Just had SKY FTTC installed. Engineer was an ass.

So, after almost 3 weeks of waiting for internet I had it installed today.

He phones me and says he's outside my house. I look outside there is no one there. I tell him he has the wrong street. He tries to tell me I don't live on xxx street and I tell him I do live on xxx street. After a while of trying to convince him he's on the wrong street he finally realizes he's in the wrong town on a street which is named the same as mines. Alright, fair enough. I'm a little irritated he didn't take my word for it, but no big deal.

He turns up, comes in and asks where the master socket. I show him to the dining room. I tell him I don't want it installed in the dining room, but in the livingroom next to my SKY box so I can connect the sky wire to the socket. He tells me it's not his responsibility. So now I need to run a 5 metre extension to the Sky HD box. That hardly seems reasonable.

Anyway, ran a speedtest. Not overly impressed. I'm hoping the speed will improve?

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2147642623.png

Looks like your on of the "half speed" customers good luck getting that fixed.

What connection speed does the sky router report, and was that over a wired connection?

The engineer works for BT Openreach, i doubt sky can request a polite one

I have to say the one who installed my fibre was excellent.

I believe it's the voice side of Openreach (BT) that can move your master socket.

In reply to a post by broadband66:

I believe it's the voice side of Openreach (BT) that can move your master socket.

Openreach is only one organisation, they have engineers, and senior engineers (SFI) - they don't have voice/data separation. BT retail has voice and data (BT Broadband / BT Infinity) divisions. They both use Openreach wires and engineers.

An Openreach engineer CAN move the master socket - obvious this one didn't want to.

Not 100% sure on that, believe some of the newer installers are not as fully trained in all the aspects of Openreach. Also there is the subsection who can do things like splice fibre etc

Generally they DO NOT move the master socket for FTTC installs, but rather install a data extension kit. Worst case when engineers are short of time is for them to leave the kit with a quick explanation. They are heavily time constrained on jobs these days.

As i understand it, the guys installing the FTTC are contractors and are the 400 or so ex-armed forces personnel that OP has just recruited. If you need anything else doing then you'll have to get Sky to book a OP engineer to come out to you.

See this link - Another 400 Jobs

Edited by deleted (Wed 29-Aug-12 23:19:18)

Modem Status Connected
DownStream Connection Speed 39999 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed 10000 kbps

I'm connecting wirelessly, I'll test wired tomorrow I just didn't have the time today. I'm using a netgear wnda3200

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Not 100% sure on that, believe some of the newer installers are not as fully trained in all the aspects of Openreach. Also there is the subsection who can do things like splice fibre etc

True - and I guess if you order a £20k per annum circuit from BT they probably send along some senior staff with fibre experience.

Generally they DO NOT move the master socket for FTTC installs, but rather install a data extension kit. Worst case when engineers are short of time is for them to leave the kit with a quick explanation. They are heavily time constrained on jobs these days.

That makes sense unfortunately. I work for a company that is time orientated too :-/

Hasn't BT heard of postcodes?

Wireless speedtests are not indicative of the state of your BB connection, only the state of your wireless. Always do wired speedtests when assessing speeds.

In reply to a post by lowe88:

Modem Status Connected
DownStream Connection Speed 39999 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed 10000 kbps

I'm connecting wirelessly, I'll test wired tomorrow I just didn't have the time today. I'm using a netgear wnda3200

Need to use wired to be sure of the speedtest... Wireless can handle the 40Mbps service though provided you have good signal.

Also those statistics are rubbish. The sky router just reports the maximum speed for your package. So it will show 39999kbps for 40Mbps and 79999kbps for 80Mbps. Even if you are syncing much lower say 15Mbps.

You have to unlock the modem to get the real statistics. The ones from the sky router can be ignored as they are not true, just shows that you have the 40Mbps service.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Thu 30-Aug-12 02:41:02)

Yeah, I'm not willing to mess around with the router to that extent. Even if the wired connection isn't much better I'm reasonably happy, but extremely glad I started off with the 40/10 package. Especially when BT estimated I could get 70Mbps, I guess they were wrong

Anyway, I've noticed when downloading torrents it's hitting 3200kb/s now. Speedtest is still showing around 20Mbps though. I'll make sure to check the wired connection tomorrow just for curiosity sake.

Edited by deleted (Thu 30-Aug-12 02:56:32)

I'm on the 80Mbps one
On channel 11 I get 2Mbps on wifi

Ethernet gives me 76Mbps

Wireless on channel 1 gives me 70Mbps
Wireless on channel 6 ranges between 30 and 60Mbps
This is in the same room as the router
So wifi can make a HUGE difference

The solution is several 5ghz routers or finding the right wifi channel for your area

Through a few walls in a front bedroom my wifi is around 10Mbps at best.

Agreed, as per review at
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/hardware/reviews/73-fr...

you can get an idea of how much wireless varies. And this was testing just between two computers, where using Ethernet I could get 600 Mbps. Through two floors, 2.4Gig gave just 12 Mbps, and a better 55 Mbps from 5 GHz

One thing I have found with wireless is that with 5GHz you are actually better off not being too close to the router.

