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The Boards.ie Explainer: FTTH and You

ED E

[This is what happens when I over caffeinate]

This is a fluid post, I'll change it while edits are unlocked. Post is intended to be Ireland centric.

What's FTTH?
Fibre To The Home. This means the super mega fast and cool light signal goes all the way into your gaff before being transformed into copper/wifi signals. Nerdy bit: We're talking GPON here, google if you wanna know more.

Why do I want it?
Fassssst
Low latency (FaceTime, Skype, Games)
Less fault prone than copper
Increases property value
Same speed at 100m or 10km

FTTH Speeds (Down / Up)
With OpenEir as the wholesaler
150/30
300/50
1000/100
With SIRO (ESB) as the wholesaler
150/30
350/70
600/120
1000/200

"Electric Broadband" - Is it on the leccy wires?
No, its not, this is marketing bull****

Cables?
Yes, everyone requires a new cable from the roadside to the house. No old cables can carry a stream of photons to speed up your teletubbies. Some will go aerial (pole to gable of your gaff) and some underground (up a duct)

Drilling?
Yes. Nearly everyone requires drilling of some degree. If you're Hyacinth Bucket(ignore that kids) then stick to your bogband.

Do I need to keep the landline?
Nope, but not having one won't magically save you money, the pricing is nearly identical. The router can provide you phone service and your phones won't be any the wiser.

Will I really get those speeds or is this an up to thing?
You'll get them. 150Mb will show as about 144Mb, 1000Mb will show as about 960Mb due to technical limitations.

1000Mb is cheap, might as well go for that right?
Not really. 1000Mb (called Gigabit) for 99.9% of rural households is like buying a Maserati to commute in and out of Galway city centre. Yes its flashy but you're getting 1MPG to get there just as fast as Dave in his Berlingo. Unless you have a need (B&B, traditional Catholic family of 25, 15 Polish lads in one house) go for 150Mb.

I still wanna get the 1000Mb just to be faster than the Jones'
Fine. Just be aware that most of your devices may be too slow to actually pull that much data. Yes that includes your €1000 iPhone. There are large villages sharing 150Mb between everyone, 1000Mb into your house is like having Ardnacrusha in your garden. Don't go moaning to tech support that you're only seeing 90Mb on speedtest. Please don't be that guy.

Is Virgin Media FTTH?
No, bar a small trial userbase, Virgin use a copper cable designed for TV signals. Its fast at 360Mb with more to give but its reaching the end of its life while optical systems are really only getting started. Virgin speeds will be similar but latency will never compete with FTTH so for gamers the change might be worthwhile.

Can I use my own equipment?
See post 2

Can I get it?
See Post 3

FUPS? - Fair Usage Policies or Usage Limits
- Airwire, Eir, Net1, Westnet: unlimited. (As in really!)
- Digiweb, Pure Telecom, Vodafone: 1 TB Fair use policy, but no charge for going over (risk of suspension, cancellation.)
NB: Can vary on old/new contracts, verify yourself at point of sale

Some guy came to my door....
DO
NOT
ORDER
ANY
SERVICE
AT
THE
DOORSTEP

Ideally call, online orders are a bit messy with many providers.

What about TV?
Yes, IPTV is available from Vodafone, Eir, Sky(Mixed delivery)
It DOESNT count against your monthly cap but DOES come over the internet connection. While in use you lose a little bit of speed but nobody will notice 136Mb instead of 144Mb.

More to come.

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Comments

littlecopilot

Thanks guys

littlecopilot

tuxy wrote: »

Both cat5e and cat6 will do full gigabit ethernet up to 100 metres. Very little difference in speed between a 1 meter cable and 100.

160 feet of cat5e and now 286Mbps wired from my RT-AC68U

It's only now I'm realising the limitations of wifi because you don't notice the speeds with low speed broadband. Even on the RT-AC68U 2.4Ghz is ~100Mbps and 5Ghz is ~200Mbps. Is this normal with fast speeds?

tuxy

Yup totally normal, WIFI speed is very limited and unstable. There are just so many different things that can cause interference with WIFI signal but ethernet cables are well insulated.

Wired is really the best way to go when you have FTTH.
You could get a setup where you get stable full 300Mbit in every room over 5 Ghz wifi but it would probably require having an expensive (€70) access point in every room! And even then it will not be as consistent as wired.

The high horse brigade

tuxy wrote: »

Yup totally normal, WIFI speed is very limited and unstable. There are just so many different things that can cause interference with WIFI signal but ethernet cables are well insulated.

Wired is really the best way to go when you have FTTH.
You could get a setup where you get stable full 300Mbit in every room over 5 Ghz wifi but it would probably require having an expensive (€70) access point in every room! And even then it will not be as consistent as wired.

And it will still be half duplex, send or receive not both at the same time like a cable

QuadaLumpins

Hi all ... great thread!

I've just had eir gigabit installed - the 300/50 fibre package with phone.

Wifi is not great around the house. I have 2 Google mesh's, but only getting between 25-50mb in rooms outside the router location.

