In reply to a post by witchunt:

What's the mobile signal like? Unlimited 4G is possible, might have to try different network sims to see which works best.

https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/ether...

I don't know yet, but ordered a 4G sim anyway to try it out as part of the BT business package. On my phone the reception was terrible, but a few people have told me that the 4G router equipment picks up a much better signal, and even better again with an external aerial. I suspect I'll only use 4G for backup purposes though but we'll see.

In reply to a post by MC31:

As above if in house wiring is iffy you can lose 50% + of the speed coming into the house , only a few weeks ago i saw 3 go up to over 36 just by sorting in house wiring.

I'll try and get a new faceplate and location for the new line (into the study this time), but any other things I should be asking the engineer / or avoiding in particular? The house has been extended a few times and seems to have BT sockets all over the place at the moment.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Whether 6.5 is good or bad for ADSL2+ all hinges on where the property is

Majority of cabinet 1 is close enough to the exchange that speeds of 15 Mbps should be possible, might be low for this house if outside Goldhanger

Extension cables will not be helping possibly, and might explain a drop in what is possible.

In my head I've set a minimum target of 10Mbps... fingers crossed! This is based on trying:
- New line
- New faceplate (might have term wrong here)
- No extension cables!!!
- Dedicated Draytek 130 modem, and tweaking the SNR a bit

I think I'd be disappointed if I couldn't get that but will have to see. I wasn't quite following your comment about "might be low if outside Goldhanger" though... I'm in the village, but don't know where the exchange is.

Yep. One socket, and one socket only. Ask if you can have a stand alone NTE in the lounge (near existing power) and new cable between the external feed and the new NTE.

Https://goo.gl/maps/RERzF6HMuuJ4Rdeq7

In reply to a post by witchunt:

Https://goo.gl/maps/RERzF6HMuuJ4Rdeq7

thanks - thats about 700-750m following the path of the road to my house (assuming that's where the lines would follow?!)

Depends on the phone and the router. Many modern phones have very good 4G chipsets and perform better than most routers. Also, when using an external antenna you have to be careful that the length of coax between antenna and router doesn't outweigh the gains in signal strength.

It may also be that one of the other 4G networks gives you better signal than BT (which is EE). Voda, O2 or Three may get better reception and all of them have unlimited data options.

PS - there are a number of people on here that have moved to 4G and tried various routers and antennas - worth looking in the mobile section of the site to see the conversations that have already been had about it, lots of info there.

Edited by ian72 (Thu 20-Aug-20 09:23:26)

In reply to a post by ian72:

Also, when using an external antenna you have to be careful that the length of coax between antenna and router doesn't outweigh the gains in signal strength.

Which can be avoided by using an external router with a built in antenna, like the Mikrotik SXT routers (though the Mikrotik routers don't have as modern 4G chipsets as lots of the indoor 4G routers out there).

In reply to a post by andynormancx:

Which can be avoided by using an external router with a built in antenna, like the Mikrotik SXT routers (though the Mikrotik routers don't have as modern 4G chipsets as lots of the indoor 4G routers out there).

Yes, the mobile handsets are much further ahead than any of the routers, or the Mikrotik products - this is very disappointing, but shows the rate of progress in LTE chipsets.
Netgear appears to be the only vendor making "MiFi" style routers with modern chipsets with "Gigabit LTE" capabilities.

thanks - thats about 700-750m following the path of the road to my house (assuming that's where the lines would follow?!)


Looks like the Broadband comes on a 'Microwave' dish mounted on top of the pole RHS of the exchange.

Putting a post code in
https://kitz.co.uk/adsl/broadbandchecker.php
or
https://www.telecom-tariffs.co.uk/codelook.htm

I can see there is ADSL2 up to 17Mbps

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