home networks forbidden

[Anonymous User]

Hi,

I'm being told by NOW that I'm in breach of their conditions because I have a home network and they didn't supply it, so I can't use it!!

Does anyone know what one is allowed to connect?

[RoyB]

@Anonymous User 

I can fully understand why Now don’t want anything but their own router connected to the cable coming from the BT Master socket, but I would have thought that anything plugged into the inward-facing Ethernet ports would be up to you, especially as the Now router only has a measly two of those inward-facing ports. But if they are going to balk at a switch, then might they not balk at a TV, BluRay player, YouView box or what-have-you that you might have plugged in to it?

Have Now actually seen this switch, in your router list of internal IP addresses perhaps, and told you to stop using it, or else? Or what?

[Anonymous User]

Hi @RoyB,

I have an issue with the Internet cutting out several times a day, so I raised a support ticket. They logged into the router and said I had 21 devices connected to ethernet.

This isn't strictly true. I have an old house with thick walls and connected a WiFi mesh and I have a sonos network. Anything connected to these will show up on the router as an ethernet connection. Full disclosure I also need a switch because a couple of devices don't have WiFi capabilities. Regardless support told me they wouldn't help because I was in breach of this rule:

3.8 You must not use a modem or any other equipment that we have not supplied to you in order to
access NOW Broadband.

If I read this pre-joining, I, as an IT professional, would read it to mean I have to use their router and I am. To think it means they only support 2 wired connections would be crazy. It's about as logical as saying I can't use my laptop to browse the Internet because they didn't supply it!!

So, in all honesty I can't realistically only use 2 ethernet connections, which is what the router/now supports, I'm not allowed to use a different router and they won't help me with my issue.

Only one option left really, time to look elsewhere.

[RoyB]

@Anonymous User 

I completely agree with you, and Now Broadband don’t deserve you as a customer.

No Broadband provider ought to care, or ought to need to care, what is purely on the inward facing side of the router, and stays that side.

It’s possible, of course, that you have blown some limit on the router; I had a Telefonica one in Spain that seemed to have a 24-device table, so every time I connected something new, an existing device fell off the router.

And 21 is very close to that limit, so with a few WiFi devices as well, you would blow that limit, if the Now router has only the same size table.

But that is their problem, not yours, so hopefully Now will acknowledge that they can’t give you the service you need, and release you penalty-free.

[schnapps]

Hi @RoyB @Anonymous User 

This sounds like a similar story from one typical Sky Community thread example, where there are many more threads about maximum connection over on the Sky Broadband Forum.

https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Broadband/Sky-q-hub-device-limit/td-p/3304357 

The NOW Hub 2 is a clone of the Sky model ER115 Router from memory (Sky Q Hub Router) and would expect it to work similar to the NOW Hub 2 with regards to performance and settings.

[RoyB]

Cheers @schnapps 

No doubt the Sky Community is similarly littered with complaints about the mizzy number of Ethernet ports, and the WiFi range of a dropped brick, of the Sky Q Router then? 😢

I used to have Sky Broadband with the older upright router, and it was great. I’d still be with Sky if they could have matched BT’s offerings on speed 😢