Are you sure that it's the WiFi which is dropping out? I'm also on BT FTTC, still with BT Home Hub 5 (Type A). Ever since my WAN connection speed was uprated from 50 Mbits to 67 Mbits, the frequency of broadband dropouts and router reconnects has vastly increased.

It's become normal to see


whenever I turn on a monitor: that's not a WiFi / LAN problem (all my machines are hard-wired), but a WAN problem. If I'm active in a browser at the time, the router will 'helpfully' tell me the the router's red light has come on, and redirect me to an internal router troubleshooting page.

In the case of both error messages, it's a typical case of the software detecting a problem, but the programmer making a totally false assumption about what might have caused it and leading you down a blind alley.

I see that my current connection speed has dropped from 67 Mbits to 65 Mbits. Hopefully the auto-training sessions will finish soon, and the router and exchange software will be able to agree on a stable speed. Then the connection resets can drop to once per week, and I can try to nudge the router to performing them overnight, when I'm not active at the keyboard or (worse) in the middle of a teleconference. I do wish BT would allow us to specify 'active times', and allow us to schedule router retraining outside those hours.

A tip!

Don't go the extender route, it just planly sucks and have been all along (mostly).
Go the Mesh route.

Build a good network with for instance Unifi devices or perhaps their home appliance Amplifi.
It's so worth it and you can wireless extend it with flawless stability.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_LRCnQXa8M

For most people it's enough with a Unifi Security Gateway, Directly connected to a UAP-AC-M and take another UAP-AC-M to Mesh further. Done!

If you want a Switch go for a USW 8 Port and use the number 8 port to power one of the Accesspoints with PoE.

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_________________________________________________________________________
Addicted to SETI crunching!
Founder of GPU Users Group

I do like these claims of Ultra fast Broadband from BT, how does it get past the rules on product description?

I have to make do with a download speed of 381.17 Mbits from Virgin;-)

how does it get past the rules on product description?

Because the whole country does not have Virgin cable, in fact even in areas where Virgin cable is available not all homes are connected.

I live in a flat and the lease holder flatly refuse to have "unsightly cable" installed when it was free.

Of course when the 240V mains supply failed to several flats and the only way to reinstate it was large "unsightly cables across the whole rear of the flats that was different.

Since then they have relented, but Virgin will now charge for digging up a large area of pavement and no one wants to pay for that.

So my BT Broadband is the fastest I can get.

I have a fiber to the cabinet connection, with a maximum speed of 30 MBit/s. But what would be the use of a faster connection? I have 13 SETI@home completed tasks trying to upload, plus two climatepredictio.net tasks, which also try to upload since April 2. They took 13 days each and I am lucky since climateprediction. net has no deadline, so I won't lose any credit.
Tullio

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because he is likely nearer his exchange than I am

Actually nearer to the street cabinet. For speeds much over 10meg ADSL is not up to the job.

Fibre is run to the DSLAM (digital subscriber line access multiplexer) in the street cabinet where it then connects to the copper to customer premises, however this uses VDSL (Very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line).

Which originally required a separate modem on the BT home hubs in use then. Now the modem is built in.

Personally I never found the Wi-Fi on BT Home hubs to be that good, I had one with intermittent Wi-Fi, it would stop and require a hub reboot, and another where it just stopped completely.

As I have something like 20 odd smart home devices on Wi-Fi that was not good enough, so I ditched the BT Home hub and brought myself a proper broadband router that lets me access every single option and setting and actually "sees" all my devices, something no home hub I had would every do (apparently a long time bug with home hubs).

Which is slightly annoying because my exchange is also an SSC (Sector Switching Centre) apart from housing the local exchange.

So is mine,

Cable TV and Cable internet are relatively new innovations in the UK in the overall scheme of things

As I have had the same connection since Sept. 1996, I wouldn't call it new. Difficulty in installing in profitable areas is probably one of the major reasons why it hasn't taken off everywhere.

I choose the cable route as being just over 2 miles from the exchange BT could only give me a very slow speed modem connection, The cable connection has been in four different hands, Nynex, Cable and Wireless, NTL and now Virgin.

Ok... I'll bite...

The remote WiFi dish is specially linked to the Home Hub, and not using general WiFi.

Are you on an old telephone line for your internet?

Or are you at some idyllic remote location whereby you have a "WiFi dish" that points at some radio mast across the valleys?


Good luck!
Martin

ps: Why oh why was the UK not on full fibre optics to the home 20 years ago?... And why still struggling on with rusty wires still!?...

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
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the latest Superfast + WiFi package from BT gives you a Smart Home Hub MkII plus a "disc" for each room. I term it a "dish" because it is so big!

Nope... Anything running over 200 years-old telephone wires should not be called "Superfast". Who are Marketing trying to kid???...

And ok, that sounds like some sort of WiFi mesh setup to spread and saturate the WiFi bands all around... Sort of like WiFi 'extenders'?


Using physical ethernet cables is always the more reliable if you can put them in place... WiFi can work well enough provided you don't rely on it too much.

Good luck!
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

$$$$$$$$$ FTTP is here but only costs in for home businesses not home leisure.

I have my suspicions it is more a game of monopoly and sweating excess profits...

We've had very low cost fibre equipment available for a very long time now... For well over a decade even for domestic use...

And then again, that's a topic more for the Politics forum... ;-)


Good luck for your telephone wires and WiFi!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Nope... Anything running over 200 years-old telephone wires should not be called "Superfast".

What are you wittering on about??

Alexander Graham Bell, invented the telephone in 1875. In the 1880's to 1900 the telephone spread rapidly in the UK with mainly overhead wires. the first automatic exchange was in 1912 in Epsom. The first underground cabling was around WWI I believe. My local exchane was built in the 1930's and the street cabling was probably 1960's in my road.

