Upgraded home broadband

After learning that Telenor were close to improving the broadband speeds I can expect in the very near future I swapped to using wi-fi on the old ZyXEL router (instead of running in Bridge mode to an Airport Extreme setup), which gave me and Telenor the opportunity to measure the local capability of DSL out here in the very lovely sticks.

I was immediately able to up my broadband deal for one that was slightly better on Upload speeds, without paying significantly more. Only snag was that the wi-fi connection first died on me, and then went up and down like a yo-yo. Turned out to be a problem related to the antenna, so I called Telenor's service dept., who were kind enough to send me a replacement in the form of the 2.4/5 GHz variety, which will handle the extreme speeds expected shortly.

It installed like a dream. Telenor is vastly better now at knowing all about me and my various hardware/contract deals, so a couple of minutes after plugging it all in it was ready configured. Just needed to change passwords and start the longer job of re-configuring wi-fi on the various components of my hi-fi system, which still require one to tap in everything on the remotes.

Nexus Player didn't see the 5GHz channel at first, but after a spot of searching on XDA I found exactly the answer needed, i.e. drop to channel 40, and up it came :)

So, everything is working superbly, no interfering channels to be found near me, and I am super happy with Telenor :-D

Broadband..

I have had a mix of old DSL gear, a 4G Mi-Fi, and a 4G package on my primary smartphone, for quite a while now, all of it from Telenor, and been reasonably happy with download speeds obtainable from these, BUT Upload speed on the DSL connection, used to provide wi-fi throughout my house, was abysmal. Max. 600kbs and generally no more than half of that.

So, I came across what appeared to be a super deal from Telenor's competitor, Netcom. 4G Broadband 100GB/month super speeds... I ordered the package and it arrived on Friday 5th September (?). I was really looking forward to seeing upload/download speeds better than my 4G mi-fi, but after a spot of bother setting the Huawei B593 up, I was super disappointed to measure speeds that were little better than those from the DSL equipment. (7.5Mbps/0.6Mbps)

I called Telenor on Saturday morning, spoke to a very helpful guy there, and decided to return the Netcom package asap! ..by the New Year I'll be able to get 50Mbps/12Mbps speeds here in Nærsnes :)

My current router, a ZyXEL, was connected in Bridge mode to an Apple Airport Extreme, which spoke to a pair of Airport Express devices coupled to an Onkyo receiver and a Pioneer Blu-ray player. Bridge mode prevented Telenor from talking with the device to check upgrade possibilities, SO (long story, I know) on Sunday I reverted it back to normal mode and for the first time used the ZyXEL to provide wi-fi in the house. Now my Telenor status page showed it was possible to increase download speeds to 12Mbps, and even squeeze uploads to 0.8Mbps. It only cost pennies more, and used the same ZyXEL router.

So, for the next couple of months I'll be content with 12Mbps knowing there are better days ahead :)