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#61
IDNet Help / Re: SoGEA
Last post by peasblossom - Nov 30, 2025, 00:01:32No doubt they do, but still, it'd be nice if they used IDNet's name.
Just City Fibre here, so it's going to be a while (= who knows how long) before we (the city generally, I mean) can take advantage of any of the cheaper full fibre deals, leaving aside the wait time for *any* full fibre possibility.
Just City Fibre here, so it's going to be a while (= who knows how long) before we (the city generally, I mean) can take advantage of any of the cheaper full fibre deals, leaving aside the wait time for *any* full fibre possibility.
#62
IDNet Help / Re: SoGEA
Last post by nowster - Nov 29, 2025, 00:07:30Quote from: peasblossom on Nov 28, 2025, 19:51:54Why does Openreach not recognise IDNet? I mean in one sense yes they do, but I just got a survey (because obviously) and they were asking about what messages I got from Zen about the visit.
Probably because your circuit is on Zen's backhaul. (IDNet don't always use their own circuits.)
Conversely I got an email from IDNet today saying they've got connections with lots of new Altnets including Netomnia. Now, given Netomnia (YouFibre/brsk) have just last month fibred up my local telegraph pole in Manchester, I was interested to see what IDNet's checker showed. Nope! Netomnia haven't yet been added to the checker.
(Not that I could place an order yet, as Vermin Meeja have me in contract for another 12 months.)
#63
IDNet Help / Re: SoGEA
Last post by peasblossom - Nov 28, 2025, 19:51:54Why does Openreach not recognise IDNet? I mean in one sense yes they do, but I just got a survey (because obviously) and they were asking about what messages I got from Zen about the visit.
#64
IDNet Help / Re: SoGEA
Last post by peasblossom - Nov 27, 2025, 22:42:06Sorry, it's taken me an absolute age to see this for some reason. It turned out it hadn't actually been switched over (engineer says this happens) and further, the router needed a factory reset, which sounds more drastic than it is. For this, the odd pin thing they give you to open the sim drawer in phones or tablets is ideal.
Log in details pretty much the same, yes. I did need an adapter for my laptop as I'd not realised that, in the multitude of ports it does have, an ethernet one was not included.
Log in details pretty much the same, yes. I did need an adapter for my laptop as I'd not realised that, in the multitude of ports it does have, an ethernet one was not included.
#65
IDNet Help / Re: UBoss Basic Phone Service ...
Last post by nowster - Nov 27, 2025, 22:37:35The FTTP link had been rock solid from July 2022 to August 2025.
That outage was a "stuck session" at a LNS, even though that was only fixed after OpenReach engineers had come, scratched their heads, swapped the ONT box, then gone away with "No Fault Found".
Of course, the OpenReach field engineers get confused by anything that isn't a BT HomeHub. ("Where's the blue light?") Me showing them a tcpdump of outgoing PPPoE PADI frames with no response from the far end meant nothing to them.
That fault was only Saturday to Wednesday. This one's going to be three weeks tomorrow.
For the first two and a half days there was definitely something on the other end (flashing PON light meaning something was signalling on the fibre from the other end) but that OLT must have been switched off when someone visited the exchange and realised there was no working upstream connection.
The weird thing is that both faults started within 5 minutes of 6am.
That outage was a "stuck session" at a LNS, even though that was only fixed after OpenReach engineers had come, scratched their heads, swapped the ONT box, then gone away with "No Fault Found".
Of course, the OpenReach field engineers get confused by anything that isn't a BT HomeHub. ("Where's the blue light?") Me showing them a tcpdump of outgoing PPPoE PADI frames with no response from the far end meant nothing to them.
That fault was only Saturday to Wednesday. This one's going to be three weeks tomorrow.
For the first two and a half days there was definitely something on the other end (flashing PON light meaning something was signalling on the fibre from the other end) but that OLT must have been switched off when someone visited the exchange and realised there was no working upstream connection.
The weird thing is that both faults started within 5 minutes of 6am.
#66
IDNet Help / Re: UBoss Basic Phone Service ...
Last post by zappaDPJ - Nov 27, 2025, 17:43:59We are experiencing regular outages on our FTTP connection again. I'm pretty sure it's due to some kind of OpenReach maintenance but it's a right pain.
#67
IDNet Help / Re: UBoss Basic Phone Service ...
Last post by Simon - Nov 27, 2025, 17:33:35The more technology moves forward, the more unreliable it seems to be. 
#68
IDNet Help / Re: UBoss Basic Phone Service ...
Last post by nowster - Nov 27, 2025, 12:54:30So I get all the kit ready at Dad's, including an old NTE5 master socket with split phone/DSL faceplate to use to plug the RJ11 cable from the VoIP ATA box into so that I can wire in the existing extension socket cabling easily...
Asterisk configured on the router. The Grandstream HT812v2 ATA configured to talk to it.
The old black Cisco 7940 unit configured to talk to the local Asterisk server rather than the one on the far end of the VPN to my home in Manchester. The Cisco phone had been used for international calls with "Internetcalls".
IAX2 link between the two Asterisk instances configured and tested.
Incoming calls from SipGate working. I've had a local number on this dialling code for years, incoming only. I used to have the speaking clock on it.
Backup battery (1kWh LiFePo solar power bank) to run the whole shebang for about 48 hours during a power cut. (We had two last winter.)
