EE phone user but considering switch to EE Full Fibre

[Dingdongbell]

I'm planning to switch to EE for FTTP broadband. I've had a couple of phone conversations relating to installation concerns, and ideally I'd like these resolved by a site visit, but this is not possible except on installation day.

My questions are these:-

- my current FTTC has the coppers from a pole then to the corner of my house, through a hole in a downstairs window frame at the front of the house, and from there it snakes round to the middle of the house where the landline is. There are several right angles which copper can handle but fibre possibly not.

- my machines are upstairs and connected by a flying DSL lead to the downstairs wall phone box. There are no double power sockets until my copper arrives at the BT wall box. I think that fibre could be run further along the side of the house to enter close to where the BT box is and where there is a double socket. I want to keep using ethernet and I guess that I would have to have a flying ethernet cable following the path of the present arrangement and running  from downstairs to upstairs.

- I have two desktops connected to a TP-Link DSL modem router upstairs next to them, and I want to connect both via ethernet in any future setup.

- I also have a NAS drive connected into  the router and accessed by the two desktops in my LAN. 

Whilst I can use WiFi at a pinch for access on my desktops, the NAS drive has to be ethernet connected. 

If I am to continue this, I think that I will have to:-

- run the flying ethernet cable from the downstairs EE kit  to my upstairs office. I would then need to have some sort of junction box, at least 3-way, where the ethernet cable goes in one side and the input/outputs can the be cabled to each of my desktop ethernet ports and to the NAS drive.

Question-does such a splitter or junction box exist and if so, do they work all right, or at all?

I do not know how the EE fibre router is connected to the incoming fibre. Depending on that, would it be possible to have that device upstairs and close to my machines, and connected  by a cable or fibre in much the same way as my present modem router is connected to the downstairs DSL box?

I imagine that many people have the problem of a downstairs fibre connection and an upstairs office, and there must be ways of getting around this. I need to get all this sorted out in advance, as I am not in a position where I can have lack of internet access for anything more than an hour or two at the most, and I must have a seamless and almost simultaneous switch from my present ISP to EE.

All suggestions welcome and gratefully received.

[JimM11]

@Dingdongbell The position off the new ONT if possible to do would be best in the Upstairs room where all off your equipment is if it can possibly be done that way, the connection from the ONT to the EE Hub is by a single Ethernet cable, WAN connection on the Hub to the Lan connection on the ONT....

If you can have the Installation team do that when installing the system for sure the best option...

If not then you need to have ONE Ethernet cable run from the ONT to the position were your Hub is required to be!

Getting all additional if anything is required downstairs, Ethernet connection to a switch with a few ports on that but you now also have a second cable to run, and if wireless is needed and does not reach the locations, wired AP will be required for wireless wifi signal's.

See the link below for what i did...

Re: 74 Days since placingmy order and still No Broadband or Landline. - Page 2 - The EE Community

[Dingdongbell]

@JimM11 Thank you for your reply.

I'm afraid that putting the ONT upstairs isn't really a practical proposition as the exterior cabling will obstruct several things. I think it will have to follow the same route as the copper i.e. to the house corner and then down, along the side of the house and then through the external wall and next to the existing copper BT DSL  wallbox. In any event I will need to keep the existing ISP and wiring fully live until any EE replacement is 100% active and tested. The experience of the lady in Truro doesn't make for reassuring reading as far as timely installation and activation is concerned, and I have to admit it gives rise to concern about making this switch in a timely manner i.e. up and running with perhaps 2-3 hours to full implementation.

I have an elderly laptop downstairs which connects wirelessly OK to my Archer upstairs modem-router, as do downstairs TV set and radio, so I don't think that should be a problem as far as wifi connectivity is concerned.

I have been giving this some thought since first posting. If I understand it right, the ONT box is the RJ45 ethernet WAN modem portal for full FTTP, and which is then connected to the  EE fibre router. The ONT has to be in a fixed position (obviously) but the EE router can be positioned anywhere else with reach of a sensible run of ethernet cable; 20 metres is, I think, the usual maximum recommended distance. Looking at the specs, this has the main WAN RJ45 ethernet port, plus 4 more ethernet ports. In that case, it should be possible to run the RJ45 from ONT to upstairs, on the same route as the present DSL cable running to my upstairs Archer router, but using a 15 metre RJ45 cable. If I want to connect all equipment (3 desktops and NAS) via short ethernet cables to the EE router, then it will be more or less the same setup as I have at present. This would be good as I already have the local device to router ethernet cables and they are the right lengths. All I then need to purchase will be a 15 metre good quality  RJ45 ethernet cable to connect downstairs ONT with upstairs EE router. Unfortunately my Archer router doesn't support fibre, as if it did, I'd likely use that.         

I hope that this makes sense!                                                                                                                                                      

[JimM11 · Accepted solution]

@Dingdongbell Correct, the cable from your ONT to the position off the EE Hub, cat5e 8 cores all used is enough and length off that up to 100M in distance is all that is required, so if your ADSL cable run is the same just swap out that cable and replace it with a new RJ45 one, that will give you the WAN connection to the ONT that the Hub requires. From there you can do what ever is required for anything else.

If you feel that your Archer router is better to use then just set it up for connection to the system as a third part connection, that is linked below. You will have to redirect now to the wan port on the Archer instead of out the DSL port. You will lose the landline system if you have currently without using an EE Supplied Hub your choice to do so if needed.

How Do I Use My Own Router for EE Home Broadband? | Broadband Help | EE