Kitz ADSL Broadband Information
adsl spacer  
Support this site
Home Broadband ISPs Tech Routers Wiki Forum
 
     
   Compare ISP   Rate your ISP
   Glossary   Glossary
 
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Author Topic: Diary of my AAISP Soho::1 2TB install and service  (Read 3970 times)

Ixel

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 1282
Diary of my AAISP Soho::1 2TB install and service
« on: October 10, 2017, 02:11:17 PM »

Hi all,
Thought it might interest some if I make a thread outlining my order progress and eventually my general thoughts on my upcoming AAISP service versus that of my current line with Zen. As some here probably remember I've been having issues with my Zen FTTC service, an apparent intermittent issue with my line that a voice engineer can't find a fault with and BT/Openreach now consider resolved. The other problem is occasional drops in single threaded download speed particularly at peak times with a minor amount of packet loss (was worse until 'network operations team' did something). Due to this I've decided to order a second line as my current line is still sadly in contract until next year.

I ordered the second line (Soho::1 2TB) on the 20th September 2017 with a rather long and earliest installation date of 13th October 2017. I can't tell you how excited I am, I've been wanting to signup to AAISP for a long time after seeing what the company represents, how it's against things like content filtering and government spying on internet usage, and particularly for the highly positive reviews it gets, reputation it has with getting BT to get even the slightest problems sorted out, and the amount of control and information given to customers on their control panel.

This, https://i.imgur.com/vAqXExb.png, for example is one of the things I like. Complete transparency on the order progress. On Saturday it's basically saying a task for the exchange is done (presumably by a 'frames engineer') from what I can see. No other ISP I know of would actually give this amount of detail in the order progress other than generally a confirmed date and time slot and what to expect on the day.

I've had a chance to use their support before the order has been installed, though unintentional. Basically on 25th September 2017 in the evening I thought I'd try their L2TP service briefly after reading in the wiki that it accepts DSL credentials. Doing this I didn't realise it would also make the order think it had been installed, so I was in a bit of a panic until the following morning when I spoke to someone via the live chat and fortunately the Openreach appointment was still scheduled. However, not only did they reset the install date and such that was changed when I logged in via L2TP only to do a simple speed test, they also cancelled the upcoming billing charge! I was quite prepared to accept the charge given I had used a very small amount of data to do the speed test via L2TP, but credit to them they even did that. That's what I call an impressive start!

The IRC channel is incredibly useful. I used it a few times to ask a few questions such as my confusion over what the 'frames activity' message meant on the notes (see above screenshot link).

Requesting an IPv4 block was quick and easy, I already have the details ready to apply to my EdgeRouter on switchover day, however unlike Zen where I just have a block of /29 with AAISP I have a single IP and additionally a block of /29.

I'll post another update shortly after the installation is done, I'm told by someone on IRC however that a new line installation (second line in my case) with FTTC can take a few hours before the engineer closes the job. I'm unsure why but the person said their connection went up and down a few times for a few hours until the engineer closed the job. Either way I don't mind, I'll have some refreshments ready in case any are needed :).

If anyone has any questions feel free to say, otherwise I'll just use this thread primarily as an installation diary for anyone else considering AAISP in the future who might happen to come across my experience here.
Logged

burakkucat

  • Respected
  • Senior Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 38300
  • Over the Rainbow Bridge
    • The ELRepo Project
Re: Diary of my AAISP Soho::1 2TB install and service
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2017, 05:17:57 PM »

This, https://i.imgur.com/vAqXExb.png, for example is one of the things I like.

That certainly is impressive and I have seen similar, previously from Weaver's circuit. Not having been indoctrinated in the A&A way of doing their thing, I find it very confusing . . . the dates and times seem to "jump around".

I get the impression that it needs to be read from the bottom upwards and, in your case, there are three different "coloured streams". If just one colour is selected, then that image begins to make a little sense. But it is typical A&A. Complex and not intuitive.  :-\
Logged
:cat:  100% Linux and, previously, Unix. Co-founder of the ELRepo Project.