Someone advised that I turn off the 2.4ghz band on the router. Is this a good idea? Why would/should I do this?

/edit/ we have a wireless home phone and a host of other wireless keyboards, mice, etc etc etc. Does this have any effect on the decision?

ED E

One possible config would be.

Room A:
Eir F2000
Google Wifi 1

Room B:
Google Wifi 2

Disable the wireless on the F2000 entirely, cable the Gwifi 1 to the F2000 and then let them do all of your wireless needs rather than trying to piggyback on a poor connection from the F2000.

They should use both bands and move clients around as appropriate. Room B should be half way between Room A and the furthest point from Room A.

QuadaLumpins

ED E wrote: »

One possible config would be.

Room A:
Eir F2000
Google Wifi 1

Room B:
Google Wifi 2

Disable the wireless on the F2000 entirely, cable the Gwifi 1 to the F2000 and then let them do all of your wireless needs rather than trying to piggyback on a poor connection from the F2000.

They should use both bands and move clients around as appropriate. Room B should be half way between Room A and the furthest point from Room A.

Ok, thanks for that.

Just to be sure I understand ...

1. Disable the wifi (both 5ghz and 2.4ghz) on the F2000. Do this through the router settings in http://192.168.1.xxx.
2. I have the first Google mesh device cabled to the F2000 in the upstairs bedroom on top of wardrobe. (Not possible to move anywhere else at the moment.)
3. Second Google mesh is in the living room directly downstairs from the bedroom.

The house is a standard 3 bed semi. I need wifi in the living room (Nvidia Shield, TV, laptops, phones). Also need wifi in the office which is upstairs beside main bedroom.

If I follow your config will I likely have stronger signal throughout the house?

I have no leeway to move the router right now, but can move the 2nd Google mesh if needs be. Also, no leeway to cable out of the main bedroom.

ED E

Yeah, I'd at least test it that way.

Fair bit depends on the construction of the house and the area but that should be ok. Put the phone base station AWAY from both the 2000 and the Gwifi.

QuadaLumpins

ED E wrote: »

Yeah, I'd at least test it that way.

Fair bit depends on the construction of the house and the area but that should be ok. Put the phone base station AWAY from both the 2000 and the Gwifi.

OK thanks ... I'll test and report back here.

Phone base is in the same room as F2000 but approx 5 meters away. Is that far enough?

ED E

Should be yeah.

detective

Charli Nice Spittoon wrote: »

If you are several hundred metres from the end of a line and your neighbour's Eircode is passing but yours is not it is highly unlikely that you can get added.

FTTH is passing my house. My neighbours on both sides are marked on Eir's map as going to get FTTH but my house is not. The map still recognises my house so it's not an Eircode issue. I believe it's because my house is set back more than 50 metres from the road. Am I going to lose out or do you think this can be overcome? My house is probably 75 metres from the road so it's not that far set back.

tsue921i8wljb3

detective wrote: »

FTTH is passing my house. My neighbours on both sides are marked on Eir's map as going to get FTTH but my house is not. The map still recognises my house so it's not an Eircode issue. I believe it's because my house is set back more than 50 metres from the road. Am I going to lose out or do you think this can be overcome? My house is probably 75 metres from the road so it's not that far set back.

Is the area live? Do your neighbour's Eircodes show as available on

http://www.airwire.ie/avail

If the area is live and your neighbours can get it but you can't then it's going to be very difficult to get added. Your best bet may be to talk to a smaller ISP such as Airwire to see if they have contacts that may be able to help. The larger ISPs won't want to know.

If the area is not live then you are probably best to wait for the area to go live and see if you have been included. The map is not totally accurate and I've see premises included that were not due to be according to the map.

detective

Thanks for your time.

Area isnt live yet but there is increased activity from KN and Eir. The house has a duct put in by original owner/builder but I don’t see terminal point in house so I don’t even know if a telephone cable was ever installed. I was thinking they might have to add me via USO but I’m probably dreaming.

tsue921i8wljb3

detective wrote: »

Thanks for your time.

Area isnt live yet but there is increased activity from KN and Eir. The house has a duct put in by original owner/builder but I don’t see terminal point in house so I don’t even know if a telephone cable was ever installed. I was thinking they might have to add me via USO but I’m probably dreaming.

No USO for fibre unfortunately.

Johnboy1951

detective wrote: »

Thanks for your time.

Area isnt live yet but there is increased activity from KN and Eir. The house has a duct put in by original owner/builder but I don’t see terminal point in house so I don’t even know if a telephone cable was ever installed. I was thinking they might have to add me via USO but I’m probably dreaming.

You need to locate your end of that duct.

detective

My house has a clear line of sight to the roadside poll on my land... are there any wireless solutions to Eir’s FTTH (I appreciate how that’s not exactly FTTH). It would be a lot better than 2mb/s!!

Marlow

detective wrote: »

My house has a clear line of sight to the roadside poll on my land... are there any wireless solutions to Eir’s FTTH (I appreciate how that’s not exactly FTTH). It would be a lot better than 2mb/s!!

