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[carringj]

Hi,

I'm with BT broadband and have FTTP - touch wood, this has been super reliable over the past few months with no down time. When I had FTTC, my broadband was unreliable and I resorted to having a second broadband connection to serve as failover. When I looked at my BT account earlier this week, there was an option to add hybrid connect, which would provide backup broadband over 4G. I work from home 100% of the time so a reliable broadband is very important, although I have a strong EE signal with 5G so could tether on my phone if really needed.

Just wondering if anyone else on FTTP has a second broadband connection. I know that even with an FTTP connection you can experience issues, but given that it's more reliable, is a second broadband connection a waste of money? Just interested to hear your opinion.

Thanks

[Ronski]

A second broadband connection over the same fibre would be a waste of money for back up purposes, if you had two FTTP lines and someone took out the pole, or dug up the cables it would take out both lines.

If you have a good signal, then surely Hybrid connect is the better option, and cheaper, or just tether to your phone in an emergency, which is cheaper still so long as you have the data allowance.

[Chrysalis]

Now days my fallback is 4G.  I consider it adequate for essential parts of the internet.  Especially as I can hook up my phone to pfSense and basically my entire LAN has internet from that.

Even if you end up buying data for it when you having to use it, its going to be cheaper than paying all year round for a second fixed line connection "just in case".

[Alex Atkin UK]

I have SMARTY 5G as a backup as the fibre for that takes a slightly different route to my FTTP.  Still suspect a large chunk of the route back to the exchange will be the same, so it doesn't eliminate a fibre break knocking both out.  Though I'd probably still pickup a 4G signal if it did, but it would no doubt be contended like crazy as everyone else switches over too.

So it really comes down to what kind of failure situation you are trying to cater for.  I recon only Starlink would really be a robust, but that would be an insanely expensive option, possibly cheaper to lose a few days work.

[tubaman]

If you have enough data on your phone to cover an outage then I'd go for that as it's effectively free.

[Alex Atkin UK]

If you have enough data on your phone to cover an outage then I'd go for that as it's effectively free.

Agreed, the main reasons I have SMARTY as a dedicated backup is:
a) I qualify for the discounted tariff of £12/month
b) I load-balance with my gaming PC for faster downloads
c) If FTTP went down while I was out of the house, I need it to failover for my mum

If I only needed a backup for if I was at home, it would make sense to have the SIM in my phone.

[dee.jay]

I've kept my Starlink unit, moved to roaming and paused my connection.

So, if I wanted to, I could drop it in the garden, connect to my switch in the garden office, and opnsense will deal with it. Well, when I bother to set it up anyway. Could be expensive though I think you end up getting charged for the month if you turn it back on - so will be an expensive test for something I hopefully never need.

However, the idea of having a phone do this sounds very interesting too, must try that as 4G isn't too bad at least from my desk upstairs.

[Dwight]

Hi,

I'm with BT broadband and have FTTP - touch wood, this has been super reliable over the past few months with no down time. When I had FTTC, my broadband was unreliable and I resorted to having a second broadband connection to serve as failover. When I looked at my BT account earlier this week, there was an option to add hybrid connect, which would provide backup broadband over 4G. I work from home 100% of the time so a reliable broadband is very important, although I have a strong EE signal with 5G so could tether on my phone if really needed.

Just wondering if anyone else on FTTP has a second broadband connection. I know that even with an FTTP connection you can experience issues, but given that it's more reliable, is a second broadband connection a waste of money? Just interested to hear your opinion.

As a Home worker a Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) might actually be a good investment, especially if you live in an area that has a high number of brown outs.
As when the power goes down all your coms go down! 
But a 4G data sim would be your best option as it won't be reliant on the optical that had failed.
Regards,
Dwight

Thanks

[tiffy]

With respect to power outage protection with FTTP and UPS backup, I used this solution to maintain ONT power:
https://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,26792.msg451455.html#msg451455
Required as the ONT was situated away from the router/UPS unit.
Has worked without any issues for over 2 years.

I just run the router, local LL phone, network switch and RPi PiHole from the UPS, can easily get 2.5 hrs + of service with power outage on my 1000VA UPS unit.
I don't attempt to run my desktop PC/VDU from the UPS, this would obviously greatly reduce the BU time, should this be required the UPS would need to be sized to suit loading/required BU time.

Being situated adjacent to the major area hospital, power outages for me are rare, area is likely at the bottom of the power load shedding table, have found that it's prudent to regularly test the UPS BU to cycle/refresh the lead acid battery and this appears to extend the battery life, more importantly, ensures the UPS is still functional when required.   

[Alex Atkin UK]

have found that it's prudent to regularly test the UPS BU to cycle/refresh the lead acid battery and this appears to extend the battery life, more importantly, ensures the UPS is still functional when required.   

That's interesting as everything I read says you should avoid cycling Lead Acid batteries at all costs as every time you do it reduces the health.

[tiffy]

That's interesting as everything I read says you should avoid cycling Lead Acid batteries at all costs as every time you do it reduces the health.

Yes, I've seen quite a few different schools of thought on the subject.
My understanding regarding normal lead acid batteries is that deep discharge and prolonged maintenance in a fully discharged state can certainly be harmful and life shortening, I try to avoid either.

On my fairly low spec Oxxtron (Trust) 1000VA UPS I have had to replace the 9 Ah lead acid battery twice to date obtaining just over 2 years life on each, on last replacement a few months ago I took the time to closely monitor the units charge regime over quite a few days as I believed the battery was being over charged and this was possibly contributing to a shorter battery life.
To assist monitoring, I used a 12V bluetooth monitor/recorder module with mobile phone app, directly connected to the battery, found that the charging cycle was tapering off perfectly to practically zero when fully charged so certainly not being over charged.

The failure of the two previous batteries only came to light when power was removed and the UPS output collapsed within a minute or so, attempts to rejuvinate the batteries with a smart charger failed on both occasions, batteries had to be replaced.
So with the current battery and BT monitor in place I intend to periodically discharge/test battery life while being careful not to deep discharge, time will tell if this will produce a longer battery life but should certainly highlight any impending battery failure.   

[Ronski]

My UPS powers my entire house 

[Chrysalis]

Batteries, it seems there is no assurance they in good condition.

When I got my current UPS its run time was poor from day 1 although it did work just very under spec'd runtime.

As batteries were approaching 5 years old, I got some new ones 2 months ago, and the run time is only slightly different to the 5 year old one's I took out.

Of course batteries are a pain to ship anywhere as well as dispose off, so its a messy situation.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Batteries, it seems there is no assurance they in good condition.

When I got my current UPS its run time was poor from day 1 although it did work just very under spec'd runtime.

As batteries were approaching 5 years old, I got some new ones 2 months ago, and the run time is only slightly different to the 5 year old one's I took out.

Of course batteries are a pain to ship anywhere as well as dispose off, so its a messy situation.

I got a brand new Cyberpower unit as the old one kept moaning "battery voltage low" when the load on the UPS went above about 60% and I figured I will replace the battery later.

The new UPS does the same darn thing.

So basically I'm hoping it works, but mostly just using them as line conditioners to smooth out brown outs or other fluctuations in the grid.