topic Re: Home lab in Everything else

Home lab

Halfhidden — Sat, 20 May 2023 20:25:47 GMT

I'm looking to join Plusnet with full fibre as I've had FTTP since 2014 and even BT think I haven't.

Right I run a home lab consisting of a couple of Dell servers. One has my own domain server that runs a history website for me and the other runs an email server and Nextcloud.
I'm signing up for residential as none of the stuff I do is commercial in the fact that I don't charge for it and I'm a chef by trade. Although the website is available for all to enjoy.
In order for me to move I would need at least a single static ip and I'm guessing that Plusnet is dynamic by default. Also for emails to work I would need to set up rdns because my email server uses my domain.

Is any of this possible?

Re: Home lab

MisterW — Sun, 21 May 2023 05:31:19 GMT

A single static ip is available for a one off charge of £5. It can't be requested until the account is active though, and will take a day or so to change from dynamic. Once the static is active you can request rDNS to be changed, again it will take a day or so I'm afraid.

Re: Home lab

bmc — Sun, 21 May 2023 11:41:24 GMT

@Halfhidden

Have you checked to see if the system thinks you can get FTTP? Either see if PN offer Full Fibre at your address or use the following - you're looking for WBC FTTP in the left hand column.

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

Brian

Re: Home lab

Halfhidden — Sun, 21 May 2023 14:11:16 GMT

Thanks MisterW,

That's perfectly ok as the website and emails are all for personal use so it really doesn't matter if the IP takes a day or so. To be honest dns takes 72 hours sometimes.
It's a great hobby and I enjoy hosting my own site and Nextcloud.

Re: Home lab

Halfhidden — Sun, 21 May 2023 14:18:33 GMT

Thanks bmc,

My problem is quite the opposite. Most isp think I don't have FTTP... even BT!. So I struggle to find an isp that will supply to me.
I've used Zen, Aquiss (Aquiss by the way are great) and so on.
I had FTTP installed in 2014 and have had a 80/20 on two channels through the ONC so two fibre to the premises for some time. It was the only way to load balance as only recently full fibre has been released to the public sector.

But the cost was getting out of hand and I recently did a fttp search and was delighter to see that Plusnet did a 900/100 deal.

Re: Home lab

bmc — Sun, 21 May 2023 14:56:05 GMT

@Halfhidden

It sounds as though your problem is the system not knowing you've got FTTP available.

You need to look at the Checker I listed and see what it says. Most ISP's use this. If it doesn't say WBC FTTP then the ISP's assume you can't get it.

It's probably a OpenReach database error which needs to be corrected to give you choices. Try the address version of the Checker, post code only and select you address from the drop down list. Then try neighbouring properties.

Brian

Re: Home lab

Halfhidden — Sun, 21 May 2023 15:03:18 GMT

Re: Home lab

Halfhidden — Sun, 21 May 2023 15:05:59 GMT

I have had a difficult time trying to get a decent speed for the fttp connection I have but there is a lack of isp that do fttp until now. Up until a few years ago most isp seemed not to understand what I actually had. It has been very frustrating indeed.
As for BT... well they installed it and even now they say I don't have it lol

Re: Home lab

RobPN — Sun, 21 May 2023 15:32:32 GMT

@Halfhidden wrote:

I had FTTP installed in 2014 ...

... as only recently full fibre has been released to the public sector.

@Halfhidden

I was going to query that statement as FTTP has been available on my exchange since at least as far back as 2013, but then I noticed from your screenshot in message #7 that you're also in Cornwall where we were lucky to have FTTP before most of the rest of the UK.

Re: Home lab

bmc — Sun, 21 May 2023 16:36:45 GMT

@Halfhidden

You probably should have hidden your address from the results.

Assuming the phone version of the Checker says the same thing then any ISP that offers FTTP using the OR network should it as being available to you via them.

It's only in the past 2 or 3 years than many ISP's have introduced FTTP products - before that it was only a handful that had them.