Find a friendly neighbor, that gets enabled. Get a connection to his place. Build a wireless link. 150-200 Mbit/s are no problem at a fairly low budget.

/M

Roen

So looks like my house is now fiber enabled.
Having some fun trying to get a hold of someone in Eir to ask how does your typical install look like.

My phone line is running from the Eir manholes at the entrance to the drive (Eir were working on these for approx two weeks during the upgrade work) and pops out in the hall.
I guess the installers are going to prefer the handy option and sling a cable from the pole nearby to the house?
Or is there a chance they'll attempt a run underground? Approx 40-50m.

Cheers.
R.

ACLFC7

Roen wrote: »

My phone line is running from the Eir manholes at the entrance to the drive (Eir were working on these for approx two weeks during the upgrade work) and pops out in the hall.
I guess the installers are going to prefer the handy option and sling a cable from the pole nearby to the house?
Or is there a chance they'll attempt a run underground? Approx 40-50m.

Cheers.
R.

If you already have a duct with your phone line from the manhole to somewhere in your house then Eir will just try pull the fibre cable through the same duct. There should be a rope in your duct left there from when your house was built. Try to expose the end of the duct thats in your house.

Roen

Cheers ACLFC7,

I am in contact with the lad that built the house so he should be able to tell if there's rope or not. I always leave one in any runs I do alright, just hope others had the same sense 13 years back!
R.

Andy From Sligo

ACLFC7 wrote: »

If you already have a duct with your phone line from the manhole to somewhere in your house then Eir will just try pull the fibre cable through the same duct. There should be a rope in your duct left there from when your house was built. Try to expose the end of the duct thats in your house.

interesting that, our house was built 10 years ago - I must have a check see if there is a rope in the duct

Kencollins

Hi all,

My house is marked on the Eir Rollout Map as the last house on the fibre run in our viallage.

Is there a limit in distance from the pole mounted box to the premises? There is an Eir pole at my gate, and the house is about 150m from this pole.

I will have to run a duct to the house as the previous owner just burried the Eir cable in the ground after the duct was damaged.

Is there a way to pay Eir to put a pole on my land? It would by MUCH easier if Eir could run the fibre overhead for as long as possible, and then I could duct from the new pole to the house.

Thanks in advance,

Ken

tsue921i8wljb3

Kencollins wrote: »

Hi all,

My house is marked on the Eir Rollout Map as the last house on the fibre run in our viallage.

Is there a limit in distance from the pole mounted box to the premises? There is an Eir pole at my gate, and the house is about 150m from this pole.

I will have to run a duct to the house as the previous owner just burried the Eir cable in the ground after the duct was damaged.

Is there a way to pay Eir to put a pole on my land? It would by MUCH easier if Eir could run the fibre overhead for as long as possible, and then I could duct from the new pole to the house.

Thanks in advance,

Ken

If you wait until the area is live you may find that when the installer comes he will want to have pole(s) installed to complete the job. If this is the case open eir usually cover the cost of the pole installation which would obviously work out cheaper for you than having to install 150m of ducting.

Marlow

The first visit is usually treated a survey. So you can go with that and see, what the installer says.

But OpenEIR have a clear policy, that they won't connect houses overhead, that are more than 50m from the road or the last pole. If poles are in place, you may be lucky. They have desktop figures of how far you are from the pole or road near your house, so they do know already before coming out. So you may end up having to put ducting down yourself. Direct buried is a total no go.

And no .. OpenEIR won't do that for you.

/M

Kencollins

Thanks for all the info!

I might bite the bullet and put a proper 100mm duct to the gate, it might come in useful in the future. I know ducting isn'tsupposed to be shared with other services but a cat5 run or power cable run to the gate would be handy!

I know OpenEIR won't do the ducting, I was hoping to minimize the amount of digging I would have to do with the pole option!

I guess we will see what the site visit technician comes up with

Ken

Jpmarn

I had a Vodafone sales man calling to my house a few days ago. He seems to be selling connections off the Open Eir FTTH platform. I am presently an Eir customer with a FFTH connection. I do associate Vodafone with Siro Fibre with ESB.

Marlow

Jpmarn wrote: »

I had a Vodafone sales man calling to my house a few days ago. He seems to be selling connections off the Open Eir FTTH platform. I am presently an Eir customer with a FFTH connection. I do associate Vodafone with Siro Fibre with ESB.

No. They are now on both platforms. But that is a recent development. Not that that improves their business or customer service

Lots of others to choose from.

/M

Baoithin66

Getting FTTH next week and hoping to bring in through the attic as there is no duct available and don't want to start digging. Does it make any difference where the router is in the house as regards the wifi signal?

ED E

Baoithin66 wrote: »

Getting FTTH next week and hoping to bring in through the attic as there is no duct available and don't want to start digging. Does it make any difference where the router is in the house as regards the wifi signal?

OpenEir (Not SIRO)? Officially they can't go into the attic.

Baoithin66

OpenEir. I hope to pull the cable through the attic myself. Have a double socket just beside the loft ladder and they could literally work from the loft ladder or I could pull the cable down into a bedroom through a phone cable duct that is not being used.