Moved to Aquiss

I moved my FTTP to Aquiss today as my previous supplier moved me on to CGNAT. with Aquiss you get a static public IP, both ipv4/6. and no in contract price rises, the whole process was seamless and one question i had was answered quickly ( i sent an email around 6pm and got a response with in a hour ).

i know its only been one day but the service has been flawless, so if your looking for a new ISP or moveing ISP give these guys a look, im glad i did.

In reply to a post by copex:

I moved my FTTP to Aquiss today as my previous supplier moved me on to CGNAT. with Aquiss you get a static public IP, both ipv4/6. and no in contract price rises, the whole process was seamless and one question i had was answered quickly ( i sent an email around 6pm and got a response with in a hour ).

i know its only been one day but the service has been flawless, so if your looking for a new ISP or moveing ISP give these guys a look, im glad i did.

Was this on the Openreach network?

I have found (2 years on) that IPv6 isn’t flawless. After I first switched to Aquiss, I could see that IPv6 had lost connection. As my router has a built in re-boot facility for time-based daily charging, I just turned this on. This resets the IPv6 connection.

I had Aquiss for 18 months, ended up moving because of the benefits with my mobile contract of moving to my mobile provider.

Aquiss were good apart from one network blip that was I think with one of their upstream providers.

I did have some odd things - like my Sky Q box would fail to download queued programmes and I would have to retry - it doesn't happen on my new provider and didn't happen on my previous provider. Will never know for sure what the issue was and can't say it was the Aquiss network that caused it and would never have easily been able to provide a reproducable test to work with Aquiss to see if it was something in their network. Wasn't a big enough issue to spend time on and could just have been something unique to my connection.

Otherwise Aquiss provided a service that just worked with no other dramas.

In reply to a post by ian72:

I did have some odd things - like my Sky Q box would fail to download queued programmes and I would have to retry

We have never had this reported by anyone else and nothing in place that would target Sky Q downloads. Is the router the same one you have used with all providers?

As I say it wasn't something I managed to track down and wasn't a big enough issue to look into further. Just an oddity. I used the same router both before and after my stint with you. I need to be clear I am not saying this was an Aquiss service issue for an issue I saw for some reason whilst on your service that I didn't see before or after - could be coincidence. Sorry, can't really help further.

I've had numerous download fails with my (non-aquiss) ISP. My move to Aquiss is processing so will see how Sky Q behaves after the switch.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by copex:

I moved my FTTP to Aquiss today as my previous supplier moved me on to CGNAT. with Aquiss you get a static public IP, both ipv4/6. and no in contract price rises, the whole process was seamless and one question i had was answered quickly ( i sent an email around 6pm and got a response with in a hour ).

i know its only been one day but the service has been flawless, so if your looking for a new ISP or moveing ISP give these guys a look, im glad i did.

Was this on the Openreach network?

the FTTP was provided by openreach, for the first 6 months i had a dynamic public IP then they moved the connection to CGNAT, this causes me issues with working from home, i was told i could have a static ip then told it was unavailable as i was on an openreach connection.

I had this with Zen on the odd occasion but then I ditched Sky Q about three months back. No idea why, was a random issue that would manifest itself. Sky Q box was hard wired rather than using wifi and was using the supplied router from Zen.

Happy customer here too. On the City Fibre 2000 package for a month now with a Flint 2 running OpenWrt. Ticking along nicely.

Can't wait for City Fibre to enable XGSPON (whenever that will be) for another speed bump.

Edited by Croftie2 (Thu 04-Jul-24 21:45:16)

In reply to a post by copex:

the FTTP was provided by openreach, for the first 6 months i had a dynamic public IP then they moved the connection to CGNAT, this causes me issues with working from home, i was told i could have a static ip then told it was unavailable as i was on an openreach connection.

I just want to be clear for anyone reading this (especially in a none threaded display) that we do not run our connections via CGNAT. The poster is referring to their previous provider.

Aquiss supply static IPv4 and IPv6, UK geoip located, IPs.

The problem is not Aquiss-related: I also experienced it when I was an AAISP customer. The problem is discussed at length in the Sky Community. The download often ‘stalls’ when there is a commercial break. More often than not the problem can be overcome by initiating a download from the Sky App to the Sky Box.

In reply to a post by copex:

the FTTP was provided by openreach, for the first 6 months i had a dynamic public IP then they moved the connection to CGNAT, this causes me issues with working from home, i was told i could have a static ip then told it was unavailable as i was on an openreach connection.

Never heard of anyone having CGNAT on the Openreach network, especially BT as the ISP

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by copex:

the FTTP was provided by openreach, for the first 6 months i had a dynamic public IP then they moved the connection to CGNAT, this causes me issues with working from home, i was told i could have a static ip then told it was unavailable as i was on an openreach connection.

