Gigaclear broadband
Discussion
Sonic said:
Got mine installed now after my neighbour very kindly allowed his driveway and lawn to be dug up for my benefit, and its ridiculously fast!
I've had to ditch the Draytek 2860ac router which is unfortunate as i was planning to use it for WAN failover with ADSL should anything happen, and also had some other handy rules configured, but it was limiting throughput to a paltry 650mbps down and 250mbps up, and there didn't seem like much of a way to solve it despite disabling all qos, firewall rules, filters etc etc.
Having reconfigured the network to use the supplied HRG1000 i'm now seeing 850mbps down and 950mbps up from a desktop wired in with 1GbE, and 450mbps up/down through the Draytek 910c AP mounted upstairs on 5ghz ac.
Using the 5ghz wifi on the HRG1000 i'm only seeing 140mbps down and 92mbps up despite it being much closer to where i'm running the tests on my laptop.
So, i'd absolutely recommend using the supplied router for optimum speed unless you want to get into the realms of expensive routers with high firewall throughput, but i'd definitely get another AP to improve the wifi speed which is how most people will use it anyway.
That's some insane speeds! Way faster than what most ISPs offer. Wow.I've had to ditch the Draytek 2860ac router which is unfortunate as i was planning to use it for WAN failover with ADSL should anything happen, and also had some other handy rules configured, but it was limiting throughput to a paltry 650mbps down and 250mbps up, and there didn't seem like much of a way to solve it despite disabling all qos, firewall rules, filters etc etc.
Having reconfigured the network to use the supplied HRG1000 i'm now seeing 850mbps down and 950mbps up from a desktop wired in with 1GbE, and 450mbps up/down through the Draytek 910c AP mounted upstairs on 5ghz ac.
Using the 5ghz wifi on the HRG1000 i'm only seeing 140mbps down and 92mbps up despite it being much closer to where i'm running the tests on my laptop.
So, i'd absolutely recommend using the supplied router for optimum speed unless you want to get into the realms of expensive routers with high firewall throughput, but i'd definitely get another AP to improve the wifi speed which is how most people will use it anyway.
crazy about cars said:
That's some insane speeds! Way faster than what most ISPs offer. Wow.
It really is completely obscene, and basically means you can treat "the cloud" as an extension of your local network, but regardless its almost always a local network device that's the bottleneck, not the internet connection any longer!It puts it into perspective that i'm fairly unusual having the house cabled up, but will not even come close to utilising the line now, but where it will really come into its own is concurrency for media streaming... and at the next BBQ when 50 people are all trying to check their Facebook simultaneously!
Sonic said:
It really is completely obscene, and basically means you can treat "the cloud" as an extension of your local network, but regardless its almost always a local network device that's the bottleneck, not the internet connection any longer!
It puts it into perspective that i'm fairly unusual having the house cabled up, but will not even come close to utilising the line now, but where it will really come into its own is concurrency for media streaming... and at the next BBQ when 50 people are all trying to check their Facebook simultaneously!
I've only very recently got my 70MB up/20MB down connection working and I can really feel the difference over the 7MB down/0.9MB up I had for many years. I have kids and lots of devices consuming bandwidth and on this connection I barely feel the buffering anymore.It puts it into perspective that i'm fairly unusual having the house cabled up, but will not even come close to utilising the line now, but where it will really come into its own is concurrency for media streaming... and at the next BBQ when 50 people are all trying to check their Facebook simultaneously!
You are spot on about local network device bottleneck, from this point I will be trying to get the best wireless performance possible, have Linksys WRT3200ACM but would've liked better WiFi performance which supports both the older and latest wireless devices in the house.
Having a period of outage already so back to ADSL it is for a little while!
Having seen the installation of the local infrastructure first-hand my immediate concern was over reliability, and it seems to be well founded thus far which is a crying shame. I'm very glad i've not moved my phone line over or cancelled my ADSL just yet, as it'd be a double-whammy with having no mobile phone signal here so my phone uses VoLTE over the wifi.
Having seen the installation of the local infrastructure first-hand my immediate concern was over reliability, and it seems to be well founded thus far which is a crying shame. I'm very glad i've not moved my phone line over or cancelled my ADSL just yet, as it'd be a double-whammy with having no mobile phone signal here so my phone uses VoLTE over the wifi.
Apparently Gigaclear are installing round our way now; they have a Q&A session in the pub this Wednesday evening with their local rep - seems a sensible thing to do as long as he isn't bombarded with more questions than he can handle.
Dr D; you mention some guides that show how to set up a new AP from the Gigaclear router; got any links please? I'm another of the "not massively techie" types but can follow clear instructions.