I assume you are aware PN don't do VOIP.

Brian

Re: Home lab

bmc — Sun, 21 May 2023 16:41:30 GMT

@Halfhidden wrote:

Thanks bmc,

My problem is quite the opposite. Most isp think I don't have FTTP... even BT!. So I struggle to find an isp that will supply to me.
I've used Zen, Aquiss (Aquiss by the way are great) and so on.
I had FTTP installed in 2014 and have had a 80/20 on two channels through the ONC so two fibre to the premises for some time. It was the only way to load balance as only recently full fibre has been released to the public sector.

But the cost was getting out of hand and I recently did a fttp search and was delighter to see that Plusnet did a 900/100 deal.

I'm a bit confused here - are you saying you have 2 FTTP lines via the ONT (which may or may not be possible nowadays). If so, this might be confusing the online systems of any ISP you check.

FTTP has always been available to the public where installed by OR - just very few ISP's offered it. I guess there may have been a lock in period for some installs where public money was used but at worst they would be for 3 years.

Brian

Re: Home lab

Halfhidden — Sun, 21 May 2023 18:05:07 GMT

Sorry for the confusion, when I said two FTTP I only actually had one physical fibre but had two channels open both giving 80/20, so two accounts. My ONC allows for 4 channels if you can afford it lol

Yes I'm aware that there is no Voip with Plusnet. I really haven't had a phone for ... maybe 6 years now

Re: Home lab

Halfhidden — Sun, 21 May 2023 18:10:02 GMT

I did have to fight for it. In fact I had to put a complaint in as recent as 4 years ago as BT refused to install FTTP at my workplace despite the cabinet being 6 feet from the door. Here in my area they really, really don't want to install fibre unless it is instructed by wholesale partners like Plusnet. I think the exchange was updated a few years ago and now has a lot more local unlopped (unbundled) suppliers than ever before.

Re: Home lab

corringham — Mon, 22 May 2023 06:49:47 GMT

Another option for static IPs (IPv4 and IPv6) is to use a L2TP from a 3rd party. I run servers from home and I use AAISP's L2TP for £10pm, which is extra cost, but it means I can use any ISP or 4G with the same IP addresses - so a fail-over to 4G backup is seamless. For me the cost is justified, YMMV.

Re: Home lab

Halfhidden — Mon, 22 May 2023 13:37:00 GMT

That's a really interesting point. I would imagine a small speed drop because of double encapsulation, but at the upload speed of 100mbs it really wouldn't be noticeable.... hmm, why I haven't done this before beats me. the extra security it offers is also a bonus.

Re: Home lab

MisterW — Mon, 22 May 2023 13:49:53 GMT

@corringham isnt the AAISP L2TP service capped at 400Mb ? or 600Mb if you go for the Business service

Re: Home lab

Halfhidden — Mon, 22 May 2023 13:54:39 GMT

What capped as in transfer speed or data usage?

Re: Home lab

MisterW — Mon, 22 May 2023 14:12:07 GMT

Capped as in transfer speed https://www.aa.net.uk/broadband/l2tp-service/

Re: Home lab

corringham — Mon, 22 May 2023 14:19:16 GMT

There is both a speed and monthly data allowance cap. The speed cap is 400Mbps, and the data allowance is 5TB.

I have symmetric 500Mbps FTTP, but I only use the L2TP for my servers, and my general internet use is just using the bare FTTP. The servers use the upload more than the download, but only a few tens of GB per month, and 400Mbps is more than enough. Latency is low and consistent.

Re: Home lab

Halfhidden — Mon, 22 May 2023 14:26:23 GMT

Umm, I see.

I'm on 80/20 and when I had a business, it was a takeaway with a self hosted ecommerce domain. It was extremely busy and locally we did more business than McDonalds. It operated just fine on 20mb uploads. But I have sold that business now and use the servers for a history site and would like to add video to the site and that would require a loot of load speed.

The idea of tunnelling sounds good as I can dedicate an ip to each server making dns a lot simpler.