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Brooadband Speed monitoring

Avatar Derek Wright
At today's Zoom session the subject of internet speed was raised.

I use the following facilities to monitor my internet speed so that I am in a position to complain about the service I receive.

To monitor the service I have a White Box from SamKnows

SamKnows web site

There is lots of information on broadband service and facilities that the SamKnows organisation provides.

I also use the ThinkBroadband web site for day to day news on internet connections and services. They have a speed checking device and they plot the speeds across the country.
See
Think Broadband web site

They also run a series of forums detailing each suplier so you can see how other customers of your internet company are faring.
Remember that in the UK a good Internet service and a good quality of life are mutually exclusive.

Re: Brooadband Speed monitoring

Avatar Roy Rainford
Many thanks for the links Derek which I will follow up. Very helpful.

Re: Brooadband Speed monitoring

Avatar Rick Churchill
There were some members taking part in the discussion who have had fibre optic installed right to their home. I would love to know what this entails in installation fixtures and the cable routing, especially internally. Presumably a cable is run round the skirting board to a router box on a wall near to where cables can be fed to TVs etc which don't have wifi.

Re: Brooadband Speed monitoring

Avatar Mick Burrell
No, I think it's just "fibre to the house" - wall. Though they may give you a second socket. However, I think you need to live in a largish town to have it available.

Re: Brooadband Speed monitoring

Avatar Derek Wright
Virgin use either copper co-ax cable into the house directly to the Modem/Router or they are using fibre directly into the premises to the Modem/Router

Copper coax is no slouch of a system, they are selling a 500mbs service with talk of much higher speeds.

However as Mick remarked it is in specific built up areas - however remember my last sentence in my post at the top of this thread.

Re: Brooadband Speed monitoring

Avatar Tony Still
Rick: If the optical fibre comes right to the house then you'll need a different modem capable of terminating it. Most modern routers incorporate a modem matched to the provider (eg Virgin media routers include a modem for their copper co-ax connections, many ADSL [phone line] routers include a modem for the phone line etc). The fibre is likely just to come through the wall: it looks just like any other cable but don't put a tight kink in it!

It's possible that the ISP would provide a separate modem: physically another box on the line then connected to the router. I don't know if anyone does this in practice (VM used to, years ago) because it is likely to be more costly to supply.

City Fibre is currently installing a new Gigabit fibre network in Bournemouth (and I think the rest of BCP too now). That claims to be fibre to the premises. Mind you, it also claims to guarantee no internet slowdowns and that is clearly beyond their control so treat all claims with caution at the moment.
 
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