Never heard of anyone having CGNAT on the Openreach network, especially BT as the ISP

Not sure if anyone said that the ISP was BT?

In reply to a post by behuk:

Not sure if anyone said that the ISP was BT?

Sorry, I haven't a clue why I said BT, thank you for pointing that out.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by copex:

the FTTP was provided by openreach, for the first 6 months i had a dynamic public IP then they moved the connection to CGNAT, this causes me issues with working from home, i was told i could have a static ip then told it was unavailable as i was on an openreach connection.

Never heard of anyone having CGNAT on the Openreach network, especially BT as the ISP

so my previous ISPs Points of presence was Redding, so my internet traffic when to my local exchange to reading and exited on to the internet, Openreach only provide the connection from my hose to the exchange and poped me on the ISPs backbone provider, they route the Traffic to Reading, and they use CGNAT in their network. the isp basically rents the connection from my house to the exchange, Openreach/BT was not my ISP and none of the internet traffic was routed via any other carrie but my ISP network.

With Aquiss i get a static IPV4 address and the Point of presence for me is London, but i live in the north of England close to the border with Scotland, and my internet traffic travels over the Aquiss network.

A reasonable number of ISPs deploy CGNAT across their networks these days, especially the newer ones who are only able to get a /24 of addresses from RIPE. Whether they are supplying across Openreach's network is not a factor in that as they only provide a physical (layer 2) connection to ISPs.

I don’t think that Aquiss has a network as such: it is/was an Entanet reseller. This often gets confused with CityFibre as described here in a post on another forum by Aquiss’ MD:

‘I was one of the founders of Entanet and through this I have a very long standing relationship with them. We have a broker leasing arrangement with them for quite a large slice of IPs. They have not helped matters recently however by rebranding all Entanet assets as CityFibre, confusing the lines.’

In reply to a post by robwifiscotland:

A reasonable number of ISPs deploy CGNAT across their networks these days, especially the newer ones

OK thanks, I will be more alert for ISP using CGNAT when switching providers in the future.

In reply to a post by GoWest:

I don’t think that Aquiss has a network as such: it is/was an Entanet reseller. This often gets confused with CityFibre as described here in a post on another forum by Aquiss’ MD:

‘I was one of the founders of Entanet and through this I have a very long standing relationship with them. We have a broker leasing arrangement with them for quite a large slice of IPs. They have not helped matters recently however by rebranding all Entanet assets as CityFibre, confusing the lines.’

I was aware Aquiss is reselling but did feel the need to publicize it, my connection is exiting via LINX, I could be wrong but as far as I can tell Entarnet/Cityfiber is not routing my connection.

In reply to a post by copex:

I was aware Aquiss is reselling but did feel the need to publicize it, my connection is exiting via LINX, I could be wrong but as far as I can tell Entarnet/Cityfiber is not routing my connection.

I used to be with another Entanet reseller, moved, had to go wireless for a while, got fibre, went with Aquiss. I thought the DNS server IP addresses looked very familiar. And when I checked, the hostnames are actually on enta.net

In reply to a post by copex:

I was aware Aquiss is reselling but did feel the need to publicize it, my connection is exiting via LINX, I could be wrong but as far as I can tell Entarnet/Cityfiber is not routing my connection.

Try visiting https://bgp.he.net/

For me, on Aquiss FTTP, I see:

You are visiting from <my IPv6-address>
Announced as 2001:4d48::/32 (Cityfibre Limited) United Kingdom
Announced as 2001:4d48::/29 (Cityfibre Limited) United Kingdom
Your ISP is AS8468 (Cityfibre Limited)

Or on an IPv4-only connection:

You are visiting from <my IPv4-address>
Announced as 78.32.0.0/15 (Cityfibre Limited) United Kingdom
Your ISP is AS8468 (Cityfibre Limited)

In reply to a post by candlerb:

In reply to a post by copex:

I was aware Aquiss is reselling but did feel the need to publicize it, my connection is exiting via LINX, I could be wrong but as far as I can tell Entarnet/Cityfiber is not routing my connection.

Try visiting https://bgp.he.net/

For me, on Aquiss FTTP, I see:

You are visiting from <my IPv6-address>
Announced as 2001:4d48::/32 (Cityfibre Limited) United Kingdom
Announced as 2001:4d48::/29 (Cityfibre Limited) United Kingdom
Your ISP is AS8468 (Cityfibre Limited)

Or on an IPv4-only connection:

You are visiting from <my IPv4-address>
Announced as 78.32.0.0/15 (Cityfibre Limited) United Kingdom
Your ISP is AS8468 (Cityfibre Limited)

From https://bgp.he.net/
Your ISP is ASXXXXXX (Aquiss Limited)

but i didnt need to go there to know that

In reply to a post by copex:

From https://bgp.he.net/
Your ISP is ASXXXXXX (Aquiss Limited)

but i didnt need to go there to know that

Can you show the AS number please? That's not personal information. It would be interesting to know which other ASes are being used by Aquiss.

