Whitemonk
Regular Member
A group of guys armed with power drills and ladders have just brought fibre to our block of low rise flats. We now have a loop of coiled up fibre hanging outside, adjacent to our second floor lounge window. The following day, a letter dropped on our doormat, inviting us to register an interest, which we have.
Our first ISP was BT many moons ago with a dial-up modem sharing our landline. Later on, Cable London came along and drilled their hole and we transferred to them, which released our landline for calls only. This was pre-mobile days, Hey-ho. Cable London became Telewest, then Virgin Media. We also transferred our landline to VM and watched their TV. In the meantime, ADSL2 had become available, so we then moved to TalkTalk as our ISP. Several ISPs (and years) later, we have Plusnet as our ISP with their VDSL service, VM still provides our landline (SWMBO doesn't want to loose the number) and recently we got a Sky puck.
There are two main reasons for this post. The first one is should we move to CF as our ISP? They appear to be popular in London and their up-time is good, which is important when you work from home. So far, Plusnet have never gone down during working hours. CF's phone option is not so attractive as we do have family abroad and we like to retain the (unlikely) need to use it for international calls. The loss of phone service during a power cut is not really an issue - the Plusnet Hub 2 and DECT phone both sit on a recently purchased UPS! And is CF's TV option a match for Sky Stream? Due to dish restrictions, we never got Sky Q and their puck really fits the bill here for us.
The other reason for the post is technical. Our flat is rectangular. When built, the landline phone was terminated in the centre of the flat. Plusnet's hub's WiFi covers the flat without any issues. The work laptop is right in the southeast corner of the flat and functions well on WiFi. Virgin's service entered the flat in the southwest corner, where there Hub 3 was and I had to install an AP (using an old Belkin router) to cover the home office.
CF's loop of fibre is hanging outside the lounge window which is in the northwest corner of the flat so I presume the installer would want to install their router on the wall just inside the window, which would struggle to cover our home office, I think. I'm looking at the 75Mb service, so I guess it would be their Velop one, which is a mesh type. So the first thing I would need would be a matching device, preferably with ethernet backhaul, for the home office. CF could provide this service for a tenner a month extra, but I would prefer to install this myself. Opinions and recommendations, please.
One last question. What goes between the end of their fibre and the router. Since they terminate inside the dwelling, will it be a one-box item (ONT)? Just need to know so I can provide the necessary power points for the router and ONT close by.
And finally, I do have a TP-Link TL-MR6500V in the cupboard in case anything goes pear shaped.
Our first ISP was BT many moons ago with a dial-up modem sharing our landline. Later on, Cable London came along and drilled their hole and we transferred to them, which released our landline for calls only. This was pre-mobile days, Hey-ho. Cable London became Telewest, then Virgin Media. We also transferred our landline to VM and watched their TV. In the meantime, ADSL2 had become available, so we then moved to TalkTalk as our ISP. Several ISPs (and years) later, we have Plusnet as our ISP with their VDSL service, VM still provides our landline (SWMBO doesn't want to loose the number) and recently we got a Sky puck.
There are two main reasons for this post. The first one is should we move to CF as our ISP? They appear to be popular in London and their up-time is good, which is important when you work from home. So far, Plusnet have never gone down during working hours. CF's phone option is not so attractive as we do have family abroad and we like to retain the (unlikely) need to use it for international calls. The loss of phone service during a power cut is not really an issue - the Plusnet Hub 2 and DECT phone both sit on a recently purchased UPS! And is CF's TV option a match for Sky Stream? Due to dish restrictions, we never got Sky Q and their puck really fits the bill here for us.
The other reason for the post is technical. Our flat is rectangular. When built, the landline phone was terminated in the centre of the flat. Plusnet's hub's WiFi covers the flat without any issues. The work laptop is right in the southeast corner of the flat and functions well on WiFi. Virgin's service entered the flat in the southwest corner, where there Hub 3 was and I had to install an AP (using an old Belkin router) to cover the home office.
CF's loop of fibre is hanging outside the lounge window which is in the northwest corner of the flat so I presume the installer would want to install their router on the wall just inside the window, which would struggle to cover our home office, I think. I'm looking at the 75Mb service, so I guess it would be their Velop one, which is a mesh type. So the first thing I would need would be a matching device, preferably with ethernet backhaul, for the home office. CF could provide this service for a tenner a month extra, but I would prefer to install this myself. Opinions and recommendations, please.
One last question. What goes between the end of their fibre and the router. Since they terminate inside the dwelling, will it be a one-box item (ONT)? Just need to know so I can provide the necessary power points for the router and ONT close by.
And finally, I do have a TP-Link TL-MR6500V in the cupboard in case anything goes pear shaped.























