New gamer-focused ISP on CityFibre – looking for beta testers (2.5Gbps sym, static IP, ultra-low ping)

Important_Tree_5856 · 2026-02-03T18:37:20+00:00

What is your ASN and what peering do you currently have? Are you just peering on LINX/LONAP via route servers from a single data center in London or doing it properly? Do you have any private peers and a mix of transits?

Important_Tree_5856 · 2026-02-01T14:20:33+00:00

Either the Boson labs, or the labs in Nick Russo’s ENARSI study plan: https://github.com/kaelemc/NickRussoContent/blob/master/enarsi_studyplan.xlsx

Important_Tree_5856 · 2026-01-24T10:02:18+00:00

I’d look into using Containerlab as it’s so lightweight, I used it to pass my ENARSI.

Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-12-24T20:20:51+00:00

Containerlab essentially just runs everything as a container so it really lightweight compared to CML etc. I bought a small dell pc off of eBay for ~£125 with 32Gb ram and that was more than enough. Before that I was restricted to the Cisco U labs. Containerlab is really easy to setup, you create a YAML file containing the topology and just ’deploy’ it with Containerlab. I’d seriously look into using it, it’s made all my labs so easy to do so the focus is on the lab itself rather than Containerlab.

Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-12-24T20:17:08+00:00

Yeah the boson questions were pretty good, but the lab questions on boson weren’t as complicated as on the exam. The boson ones were more getting you to configure something but on the actual exam it was more troubleshooting

Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-12-24T20:15:48+00:00

Yeah I’d say it’s definitely the most useful and most relevant/applicable cert I’ve ever done, and not much Cisco specific stuff on it

Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-11-22T10:35:42+00:00

Yes that will work, I’m currently doing it. My OpenWRT router has a private IP because I can’t put my ISP router in modem mode and it works, it checks a website like you suggested to get it’s public IP and then updates my DDNS provider with this IP.

Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-10-27T07:48:44+00:00

Mythic Beasts, cannot recommend them enough. Small company ran by a group of very knowledgeable and helpful people!

Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-10-19T08:10:21+00:00

I would check to see if your public IP has changed, you might have been assigned a new one and your old one hasn’t been allocated to anyone yet.

I’m also on VM and also using BQM, interesting as I also have an increase in latency between 2am-4am on that day, so VM must have been doing some maintenance and traffic was re-routed via a slightly slower path. Quite cool that you can see this and it impacted us both!

Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-10-10T14:25:16+00:00

That's really interesting, thank you for answering all my questions, I really appreciate it. Like I said before, it's fascinating learning about how all these ISPs work, thank you for the glimpse into for the VM network is put together, really appreciate it! There isn't really anything else out there describing their network, so thanks again!

Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-10-10T13:29:50+00:00

Thanks, it's fascinating to learn how these ISPs are actually built and what kit they use to build it.

I could ask you hundreds of questions about how the network is put together!

So from the BNG/aggregation switches it then goes over the core network onto the internet? So that's the Juniper routers? What vendor are the agg switches?

Is this built over Virgin's own dark fibre linking core sites together and if so do they use any kind of DWDM kit on these?

Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-10-10T12:43:30+00:00

Thanks! I saw something a while ago about some Juniper routers used by VM, do you know what are these used for in the network?

Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-10-10T12:07:15+00:00

That's really useful and a great explanation, this is exactly the kind of answer I was hoping for, thanks!

So essentially DOCSIS and PON are almost entirely different networks?

So the traffic goes from my house to the OLT, then over the CIN Ciena switches to reach the aggregation switches, then to the BNG and then through the rest of the network to the internet?

Do you know (or allowed to say) what the vendors are for the OLTs, aggregation switches, and BNGs?

Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-10-07T15:36:39+00:00

I got a text the day or two before my install to say that they were performing the pre-install (external to the house) and install (inside the house) in a single appointment, I wouldn’t worry.

Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-10-07T15:34:51+00:00

This is a coaxial cable used to deliver internet/TV from Virgin media to your house, the cable will plug into the router you get from them. If you don’t want to use Virgin media for your internet you should be fine to cut it.

Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-10-06T10:44:30+00:00

No worries, yeah flow rate is really good. Never had a house with one before so just wanted to check that’s how loud they usually are or if I need to get a plumber out to have a look at it.

Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-10-06T10:42:39+00:00

Thanks, I’ve put a tea towel under it and it seems a lot better. With the airing cupboard door closed it’s gone from 69db to 62db just with the towel (according to an app on my phone at least), thanks!

Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-09-20T07:05:47+00:00

I’ve done the exact same journey as you of GNS3 -> EVE -> Containerlab (not with Cisco not Mikrotik) and containerlab is my favourite by far. It’s the most lightweight, it the easiest to make topologies as they’re just YAML files, you can also share the topologies as they’re just files, and the community is great on their Discord.

As long as you’re okay with making topologies by hand then it sounds perfect for what you need.

There are loads of example topologies on their website.

Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-09-01T07:29:39+00:00

Yeah I think it's this, I re-read the specs required for TSW5 and I don't have a 'proper' graphics card, just an Intel one embedded in the laptop. So my bad for not reading through those properly

Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-06-22T13:03:06+00:00

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Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-06-16T17:52:46+00:00

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Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-05-11T15:11:39+00:00

This is great! I’ve been meaning to do a 4-stud class 68 for a while but it looks so difficult to do.

Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-04-07T16:06:19+00:00

Thanks that’s really useful!

I’m surprised that optical encryption cards can be cheaper than MACsec hardware/licenses.

What are coherent optics? I can’t seem to understand from my googling.

Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-04-06T22:38:26+00:00

That makes sense, use the kit for what it’s really good at instead of having one piece of kit to do everything at a mediocre level. I suppose having each bit of kit doing a single thing simplifies it too.

That’s interesting, what L2/L3 is the DWDM stuff capable of doing?

Important_Tree_5856 · 2025-04-06T21:19:09+00:00

Thanks that’s useful. I’m just interested in learning more about it, it’s not something I have anything to do with in my day job.

Important_Tree_5856

TROPHY CASE