BT and Openreach are ******* useless

[redlig]

I had an Open Reach guy a few years ago insist that my fault was in the inacessible cable under my livingroom floor as the main BT socket was on the opposite end of the room from where the cable entered the house.

He was a bit miffed when I got my (ex BT) Time Domain Reflectometer out and showed him it was actually about half a mile away towards the exchange in their duct

Another bonus lost.
I had a case of a customer with a severely disabled lad getting a water bill of over £500.00 . The water board diagnosed a leak under the concrete floor and wanted to dig a trench through the house. As the charity involves with a recently converted garage , to a disabled living suite, I was asked to see if we could help. As I walked into the front door I noticed ,just by chance ,a reflection at the back of the toilet basin. it had been leaking from new so easy ix. There are some good ones out there , When i had a leak under my house on my side of the stop cock the guys said don't panic we will put it down as our problem and "moled" the new main around the house FOC.

 

[ukracer]

Yep, ported it over, no problem. Having it on VoIP also means that I can answer/make calls on the landline number from my mobile.

What phones did you get.
I am with virgin but they killed our phone a few weeks back so now we have no house phone.

I need to get some voip phones....do I need a voip account or can I just plug the phone into my pc?

 

[ukracer]

Maybe he doesn't have the tools, tester and consumables needed.

OR "engineers" seem to be restricted in what they're allowed to do. Our line is directly buried, so normally the first OR guy has had to refer it to an "underground" engineer. On occasion said underground engineer has turned up but not able assist as he's not allowed to dig. Wouldn't work on the job even if I did the digging.

On the other hand you get guys who go out of their way even bending the rules. One guy, not rated for underground nevertheless dug up and checked some joints to narrow down the location, although he couldn't open the heat sealed joints as he didn't have the gear to remake them.

My son had BT fit new fibre line. Turned up and said they need two for an install as it's across a busy main road.
I asked how he was going to achieve than as there was only him.
He just stretched it up the road and ran over when there was a gap in the traffic.

Got the job done though. Lol

 

[m_c]

The saga has hopefully concluded, although not that smoothly.

Engineer turned up today, decided he could run a combined cable, so took the fibre down, and started to run the new cable, but ran out before he reached the DP.
So he had run another new fibre, and a new separate copper line.

Broadband and phone are now functioning.

 

[galooph]

What phones did you get.
I am with virgin but they killed our phone a few weeks back so now we have no house phone.

I need to get some voip phones....do I need a voip account or can I just plug the phone into my pc?

I use an app on my mobile called Groundwire, but there are others. Not sure if Virgin offer VoIP, but Andrews & Arnold's VoIP service is cheap, see https://www.aa.net.uk/voice-and-mobile/voip-information/

 

[gaz1]

for me happy enough still using the wire been using bt phones since 2009 but we can get another connection in just no need to do

theres just one issue no server can supply you at full speed no matter what anyone says ive maxed out another way and taught some greedy so and so a lesson dont hog the net as if its all yours i can severly cripple the net if i decide to run something and that will use all of the net easily

these are my speeds there ample enough we was paying for 50.00 Mbps buts its been upgraded with no charge to this



i was speaking to a fitter at the telegraph pole it was interesting that they was fitting the fibre in the area and it wasnt bt, apparently when its installed bt wants to use the line

it certainly still apears that bt are still putting profit first instead of upgrading its network

 

[MetalMonkey]

for me happy enough still using the wire been using bt phones since 2009 but we can get another connection in just no need to do

You will only be using wires as far as the green cabinet, then you will be on the fibre network.

theres just one issue no server can supply you at full speed no matter what anyone says ive maxed out another way and taught some greedy so and so a lesson dont hog the net as if its all yours i can severly cripple the net if i decide to run something and that will use all of the net easily

I 'm not sure I really understand what you are saying - but a server can certainly supply far greater than 137Mbps and max out your internet connection at your full speed. That's how your speed test works...
You may not always get continuous full download speed from a specific server, depending on demand, bandwidth allocation and contention ratios, but they can quite easily supply you at full speed.

No offence, but you are not going to cripple anything other than your own internet connection, no matter what you do.
Multiply it by fifty and you might have enough bandwidth to annoy one smallish website....

 

[Morrisman]

You will only be using wires as far as the green cabinet, then you will be on the fibre network.

I apparently pay for 'BT super fibre' something or other, but I can guarantee you there is but two copper wires connected to my house. I've seen the wire that comes out of the wall, standard telephone multi core.

 

[MetalMonkey]

I apparently pay for 'BT super fibre' something or other, but I can guarantee you there is but two copper wires connected to my house. I've seen the wire that comes out of the wall, standard telephone multi core.

Superfast fibre = FTTC (Fibre to the cabinet) = fibre network to the green box, and the "last mile" is using the standard phone line to the house.
Ultrafast (full) fibre = FTTP (Fibre to the premises) = fibre connection directly to the house.

Eventually they will move their entire network over to FTTP, but I wouldn't hold your breath.
They will be swithing the landlines off in 2025, so any old telephones, alarms, faxes and your FTTC broadband will cease working at that point.
I assume they will replace FTTC service with SoGEA, as I doubt they will have rolled out full fibre by then and will need something to bridge the gap. But then again this is BT, so perhaps that's a little too joined up.

Then they turn all the old green boxes into EV charging points. No I'm not making that up either....

 

[Farside]

I need to get some voip phones....do I need a voip account or can I just plug the phone into my pc?

My VoIP phones just use a network cable to plug into the router (or a network switch). They get their IP number from the router via DCHP and the only time the PC is needed is to access the phone's configuration screen via a browser (using its IP address) and set up a couple of parameters. After that, it's hardly ever needed. The phones interact with the remote VoIP provider and that's it.

 

[ukracer]

I use an app on my mobile called Groundwire, but there are others. Not sure if Virgin offer VoIP, but Andrews & Arnold's VoIP service is cheap, see https://www.aa.net.uk/voice-and-mobile/voip-information/

It might be cheap but sadly it's like going back in time and paying per call rather than a fee for unlimited calls.

I liked the idea of using the broad band I already pay for. But not keen on paying someone else money to use what I already pay for.

 

[ukracer]

My VoIP phones just use a network cable to plug into the router (or a network switch). They get their IP number from the router via DCHP and the only time the PC is needed is to access the phone's configuration screen via a browser (using its IP address) and set up a couple of parameters. After that, it's hardly ever needed. The phones interact with the remote VoIP provider and that's it.

What cost though?

 

[Morrisman]

...Eventually they will move their entire network over to FTTP, but I wouldn't hold your breath.
They will be swithing the landlines off in 2025, so any old telephones, alarms, faxes and your FTTC broadband will cease working at that point.
I assume they will replace FTTC service with SoGEA, as I doubt they will have rolled out full fibre by then and will need something to bridge the gap. But then again this is BT, so perhaps that's a little too joined up....

I sure hope so, there's nothing else available in my village, unless it comes in via satellite, dongle, dish etc. Virgin have never visited, we don't even have mains gas....

 

[Farside]

What cost though?

I paid a tenner for used ex-office Grandstream phones and my VoIP provider is dirt cheap. I think it costs about a tenner a year or less - depending on how many outgoing calls I make, of course. Ireland and UK /US / EU landlines cost between free and 1 cent per minute, mobiles are more expensive but still fairly cheap.
Incoming calls come to me on my mobile number.