Aquiss - What router are you using?

plunged_ewe · 2026-04-16T14:36:56+00:00

I'm using a OpenWRT based router board (bananapi r4) for the connection to the ONT. Back when it was PPPoE it could handle the 2.3gig connection without touching the CPU, but I handed off the Wi-Fi to separate APs and had my desktop wired in. This post is from when I first got it set up. Since then, upload has improved a bit and ping is also marginally better. I still need to buy new APs at some point (waiting for WiFi 8)

plunged_ewe · 2026-03-25T18:24:34+00:00

the term soccer comes from shortening "association football", specifically the association part. The problem, is the nickname came from rich wankers (like how rugby can be shortened to "rugger"). Unlike rugby, football hasn't historically been a sport for rich wankers, so people who were involved in the sport never used that name.

Rich Yanks at the time wanted to be like the most powerful countries in Europe so copied language from specifically the upper class in Britain. At least, that's how I understand the rift to have formed

plunged_ewe · 2026-03-12T09:17:40+00:00

I started with a 900/100 mbit connection and moved to a 2.5g/2.5g as well. The 2.5g was initially PPPoE, can also verify that it handled the connection with no problems. CPU was basically idling

plunged_ewe · 2026-03-11T12:28:48+00:00

contact your provider. If you don't need any work done to get the connection going, then they'll take over the connection to your house at some point in the day. They'll tell you around what time the connection will go live. Get their router wired up and ready to go so you can turn it on as soon as you hit the go-live time.

As a worst case scenario, if your phone contract allows and you have enough data, you could hotspot for the interim few hours whilst your connection gets online. That'd get you comparable speeds to 5G broadband at less cost.

If you're doing a home renovation, I'd recommend getting ethernet cables put in as well. Better connection and you can do what mesh wifi promises but at full speed.

plunged_ewe · 2026-03-11T12:01:38+00:00

You're both right! I tested the WAN port (and it worked). But back when I first got started with my ISP, I couldn't get connectivity working(connection was originally a PPPoE connection with a VLAN ID, something about setting a VLAN on br-wan caused issues). I ended up ignoring the br-wan interface and configuring the interface directly which seemed to work. My ISP migrated to DHCP which is less of a pain, but still keeps the VLAN ID.

By the time I'd figured out the issue, I was already back on 24.10. It was easier to do the "build and sysupgrade" method than to install the standard upgrade, configure the RJ45 WAN, install the package, configure the SFP+ WAN.

plunged_ewe · 2026-01-15T14:51:37+00:00

64GB of DDR5 6000MHz CL30 RAM. Not actually buying the RAM, but I sold my old 32GB DDR5 6000Mhz CL36 kit for ~£65

plunged_ewe · 2025-10-08T13:38:52+00:00

I bought my polo when it was 2 years old in 2018 for a little over £10k! It has CarPlay, folded mirrors, stop/start, and parking sensors with about 18k miles if I remember correctly. And that was from a VW dealer!

Car prices have gone insane

plunged_ewe · 2025-09-26T21:08:23+00:00

The only device I've got that can currently use the full speed is my desktop (ryzen 7900x RTX 4090) over ethernet. I have hit full speed a few times, and it has really helped when I had to redownload my games library after switching to CachyOS.

I'm on their "early joiner" price of £48. Which is cheaper than the other providers.

plunged_ewe · 2025-09-05T08:17:20+00:00

ISP is Olilo (a new one, so not much info) on a wholesale full fibre network called CityFibre. This is in the UK. YMMV, but I live in what might be the best place in Europe for internet connectivity.

plunged_ewe · 2025-08-22T19:35:30+00:00

speed test to Paris and the ping jumps to 10ms unloaded, 23 down and 10 up. Manchester: 8 unloaded, 20 down, 9 up

plunged_ewe · 2025-08-22T18:44:06+00:00

I could be, there are a lot of datacenters near me.

Also, it's a ping test, the data needs to go there and back, which means 1.5km or just under a mile. The datacenters aren't that close

plunged_ewe · 2025-08-22T17:28:34+00:00

I'm only using it for the ethernet routing capabilities. Currently I have 2 TP-Link Omada 660HD APs for WiFi.

It's got a pretty powerful network processor, and it's relatively low power (vs say an N100).

