EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

[miggle]

The weather was terrible, but the BT engineer was superb. For those who are curious the ONT Model is a 2023 Nokia with an orange 2.5Gb (also labelled as 2.5Gb) on the ONT. Plugged the ONT straight into my own hardware, and away I went.

Simple for me, although I did felt sorry for the engineer who had to climb up the pole in torrential rain to get a fresh cable across for me to my house.

So initial speed tests are below along with a comparison to my back-up supplier. I'm of course very happy with the results so far, and are completely within my acceptable speed range.

Initally testing with Ookla, and fast.com. BT ONT with 2.5Gb port

Fast.com reported 1.6Gb on the nose.

I always take Ookla speed testing with a grain of salt, but also good reports there (with my backup ISP below it for comparison). coming in at 1554.74

Ookla

 So there you have it! - I've still got more testing to do, as this is day 1. But any questions just ask.

[TuckerUK]

@miggle Was you with BT or another ISP before going with EE on the busiest home bundle?. 

[miggle]

The pictures aren't showing up yet probably. But I was and still am with an altnet fibre provider as now my backup line. I wasn't with BT previously so everything came in new. New Cable from the telegraph pole, new ONT - new everything.

[Warbs816]

Hi @miggle thanks for posting.

What hardware do you use in the rest of your home? I'm considering upgrading but I'm struggling to find hardware capable of exceeding gigabit speeds, that isn't ludicrously expensive

Thanks

[miggle]

Hi @Warbs816 my gear is sadly expensive, as it's party of my hobby.

I've got an Asus GT-AXE16000 as my main router, which links back into my home network through a 10GB Switch, and connected to that is my main office hardware, as well as an ASUS - GTAX11000, followed by an ASUS RT-AX92U which both provide part of my WiFi mesh network. This is all things that I've built up over a long period of time. If i was starting from scratch It would be  overkill to go with the setup that I've got, although I would still go with  a mesh network such as Amazon Eero's, the Asus option, or perhaps even getting a Unify Dream machine and buying additional components for that.

The cheapest option is of course to use the ISP supplied hardware, although in my case that would neither provide me full capacity of my network, or cover my old house fully.

It's a hobby without an end, as some point in the future I'll upgrade my mesh WiFi network to WFi7 - and then there will be some new shiny technology on the horizon that I'll want.

[Warbs816]

Thanks @miggle for the detailed reply, much appreciated 🙂 And thanks for confirming my suspicions!

I'd honestly not heard of ASUS AiMesh until looking into those routers just now, that definitely sounds like the best bet. I already have a 3 node mesh setup with wired backhaul so it would be a simple swap out. 

I did look into the UDM but I'd then need a rack and when adding in two 10Gbe SFP's and a 2.5Gbps capable switch + 3 AP's... it's silly money. And even the Amazon Eero Pro 6E only has a 2.5Gb WAN port, not LAN which is frustrating.

Your setup even beats the Orbi 960 in terms of price, so definitely a winner.

Thanks again!

[miggle]

you're welcome @Warbs816 . Oh I did try some orbi's but sent them back. The range on them was nuts, but the firmware was problematic.

[mountain-goat]

Hi Miggle

Was this part of the testing of the 1.6Gb or did you just purchase the service?

How did you hear about it?

Thanks.

[miggle]

@mountain-goat I purchased the service back in November 2023 (I heard they were taking orders for it it on a broadband website) , my go-live date was the 9th November. I had plenty of time to ensure my  internal network was up to scratch. The testing of the Orbi's that I did was prior to my install - i'm sure hardwired they would have been fine, but not as controllable as the ASUS routers, as the interface on the Orbi's sucked.

@Warbs816 Sorry for the slow response, I have a  computer upstairs with a 10gbe interface (GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS MASTER motherboard), directly connected to a 10Gbe switch, which is then hardwired to my Asus GT AXE16000 router downstairs using one of it's 10Gbe ports. (I've got a whole bunch of other devices connected too, including a NAS using a bonded network link) then the usual plethora xbox's, amazon echo's and various other wifi devices. I've also repurposed an old Asus GT AX11000 and an old Asus RTAX92U which provide my wifi mesh network, that combined cover the whole home in wifi.

A future upgrade for me, maybe in 2 years time will be to purchase a pair of Asus ROG Rapture GT-BE98 pro's to future proof myself with wifi-7, but that's a long way off, and not needed at present as I don't have any wifi-7 devices yet.

 

[mountain-goat]

Hi Miggle

Thanks for the reply. I have a small network at home with a couple of servers (Synology and Qnap) but not in your league!

The reason I'm asking is I am having a bit of an issue with EE to get this service and when the service became available is a key factor for me. Do you mind telling me roughly what part of the country you live in and if the service was easy to find on the EE website after you saw it on the broadband website as I have seen conflicting details searching on google i.e. one site suggests this service was not announced until early March this year and another matches with November last. Roughly where you live is only because it may have been available where you are but not where I are am, in Berkshire, last November.

Thanks again for your help.