Given I gained a fair bit of great information on here whilst I was researching the best options for getting my FTTP broadband up and running, I thought I should share the journey here in case it is of use to someone on the same path.
Following a long drawn out process of getitng Openreach to finally install my FTTP line, the day finally came when my FTTP 900 connection was up and running. Having waited several months for this day, I was eager to bask in the glory of 900 Mbps boroadband.
First I tried the white router that was kindly sent to me by Sky. I hooked up a laprop to it using an ethernet connection and managed an acceptable, but perhaps slightly lower than expected speed of around 700Mbps.
Firing up my desktop PC sittuated in the spare room (upstairs, approx 25 meters from the router) I connected via wifi and recorded a rather dismal 12 Mbps, far slower than my FTTC & Amplifi Mesh router solution had been.
So I hooked up my Amplifi Mesh (Amplifi Gamers edition) system, in bridge mode to the Sky router, this time, reporting a slightly better 30-40 Mbps via WIFI, but again, lower than I was getting using the same Mesh setup connected to my old FTTC modem.
Intrestingly, whilst the Sky hub was still showing around 700-800 Mbps via ethernet, the Amplifi router was only supplying around 400 Mbps via it's ethernet port.
Doing a bit more research and experimentation, I managed to get Wifi speeds increased to around 80-90 Mbps by eliminating the Sky Hub and connecting the Amplifi router directly to the ONT, it took a while to figure out how to set the client ID on the Amplifi router, but I eventually sorted it using a hash I found online. The ID I used was as follows:
313233343536373840736b7964736c7c3132333435363738
Which is the the HASH for the generic user ID and password string Sky expects (Apparently I can't post the actual string on here - I did try! it's the one with the pipe character in it!)
Again, even without the Sky Hub connected, I could only get 400-500 Mbps out of the Amplifi Ethernet port.
Unfortunately, my primary internet use is via my desktop PC, so to get any value at all out of my FTTP , I was going to have to find a better way of improving wifi performance or look into cabling the house for Ethernet as the old Amplifi Mesh (as excellent as it was for FTTC) was clearly not up to the job for Gigabit speeds.
Rescue came from discovering the ASUS ZenWifi ET12, horrendously expensive, but luckily , I managed to find a used pair that don't seem to have even been removed from their packaging for just £360. I got these up and running in bridge mode initially, with great results, but Ideally, I wanted to minimise the router clutter and just connect them directly to the ONT. So I once again removed the Sky router and set about figuring out how to get the ASUS ET12 to play nicely with Sky. turning everything on, I noticed that, as expected, there was no internet connection. So I started reading some more forums to find out how to set up DHCP Option 61 on the ET12. Whilst I was immersed on my phone (about 10 minutes in) I noticed that, to my surprise and absolute delight, the internet connection went live on the ASUS without me having to change a single setting. So it seems that the Sky connection must have reset itself and was happy to connect directly to the ET12 without a connection string being required.
I now have a solid 890-910Mbps on Ethernet and 850-890Mbps over wifi, no matter where I am in the house.
To say I'm beside myself with joy is an understatement! I'm like a little kid giddy with excitement watching my Steam downloads hit peak speeds of 90MBps (on FTTC, I would peak at around 5.4!) I've been uninstalling games and downloading them again just for fun. lol.
I do wonder though how many thousands of FTTP customers may be out there that are only getting FTTC speeds because they don't realise they need to make a pretty substantial investment in Wifi6E/Wifi7 routers to make the most of it?
