Fibre

No real rush now my phone line has been repaired. In some ways I'd be happier to not have my TV screen cluttered with intrusive video offers!

On Openreach fibre you can pay £40 for a 'deluxe installation' (can't remember exactly what they call it) that includes a good length of interior cabling. They still want an external wall box at ground floor level (to terminate the street fibre and allow techs to access) so there would be a cable run down the outside, but the deluxe install means they'll run cables from there internally to where you want your ONT and/or router.

Theo

If your only landline is via the Panasonic below, you are already in that situation

I have ZEN so a different router, but I just plugged my Panasonic into the router POTS socket and all works fine.

Dave

Not sure that follows... speed of internet doesn't affect ads on your TV. But a good rule of thumb is to never connect a smart TV to the internet: makers sell them at a loss and make a profit by spying on your viewing habits and sending you ads. Better to use a third party box like an Apple TV [*] and connect via HDMI.

Theo

Well ask some other ISP. There is no especial reason to continue to use one that makes life harder.

These do not exist in the UK

See my installation...

Not cables. Fibre.

The ONT connects to the fibre WITH fibre.

I suspect the deluxe is to add (external)?) Ethernet to where the incoming copper used to go.

I don't think they want any fibre running around inside the house at all.

E.g. they would do essentially what I have here

Most people found the only reason to have Virgin in the first place was that it was faster than ADSL.

In all other respects the service was utter s*it. And all have moved once Openreach FTTC/FTTP became available

They don't like fibre off ground level.

You need to pick an outside wall where:

- they can drop from the existing overhead location to ground level - they will replace the copper with fibre BUT THEY WILL NOT TERMINATE AT EAVES LEVEL.

- they can then route the fibre to a location where they can put the outside Openreach accessible and serviceable *optical* termination

- They can drill through the wall to put the NTU near a mains socket..,and run a very short *fibre* patch lead through the wall to it.

I strongly suggest you take the opportunity to run CAT5E to everywhere you might want a computer or a wifi point...from wherever you want your router and phone point

My office based router is completely useless for wifi. Only devices in the office itself can use it, so I put Ethernet to the kitchen and the living room, and put wifi points in those - most bedrooms are above one area or the other so that works, and the annex has Ethernet for visitors anyway.

Once the new system is live, anyone can order a connection - there aught to be no queue other than "first come first served".

They will normally bring the fibre in in a place that you choose - although typically they don't like working at height. Sometimes they use an external junction box to terminate the fibre drop, and then run a less heavily insulated / armoured fibre through the wall to the ONT box[1]. That then presents the connection on ethernet.

As long as you can run ethernet to the place the ONT is installed, there is no need to move anything else. (I am assuming that they will supply a separate ONT and router rather than something integrated).

As is often the case - the location of the main router is often suboptimal for a wifi access point. The fix is to have a/other wifi access points elsewhere, and not rely on that built into the router.

Fibre optic cable is a cable. Just with glass not copper.

Found it - it's called 'premium installation':

connect an optical network terminator (ONT) within 1m of the nearest 13amp power socket and up to 10m from where the fibre enters the building run any external cable needed to reach the nearest suitable fibre entry point. connect your customer’s router next to the ONT connect one device – a set-top box, PC, laptop or smartphone. They won’t connect games consoles, Wi-Fi extenders or mesh network devices, dongles or any other devices which are specific to a communications provider. And they must have been connected to the customers’ network previously. upgrade a master socket to the latest NTE5c design if needed

For our premium installation, our engineers will:

connect an optical network terminator (ONT) within 1m of the nearest 13amp power socket and – if needed - more than 10m and up to 30m from where the fibre enters the building. Run more than 15m of external cable to reach the customer’s preferred fibre entry point. connect your customer’s router next to the ONT connect up to three devices – a set-top box, PC, laptop or smartphone. They won’t connect games consoles, Wi-Fi extenders or mesh network devices, dongles or any other devices which are specific to a communications provider. And they must have been connected to the customers’ network previously. carry out Voice Re-injection Installation (VRI), which uses existing internal wiring to make use of traditional telephones. map Wi-Fi to help customers find the strongest signal upgrade a master socket to the latest NTE5c design if needed"

The above says they'll put the ONT up to 10m away from the fibre entry point in the 'standard installation' and 30m for the 'premium' one.

Theo

They do, just not with Openreach. I'm getting one (from County Broadband). Virgin also do them on their XGS-PON network. See picture of router with green fibre going in:

Theo

B4RN use routers with built-in ONT (SFP port)

My TV viewing is restricted to News or recorded programmes where I can fast forward through the adds:-)

Ah! They are going to need an overhead incomer. Concrete yard and no convenient lawns to trench:-) I can re-jig my internal wiring for data but wi-fi and existing phone system will be tricky. £40 install probably best. Better still if they gift me enough *cable* to do the lofts run in advance.

Confusion rains:-)

So they could do the fibre termination in my office. I then run some Ethernet cable to my existing router position. They supply a new router with a phone outlet which I use for the Panasonic set up?

Ok. I think I could handle that. I have a part roll of Ethernet cable from the original install.

Assuming they supply a new router with a phone outlet.

They'd not get too much from our smart TV. We sometimes use it for catchup or for Netflix (rare) and other than that it is just a display for one of our satellite boxes (running open source, not commercial, software).

I'm glad to say that, in 3-1/2 years with Virgin, we have only suffered a couple of short term outages and one intermittent fault that they quickly traced back to a few levels into their network and which was rapidly fixed.

As we've not really had problems, I've not had the trouble that many seem to have in talking to them and getting things done.

In the past, I have had problems with OpenReach (via my ISP of the time), who took weeks and multiple visits to finally do exactly what I'd told them would need doing from the start (moving to another pair from the cabinet). Later they had a fault with a card in the exchange, but they only found that after they wrongly re-wired part of my internal wiring, because they thought it was wrong and then refused to put it back to how it was - despite it conforming to the faceplate/filter manufacturer's instructions and an earlier visit resulting in a comment about how good my internal wiring was, that it was all spot on and they were pleased that I'd used the correct colours!