YouFibre - Anyone used them?

[anonymous-user]

Weve had an ok but expensive Virgin connection to the house for the last few years, had a flyer through the door from YouFibre but I've never heard of them before but the prices and speeds if correct seem very good and they have a monthly tariff which is handy as were thinking of moving at some point and the others all seem to be 24 months.

https://www.youfibre.com/

[Monsterlime]

Not used them yet, but my install is scheduled for the 30th May at the moment. I am getting it for £1 a month for 9 months, as I am an existing VM customer. Will be interesting to see how it compares.

[anonymous-user]

Ah cool, I'm very tempted if its better than VM. the other local normal providers here quote a max of 56mpbs, I'm on Virgin business at 150mphs but it never gets near that, its often faster on 4G on my phone.

[Monsterlime]

The symmetrical upload/download sold it to me. I am on 1GB with VM at the moment, but will get 1GB up and down with YouFibre. I will want the static IP though, as the CGNAT will cause me some issues.

Depending on how far off your VM speeds are, surely you can complain and get them to fix it or leave? Have YouFibre indicated you can get 1GB?

[Monsterlime]

The install was supposed to be yesterday. Didn't go great! Chap arrived (in a transit equipped with a cherry picker), asked me where I wanted it run to, which is the front bedroom/study which is where I have VM right now and all my equipment is there. He frowns and says - my ladders were condemned yesterday. Excellent, that's a good start!

After working out how we were going to run this (cable through our loft, same as our VM install), the chap goes off to do the cable pull. That turns into a mission and he disappeared for a good 45 minutes, apparently he had to go all the way up the street and then pull it down from there. Unfortunately once he had, he checked the signal and it wasn't good enough and there was clearly a fault. He couldn't complete the install and said someone would be back to do it, probably in a couple of days (not his fault and it isn't like I would be without internet).

Wellllll..later that day I got an email from YouFibre. Next install date is scheduled for the 12th July! Errr..pardon? They have said it might be quicker depending on when the fault gets fixed, but that was a surprise. It will reduce the overlap with VM, so it doesn't really matter but still a bit annoying.

[Monsterlime]

Meant to update this. The install has finally happened and I've been using it for 2 weeks or so now. The installer was very helpful and got it all routed as I needed, which was brilliant. Speeds are good, and has been very stable.

I did only get an Eero 6 (not Pro), apparently due to supply issues, but I picked up an Eero 6 Pro on the Prime Day sale, so that wasn't an issue. I am currently not using them as a router anyway, but as a bridge (I already had an OPNsense router built and used on Virgin, so just unplugged Virgin and plugged in YouFibre).

YouFibre applied the static IP I asked for almost immediately, which doesn't seem normal based on Googling, but I was pretty impressed.

I do have one issue though, and it is odd, but definitely seems like it is a YouFibre/Youtube issue. I am still doing some testing before I contact them, but YouTube is really slow to start videos. Once they start, they are fine, but it can take 5-10 minutes before they even start playing. This is not all the time, but is common. This was never an issue on Virgin, and happens on multiple devices across multiple operating systems. Funnily enough, enabling a VPN (Surfshark - to a UK server), the issue goes away immediately, and unsurprisingly the youtube server/CDN it hits does change. Other streaming services are not effected though (Twitch, Amazon, Floatplane, Netflix etc), only Youtube.

[anonymous-user]

I’ve had it in for almost a month now, i have to say thus far I’m impressed, it’s a far nicer set up with the Eero router and ability to add and expand it at will. I’m getting a steady 500 down and up for £30 a month.

The chaps that did the install were very good as well.

[Monsterlime]

I have, from what it appears, resolved the oddness.

For some reason, the Youfibre ONT did not like being plugged into a Realtek 2.5GB port (that Virgin had no issue with). It would work, and the biggest issue was Youtube, but when I switched it to an Intel 1GB PCI-E nic, everything worked perfectly. Virgin is back in the 2.5GB port and now I have failover.

Why a VPN 'fixed' the issues with Youtube, we will probably never know.

[bomb]

we have just placed an order with YouFibre today. Our next door neighbors connected a few weeks ago too, and the chap on the phone told us he would set up a referral so we get 2 x months free, as does our chap next door.

lovely phone service and he answered the phone immediately instead of waiting in a queue for an hour !

We will leave Sky at the end of Sept as they had pretty much doubled our fees.

I hope it goes smoothly.

[anonymous-user]

Has anyone swapped the router for a non eero one? My only gripe is i can’t isolate the 2/5g networks as i run my computers off the 5 on my older router.

[Monsterlime]

Yes, as above I am using OPNsense (https://opnsense.org/) as my router, which is a bit more DIY, and am just using the eero's as my wireless access point. I could have kept my old AP, but these are an improvement and allowed me to get a mesh working quite easily/cheaply which has improved wireless coverage in my house.

This page will give you the pointers needed to switch - https://www.aoakley.com/articles/2022-10-05-youfib... Generally, it is quite easy, with the only caveat being if you have a static IP from Youfibre. That will mean you need to clone the MAC address of the eero port you have the Youfibre ONT plugged into.

[KobayashiMaru86]

How are people finding them a few years on? Now FTTP is in the street via Openreach (but still need to get to the house) I'm thinking of switching to them. Do they use Openreach or Virgin's lines? BT is over £45 now for 74mb so want to change.

[Monsterlime]

I've had one outage that lasted about 30 minutes, otherwise it has been very solid and stable.

Not much else to say about it, it works and has not caused me grief, unlike Virgin, and the price hasn't changed since I have had it.

[bunchofkeys]

KobayashiMaru86 said:

How are people finding them a few years on? Now FTTP is in the street via Openreach (but still need to get to the house) I'm thinking of switching to them. Do they use Openreach or Virgin's lines? BT is over £45 now for 74mb so want to change.

I've been using them for about 7 months now and apart from two outages, which was caused by external parties, it's been solid and reliable.
They do not use the Openreach or Virgin lines, but Netomnia (https://www.netomnia.com/) provide the infrastructure.
As someone else has mentioned, you're getting a 1Gbps in both directions for £29 a month, it's a win.
My house already had an Openreach FTTP box on the outside, but what is offered by them isn't as good (bandwidth and price).

[KobayashiMaru86]

Excellent. I've put an order in for a few weeks when I'm off to do it. Few locally are saying similar so I'll try it.