Please consider making a donation to support the running of this site.

Chrysalis

  • Content Team
  • Addicted Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 7382
  • VM Gig1 - AAISP L2TP
Re: Diary of my AAISP Soho::1 2TB install and service
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2017, 05:49:55 PM »

yes its great aaisp provide this information.
Logged

Ixel

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 1282
Re: Diary of my AAISP Soho::1 2TB install and service
« Reply #3 on: October 13, 2017, 02:21:56 PM »

New line installed, took the engineer a while as he had to connect it at the pole and then find the pair but it all went smoothly.

Good news is that the speed test is excellent, I ran one from dslreports (single threaded only): https://i.imgur.com/UWepEcR.png

Even more good news is that I'm syncing much faster than my old line did, currently 69033/17077 versus possibly 57xxx/13xxx (uncapped).

Bad news is that my rather excessive and continuous error seconds and CRC errors are still present so no doubt DLM will kick in soon, once I've collected enough data I'll see what AAISP have to say and hope they can help me eliminate this issue.

Otherwise so far I'm happy with AAISP's performance via TT wholesale back-haul :).

EDIT: Engineer also told me I'm on a new line card, which is nice.

Code: [Select]
DSLAM/MSAN type:        IFTN:0xb206 / v0xb206
has changed to...

Code: [Select]
DSLAM/MSAN type:        IFTN:0xd086 / v0xd086
« Last Edit: October 13, 2017, 02:26:27 PM by Ixel »
Logged

j0hn

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 4093
Re: Diary of my AAISP Soho::1 2TB install and service
« Reply #4 on: October 13, 2017, 02:30:44 PM »

Quote
DSLAM/MSAN type:           IFTN:0xd086 / v0xd086
Haven't seen that firmware in a while. Seems quite rare that we see it.
I recall it hammered the user NPR's upstream power/sync
http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,18140.msg329486.html#msg329486
and
http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,19065.msg339134.html#msg339134

So both your lines on the same DSLAM show different chipset versions?
Logged
Talktalk FTTP 550/75 - Speedtest - BQM

Ixel

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 1282
Re: Diary of my AAISP Soho::1 2TB install and service
« Reply #5 on: October 13, 2017, 03:09:43 PM »

Haven't seen that firmware in a while. Seems quite rare that we see it.
I recall it hammered the user NPR's upstream power/sync
http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,18140.msg329486.html#msg329486
and
http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,19065.msg339134.html#msg339134

So both your lines on the same DSLAM show different chipset versions?

Yes, they show different versions. This morning I was on a different version to that for sure.

Interesting!
Logged

Ixel

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 1282
Re: Diary of my AAISP Soho::1 2TB install and service
« Reply #6 on: October 16, 2017, 03:15:58 PM »

Just to provide a small update, everything's going fine still!

Oddly DLM hasn't intervened, but I did make a change here. I swapped over to the ECI /r from the HG612, however it's locked down so I can't check the error statistics. However I do know that I'm syncing at 71/16 as opposed to 69/17 and I'm still on fastpath (8ms ping now I did an LNS reset/PPP kill on the A&A control panel). I was being routed via somewhere else as I was getting a ping of 15ms until I did the PPP kill today to adjust something else and I definitely know I was still on fastpath at the time.

The BT estimate says 62/15 at best on one of my two lines so it's astonishing I'm getting 71/16 on the ECI /r (or 69/17 on the HG612) where my old/original line I believe had 57/13 at best.

I've bought an unlocked ECI /r with OpenWRT LEDE on, should arrive tomorrow and then I can see what the error statistics are all being well (perhaps even get a slightly better speed due to newer modem firmware?). I'll post another update tomorrow or the day after. Suffice to say I'm pretty happy with everything and hope to remain fastpath :).
Logged
 

anything