Depends on what GPS they have in their vans, some don't do full postcode, so if did it on house and street it is feasible to be wrong.

Might be one company but voice engineers aren't necessarilly trained in broadband aspects of the system.

A user can't talk to anyone at BT regarding their non BT broadband connection but they can get things done about their standard voice side of things like for example...............moving the master socket.

5ghz only was better for me than 2.4 in the same room. Through one wall it was pretty dire in my house

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

5ghz only was better for me than 2.4 in the same room. Through one wall it was pretty dire in my house

That's my experience, floors in most homes are more RF friendly than walls however, and 5GHz may go through floor boards but be stopped by brick or breeze block walls.

Review of an Asus EA-N66 on its way soon.
Very much agree, wood is ok for 5GHz, but if a wall or two then 2.4 GHz rules.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Review of an Asus EA-N66 on its way soon.
Very much agree, wood is ok for 5GHz, but if a wall or two then 2.4 GHz rules.

That EA-N66 looks interesting, especially in AP mode, could be a better option than an Apple Airport Extreme. I'm thinking my next router could be without WiFi and a separate AP.

Thanks

Have just published the review.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/hardware/reviews/74-as...

With three modes, and dual band wireless, there was a lot of wireless testing to be done.

Great, thanks. Do you know if its WiFi Alliance certified??

Just found the flaw, its selectable 2.4 or 5 GHz but not simultaneous. At that price that's really annoying.

Edited by jchamier (Fri 31-Aug-12 18:16:06)

Cannot see it at http://certifications.wi-fi.org/search_products.php?...

Just says IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n in its spec

But have used it with Galaxy S2, Asus transformer prime, dell precision, iPhone 4 and was happy

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Hasn't BT heard of postcodes?

Sure they have, just not heard of SatNav's, BT Engineers are only given a map - anything extra they have to buy themselves, many opt not spend any of their own money for the company's benefit.

They got jobs, haven't they? They can afford to buy maps.

Failing that they can look up the right town on the Net.

In reply to a post by Kr1s69:

What connection speed does the sky router report, and was that over a wired connection?

The engineer works for BT Openreach, i doubt sky can request a polite one

I have to say the one who installed my fibre was excellent.

If the Openreach engineer was rude then complain to Sky since your contract is with them.

It's then up-to Sky if they want to pursue the complaint with Openreach or not

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

In reply to a post by lowe88:

Modem Status Connected
DownStream Connection Speed 39999 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed 10000 kbps

I'm connecting wirelessly, I'll test wired tomorrow I just didn't have the time today. I'm using a netgear wnda3200

Need to use wired to be sure of the speedtest... Wireless can handle the 40Mbps service though provided you have good signal.

Also those statistics are rubbish. The sky router just reports the maximum speed for your package. So it will show 39999kbps for 40Mbps and 79999kbps for 80Mbps. Even if you are syncing much lower say 15Mbps.

You have to unlock the modem to get the real statistics. The ones from the sky router can be ignored as they are not true, just shows that you have the 40Mbps service.

Actually I think the Router gets the Values based on what's being sent in DHCP option 242 and 243 when the router gets it's IP and *Should* be accurate providing the openreach Dslam in the cab is sending Sky the correct data.

The values are present in the DHCP renew which happens every 30mins or so but as far as I can tell the sky router doesn't bother parsing them to update the gui.

The values are encoded as HEX but if you do a HEX > DEC conversion on them they will translate to your sync speeds.

The Link Below is a screenshot from a packet-capture of the DHCP exchange between the Router and Skys DHCP server.

http://imgur.com/Fmr3w

In reply to a post by dragon2611:

Actually I think the Router gets the Values based on what's being sent in DHCP option 242 and 243 when the router gets it's IP and *Should* be accurate providing the openreach Dslam in the cab is sending Sky the correct data.

Interesting. The fact that (I think) BT's Hub gets an IP via PPPoE means they are unable to show the synch speed in the Hub's interface. Disappointing that the only way to view this information on Infinity is to hack the modem, which only works on one of the two modems they currently issue :-/

There's a clothes-peg hack for the other one.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

Interesting. The fact that (I think) BT's Hub gets an IP via PPPoE means they are unable to show the synch speed in the Hub's interface. Disappointing that the only way to view this information on Infinity is to hack the modem, which only works on one of the two modems they currently issue :-/

One of the benefits of Sky running their own network. I would assume WBC based ISPs (e.g. PlusNet, AAISP etc) could show the sync rate they are told on a web control panel. Sky choose to display this in an interesting way.

Sorry it took so long. Ran a speedtest with ethernet today

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2163567480.png < Ethernet

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2163585430.png < Wireless upstairs.

Not much difference now. Don't know if it's worth getting one of those powerline ethernet adaptors. I don't think the higher package would have gave any bonus speed, do you? Seems weird when the cabinet is only 4 doors down though.

Getting full speed on wireless now. Happy.

Last Result:
Download Speed: 37679 kbps (4709.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 8477 kbps (1059.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 13 ms
10 September 2012 02:04:57