ADSL or 3G 4G

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Jules59
Posts: 420
Joined: 16 Jan 2019, 2:34pm

Re: ADSL or 3G 4G

Post by Jules59 »

Interesting.
We have had FTC in the village for a couple of years now and peeps there get 50 - 70 mbps download. Unfortunately I'm on 3/4 mile of overhead copper phone wire from the cabinet and get 15mbps download and 1 up.
I'm with Vodafone and pay £30/month for unlimited ADSL internet, landline connection (until recently we didnt get good 3G signal inside the house despite being only 16 miles from the centre of Birmingham) and a mobile phone SIM with 1Gb data per per month.
We do have some buffering during streaming (BBC Iplayer being particularly bad) and ADSL router disconnections several times per week especially around 9-11pm - but then we have weeks without problems other than the speed.
I've spent hours and hours going through the test procedures with Vodafone and even had Openreach here. Vodafone say there is nothing more they can do to improve the service.
So I have been toying with going down the 4G router path now that we can see 3/4G on our phones inside the house, but Im not sure of the disadvantages and costs.
Syd
Posts: 1230
Joined: 23 Sep 2018, 2:27pm

Re: ADSL or 3G 4G

Post by Syd »

I’ve just come back from Skye and the cottage I was staying in , 4 miles from the nearest reasonably sized housing group, was able to get around 17Mbs which was faster than I was being offered in Edinburgh by most companies 18 months ago!

We’ve enjoyed FTTP for some time now and virtually everyone uses it. In the last year ADSL speeds have also increased and we are being guaranteed 62Mbs (still slow compared to the FTTP provider and we can get 5G at home should we decide to ditch the cables.
Cavemud
Posts: 184
Joined: 16 Feb 2009, 10:02pm

Re: ADSL or 3G 4G

Post by Cavemud »

I went from landline based internet to a 4g router last year.

It completely solved all our reliability problems (we had no issued with speed, it was more that the line kept dropping out for no reason).

We'd had endless BT Openreach visits, and were were convinced the problem was at a connection box on top of one of the poles (they actually traced to fault to it at one point but didnt have the equipment to climb the pole).

The one major issue we've had is that any port forwarding based function doest work with most consumer based sim cards, so anything involving remote viewing of cctv, home automation, FTP servers etc is blocked.

I found a workaround but involves paying a couple of pounds per month for another service and was pretty complicated to set up.

All in all though were unlikely to reinstate the landline any time soon.
Syd
Posts: 1230
Joined: 23 Sep 2018, 2:27pm

Re: ADSL or 3G 4G

Post by Syd »

Cavemud wrote: The one major issue we've had is that any port forwarding based function doest work with most consumer based sim cards, so anything involving remote viewing of cctv, home automation, FTP servers etc is blocked.
A good number of ISPs, even those with wired services, give customers a shared IP address which gives the problem you experienced.

I’ve got a static IP address from my ISP for a small additional payment.
User avatar
[XAP]Bob
Posts: 19793
Joined: 26 Sep 2008, 4:12pm

Re: ADSL or 3G 4G

Post by [XAP]Bob »

Cavemud wrote: 10 Oct 2021, 8:49am I went from landline based internet to a 4g router last year.

It completely solved all our reliability problems (we had no issued with speed, it was more that the line kept dropping out for no reason).

We'd had endless BT Openreach visits, and were were convinced the problem was at a connection box on top of one of the poles (they actually traced to fault to it at one point but didnt have the equipment to climb the pole).

The one major issue we've had is that any port forwarding based function doest work with most consumer based sim cards, so anything involving remote viewing of cctv, home automation, FTP servers etc is blocked.

I found a workaround but involves paying a couple of pounds per month for another service and was pretty complicated to set up.

All in all though were unlikely to reinstate the landline any time soon.
For that kind of thing I would strongly recommend Tailscale - zero cost as well
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
Psamathe
Posts: 17650
Joined: 10 Jan 2014, 8:56pm

Re: ADSL or 3G 4G

Post by Psamathe »

Jules59 wrote: 10 Oct 2021, 12:32am Interesting.
We have had FTC in the village for a couple of years now and peeps there get 50 - 70 mbps download. Unfortunately I'm on 3/4 mile of overhead copper phone wire from the cabinet and get 15mbps download and 1 up.
I'm with Vodafone and pay £30/month for unlimited ADSL internet, landline connection (until recently we didnt get good 3G signal inside the house despite being only 16 miles from the centre of Birmingham) and a mobile phone SIM with 1Gb data per per month.
We do have some buffering during streaming (BBC Iplayer being particularly bad) and ADSL router disconnections several times per week especially around 9-11pm - but then we have weeks without problems other than the speed.
I've spent hours and hours going through the test procedures with Vodafone and even had Openreach here. Vodafone say there is nothing more they can do to improve the service.
So I have been toying with going down the 4G router path now that we can see 3/4G on our phones inside the house, but Im not sure of the disadvantages and costs.
Several years ago I had similar issues though before FTC. I was with BT though that Vodafone called-in OpenReach then same company providing the cable. The trouble is that BT/OpenReach have apparently stopped cutting back trees growing round their overhead cables; at least more than one OpenReach engineer told me and in my region. Reason apparently is that cutting back the trees cost money so stop cutting back means not spending so much money = bigger profits - simples.

But the trees rub on the cable, wear through the insulation and let water in ...

On my supply (couple on Km) it had been happening along the length and engineers said far to expensive to replace the cable so OpenReach would never do that. Engineers kept trying finding different cores n different sections. Had loads of visits.

It was so bad the at times talking on the line to BT we could not hear each other over att the hiss, crackles and pops. You'd end up with daft conversations Me: "I can't hear you"
BT: "What did you say"
Me: "Pardon, can you repeat"
BT: "Line is fine, checks out perfect"
Me: "Please repeat"
BT: "Sorry, can you shout, I can't hear what you said"
...

In the end they did nothing, I got loads of money from them and then we got FTC which bypassed the knackered cable.

Ian
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