[Technology] Broadband speed for homeworking

PILTDOWN MAN · Jun 27, 2022

Living out in the countryside in between two villages and on a private country estate (look at me), I have suffered snail pace broadband. Last year they put fibre in. From the main road we are down a private lane of about 1/2 mile.

So I looked at my options, I was with Sky. 100mbs was the same price as my old deal, upgrading to 200mbs was a £5 more per month but got 500mbs for £5 less for 18 months.

Going from 4 to 500 in a day was mind blowing.

RandyWanger · Jun 27, 2022

VirginMedia are on a mission at the moment to rinse as many customers as possible and force upgrades.

I have their M200 package with the Hub3 and 2 of their WiFi pods in a mesh. It has been perfect for 18 months, no issues at all and then all of a sudden I was getting intermittent issues. Turns out VM were deliberately throttling my connections, apparently 200mbps can only handle 10 concurrent connections and I need to upgrade to the 300mbps package. When I asked for my bandwidth utilisation they wouldn't send it to me.

I have had a battle with them all year over this and eventually got 3 months free from them. I'm in the process of swapping their hub3 for my own router and wifi mesh that they won't have any access or control over.

Hamilton · Jun 27, 2022

I'm with BT out in the sticks near Petworth [MENTION=36757]Happy Exile[/MENTION]

We don't have the superfast broadband and yet everything works just fine. I run a design agency, so often downloading image files, watching film work, running virtual meetings etc and I don't experience any problems at all.

Bold Seagull · Jun 27, 2022

RandyWanger said:
VirginMedia are on a mission at the moment to rinse as many customers as possible and force upgrades.

I have their M200 package with the Hub3 and 2 of their WiFi pods in a mesh. It has been perfect for 18 months, no issues at all and then all of a sudden I was getting intermittent issues. Turns out VM were deliberately throttling my connections, apparently 200mbps can only handle 10 concurrent connections and I need to upgrade to the 300mbps package. When I asked for my bandwidth utilisation they wouldn't send it to me.

I have had a battle with them all year over this and eventually got 3 months free from them. I'm in the process of swapping their hub3 for my own router and wifi mesh that they won't have any access or control over.

Exactly what I did. Thing is, for many people they don't realise the number of client connections a basic router has to perform. A family of 4 may well have 20 clients coming in and out of the wifi, from phones, to tablets, to Alexas, TVs, security cameras, door bells etc. etc. The routers get scrambled hence 'turn it on and off again' isn't actually just a joke, some of them need it done weekly to clear the clutter.

I think I have their Hub3 in modem mode and it's been fine. Not had to 'turn it on and off again' for months.

happypig · Jun 27, 2022

When I started homeworking it was pre-broadband. I had a 64k ISDN connection for data and the other 64k channel for voice.
Subsequently it was upgraded to 512k, 2m, 8m and 16m ADSL.
Once it went to 8m it was fine for video. We rarely did video calls but often did screen shares when training.
Now I'm on 100m from Lightning Fibre and all I do is piss about on NSC...

25mb will be fine.

BigBod · Jun 27, 2022

Vodafone 35mbps guaranteed for £19 a month. 2 of us working from home and littelun streaming Netflix... no probs. (That'll be the kiss of death!)......

thedonkeycentrehalf · Jun 27, 2022

Bold Seagull said:
I think you have to actually cancel and start that process. Ring up cancellations, no negotiation in the first call, say you're fed up and getting a much better deal from BT / Sky. You have a month to cancel that cancellation I think. That's when you have to hold your nerve and wait for the VM retentions team to give you a call.

I gave up that part ages ago, if the first person won't play I just ask to be put through to retentions. If they refuse you then just say you want to talk about cancelling with someone and then they put you through anyway. I've played this game for many years :smile:

Iggle Piggle · Jun 27, 2022

Put it this way. It was in the early noughties we provided a network for a large institution. The core network circuits operated at a max of 32mbps and they never complained (or went anywhere near it) . Granted, we didn't have all the voice applications and cloud based apps we do now but 25 is ample for home working. Even if it isn't, it's a perfect excuse to ditch a call when the reception goes.

Springal · Jun 27, 2022

Iggle Piggle said:
Put it this way. It was in the early noughties we provided a network for a large institution. The core network circuits operated at a max of 32mbps and they never complained (or went anywhere near it) . Granted, we didn't have all the voice applications and cloud based apps we do now but 25 is ample for home working. Even if it isn't, it's a perfect excuse to ditch a call when the reception goes.

Indeed - previous job was working with some of these new start up ‘Alt Nets’ building their own networks rather than relying on BT etc, and even when giving 500mb or 1000mb it’s practically impossible to sustain any real speed and use much capacity. But latency and subscription rates on back haul is the real area of concern

Happy Exile · Jun 27, 2022

Thanks everyone for all the tips and advice, really appreciate it!

Weststander · Jun 27, 2022

We have VM just for TV.

Been with Zen for broadband for 12 years, you just need a BT line, at no additional cost.

£34.99 a month gives us this:

More than enough for a family of 4 using an Amazon Prime fire-stick, online gaming, iPads/iPhones, wfh to a remote connection.

On fast fibre, never any faults.

KZNSeagull · Jun 27, 2022

Weststander said:
We have VM just for TV.

Been with Zen for broadband for 12 years, you just need a BT line, at no additional cost.

£34.99 a month gives us this:

View attachment 149185

More than enough for a family of 4 using an Amazon Prime fire-stick, online gaming, iPads/iPhones, wfh to a remote connection.

On fast fibre, never any faults.

Silly question - Do they bump up the price after a while like all the others?

KZNSeagull · Jun 27, 2022

Happy Exile said:
Fantastic, thank you. Looks like BT probably the way to go.

BT will bump your price up once the initial contract ends. Mine ends in October and I want to change - am paying £60pm at the moment (I did not change or haggle the last time it was up for renewal).

Weststander · Jun 27, 2022

KZNSeagull said:
Silly question - Do they bump up the price after a while like all the others?

No, price has been static for years.

Last small hike was about 3 years ago, when I asked for their Ultrafast broadband.

PILTDOWN MAN · Jun 27, 2022

KZNSeagull said:
Silly question - Do they bump up the price after a while like all the others?

Mine 9ms 379Mbps 65 Mbps £24

HalfaSeatOn · Jun 27, 2022

Sky broadband superfast
£26.50/ month + £3 Boost. Just ran test. 79mbps download speed. 7 connected devices. No performance problems.

PILTDOWN MAN · Jun 27, 2022

HalfaSeatOn said:
Sky broadband superfast
£26.50/ month + £3 Boost. Just ran test. 79mbps download speed. 7 connected devices. No performance problems.

Think I benefit from being on fibre and having no one close.

soistes · Jun 28, 2022

If you live in Brighton, I can recommend Fair Fibre (fairfibre.com). Run by a local guy, no contract, decent speeds, super-reliable, and in the rare event you have any problems you get an immediate response.

I’ve had it for nearly two years - no drop outs. Regularly get 90mbps (both down and up), and never seems to drop below 40-50 even at busy times.

Only constraint is that you have to live somewhere which can get a signal from their transmitters (they install a small receiver on your roof).

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