NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Switching to Community Fibre from BT UK
Hi
Does anyone know if the transition from BT FTTP to Community Fibre FTTP is worth it or has anyone on here switched providers?
BT is £20 more p/m compared to CF 1Gbps offering which offers symmetrical up and down speeds vs BTs.
Id also like to know if anyone who has switched connected their RBR850 direct to the CF ONT and if they know the username/password combo? Or sacked off their ORBI for their own mesh system?
Appreciate BT is a major player in the market and CF are newbies, but the saving plus better upload speeds cannot be ignored.
I have read good and bad reviews from both suppliers and although I've never had an issue with BT, their reluctance to offer a deal to stay with them has made me look elsewhere.
Anything thoughts or experiences would be greatly received!
Thanks
Chris
17 Replies
Might do a seach on the forums or out on the internet about other CF users and there experiences. I presume you may see varied responces.
For specific ISP configurations, the ISP would know what is required and if you can use exteral routers for there serivces or if ISP equipment maybe required or needed. They will know and should be contacted.
If you don't feel CF is a good fit then up to you to use them or not. If you have working ISP then keep what works for you.
Thanks, Furry.
I have done the rounds on the Web and mixed reviews on both parts. Was hoping a member here has or knows of someone who's left BT for CF.
I'm in no rush, so I'll keep digging around.
Cheers
Smart move to investigate before taking action. My ancient Spectrum cable plan (500 down/ 11 up - yes eleven!) is now in competition with a fiber outfit offering symmetrical gig up & down.
They, of course, do not support phone service (I still have my land line phone number of 40 years and much prefer talking over it than a cell phone).
There was a planned power outage recently. Spectrum was back up without incident and the "new folks" did not do so well.
We have a community social media site and the new people do not get rave reviews.
Thanks, CrimpOn.
Is there huge difference in symmetrical that I'll actually notice?
Currently have 1Gbps down and 100Mbps up and will go to 2.5Gbps both ways, and for a cheaper price for 24m contract.
Just wondering if there will be a noticeable difference over my WiFi to my end devices. Only a few of my devices are WiFi 6 compatible out of 25 connected devices (and 2 WiFi 7 which my rbr850 isn't compatible with anyway). I work from home with a lot of video calls, 3 security cameras and a son who plays Fifa :)
Finally is 2.5Gbps overkill for my RBR850?
Well since the 850 has a 2.5Gb WAN port, the LAN ports are 1Gb so this would be limiting on the LAN ports. If you have 4x4 MIMO wifi devices, then you could see upwards of 2.5Gb on the 6Ghz singnal. 2x2 MIMO would most likely top out at around 1Gb or less depending on design and support of those wifi devices.
Does the 1Gb/100Mbps work for you currently? If so, could keep what you have unless you just gotta have the higher speeds. Then to take more advantage of that, you might consider getting into a Orbi 960 series or Orbi BE series, as those have LAN ports 2.5Gb and higher.
The symmetrical speeds on CF are a big plus, especially if you upload a lot dada labubu. Haven’t had issues connecting third‑party routers either, just make sure to grab the PPPoE details from support.
Thanks for the respose. The weird thing is I'm stuck at 90mbps up and down even when testing from my Orbi direct to the modem. I looked at spoofing the mac address from the router - as others advised - but no luck. I'll call support tomorrow and hope they can sort it so I get full speeds 🤞
Sorted. Called CF support and they cleared the cached mac addresses from their side and booom, 2.5 up and down instantly.
Orbi running in router mode with default settings applied after factory reset. Only thing I disabled was IoT WiFi as I never had that enabled previously.
Final question, what are the optimum router mode settings for my Orbi RBR850 or shall I stick with the default ones?
Thanks all for your help and recommendations.
Glad you got it working. Please mark your thread as solved so others will know. Be sure to save off a back up configuration to file for safe keeping. Saves time if a reset is needed.
https://kb.netgear.com/000062080/How-do-I-back-up-the-configuration-settings-on-my-Orbi-WiFi-System
Enjoy. 📡
Hi guys, really wasn't hoping to come back to this thread, but having returned from holiday my speed has dropped back down to the 90mbit up/down. CF support are saying nothing is throttling their side and MAC address is reading as my Orbi router. I asked them to clear the cache again, but speeds still pitifully slow.
CF advising full speeds to the Adtran ONT but Orbi not passing these on.
Has anyone experienced similar behaviour with their ISPs? Nothing has changed my end and no firmware updates have been applied. Never had this with BT or Virgin, so to say this is frustrating is an understatement.
Internet settings are unchanged in Orbi config and I have cycled the ONT and Orbi devices (leaving powered off for a prolonged period.
Any pointers or ideas before I cancel and go back to BT?
Think I've worked it out. After trying numerous cables, plugging direct into ONT, WiFi, LAN tests, it seems the ONT box is very susceptible to any movement. I moved the ONT box and my Orbi went magenta, then after coming back up I was hitting expected speeds.
My CF ONT box isn't secured to my wall, but my old BT ONT was/is.
Ill contact the ISP to have this fixed as this is clearly causing the issue.
Never knew the ONT was so fragile, but then again is was installed properly with BT!
Possible how it was mfr'd or built may have been faulty from get go or had been dropped or mis-handled prior to you getting it installed. Glad you got it figured out. Ya, Ask the ISP for a NEW unit.
