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Author Topic: Andrews and Arnold users out there?  (Read 2462 times)

Weaver

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  • Retd s/w dev; A&A; 4x7km ADSL2 lines; Firebrick
Andrews and Arnold users out there?
« on: January 05, 2018, 06:19:12 AM »

Who is an Andrews and Arnold user? Shout out if you're agreeable so I can say hello.

Following the revelations of jelv's report AA does seem to be getting soo much cheaper now, perhaps heading towards being more of a mainstream ISP rather than a niche one for very demanding or quality-conscious users.

For a lot of people though the lack of an old-fashioned landline telephone may be a showstopper. But then who really uses landlines any more? - What with VoIP ring ultra-cheap, if you can ever get it to work, and mobile phones. We have mobile phones and VoIP redirected to mobile currently because I can't get VoIP to work: too much fatigue, don't have the stamina to get the VoIP kit set up correctly, even with help from AA.

When Voip did sort-of work some years ago, if I remember correctly there were somtimes audio problems and perhaps it just used to fail when there was any kind of load on the network, I forget. I don't think that VoIP can handle a high-delay pipe such as mine, ultra-slow and heavily interleaved, with high jitter and even packet re-ordering due to the multi-line IP bonding. Perhaps it has never been tested on multi-line setups, or very long lines never mind the nightmare combination of both.
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vic0239

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Re: Andrews and Arnold users out there?
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2018, 07:55:28 AM »

I’m with AAISP, 2 VDSL2 lines with a single quota shared between both lines. Quota automatically balances each month when necessary.

Been using their VoIP service since day 1 without issue. I use the Firebrick as the gateway server and connect my Gigaset N300 and OBi202 into that. I have QoS set on my modems to allow priority to small packets on the upstream. However, you are probably right that line conditions will affect call quality. I sometimes chat to a friend (VoIP his end too) and I can tell if he is browsing as he breaks up a little. He has ADSL, but I don’t know what his connection speeds are like.
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Lothian Broadband 900/900 + AAISP VDSL, Vigor2865Vac, MikroTik rb260gsp, ZyXel NWA50AX WiFi AP.

Weaver

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Re: Andrews and Arnold users out there?
« Reply #2 on: January 05, 2018, 08:11:13 AM »

I've got a Siemens N300 - used to have it working, then got a replacement unit which I have never managed to get set up for some reason.
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jelv

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Re: Andrews and Arnold users out there?
« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2018, 08:14:42 AM »

I'm on the home::1 VDSL with the minimum allowance. My line rental is with Pulse8 as with with their cheap line rental (£13) and non-ripoff call charges (1p per minute peak time, per second billing and NO call setup fee) it save me a lot.

I also have a Sipgate account to give me a second line - no issues with quality, but when they dug up the pavement outside our house to get power for the cabinet there shouldn't be!

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Broadband and Line rental: Zen Unlimited Fibre 2, Mobile: Vodaphone
Router: Fritz!Box 7530

Weaver

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Re: Andrews and Arnold users out there?
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2018, 08:45:18 AM »

Speedof.me results: 7.77 Mbpsdownstream, 1.27 Mbps upstream
   

ThinkBroadband results, really poor this morning, 6.9 Mbps downstream, 1.0 Mbps upstream:

« Last Edit: January 05, 2018, 09:04:11 AM by Weaver »
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jelv

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Re: Andrews and Arnold users out there?
« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2018, 09:08:36 AM »

You may consider that poor, but it does prove how well the multi-line load sharing works with very little difference between the x1 and x6 tests!
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Broadband and Line rental: Zen Unlimited Fibre 2, Mobile: Vodaphone
Router: Fritz!Box 7530

adrianw

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Re: Andrews and Arnold users out there?
« Reply #6 on: January 05, 2018, 10:54:03 AM »

A recent and happy AAISP escapee from BT and Plusnet here.  Jelv's experience sold me.

Home: Soho:1 2TB, VMG1312-B10D, Netgate SG-4860 (PFsense), Pulse 8 landline. Recently switched. adrianw at MDWS. ~ 100 m line.


Remote: Home:1 1TB, VMG1312-B10D, Netgate SG-2220 (PFsense), AAISP landline. Switched in mid December. adrianws at MDWS. ~ 600 m line.


Not tempted by voice over IP.
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Weaver

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Re: Andrews and Arnold users out there?
« Reply #7 on: January 05, 2018, 05:24:12 PM »

@jelv  I meant poor compared to the other speed testers’ figures and also compared to numbers obtained a short while back. Performance has dropped a fair bit since the crazy high of mid december when the first lot of snow was around. Perhaps I should buy a few thousand tons of wet conductive sand and pour it over the nearest three to four miles of cable where it is lying on top of the ground.

Agreed, the IP bonding really really works, superbly, even with three lines. I'm told it starts to deteriorate a bit past four, but some people apparently have six lines. I notice that Netflix downloads four programme episodes at a time when you are downloading it at full speed and saving it.

(I would love to get a fourth line. Would have to fiddle about with VLANs though as the Firebrick has no free ethernet ports on it to physically plug more modems in, but that isn't an unsolvable problem at all as it does speak VLANs and I'm told you just get some hardware to multiplex/demultiplex them. Mrs Weaver will definitely growl at me though.)
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steveharriss

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Re: Andrews and Arnold users out there?
« Reply #8 on: April 25, 2018, 06:35:14 PM »

Joined in January having had my fill of Plusnet (...and TalkTalk, and BT) before. It's been an absolute joy to have a company that actually supports the end-user. I have gone from 3-10Mb Down, 2 Up to a pretty consistent 64+Mb Down, 20Mb Up on exactly the same wires.

I've been so impressed that I've actually shelled out for an FB2900 to replace a home-brewed pfsense. The initial support has been great but if there are any tips on configuration out there I'd be delighted to hear about them. Currently working through trying to prevent my 10 year old accessing the naughtier parts of the internet inadvertently!

The FB hands out DNS servers to his android devices using the MAC addresses but then they just ignore it and connect to the undesirable sites anyway. Very frustrating. I'm wildly guessing that it has something to do with android preferring IPv6 and that it is therefore using the defaults there and I can't find where to control that....

Bit of a learning curve but I like a challenge  :)
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DaveC

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Re: Andrews and Arnold users out there?
« Reply #9 on: May 08, 2018, 10:13:12 PM »

(I would love to get a fourth line. Would have to fiddle about with VLANs though as the Firebrick has no free ethernet ports on it to physically plug more modems in, but that isn't an unsolvable problem at all as it does speak VLANs and I'm told you just get some hardware to multiplex/demultiplex them. Mrs Weaver will definitely growl at me though.)

I do this - at home I have independent VDSL (personal account with A&A - Home::1TB) and ADSL (work-provided, on the old Units tariff).  I've also recently helped a client do the same for a 3 x ADSL A&A bonded setup.

For "some hardware", in both cases I used the Netgear GS105E 5-port "smart" switch (it's quite small - about 10cm square).  It's £20 on Amazon (other web retailers are available).  One port plugs into the firebrick (I use port 5), then ports 1-4 are available for modems.

I would be happy to talk you through the config - it's not that complicated, but also the netgear webgui doesn't make it obvious.  I think A&A also have some info on their wiki (for a HP switch, but it should give you an idea).
 
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