All this in preparation to tell iDNet we don't want to renew the copper PSTN when it's up for re-billing in January, and to transfer the number to A&A.
And the following morning (Sat 8 Nov) the FTTP goes dead.
It's still dead (LOS light) today as there's a massive OpenReach fault in this area. I've heard they're waiting on being able to dig up the road somewhere. Current ETA for the fix is tomorrow evening, but I'm not holding my breath.
The landline still works of course.
Thankfully EE has pretty good 5G here but only one mast for the whole area.
Asterisk configured on the router. The Grandstream HT812v2 ATA configured to talk to it.
The old black Cisco 7940 unit configured to talk to the local Asterisk server rather than the one on the far end of the VPN to my home in Manchester. The Cisco phone had been used for international calls with "Internetcalls".
IAX2 link between the two Asterisk instances configured and tested.
Incoming calls from SipGate working. I've had a local number on this dialling code for years, incoming only. I used to have the speaking clock on it.
Backup battery (1kWh LiFePo solar power bank) to run the whole shebang for about 48 hours during a power cut. (We had two last winter.)
All this in preparation to tell iDNet we don't want to renew the copper PSTN when it's up for re-billing in January, and to transfer the number to A&A.
And the following morning (Sat 8 Nov) the FTTP goes dead.
It's still dead (LOS light) today as there's a massive OpenReach fault in this area. I've heard they're waiting on being able to dig up the road somewhere. Current ETA for the fix is tomorrow evening, but I'm not holding my breath.
The landline still works of course.
Thankfully EE has pretty good 5G here but only one mast for the whole area.
#69
IDNet Help / Re: UBoss Basic Phone Service ...
Last post by stan - Nov 26, 2025, 00:31:55Quite so, Simon ..... I keep saying to my neighbour that he'll have to start thinking about getting fibre one day and deciding who to go with and whether to keep his landline .... and still he carries on as he is and still there's no word of him being forced to do anything - so I suppose he might as well just carry on as he is. But I do believe there is an actual projected date when it's all supposed to change over. He uses VOXI for his mobile (£10 a month with calls included) and TalkTalk for his ADSL broadband (via a copper pair, obviously). His landline is TalkTalk too. He's 85 and so it's just possible he need not actually do anything - or maybe that's not quite the right thing to say ...... No, you're right - it's not.
All the time you have your PSTN then, like my neighbour, you can simply carry on although when the Openreach installer was here he did say something along the lines - it's better to get the FTTC in and up and running sooner rather than later in case there's any sort of "rush" when the cut off date draws near and a load of people start realising they need to get it done and there's a backlog of some sort - and he did go on to try to explain that there's some technical reason why it's best not to leave it to the last available moment ... it was something to do with the actual number of connections available between the connection in the street and the main 'exchange' where all the individual fibre circuits finish up - but I didn't understand it at the time and I still don't understand what he was saying. Either way it'll all come out in the wash.
I do have to say that the new VOIP arrangement wasn't particularly difficult to sort out - I contacted the new provider (who I have already named) and filled in an application for them to port my old number over to themselves (which was was all painless) and when, after a few days, they told me it was "live" I connected a single cable from the new ONT box that Openreach provided into the back of the new TP Link router that Idnet provided and plugged my old analogue phone(s) into a small splitter/adaptor type thing that A&A kindly posted out to me and basically it worked. I completed an online form for A&A with my details and with a few settings that they helped me with and it then worked, and has done since. You can choose how to have your incoming calls dealt with and can change your settings just by going on to the website and changing it then and there. Even I could manage it.
Anyway that's enough. Carry on regardless
All the time you have your PSTN then, like my neighbour, you can simply carry on although when the Openreach installer was here he did say something along the lines - it's better to get the FTTC in and up and running sooner rather than later in case there's any sort of "rush" when the cut off date draws near and a load of people start realising they need to get it done and there's a backlog of some sort - and he did go on to try to explain that there's some technical reason why it's best not to leave it to the last available moment ... it was something to do with the actual number of connections available between the connection in the street and the main 'exchange' where all the individual fibre circuits finish up - but I didn't understand it at the time and I still don't understand what he was saying. Either way it'll all come out in the wash.
I do have to say that the new VOIP arrangement wasn't particularly difficult to sort out - I contacted the new provider (who I have already named) and filled in an application for them to port my old number over to themselves (which was was all painless) and when, after a few days, they told me it was "live" I connected a single cable from the new ONT box that Openreach provided into the back of the new TP Link router that Idnet provided and plugged my old analogue phone(s) into a small splitter/adaptor type thing that A&A kindly posted out to me and basically it worked. I completed an online form for A&A with my details and with a few settings that they helped me with and it then worked, and has done since. You can choose how to have your incoming calls dealt with and can change your settings just by going on to the website and changing it then and there. Even I could manage it.
Anyway that's enough. Carry on regardless
#70
IDNet Help / Re: UBoss Basic Phone Service ...
Last post by Simon - Nov 25, 2025, 20:07:19Glad to hear things worked out for you, Stan. 
There's still no word of my PSTN line being switched off, so I'm still in blissful ignorance of what delights VoIP might hold.
There's still no word of my PSTN line being switched off, so I'm still in blissful ignorance of what delights VoIP might hold.