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Using the dongle on a stalled Gigafast Pro install.

Delicolor
3: Seeker
3: Seeker

Hi, I was due to get FTTH fibre installed last Thursday but CityFibre were unable to blow the fibre all the way from my house to their street cab. (It made it 60m which cleared the first street chamber but was obstructed beyond, presumably still in Openreach ducts. It seems it is a partial blockage as air was making it to the street cab). A second crew arrived on Friday but left after an hour or two.

 

All my internals are complete (with the service and broadband lights off on the fibre box of course) and fortunately Sky haven’t ceased my FTTC service so I still have broadband and dialtone.

 

However not knowing when service will stop, I connected via admin to my new Vodafone router to see if the automatic fallback to 4G was working and it wasn’t, the dongle was making no attempt to connect (although the status showed 1 USB connection).

 

The USB dongle works fine in a laptop, with healthy speeds to the internet (but higher ping time, which is to be expected). Now does the Giga Pro router need an initial config update it receives on first successful connect to configure the dongle or is there some tweak I can do?  The router has factory settings.

 

(If my old Sky service goes before the fibre is lit up I will of course call the Vodafone WiFi Xperts team.)

 

18 REPLIES 18

Jayach
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

@Delicolor wrote:

 

(If my old Sky service goes before the fibre is lit up I will of course call the Vodafone WiFi Xperts team.)

 


I'd call them now and pose the question about why the 4G fall-back isn't working. Get some idea of how "Xpert" they are. I think you will maybe change your mind and just go for the standard service, but I'm very cynical when it comes to Vodafone.

 

If I just go for standard then 100 Meg is the maximum whereas the Pro gives the capability of upgrading to 900 Meg down the line.

 

Having not heard anything at all officially from Vodafone or CityFibre since the day before the install (basically a do you have Covid?) I’m not overly impressed so far…

Jayach
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

@Delicolor wrote:

If I just go for standard then 100 Meg is the maximum whereas the Pro gives the capability of upgrading to 900 Meg down the line.

 


They must have removed the other options to force people to take Pro. Sneaky.

They seem to rename the packages available every time I look. Also there was a massive price jump from earlier in the year, I was going to get a higher speed package but was still in contract so waited a few months.

Jayach
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

I'm pretty sure Pro is just some cobbled together system to try and extract some extra money from people. (and possibly to make up for the apparently poor WiFi on the THG3000) (although I personally think it's WiFi is O.K)

Vodafone PRO is an extra £13 per month over 2 years. I make that £312 for a couple of (presumably cheap) WiFi boosters and a 4G dongle and data sim that you may never need. Oh and access to WiFi Xperts which to be honest should come with any service that includes a WiFi router.

There is not much data on the WiFi boosters but as far as I can tell they are not even a mesh (it might be worth it if they were)

I have seen the term mesh used in the blurb for the extender,  however I can’t configure it from the Vodafone app until the main router fibre gets lit up (the app just goes round in circles).

Jayach
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

The only time I have seen "mesh" mentioned is in 3rd party reviews and I think they are just making assumptions.

The router the THG3000 is based on does not have mesh capability. (as far as I know, and I have got one)

As you say, looking more closely, Vodafone don’t use the term mesh themselves. Sagem appear to make the Fast286 and this site uses the term mesh. However mine doesn’t actually look like the picture.

 

https://support.sagemcom.com/en/gateways/fst-286-vodafone-super-wifi

Jayach
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

Interesting find. It does look like maybe they are a mesh, in which case they may be more capable than I have given them credit for.

I can not understand why Vodafone don't give more technical info on the devices they supply.

Your link led me to find more info.

Vodafone’s super wifi banishes broadband blackspots

Super WiFi (vodafone.com)