Dr D; you mention some guides that show how to set up a new AP from the Gigaclear router; got any links please? I'm another of the "not massively techie" types but can follow clear instructions.
https://gigaclearplc.statuspage.io/
In the month my service has been active i've had 12 hours of unexpected downtime and 2 scheduled periods of downtime with 48-72hrs notice, one in the late evening the other in the early hours - but im not sure how indicative this is of the uptime over a longer period.
I WFH regularly, and was initially considering ditching the BT line and ADSL and just using Gigaclear with VoIP, but there's not a chance i will be doing this now as it's simply not reliable enough. It easily justifies the additional cost of the BT/ADSL on the business, but when the Gigaclear line is working its utterly superb, so again easily justified
My mobile also uses wifi calling over the wifi, so if i only have the fibre line and it went down i'd be utterly f
ked with no mobile signal, internet or telephone if i didn't have the BT line. I think i'd have to result to smoke signals, and it would be far from ideal if i had a planned conference call or something and suddenly lost all coms!
The wifi on the supplied AP isn't great, but its bolted to a wall where the line comes in and so is in a far from ideal location to optimal wifi signal. I have thick walls at my place also, and cannot recommend enough getting a decent AP mounted properly upstairs and cabling it in to the GC router. I can now get 450mbps over wifi from anywhere in the house, outside on the driveway, in the garage or even at the end of the garden!
In the month my service has been active i've had 12 hours of unexpected downtime and 2 scheduled periods of downtime with 48-72hrs notice, one in the late evening the other in the early hours - but im not sure how indicative this is of the uptime over a longer period.
I WFH regularly, and was initially considering ditching the BT line and ADSL and just using Gigaclear with VoIP, but there's not a chance i will be doing this now as it's simply not reliable enough. It easily justifies the additional cost of the BT/ADSL on the business, but when the Gigaclear line is working its utterly superb, so again easily justified
My mobile also uses wifi calling over the wifi, so if i only have the fibre line and it went down i'd be utterly f
ked with no mobile signal, internet or telephone if i didn't have the BT line. I think i'd have to result to smoke signals, and it would be far from ideal if i had a planned conference call or something and suddenly lost all coms!The wifi on the supplied AP isn't great, but its bolted to a wall where the line comes in and so is in a far from ideal location to optimal wifi signal. I have thick walls at my place also, and cannot recommend enough getting a decent AP mounted properly upstairs and cabling it in to the GC router. I can now get 450mbps over wifi from anywhere in the house, outside on the driveway, in the garage or even at the end of the garden!
Just because Gigaclear had one unplanned outage doesn't make them 'unreliable'. Compared to BT they're like night and day. Outages are very rare indeed, and when they do happen - they email and text regularly to keep you in the loop.
The service is simply superb. Their support either by email or phone is also very good.
The only problem is the wireless on the router they provide (covered in detail in this thread).
All you need to do is disable the routers built in WiFi, plug in another access point (could be your old router if it's decent) and use the WiFi only.
I've got a couple of Ubiquiti's in the house which have been flawless.
The service is simply superb. Their support either by email or phone is also very good.
The only problem is the wireless on the router they provide (covered in detail in this thread).
All you need to do is disable the routers built in WiFi, plug in another access point (could be your old router if it's decent) and use the WiFi only.
I've got a couple of Ubiquiti's in the house which have been flawless.
Dr Doofenshmirtz said:
Just because Gigaclear had one unplanned outage doesn't make them 'unreliable'. Compared to BT they're like night and day. Outages are very rare indeed, and when they do happen - they email and text regularly to keep you in the loop.
The service is simply superb. Their support either by email or phone is also very good.
The only problem is the wireless on the router they provide (covered in detail in this thread).
All you need to do is disable the routers built in WiFi, plug in another access point (could be your old router if it's decent) and use the WiFi only.
I've got a couple of Ubiquiti's in the house which have been flawless.
True - but I strongly suspect that they have more outages and for longer than 'BT'... doesn't matter if they're planned or unplanned they're still an outage.The service is simply superb. Their support either by email or phone is also very good.
The only problem is the wireless on the router they provide (covered in detail in this thread).
All you need to do is disable the routers built in WiFi, plug in another access point (could be your old router if it's decent) and use the WiFi only.
I've got a couple of Ubiquiti's in the house which have been flawless.
As you might expect it's not as simple as that.
Any data found surrounding outages are commonly regarding 'core' network for BT, but customer connections for Gigaclear.... One is specific and relevant to the end user, one is generic and not very helpful.
