,

Jock.

That’s a weird thing as the lower one is a better hub and the additional Wi-Fi discs are optional I ran a cat 6 cable to the other side of my home and added a wifi 6 disc put one in my garage at the bottom of my garden and one in my back bedroom house garage and garden ha 50 Mbps all through.

 

[steveh57]

Hi Jock. Market Deeping as your aware is going through FTTP upgrades, 3 routes may be available eventually . UPP and Lightspeed are live but not for all, you need to use the post code checker. Openreach is also laying fibre to the premises as well which I guess will be made available at some point to the same range of ISPs as FTTC/adsl. I do have a D-Link DWR-953 modem/router 3G/4G, it's possibly better than MiFi plus it has Ethernet ports and antennae, it's in a box in the van- you can borrow it if you wish.

I went with Lightspeed as it's the only FTTP I can get at present, plus I got 6 months free over 2 years, I ditched the landline and got a VOIP box, free account with Sipgate. (You can port you landline number if you wish)and use our previous DECT phones.

​

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[JockandRita]

steveh57. Hi Steve.

Many thanks for the info, and your kind offer. I'll have a chat with you later this afternoon.

If I don't sort myself out via a mobile setup, it'll be UPP at £26.00pcm for 200Mbps.

See you later,

Jock.

P.S. Tell Daisy I'll be bringing her biscuits.

 

[gus-lopez]

£230 a quarter

I have a TP-Link Mr600 and a Poynting antenna.

that is what we now use for house system here in spain + take it with us when we travel. * No it isn't ours is a MR6400 TP-Link

There was a rumour circulating that some providers would throttle the service when detecting torrent clients.

I can only speak for where we arein spain. Tv's, even if plugged in via ethernet cable,are throttled compared to a lap top or computer connected the same way.
earlier this year we changed from wifi internet (satellitte line of sight with anntenna on roof) which gave us 30 up & 5 down. I don't watch tv but for the wife it was always beffering.
We used to do speed test on
2 x tv's connected via eternet
2x laptops connected the same
3x tablets, wifi
3 x phones wifi
1 x notebook wifi

the tv's always showed about 30% of the signal on the lap tops connected the same way.

also if you’re in an area with families/kids it’s noticeable when schools come out the performance of mobile data changes also time of day.

Yes exactly. here it can be ok then at night the spanish start using it,albeit they do not watch tv on it , & you start getting problems even me just browsing.
far too many for the bandwidth available.

Any suggestions please regarding a decent router that takes a sim card?

As said Jock I use the same as above TP-Link MR6400 .

If you can test the connection speed using a laptop connected to the router directly using an ethernet cable - that should establish straight away if the poor connectivity is down to your provider (BT).

Ours was wifi & still restricted even with 30down & 10+ up.you couldn't watch tv as any speed test on the smart tv's would only ever show 4 or 5 down . When we asked about throttling they always flanneled but having spoken to 2 x different other suppliers including the Tiekom lot in Madrid there engineer confirmed that throttling was easily done on specific devices.

On our router now the TP_link MR6400 I can go in to the unit & it will show me exactly what is connected ,how many, wifi or ethernet, Ip address for each etc.
Along with speed & % of connection actually available.

Fibre is only any good if it connects directly in to the router in your house as if it goes in to the metal box up the road then the connection is only as good as the wires from the box to the house .