OK, so I meant electrical telegraphy... And that's only a little short of two centuries old:

Telegraph - Terminology: "1832 when Pavel Schilling invented one of the earliest electrical telegraphs"

Same wires still in use as back then, similar voltages, but now with an abomination of 'digital' piggy-backed on top with super-high signal loss whereby it all 'only just about works'(tm)... Why are we still on ADSL?...

BT markets

Standard Broadband as 52 mbps
Superfast broadband as 67 mbps
Ultrafast broadband as 150 mbps...

Yep. The milli-bits per second sounds about right for a typical British damp-wet day with soggy cables...

Assuming the BT Marketing are dreaming of Mbit/s, you've missed out their standard disclaimer of "up to"... Meaning nothing and upto a dream. Certainly no guarantees for any speed.

ADSL works but only variably depending on conditions and what others nearby are doing to your connection (there is LOTS of interference and electrical crosstalk). And that is still the case for the small improvement (at high cost) of Fibre-to-the-(roadside)-cabinet (FTTC) which then goes a reduced length onto wires for the digital signal. Hence more typical connection data rates are somewhat less than what you are supposedly paying for...

See the reality of: Fixed broadband connections: Average ADSL download speeds in the United Kingdom (UK) from November 2010 to November 2017 (in Mbit/s)


Meanwhile, is there any meaningful competition to move off old rusty wires and onto full fibre?

There is a good joke about the scrappage value of the duct cables replaced by fibre would pay for the upgrade. For a bonus, there would then be no need for all the costs of all the linesmen that are needed to clean/replace the forever supply of corroded wire connections...


Virgin Media already have equipment in place that can run at a guaranteed 1000 Mbit/s to your door (if you're in their cabled area). However, there is no competition for them to enable it yet...


All a game of monopoly?
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
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... Hence more typical connection data rates are somewhat less than what you are supposedly paying for...

See the reality of: Fixed broadband connections: Average ADSL download speeds in the United Kingdom (UK) from November 2010 to November 2017 (in Mbit/s)


Meanwhile, is there any meaningful competition to move off old rusty wires and onto full fibre?

See also:

Big contenders in the broadband chart this week, but who will be #1? Well, not Britain

Down four places to 35th – and beaten by Madagascar

... With an average speed in Blighty of 18.57Mbps, British broadband lags behind such well-connected nations as Hungary, Andorra and Madagascar – with Singapore topping the table at a whopping average of 60.39Mbps.

On the bright side, we do at least beat China (averaging 2.38Mbps), India (5.19Mbps) and Yemen, which enjoys a truly dismal average download speed of 0.31Mbps.

136 countries were slower than the 10Mbps target speed which Ofcom has decreed will be the threshold for the universal broadband service obligation.

Dan Howdle, a consumer telecoms analyst at Cable.co.uk, the firm which crunched the numbers, said in a canned quote: "Compared to many other countries both in and out of Europe the UK has simply come too late to a full fibre (FTTP) solution. Despite plans to roll out FTTP to UK homes across the next decade or so, the UK is likely to fall further behind while we wait."...



All a game of monopoly?
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
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Virgin Media already have equipment in place that can run at a guaranteed 1000 Mbit/s to your door (if you're in their cabled area). However, there is no competition for them to enable it yet...

Already here...at least
In fact early last month the FTTP box to the property was installed. As to when it starts operating is anyone's guess. Their marketing still haven't got their act together to determine cost.

Virgin Media already have equipment in place that can run at a guaranteed 1000 Mbit/s to your door (if you're in their cabled area). However, there is no competition for them to enable it yet...

Already here...at least
In fact early last month the FTTP box to the property was installed. As to when it starts operating is anyone's guess. Their marketing still haven't got their act together to determine cost.

Now, that rates as a 'Superfast' upgrade.

Keep us posted as to how it works out?


Here's to some clear fast crunchin' ;-)

Good luck!
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Keep us posted as to how it works out?
Here's to some clear fast crunchin' ;-)

Speaking of the devil, he turns up. City Fibre turned up at 8am this morning & now routing cabling from the main street cable to the junction box. While they were laying the main street cable last year, didn't see any cabinets going up in the area, so that has got me wondering. As for minimum speed, that has to be down to the package one has.

Latest report from SamKnows...

Any indication of prices?

As to when it starts operating is anyone's guess. Their marketing still haven't got their act together to determine cost.

Today's speed test (9:30 UTC)



:-)

Interesting but odd, seems a very low upload.



My lowly BT line is three times as fast, wonder why that is.

Today's speed test (9:30 UTC)

Excellent download speed, but a rather high ping time.

My result-
Ping ms 1
Download Mbps 97.80
Upload Mbps 24.25

on a 100Mb/s upload /40Mb/s download plan.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Interesting but odd, seems a very low upload.



My lowly BT line is three times as fast, wonder why that is.

In the 22 years I've been with NTL/Virgin, the upload speed has always been very low. No idea as to why & it don't really bother me. Just love the download speeds I've had over the years.

Good to see that silly Marketing claims can be pulled back on (all-too-rare-an) occasion:


UK watchdog slaps 'misleading' Voda ad: Gigafast...

The UK's Advertising Standards Authority has slammed Brit telco Vodafone's ads for its "Gigafast Broadband" as misleading.

... included descriptions of "Vodafone Gigafast" such as "Blast off at an average of 900Mbps" and "Enjoy lightning-fast internet speeds with Vodafone Gigafast Broadband".

... The ASA accepted that many consumers would consider "Giga" to be a hyperbolic description of speed and to just mean very fast broadband. But they ruled that a significant proportion would understand that Giga meant 1Gbps...


IT and networking are what we allow it to be...
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)