Gigaclear don't suffer more outages than other operators, simply down to the fact other operators are supplying the bandwidth, and whilst the network to date has been installed with less visible protection... A simple plastic duct doesn't offer as much as you'd think, disruption in rural routes is less than in urban ones, and copper has less value to thieves...
And the outages when they do happen don't last as long....Gigaclear can find the fault if it's on their fibre much quicker than the competition as you can measure how far the light goes before the break...if it's on the suppliers' route then it gets fixed in line with their response times..
All that said if/when it goes down and you don't have a mobile signal or copper backup line.... Then the impact is obviously greater....
Any data found surrounding outages are commonly regarding 'core' network for BT, but customer connections for Gigaclear.... One is specific and relevant to the end user, one is generic and not very helpful.
Gigaclear don't suffer more outages than other operators, simply down to the fact other operators are supplying the bandwidth, and whilst the network to date has been installed with less visible protection... A simple plastic duct doesn't offer as much as you'd think, disruption in rural routes is less than in urban ones, and copper has less value to thieves...
And the outages when they do happen don't last as long....Gigaclear can find the fault if it's on their fibre much quicker than the competition as you can measure how far the light goes before the break...if it's on the suppliers' route then it gets fixed in line with their response times..
All that said if/when it goes down and you don't have a mobile signal or copper backup line.... Then the impact is obviously greater....
Don't get me wrong - I'd really like to use Gigaclear. We've got it in the village where we live, but unfortunately in the 2 years or so it took them to go from investigating to installing BT came in and put FTTC in.
I've raised a few issues with Gigaclear about the poor installation of the connections in the ground, but this doesn't seem to have been resolved. The other issue for me is the cost. Whilst a good 80-90% of the village will be able to be cheaply connected we are over 70 metres away from the point we would use and the cost rises a lot.
In the time we've been connected to 'BT' we haven't had any downtime whereas I think the Gigaclear option has been 'out' for at least two or three times and I think one of them was for quite some time.
I think the other issue is that there is no service level agreement... It's okay for individuals but not for businesses or working from home.
I almost pulled the trigger on a Gigaclear connection - but there are a few 'unknowns' for me with regards to the service - but of course each to their own situation!
I've raised a few issues with Gigaclear about the poor installation of the connections in the ground, but this doesn't seem to have been resolved. The other issue for me is the cost. Whilst a good 80-90% of the village will be able to be cheaply connected we are over 70 metres away from the point we would use and the cost rises a lot.
In the time we've been connected to 'BT' we haven't had any downtime whereas I think the Gigaclear option has been 'out' for at least two or three times and I think one of them was for quite some time.
I think the other issue is that there is no service level agreement... It's okay for individuals but not for businesses or working from home.
I almost pulled the trigger on a Gigaclear connection - but there are a few 'unknowns' for me with regards to the service - but of course each to their own situation!
Compared to A/VDSL it is, in my experience, more unreliable and prone to failure. I've not had a single period of unexpected downtime on my Zen-supplied ADSL line in the last 6 years that i can recall, besides a power issue which took the router down, and even then the phone line was obviously still active.
The emails/texts from Gigaclear were very prompt and frequent which was great, but just a shame i couldnt receive either of them until i plugged my ADSL back in
FTTP is the future and the service exceeds that of any copper line by many many times when it is working, and despite the obvious installation issues, i would absolutely recommend it. If you want a better SLA then you'll need to pay more for a business package not a residential one.
If you already have a 50mbps VDSL line however that you have no problem with, then i can also understand why at the moment you might not want to go to the expense of installing the fibre and using Gigaclear unless you really need the extra bandwidth, but i would say if you have multiple members of the family simultaneously using the internet to watch media services or consume other high-bandwidth services, or you want synchronous upload so you can basically treat the internet as an extension of your LAN for storage reasons, then there is no better alternative!
The emails/texts from Gigaclear were very prompt and frequent which was great, but just a shame i couldnt receive either of them until i plugged my ADSL back in
FTTP is the future and the service exceeds that of any copper line by many many times when it is working, and despite the obvious installation issues, i would absolutely recommend it. If you want a better SLA then you'll need to pay more for a business package not a residential one.
If you already have a 50mbps VDSL line however that you have no problem with, then i can also understand why at the moment you might not want to go to the expense of installing the fibre and using Gigaclear unless you really need the extra bandwidth, but i would say if you have multiple members of the family simultaneously using the internet to watch media services or consume other high-bandwidth services, or you want synchronous upload so you can basically treat the internet as an extension of your LAN for storage reasons, then there is no better alternative!
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