My current broadband contract is up for renewal in September, and since City Fibre is now available on my street, I’m looking for a 150 Mbps connection.
I’d like a list of recommended providers that definitely offer a fixed or dynamic IPV4 address with their residential service. Thanks.
Is IdNet available in your area?
Both IdNet and Zen are on my shortlist for when my current BT contract expires. Both offer a static IPv4 address and a fixed IPv6 prefix.
There may be other options listed in the ISPReview list at:
Virgin are ipv4 but not fixed as it’s DHCP, that said my ip doesn’t ever seem to change unless I have had a new model of modem from them. However I would not recommend them to anyone being a user of them myself. I have no choice as they have monopoly currently in my area and they are a pain in the neck. There was some movement on a community fibre project but not heard anything from it other than a register interest.
I was with Virgin Media (Docsis 3.1 service ~ 1Gbps) and found that, for many purposes, the BT 500Mbps FTTP services that I am currently on gives better performance.
The problem with Docsis cable modems is that they inject a large latency - 20 to 40ms ping times to uk servers compared to 5-7ms for BT FTTP. This means that ‘chatty’ protocols where each end has to respond before the other end can continue perform much better.
Having said that, I never had issues with audio (or video) streaming on Virgin Media.
Virgin Media do not yet offer an IPv6 solution if that is important to you.
I would never use BT either had awful experiences with them back in ADSL days and their customer service is as bad. I’m just waiting it out until some alternatives show up.
The introductory offer was too good to miss at the time.
To be fair, I have had zero issues with the fttp service but they do have some strange policies.
Why on earth would you issue a dynamic IPv6 prefix?
The whole point of IPv6 is that there are sufficient addresses for everyone to have a fixed prefix.
Anyway, I shall be moving on when my contract expires.
No complaints about service reliability though. Much, much better than VM.
I am with you Wade.
I moved from VM to BT FTTP almost a year ago and I have been very happy with the service so far.
My Orbi router is plugged directly into the BT wall box and I never plugged the router in.
IdNet only provide partial fibre via OpenReach in my area, so not a contender. I’ll probably sign up for Zen as their service is highly rated, prices fixed during the contract, and, as far as I can see, prices aren’t hiked up at the end of the contract.
I won’t use Virgin again as their service is poor, and switching costs are high if you can’t get a good renewal deal.
TalkTalk are also one to avoid.
Thanks for the comment. Keep them coming; I’ll update the OP, so others may benefit in futue.
Incidentally, Zen uses City Fibre in my area.
Zen provide a Fritz!Box, and I’m hoping I can pass through PPPoE or set it to modem mode, so I can leave my home network intact.
I’m currently using Now Broadband (Sky) and you have to use their router, so I run my own router off the DMZ port to avoid double NAT.
I’m with Virgin Media. Been with them since 2008. Other than local outages a few times, their service has been reliable for me. Never needed their tech support. Costs, yes, keep going up and up.
If you manage to get a good deal I think they’re ok.
At the end of each contract period I phone up and complain likely hell about the increase in my bill, not value for money. Complain I’ll leave and in the end I manage to speak to folks based in the UK who end up giving me a hefty discount each time.
For my wife to work from home I need the reliability.
As @CrystalGipsy mentions, my IP hasn’t changed for ages. I operate their box in modem mode.
Was considering Lila Connect, but I work on their AC systems in their Stoke office and have heard them speak to customers and them about customers off the phone and I was appalled by their attitude.
I’m with LightSpeed and they are very good at customer service, last week I had an outage, I called them up and a team were working at the pole next to mine within twenty minutes.
They are competitive price wise for the 1Gb service with a fixed IPV6 address that gives me rock solid connectivity in the house and perfect ARC service away from home.
With Openreach fttp services, an ONT to convert the optical signal to ethernet is installed on your interior wall. This is the only ‘modem’ required. Thereafter you can connect any router you like to the ONT and just change the Internet connection to Pppoe with the supplied login details. There should be no need to use the Fritz box and your own router.
When I was with VM I used modem mode on the VM Hub and then used my Asus router. On moving to BT, all that I did was:
That was it. New service fully up and running for Ipv4 with all local network settings completely unchanged.
Admittedly, I did have to then set up IPv6 related stuff (open firewall pinholes etc) but that was expected.
I believe, from previous posts, that the experience of @Michael_Harris was much the same.
I was with NTL and then VM from 1997 to 2022. For most of that time I had no service issues. However, throughout the last 12 months I was with them, the service availability was appalling with relatively frequent dropouts in service for an hour or two and, on more than one occasion more than a day. Their customer service was totally unable to help insisting that it must be my network (it was not). Even with evidence from Think broadband Quality Montor, I was unable to convince them that there was a fault or get the the promised refund for service unavailability.
This is what Think Broadband Quality Monitor has to say about my current BT service over the last 24 hours:
Since lockdown Virgins service for outages has got worse and worse and we get far more very temporary ones. It’s hard to tell if it’s their infrastructure or crappy home hardware. My neighbour gets same issues so it’s not my network and he just uses all their kit. I’ve tried to convince him otherwise!!!
This is why when the always on internet requirement popped up with Roon it annoyed me very much. Not much I can do other than complain as I said no competition or it’s back to ADSL.
I was a Zen customer on ISDN for many years and they were probably the best ISP I ever used.
Fritzbox look like good devices if you end up needing to use it
Yes that is spot on.
I wasn’t expecting it to work and it took a bit of Googling to find the correct information, but once set up a specific VLAN tag on the Orbi it all went painlessly.
I just did a search on using Zen internet with you own router and found this:
Setting the VLAN tag id is not necessarywith BT. I’m not convinced that spoofing the fritzbox MAC address is necessary.
The use of 911 vlan id appears to be confirmed by the posts in the thread at Zen ISP (UK) setup on OpenWrt router - #5 by Llethur - Network and Wireless Configuration - OpenWrt Forum
Edit: I have subsequently found that setting the VLAN id is necessary for BT if you have 802.1Q enabled in the WAN settings of your router. My router, by default, does not have 802.1Q enabled and so no VLAN id was necessary.
Pretty much what I had to do with BT as well.
It just didn’t engage until I put the vlan tag in.
I spoke to them and they said that something about the wall box was new, and just plugging it in didn’t work.
Strange. I didn’t have to. I let them install with the BT home hub. Left it for a few hours for the network connection to get established and for BT to do their post install comissioning (running on VM in the meantime). And then just removed the BT home hub and connected the ASUS. No vlan tag required.
It might be related to what the engineer told me was a new wall box and it was the first one he had installed. He had to use the HomeHub to complete the circuit, but boxed it all back up for me when he was done. I was not allowed to plug my own router in until he had left which was strange. A bit of Googling found the VLAN solution and been perfect since that day.
It has been a good experience since then, after VM tried to fleece me after 5 years of being with them