Also: are you Aquiss via Openreach or via Cityfibre?

https://bgp.he.net/AS215066

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Also: are you Aquiss via Openreach or via Cityfibre?

OP answered this question earlier in thread and said they were on Openreach.

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

https://bgp.he.net/AS215066

Thanks. That AS only announces five /24's, so not much more than 1,000 customers on this one.

I also see this AS has only one upstream: AS3170 = "VeloxServe Communications Ltd". (Their RIPE peering policy also shows AS60945 which is a legacy VeloxServe AS, not seen on the Internet since June 2022)

It looks like Aquiss runs at least two completely separate networks, possibly for different parts of the country; maybe yours is in a bit that the Cityfibre national backbone doesn't reach.

I'm fairly sure it's been mentioned around here that they are looking to move to their own network and that ASN is the first step.

In reply to a post by jpm:

I'm fairly sure it's been mentioned around here that they are looking to move to their own network and that ASN is the first step.

May be Martin can comment on this

In reply to a post by jpm:

I'm fairly sure it's been mentioned around here that they are looking to move to their own network and that ASN is the first step.

I can confirm that this is indeed the case and something we will continue to develop further in the coming months.

In reply to a post by aquiss:

In reply to a post by jpm:

I'm fairly sure it's been mentioned around here that ... [Aquiss] ... are looking to move to their own network and that ASN is the first step.

I can confirm that this is indeed the case and something we will continue to develop further in the coming months.

Hi Martin, this is new to me, I barely understand what an ASN is and how it relates to the rest of the Internet. Could you put up a blog about this somewhere please?

Hundreds of guides/blogs on Google.

https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/learning/network-la...

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

Hundreds of guides/blogs on Google.

https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/learning/network-la...

I am more interested in Martin's take on this as an Aquiss customer.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

Hundreds of guides/blogs on Google.

https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/learning/network-la...

I am more interested in Martin's take on this as an Aquiss customer.

I'm not entirely sure what my take needs to be? As John has kindly pointed to, there are already well written guides to ASNs. We're doing nothing special in this regard.

If you're actually asking what this means to your current services, nothing at all and our network partners know this (our plans) in detail

OK, end to end, it is bound to be the same, but the middle must change, or nothing changes. On your description, no benefits to me as a customer, so why do it? What is the difference to the status quo? Does it affect more than routing? Does it affect my DNS servers?

In reply to a post by aquiss:

I'm not entirely sure what my take needs to be?

Hi Martin, As an outsider looking in I think people who are happy with your current service will be looking for reassurance that its not suddenly going to go down hill. Just look at Zen when they switched existing happy customers to their own backhaul as an example.

Coincidently my Aquiss Openreach FTTP link went down from 00:25 to 00:40 today (red light on the ONT.) Router log showed the timing of the drop. Just had a look at the Aquiss status page and nothing mentioned there regarding maintenance etc.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

OK, end to end, it is bound to be the same, but the middle must change, or nothing changes. On your description, no benefits to me as a customer, so why do it? What is the difference to the status quo? Does it affect more than routing? Does it affect my DNS servers?

Networks are always evolving and changing, otherwise they'll end up stuck in the past and become irrelevant.

I'm not an expert but I'd suggest this is a natural progression for a growing provider.

In reply to a post by 4M2:

Coincidently my Aquiss Openreach FTTP link went down from 00:25 to 00:40 today (red light on the ONT.) Router log showed the timing of the drop. Just had a look at the Aquiss status page and nothing mentioned there regarding maintenance etc.

OR had a drop in RG22 overnight. It's off our network, so won't feature on our status page.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

Hi Martin, As an outsider looking in I think people who are happy with your current service will be looking for reassurance that its not suddenly going to go down hill. Just look at Zen when they switched existing happy customers to their own backhaul as an example.

I've already said above that nothing is changing with our current network partners and they remain very much part of what we are doing going forward, however, the market is changing and we are growing. I don't really want to present our business plans into the public domain, however, in order for us to accommodate other networks, we need to do this without CityFibre Wholesale (naturally).

In reply to a post by aquiss:

In reply to a post by 4M2:

Coincidently my Aquiss Openreach FTTP link went down from 00:25 to 00:40 today (red light on the ONT.) Router log showed the timing of the drop. Just had a look at the Aquiss status page and nothing mentioned there regarding maintenance etc.

OR had a drop in RG22 overnight. It's off our network, so won't feature on our status page.

Thanks for the reply Martin. Its now showing as a "Port-Error" on my Aquiss "Broadband Logins" page. Similar to the last short drop which happened on 13th June but that was a "NAS error" - however I think that was perhaps due to "Planned Work: Telehouse side of the platform" ?

Edited by 4M2 (Tue 09-Jul-24 08:39:53)