Kellys FTTC Install

Hi

Just had FTTC installed by Kellys, is this typical.

1) No phone call to say just about to cut of phone and internet, or that they are arriving. Thought they were suppose to telephone?

2) No modem is brought in with them, I'm asked if I've been sent a router from the ISP. I answer no and that I was expecting a modem. He then goes out to the van to get one. An ECI.

3) Straight forward with the master socket as we have no extensions or anything complicated going on. We get a new master socket connected (back box remains the same so two tones now as the back box has yellowed over time), plus the front with the RJ11, and Telephone socket, with MK2 on it.

4) As far as testing goes, they have no testing equipment whatsoever. Testing amounts to plugging in the modem and seeing it sync on the LED. Then they use my home phone and call some automated service, perhaps this is testing? It was on speaker phone and I could hear the automated responses but he just kept pressing numbers and never let it speak! I was expecting the engineer to plug in some test equipment and check the quality of the line and sync speeds. Isn't the whole point of the engineer install to check the line quality?

Anyway getting around 76 Down and 18 up so sounds all okay for 80/20, although initially speeds were 1 - 4 Down and 18 up (this is on wired Ethernet) I rebooted the router (not the modem) and still very slow speeds Down while 17-18 up, then all of a sudden it's been 75/76 consistently, so no idea what that was about.

Feel lost without being able to have a look at the actual sync speeds that was possible with ADSL. Is the ECI modem hack-able like the Huawei one?

Overall all okay, but if there had been a line problem it would not have shown up until after they left, and what they did I could have done myself, it was basically a self install just done by a stranger rather than me.

Seems like Kellys are doing it on the cheap and in and out as quickly as possible.

In reply to a post by LC100:

Seems like Kellys are doing it on the cheap and in and out as quickly as possible.

That's it. Time is money. You can buy a Huawei off Ebay. Who's your ISP?

Hi

ISP is Xilo, they've been great, can't be faulted. I was with Xilo O2W and quite content but then migrated to Xilo TalkTalk wholesale due to O2W closing down, and now have migrated again a month or so later.

Problem with TalkTalk is their upload sync speed is poor, either a limit of the DSLAM type or a deliberate setting, certainly compared to O2W, went from 1.4M up to 0.75M up, a 50% drop which is a pain when using VPN or cloud storage so decided as FTTC came available sooner than expected to swap now. I've notice similar complaints with ADSL24/COMS moving their customers from O2W to TalkTalk with regards to upload speed dropping by half, outside the control of the ISP of course and down to TalkTalk.

Tempted to get an all one modem/router for less boxes, but will have a look on Ebay, good to have a spare modem for troubleshooting anyway and being able to get at the stats.

Edited by LC100 (Mon 10-Mar-14 13:39:34)

The Huawei is a modem/router - but no wireless.

Umm, once it has been unlocked, which I accept is the intention.

However, I don't think many use it as a router. I think most will leave it in bridged mode to a "cable" router.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

However, I don't think many use it as a router. I think most will leave it in bridged mode to a "cable" router.

If people don't need WiFi and don't need UPNP or similar services, then its more than sufficient. However that is not many homes.

Such people won't be unlocking it, and quite probably won't have FTTC anyway .

It does uPNP....

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

It does uPNP....

Ha, not surprised, very nice bit of kit. If I didn't have my Asus, I'd probably have done the same, and use a cheap WiFi AP

Your initial speeds were probably low because the ISP hadn't updated their profile, this is the way it works with plus net, not sure about other ISP'S though.