Broadband Internet & ISP Recommendations?

I've heard a lot of positive things about Zen Internet in the last year or so. If I could get FTTP I'd probably go with them.

Zen tend to have very good customer service from my own research but not experience. That or they've got a solid team of bots spreading that message for them.

They used to offer a lifetime fixed price but had to change it very recently to a fixed price for the length of your contract which, if you stick with them, is still pretty good. As soon as cityfibre are running in my street they're first on my list.

@jellybaby @CYOA thanks both. They don’t work out much cheaper than the current loyalty tariff offered by BT but don’t have the April price rise which is nice. Think they also offered static ip included in the bundle if you wanted it, at no additional cost

YouFibre seem the cheapest by a fair whack but also wasn’t sure plus they said they’d have to run new fibre cables despite having FTTP and a fibre modem already?

Been caught out before going cheap (TalkTalk) who were all talk and no substance hence being cautious. At least BT worked!

Although BT said my contracts would cross over and it would all be no bother, just got my first quarter in and ive been charged for both lines.

Absolute useless fuckin cunts after speaking to them multiple times about this as I thought that would have happen as the old line was sorta still working.

Gonna be some laugh trying to chase this refund.

cityfibre install booked…

Sigh.

Just had yet another email of cost increase from Virgin. Had planned to stick with them until CF arrive but their bullshit makes me feel ill. Cityfibre site has gone from saying "we're coming" or words to that effect, to:

"Availability results for CYOA's gaff.
THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST.
To be the first to know when we are coming to your street and when you can access full fibre broadband, please sign up with us for updates."

I've checked https://bidb.uk/ and it's not showing any planned CF works in my currently.

Openreach are already here. Zen 900mb (only 100 up) is £55 pcm (Virgin currently £76 going up to £78 for 150mb down about 12 up.) Had my heart set on 1gb down/up but might just swallow it before I have to get another email from Virgin telling me how hard they're working and they just need a tiny bit more money.

Couldn't recommend Zen more. CS is great, knowledgeable, and when things go wrong, communicative and proactive about fixing things. Reminds me more of enterprise support for things than consumer/retail shouting into an abyss. We had a short spell with virgin while an address didn't have openreach fiber and I we switched back immediately when able.

Also the hardware they use isnt a piece of garbage unlike virgin et al

If you do decide to go with them let me know and I'll ping over a referral code.

That’s another vote for Zen then! I don’t actually care that much about the hardware as I have my own mesh system anyway which I’d continue to use, but good to know it isn’t terrible should it be required. Looks pretty terrible though, and the name 🙃

Another plus one for Zen

The Zen fritzbox has builtin wireguard support which is great for remoting home when away.

I use it to run a firefix browser proxied through ssh on a linux bix at home.

That way I can watch any UK TV from abroad

Has anyone using 5G kit, gone from no aerial to installing an external aerial and what's it supposed to improve - just stability or did you see an uptick in dl/ul speeds too?

I have an old cable hole in the front wall and I reckon it'd be pretty simple to add an external aerial to my 5G box but I don't know if it's worth it or not. I have noticed that the box drops to 4G if I move it to the other side of the desk so it's possible we're in a borderline location and an aerial would help but it's a faff, obvs.

https://5g.co.uk/guides/external-5g-mobile-broadband-antennas/#what_are_5g_antennas_for_routers

https://kenstechtips.com/index.php/mobile-broadband-antennas

It's possible to use up to 2 external antenna through the TS-9 connectors on your ZTE MC801A router.

We'd normally recommend using an omni-directional antenna if you'd like to improve download speeds and coverage compared to the ZTE MC801A's internal antenna.

The Poynting XPOL-1 5G is our recommended antenna for the ZTE MC801A. It has 2 SMA connectors that will plug in to your ZTE MC801A router with a SMA-to-TS9 adapter.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poynting-XPOL-1-Cross-Polarised-Antenna-White/dp/B08F4S4DMN/

Actually, I could also buy a $15 internal ant with a long enough cable and try move it around maybe outside to see if it makes much diff

That sounds useful, but well behind what I know about! A mesh system and running pi hole on a RPi is about the level of my networking sophistication, so running a remote connection to back home whilst abroad probably isn’t quite for me! Will take a look at Zen in more detail after a fair few recommendations. Thanks all :)

Looks pretty terrible though, and the name 🙃

Absolutely bizarre, right? But unfortunately they're very well regarded, as are the 1200AX extender units that match them. My 2 in the morning avoiding work deadlines took me on a wild ride watching YouTube reviews in German.

Been on the phone to cancel Virgin for about an hour so far. Feels like they're keeping me on so they can disconnect at 6pm so I have to try again tomorrow.

Reminds me of my wife trying to cancel her phone account with them and the guy in a call centre was having fucking none of it until I, 'a male', got on and suddenly 'oh, I see, the decision maker, in that case I suppose I'll oblige'.

This was exactly what happened. Got to around 6:15 and after being on various queues on hold was eventually told they've gone home now and to call again tomorrow. My call started at 3:37. Bananas.

Fackin broken brittin m9.

I had the same shit from them. There’s a number for a special secret UK call centre that gets passed around, but I’ve tried my best to delete this episode from my memory so I’ll let someone else chime in with it.

Thought you could do it online
https://www.virginmedia.com/support/help/broadband-tv-and-landline?openExternal=true

Their online chat function was nonexistent when I was getting rid of them last year.

Sending them a letter via registered post is generally viewed as easiest.

Same hours as phone and you need to be responsive the entire time as they boot you otherwise. At least on phone I can pop on speaker and get on with other things but if I get a message twenty mins later in another chrome tab... Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Zen coming on the 13th though so all I'll need to do is box the virgin thing up on the assumption they still want the router they sent me 6 years ago.

They almost certainly don't want it back (because they have to dispose of it properly), but they'll charge you £100 or so if they don't return it obviously.

I'll be doing an install of something similar tomorrow. I'll let you know how I get on. It's at a warehouse in acton.

It's a big wedge shaped directional antenna

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Interested. Cheers.

I might try some internal ones to see if it improves anything. At the very least, it might let me move the 5G router to somewhere more out of the way while retaining the same signal strength.

Exact same with BT, so helpful to sign you up and then once you have a problem fuckin useless

Wildly excited btw, even if it's openreacharound. Feels like buying a new house.