On Friday, 4 December 2020 09:09:36 GMT antlists wrote: > On 04/12/2020 01:40, Dale wrote: > > Also, our local power company is about to start rolling out internet > > service. It's done with fiber and the slowest package, 200MBs/sec, is > > over 100 times faster than my current DSL. It only costs $4.00 a month > > more than what I'm paying now. Their fastest package is 1GBs/sec. > > Dang, I can't even imagine that sort of speed. Another good thing, same > > speed BOTH ways. I can upload videos just as fast as I can download > > one. Yeppie!! > > > > My only thing now, I hope it works like DSL/cable/etc and just requires > > me to plug in a ethernet cable. In other words, OS doesn't matter. I > > suspect it does but we will see. > > We went to fibre recently. They put a new box on the wall which takes an > RJ-45 instead of the previous situation where ADSL took an RJ-11. > > All the blurb says "works with BT Hub 6", which we already had, so I > didn't bother getting a new router (you had to pay for the "latest and > greatest" Hub 7). > > When the guy installed it - "where's you new router, it won't work with > this one". No apparently you can't just plug it into any old network > port, the router needs a dedicated WAN link and the Hub 6 came in two > versions, one with an ADSL modem and one with a fibre uplink. > > So it sounds like you need to swap your ADSL router for a cable router > or whatever it is, but apart from that you'll be fine. > > (And then some sales guy working on behalf of BT knocked on the door, > was surprised to find we were already BT customers, and rigged up some > deal that (a) threw in a Hub-7 free, (b) changed our calling plan to > remove the one-hour limit and add free calls to mobiles, and (c) knocked > about £2 off our monthly bill!!!) > > Cheers, > Wol
The full fibre to the premises (FTTP) connection requires a different port and modem to the ADSL broadband. The basic functionality of an (A)DSL broadband modem is to convert electrical signals coming down the copper telephone wire to ethernet frames. The basic functionality of a fibre modem is to convert the optical signals arriving through the fibre cable to ethernet frames. In the UK, the old copper telephone wires coming into the customer premises terminated on an RJ11 connector, which was plugged into the corresponding RJ11 socket of the ADSL modem, or into the more frequently provided by the ISP modem+router+WiFi combo box. With fibre the modem, now called an Optical Network Terminal (ONT), no longer has a RJ11 port. Instead it has an optical port to receive the fibre cable coming into the premises. The ONT also has an RJ45 ethernet port for the LAN side - where you connect the router's WAN port with an ethernet cable. It also has a telephone port for VoIP and a power connection. It may also have a UPS connection to provide power to keep the phone working when the mains power supply suffers an outage - some ONT boxes have an internal battery for this purpose. It follows that an old ADSL router combo box with an RJ11 WAN port is no good for fibre - although it can be used as a dumb switch or a WiFi Access Point in your LAN. Instead a router with an RJ45 ethernet WAN port is required. More expensive routers/switches come with SFP transceiver ports, in which you can plug either optical or ethernet cables. Prices for fibre are more expensive depending on the ISP and a new contract is required. Initial discounts are meant to entice earlier migration to fibre, but prices will increase by 30% or more after the discount period expires. If you want to stay at the same speed as ADSL or use fibre for telephone only, then the price could be the same as the old copper connection, but again it depends on the ISP.
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