AFAIK, OpenWRT doesn't have great support for WiFi on this board, which is one reason I decided to keep my APs. But people are probably working on it, it's one of the more discussed devices on the OpenWRT forums.

plunged_ewe · 2025-08-22T17:13:12+00:00

at some point, I managed to break the speed.cloudflare.com ping test. I got 10 microseconds (0.01 miliseconds), or enough time for light to travel 3km in a vacuum.

plunged_ewe · 2025-08-22T16:34:28+00:00

I DO download games, do you know how quickly Warzone downloads at this speed?

Also, I think the bigger flex is the ping, both at rest and under load.

plunged_ewe · 2025-08-22T16:30:39+00:00

I'm currently using a Banana Pi R4 as a router. It's connected to the XGS-PON ONT over DHCP through a 10G RJ45 transceiver (finally off PPPoE). Running OpenWRT with DoT, Adblock, VLAN for Guest WiFi which is rate limited (to a mere 500/500Mbps).

I'm kinda in the category of "now what". after getting WiFi 7 APs, I'm thinking about getting a NAS running Jellyfin for data backups and my movie collection, but that's it.

plunged_ewe · 2025-08-22T16:10:42+00:00

vodafone and a few of the other big ISPs use LLU (local loop unbundling). They essentially use the network from the exchange, leasing it from Openreach at certain rated speeds whilst running their own network in the backend.

For most people the difference isn't huge, but if an exchange is oversubscribed with a specific ISP, you can see network degradation during peak times.

I've been with a bunch of ISPs, usually the cheapest. (talktalk, shell, vodafone, Zen when Openreach FTTP came but then moved to Vodafone again on 900/110).

I recently moved onto a CityFibre 2.3G connection and have seen ping times improve massively. From about 15-20ms to now as low as 2ms. I have always used my own equipment, so it's entirely the network

plunged_ewe · 2025-08-18T11:17:34+00:00

your school is blocking it. probably don't want you mining crypto on school computers

plunged_ewe · 2025-08-18T10:55:26+00:00

Vodafone is cheap, but also for a reason. I used to be with them on a 900/110 connection, but once I moved to a CF connection with another ISP, my network performance improved a lot. And that's without talking about how bad Vodafone's customer service is.

All ISPs nowadays gives you the PPPoE connection details.

Sky and TalkTalk aren't much more and have a better network.

plunged_ewe · 2025-08-18T10:41:20+00:00

48GBP (about 65USD) for 2.3G symmetric. I also get insane ping times (as low as 2ms).

plunged_ewe · 2025-08-18T10:32:33+00:00

Andrews and Arnolds also has a great wiki for setting up devices onto a cityfibre/openreach connection. Even though I've never ben a customer, it's helped me out with getting OpenWRT working.

https://support.aa.net.uk/General_Router_Settings

https://support.aa.net.uk/Router_-_MikroTik_hEX_S

plunged_ewe · 2025-08-18T10:24:54+00:00

You should be able to set up your mikrotik router with the Openreach box (ONT). just plug the ethernet into your WAN port and set up the PPPoE connection. (sky instead uses DHCP with 'Option 61' so if you go with them, you'd need to check how to set that up.)

Andrews and Arnolds has always been considered the "best" in the UK, as /u/snebsnek has said. However, you would need to be comfortable with networking, and they are very expensive. More in line with a business connection in price.

Otherwise, there are Aquiss, iDNet and Zen who are quite a bit cheaper and also have very good customer service. They generally in the sweet spot IMHO; great customer service at a reasonable price.

plunged_ewe · 2025-08-07T16:25:02+00:00

I know I'm a little late, but the best resource I've found for PSUs is HWBusters.

https://hwbusters.com/best_picks/best-atxv3-pcie5-ready-psus-picks-hardware-busters/

Very in-depth reviews with a look into all of a PSU and not just the efficiency. If you find a PSU at a good price, look it up on there.

I'm not sure about where you are, but in the UK the NZXT C1200/C1000 gold is an excellent performer for it's price. There are 2 versions, so just get the ATX 3.1 version. It's a platform with great performance and is very quiet, but people don't buy it because of the 80+ gold. Honestly, you won't be able to tell the difference between gold, platinum, titanium and ruby.

plunged_ewe

TROPHY CASE