FIBRE BROADBAND - Grrr!!!

[Nomojo2016]

We signed up to a rural fibre broadband company last year who promised ultra fast download/upload speed.

To cut a long story short, it cost a fortune having the cable laid to our house. They had to drill a hole through our living room wall and now we have a bloody ugly huge router attached to the wall with a bank of plugs next to it.

Our house is L shaped and the box is in a corner of the living room (in bottom part of the "L") so the signal doesn't extend well to the other side of the house (2nd sitting room & kids playroom) and to the 2nd floor.

We have booster plugs in these rooms but they don't always work well because of where the router is. We had BT before on the 2nd floor and the signal covered the whole house apart from the bottom part of the "L" (see above) so we couldn't download catch up tv and use the lapatop/mobile.

I've been advised the best solution is to move the router into the hall which is more central (no way I want the monstrosity of a box on the wall with cables etc hanging from it) - not to mention it would mean digging up the driveway.

Is there any fibre broadband which has a router which doesn't need to be attached to the wall or an easier solution to this problem?

We are also paying £42 + £10 for a landline each month which seems steep.

I have heard good things about PlusNet. I've also looked a Vodaphone.

Any advice would be gratefully received!!

[ems137]

When we were with sky in our previous house we had like a 2nd router/booster on the middle floor to solve a similar problem. We had a 3 floor, very large and solid Victorian end terrace and getting internet to all of the rooms was a nightmare. We had to have the main router in the front sitting from but this booster box was truly amazing. I was very unsure it would work because we had a huge house with many different rooms, separated by solid brick walls but we got excellent signal in every single room afterwards.

It wasn't just one of those plug in booster plugs, it cost around £25 from sky and looked like a router but you only plugged it in to the wall. Sky and BT are the only fibre I've found to be any good (virgin don't do our area) so I couldn't comment on other providers.

[Nomojo2016]

Oh thanks ems137, that is really helpful!

Your house sounds similar to ours...I have already paid about £40 for booster plugs but will have a look at this thing from Sky.

[HundredMilesAnHour]

Have you considered getting a new router? Have you done a speedtest? If your speeds are decent, I'd look at investing in a more powerful router rather than boosters etc.

I have BT Infinity fibre and despite all their press about how wonderful they are, it's fairly common knowledge that the BT supplied routers are crap (and often faulty). I went through 3 of them and was still having to use a booster plug to get a signal in a room only 3 metres from the shitty BT router and was unable to watch internet TV. I couldn't change providers (very few options where I live) so decided to risk splashing out on a new router instead (Netgear Nighthawk). It's not very pretty but damn it's powerful! Problem solved. Amazing wifi at home now.

OP, I know you're not on BT but it's definitely worth investigating the router option. Make sure you get one which is compatible with your ISP though.

[Nomojo2016]

Thanks Hundred! I had no idea you could do that! I'm a bit rubbish when it comes to tech stuff.

My router is attached to the wall and I wouldn't know how to go about detaching it and replacing it with a different one.

Ideally I'd like one that I could put anywhere (preferably out of sight!)

[HundredMilesAnHour]

Can you take a photo and post it on here? Or let us know who your ISP is and what router they provide?

First thing is to do a speed test and see how fast your upload/download speeds area. If the speeds are rubbish, the issue is with your fibre connection/ISP rather than your router and its signal. From your laptop/PC, just Google "speed test" and follow the instructions. It's really easy I promise!

[HundredMilesAnHour]

Just doing some research for you OP - is it Gigaclear you use???

[whifflesqueak]

Ooh interesting.

We've just had the gigaclear guys digging up our village.

[HundredMilesAnHour]

If it is Gigaclear, it seems that some people do have issues with their routers but to be honest, most ISP provided routers are fairly crap basic.

Have a read:
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=95&t=1569590&i=100

If that's too techy, basically the conclusion is to buy one of these and plug it into your existing router using ethernet, disable your existing router and use this new one for wifi instead (note: this will work with Gigaclear Genexsis routers - which is what it sounds like the OP might have - but a different router may be better for other ISPs):

<a class="break-all" href="//www.amazon.co.uk/UBIQUITI-NETWORKS-UBI-UAP-AC-PRO-5Ghz-1300Mbps/dp/B016XYQ3WK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1466689459&sr=8-2&keywords=unifi&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">//www.amazon.co.uk/UBIQUITI-NETWORKS-UBI-UAP-AC-PRO-5Ghz-1300Mbps/dp/B016XYQ3WK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1466689459&sr=8-2&keywords=unifi&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[Nomojo2016]

Hi yes, it is Gigaclear. I did a speed test this afternoon but it was playing up, really slow and the speed was between 0.03 - 0.08

My DS is always complaining his x box games lag and he gets cut off.

It can be fine for a while, then it will go really slow and cut off for no reason at all.

I will read through your posts tomorrow and try and upload a photo of the router.

[HundredMilesAnHour]

You need to call Gigaclear and report a problem with your speed/connection and they should investigate. That has to be your first step.

Also have a read of the PistonHeads thread and see if your problem is the same as people on there were reporting (sounds like it might be).

[noenemee]

In the short term, although you're not necessarily advised to turn off your router, I do switch off and reboot if there's a serious drop in speed or quality of service. Might help with a temporary solution for you OP.