Broadband not impressed

[RobDon]

Hi all.

I had full fibre 900 installed 2 weeks ago which uses the CityFibre line. I used to have Sky fibre 500 which was installed by Openreach (BT).

With the Sky fibre I had no issues of any kind, download speeds used to regularly hit 450Mbps through the Xbox.

But now with the Vodaphone 900 fibre it just never seems to work right. Wifi drops out quite a lot and I have my TV and Xbox connect using cables (I've tried CAT5e and CAT6 cables) and they don't connect at all. If I unplug the cable and plug it back in, then I get a connection, so the connection is there is just doesn't connect. It does this EVERY time? Never had these hassles with Sky. The download speeds are also very disappointing, only ever reaches a max of around 350Mbps. I went for the 900 line for faster downloads but it's slower than the Sky 500.

Outside they have also left slabs sticking up, trunking exposed and a big line across my grass, very poor standard of installation. Strongly considering cancelling it as I'm within the 14 days cooling off period.

[RobDon]

Sadly I don't have much to spend right now, what about this one?

TP-Link AC1200 Dual-Band Gigabit Wi-Fi Router - Archer C64

I don't know anyone with another router to try.

The VF router is giving me around 400Mbps on a WiFi speed test but in reality is only giving me around 175mbps download speed. 

[RobDon]

OK, the TP-Link router has arrived. Can anyone assist in what settings are needed to get it connected please? I tried the quick setup with the PPPoE username and password but it didn't work.

[Jayach]

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@RobDon wrote:

The VF router is giving me around 400Mbps on a WiFi speed test but in reality is only giving me around 175mbps download speed. 

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That doesn't really make much sense, it sound like the slowdown is caused by something other than the router/Wi-Fi.

Is this the router you have? Archer C64 | AC1200 Wireless MU-MIMO WiFi Router | TP-Link United Kingdom

I would suggest trying it in AP mode from the Vodafone router and see if it's Wi-Fi gives better results than the Vodafone.

As for not authenticating with Vodafone, they may have given you the wrong credentials, they seem to frequently do that, try getting them to "cut and paste" them on live chat.

Edit: as you are now on CityFibre you will need to use a VLAN of 911.

[RobDon]

I've got it in AP mode, wifi and cabled speeds are just the same, no difference.

I got in touch with VF again and they have confirmed I have the correct PPPoE details. But I can't get the TP-Link router to connect to the internet. Tried loads of different settings but nothing works.

If VOIP is activated, will aftermarket routers not work on the VF line? I noticed that VF says " You must use a Vodafone router with our Pro Broadband plans and any plan with Digital Voice "

[RobDon]

Contacted VF again and asked them to turn off the VOIP, for some reason they gave me a landline when I got the fibre line, even though the guy I spoke to said I would not be getting a landline with it. Anyway, they deactivated the VOIP and removed the landline.

I am trying a game download just now on the Xbox and the speed just hit 537mbps! Previously it never went above 350 and used to hover around the 300 mark on every download. it's now almost constantly over 400mbps. 🙂

[Jayach]

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@RobDon wrote:

If VOIP is activated, will aftermarket routers not work on the VF line? 

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They will work perfectly fine. It is even possible to use the Vodafone VoIP service with them, if you want, but will require the use of an ATA (Analog telephone adapter). So far (AFAIK) only the Grandstream adapters have been successfully used.

[RobDon]

Seems like the better speeds only lasted a day! It's back to sub 300mbps downloads, and it appears I am being routed through London - 300+ miles away!

Had enough of this, I am going to ask to cancel this service and go elsewhere.

[Ripshod]

Changing the router shouldn't change your routing - the info you gave earlier was for the Edinburgh gateway (90.247.128.1). If you are being routed to London that would explain the issues you're having now.

It's not impossible you've now been tripped up by the rather silly load balancing vf are doing. I would have thought the upgrades would be done by now. A lot of us have suffered from this at one point or another.

The choice is yours. Either jump ship and pay the early termination fee, or hang around in the hope of this being sorted soon. 

[RobDon]

It was Edinburgh but now it appears to be London.

Early termination fee - is that the total amount for the entire contract? This hasn't worked right since day one, I have already put in a complaint but had zero response from VF.

[Jayach]

How's my early termination fee calculated? (vodafone.co.uk)