Changing Internet Service Provider (2: on the day and afterwards)

My chosen provider is Zen Internet.  I chose them because I have good experiences of using them in a business environment (they are also "Which?" recommended).  The account has been set up for a while, I have spoken to them a couple of times and was not that impressed.  I couldn't find a way to subscribe to their email service, so phoned them, they were not helpful, so I went elsewhere.  

Protonmail was my chosen supplier - because of the unique service they provide - all encrypted email.  They are not a registrar, though.

For that, I chose Namecheap, no recommendations here, it simply looked easiest to use.  Then I found out that transferring-in was free.

On the day, we had cleared out the huge bookcase that covers up the connection point, and moved it out of the way when the Openreach guy arrived.  After some discussion, the cable route was agreed, and he set about drilling holes and connecting the cables.  Fortunately the grey junction box is now a lot smaller, so quite unobtrusive, and fairly well out of the way.  The service was connected in about 2 hours.  He complained about the Fritz!Box router, but it was pre-configured and just started working.

Next come the home re-configuration:

NAS	This has a fixed IP address and had to be re-connected to the old router, the fixed IP address removed, connected to the new router and the fixed IP address re-instated.
Printer	Connected OK using WPS.  Printing works from the Laptop, and the Ubuntu computer, but not my phone.  This is still being investigated.
Mobile Phone: Pete	Choose the Wi-Fi and connect - no problem
Mobile Phone: Jo	Choose the Wi-Fi and connect - no problem
Tablet: Old	Choose the Wi-Fi and connect - no problem
Tablet: New(er)	Choose the Wi-Fi and connect - no problem
Laptop	Choose the Wi-Fi and connect - no problem
Dell	Choose the Wi-Fi and connect - no problem
Linux	Choose the Wi-Fi and connect - no problem
Powerline	Plug cable into new router and powercycle - all OK.
euFy Doorbell	There is no way in the app to change the Wi-Fi, so the only option is to reset the device and start the installation process from scratch.  This means that the masks have to be set up again as well. 27 Feb: While a shared doorbell appeared to work it was unreliable, we have now removed and re-added the shared account, hopefully it will be stable.
Heating	The heating controller was plugged in to the new router and power cycled.  It got the necessary addresses from DHCP, and eventually connected to the wireless devices it supports.  It disconnected a few times in the following days, but seems stable now.
Car Charger	The car charger did not reconnect after a power failure, a long time ago.  Maybe I will try again.
Battery Inverter	I have received instructions on how to do this.  The data collector has to be reset and provides a weak Wi-Fi, that I cannot connect to because the setup password is rejected.  This is still unresolved. 25 Feb: Two Wi-Fi networks were available, but in most of my resets only one appeared. Eventually the correct network became available (beginning SOLIS_5A), and the instructions pretty much worked. I am getting data on the app, despite the green indicator light not going solid, as it should.
Guest Devices	A guest SSID was created; various visitor devices connect to it when they arrive.  It is on a separate subnet, so there is no access to the NAS, for example.

There may still be more to do, so I will update this post if I need to.

Changing Internet Service Provider (1: before the day)

I am currently with Plusnet, I have been with them since they took over Force9.  I have a website with them, that the children created - before they grew up and had families of their own.  It was for a while a hobby.  I'm not that concerned about the website, I have the source somewhere, and it's no longer relevant today.  Creating it taught me and, to some extent, my children, about the web. I also have email with Plusnet - that is important.  Although I have migrated most things away from that service, there are a number of things that are very difficult to change - and many that we have probably forgotten about.  As part of that, I have my own domain name - fisher-folk.co.uk.  It is used for the website and in lots of email addresses.

My current service is FTTC, with the analogue phone system also run by Plusnet. I would like to upgrade to "Full Fibre" (FTTP) to get better speeds, as we are now regularly streaming TV and would like to do it in more rooms.  We also have to retain the phone number as it is the only way that several of Jo's mum's friends can contact us.  Staying in touch is hard enough, without deliberately breaking the easiest form of communication.

Plusnet can offer FTTP, but not with a phone line, so a change will be required.

After a little research, I settled on Zen Internet.  They (OpenReach) will be coming tomorrow to install the new service.  

There have been several 'disconnects' along the way.  First, the installation date that I requested via Zen's website was effectively ignored. Zen told Plusnet it would be 8 Jan 2025, so Plusnet told me my service would end on 8 Jan.  OpenReach could not do the installation until 28th, so the date was changed and Zen told me of the new date.  Plusnet did not, but when I called them, after calling Zen, they were aware of the new date.  The lack of communication causes extra work for them and for me.  There is also reputational damage for Plusnet - I'm unlikely to change back to them in the future, after the phone service digital migration.

Getting my domain from Plusnet is also a struggle.  They do not seem to know what they are doing, and I certainly don't, it's my first try at changing the registrar of my domain.  The first request I made by phone was ignored, either by Plusnet or their service provider.  When I updated the ticket, a 'bot' closed it because customer input is no longer allowed.  How about taking the update link away? Surely that would make more sense?  I now have to wait 5 days and will lose 5 days or more of email as a result.

Since BT bought Plusnet, years ago, the service has degraded slowly; it seems that continues.

We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Speed Test

Tonight's speed is:


Which is much better, and a lot more like what I was getting after the upgrade.

Up To

There's a lot of controversy about those two little words at the moment.  When you sign up for 'up to 8Mb', or upgrade as I have done to 'up to 20Mb' you expect a service that's close to the stated number.  I know that if you are a long way from the exchange that the speed drops off.

For the first few days immediately after the upgrade I checked the speed of the link and was receiving 13Mb.  Wonderful!  Recently I noticed that videos were stuttering and sites taking a long time to load.  I checked the speed again.  Less than 4Mb on that day.

Today's speed is:

Broadband Speed

My ISP(Plusnet) speed test says:










On the BBC web site its: 5.5-5.8 Mbps

We are close to the exchange, so we should get a good speed. As this test was completed before 8am, I can be certain that my PC is the only one connected to my router.

I am planning to move my Broadband connection to my normal home line, and will be interested to repeat the test there.

Comes and Goes

Today I was working from home. Well I tried to. This morning broadband would not sign-in. Dial-up would not connect. My company fixed the sign-in very quickly and told me why it hadn't worked. For my broadband I had to wait hours for a response, and then part of the way through what they asked me to do, it just started working again. It happens like that a lot, the pattern seems to be:

• Have a problem
• Do all the obvious things to fix it - nothing works.
• Report it to PlusNet
• Its fixed sometime later. No explanation, it just works.

Now returning the service is good, but I want to know what happened, and how they're going to stop it happening again.

OK, its been a frustrating day, so rant over.