In reply to a post by broadbandFlash:

The house in question looks like it has FTTP, but we won't know until purchase completes.

That is surprising. Why can you not find out?

Where abouts in Ceredigion are you - in the North of the county?
I'm near the Southern edge (between Llandysul and New Quay).

Well - you could try a 4G router on its own, in an upstairs window is best - that may pick up a signal anyway, as the router's own built-in aerials are pretty good (at least on the MR200 that I have). And if that's not enough, then an external aerial can be added - you may need to try the router in every upstairs window, originally there was just one spot in one window I got a good 4G signal (although EE have since boosted the signal in my area) - even had to put the router on top of a few boxes on the windowsill to raise it up to get the best signal I could! I've heard some people put their 4G router in the attic, if it picks up a better signal there. I've also tested an omni-directional external antenna (on a broom handle outside different upstairs windows, ha ha!) - and it does work - I'm hoping to install it properly soon when the weather improves. But I do get a decent 20-50Mbps downstream & 2-10Mbps upstream now from the 4G connection (latency is generally under 70ms) even without the external antenna.

One thing with 4G routers - you may need to configure it to force it into 4G mode, otherwise it may use "Auto" mode and then use 2G or 3G signals instead if those are stronger.

The only thing is - it's around £100 for a suitable 4G router (like the MR200), so a bit of a risk if it doesn't work. But even if you get a 3G signal instead of 4G, it's still useful as a "fail over" backup connection, in case your fixed line ADSL (or hopefully in future FTTP!) link goes down. (Even 2G is just about usable for basic email access I guess, as a last resort - but is a bit like going back to the dial-up days!).

I believe that Fixed Wireless is usually quite a reliable fast and low-latency connection, if available. The only thing is, there's no easy way (that I know of) to find out what (if anything) is available in any given area - just a basic Post Code or map search at each company's website.

Some that I know of that *might* cover your area are:

Blue Wave Internet
Dyfed IT (aka Dyfed Superfast)
ResQNet

There may be others too.

I can't vouch for or recommend any in particular, as I haven't yet had any experience of them - however, our hamlet is currently trying to set up a Fixed Wireless link via Dyfed IT, so hopefully that will come to fruition soon...

Yes - I expect you could work via 4G from that camper van up a mountain!

In addition to the ThinkBroadband Mobile Forum, another good source of information where people provide ideas on mobile & fixed wireless broadband is the ISP Review Mobile & Fixed Wireless & Satellite Forum section.

Hopefully this will give you a few options & ideas anyway! Good Luck!

Edited by AdamInTheSticks (Mon 05-Mar-18 20:00:57)

Hi Michael,

The DSL checker says yes, but its not physically connected, and no other properties around it are allowed to order it. I am informed that the only way to know for sure is to order it and have it activated. To have no internet there would be a bit of a disaster as I work from home, and its a remote area with no other options.

According to the DSL checker its either theoretically got up to 300mbps FTTP, or a disasterous <1mb adsl.

One experienced person has said that even with the checker saying FTTP can be ordered, there is still a 10% chance it won't be able to be connected when they attempt to fit it.

That is a nasty situation.

Do you know what the cancellation options are if you start the order?

Thanks Adam.

Its a few miles south of Machynlleth. Those suppliers look like they offer services too far south for us, but I'll give them a try.

Perhaps its worth giving the 4g router a try also. The house is over 2 hours away so I may as well take all the equipment I may need, including an external antenna.

As the owners have moved out, I'll probably have to test from outside the house, which means I'll have to work out a way of powering the 4g router from the car (answers on a postcard), and also getting someone to hold an external antenna taped to the end of a broomstick.

Presumably my ee 4g simm card will fit ok (what size is the M200 SIMM, as I've snapped the EE one to its smaller size?). I'll also presume that the m200 allows for an external antenna such as this:

Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0001 Cross Polarised 4G Omni LTE Antenna

I can't see any external connector on the M200, so I guess its possible to disconnect the littles ones it comes with and add the third party one. Does the router itself show the signal strength and whether its using 4g with external LED's? (saves me attaching to it with a laptop)

£200 spent, but probably will use them at some point, and besides Amazon are pretty good with returns.

Not sure how to power the router from the car 12v socket though...may have an inverter here somewhere.

The neighbouring farmer already thinks we're suspicious, wait until he sees me hanging out the car window with a broomstick and wires...!

Do you know what the cancellation options are if you start the order?

This has already been covered in the thread. The problem for the OP is they will already have bought the house and if they can't get decent broadband then it will be a major issue - cancelling the order is not a problem. They have also been looking at whether the owners will allow them to order before contracts are signed. Please read the thread.

Edited by ian72 (Tue 06-Mar-18 10:57:36)

For what it's worth, I used to work in the satellite broadband industry. We used to fit mobile platforms (autodeploy/point) to mobile units, and support them. We mostly used Avanti and iDirect kit, but did also use Hughes on Avanti and some Tooway kit, all Ka band.

I used remote desktop and SSH a lot over satellite.

If you want to "test out" how it feels, try Clumsy: https://jagt.github.io/clumsy/download set it to ~300ms delay in each direction for ~600ms total.

RDP is usable but horrible. 4G is a much better option if possible.

Oh, and forget IPSec/L2TP VPNs. Half the reason Satellite works at all is because the modem and the ground station do TCP Ack spoofing, in order to speed up connections and prevent TCP backing off (TCP slow start) due to what it thinks is a congested network. IPSec and L2TP break this and it's awful.

SSL vpns (Cisco Anyconnect, OpenVPN, etc) work fine.

I would consider an ADSL connection even if only 1mbit for RDP etc, and satellite for watching netflix etc if there is no other option.

But I'd probably insist the vendor clarify about FTTP availability or pull out.

I don't believe the vendor can confirm as they don't currently have it and the only way they could confirm from what has been said would be for them to order FTTP for the premises - not likely a thing someone would do when trying to sell a property.

They (BT) did say that I could cancel any time up to 14 days afer the service is active. But there seems to be some oppinion here that they are not correct and its 14 days after order.

Either way I could cancel (I hope) after stage 1 install if the house purchase fell through.

If a vendor was faced with a no sale they might change their mind, or a sale but with £10,000 lopped off to offset costs of a decent connection then they'd probably change minds.

A lot depends on how popular the property is in terms of other offers.

Its just scenarios where damp is found in a survey and a buyer puts in a condition that this is fixed before the sale is agreed, most sellers will realise that the same is likely to happen during other surveys.