After running with Virgin Media for the last 15 months, I decided to migrate my internet to Youfibre in order to test out their services.
Like Virgin Media full fibre broadband, Ive never used Youfibre. I personally had a bias against them if I’m honest, because I was expecting them to be overselling using BT lines, but they actually own their own lines, so figured they’re worth a try as they’ve developed a reputation now in the areas they’re in and offer some really good speeds.
This article is an honest review, and written in my own words. I haven’t been paid for any content on this article, I’m merely trying them out to see if I like them and to let users known my below thoughts.
Disclaimer: As a full disclosure, this page contains affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase after clicking a link, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!
You can sign up with Youfibre with my affiliate link and receive up to £100 credit after 3 months of being with them
Is YouFibre a full fibre network?
Yes, compared to the setup I had with Virgin. YouFibre as far as I’m aware is true full fibre.
Whilst there is some discrepancies between the termination points, you have a full fibre optic connection to the termination trunk inside your house at the ONT. Then it runs a connection to the “router” inside your house
Virgin’s network is NOT full fibre in the traditional sense. A full fibre network is Fibre optic cable that runs directly into your house. Virgins network seems to be a Fibre cable running to a box, than a Coax cable from the Fibre box to the Superhub 5
Due to Youfibre using an Optical network of full fibre, there’s less latency. My average latency with Virgin was around 12-20ms, whereas currently with Youfibre it’s around 2ms. Which is close to what I’d expect on a fibre network. This makes videos on Youtube snappy and instant when they’re loaded, rather than buffering. I’m still limited by my own computer, so can only go so far.
Was my internet easy to install?
Yes, much like with Virgin. The installation process with Youfibre was simplistic. Although I would argue that Youfibre are more annoying and have a very aggressive sales tactic. As soon as you say you’re interested. You seem to receive over the top communications from them, and post mailing which is annoying.
Now in terms of the install, the procedure was the same. You register your interest, and then an engineer installs a line to your house. Then for your installation day, another engineer turns up and puts a hole in your wall and installs the equipment
I would comment the pre-install process seems to be a bit more efficient with Virgin more than Youfibre. As with Virgin, they have a more dedicated questionnaire with an automated process and I’d say it’s more professional. With Youfibre, it was just a case of “oh, you like want our internet” ok, we’ll contact you when it’s getting installed. After you’ve registered for the internet, it’s just a case of them installing the lines and ONT
With regards to Youfibre they’re waiting times can be atrocious for install dates, so I’d recommend installing it sooner rather than later if you can. I think part of their install pre-process is due to their junction boxes being installed, so they already know the areas and what is live currently.
When it came to the hole drillling process, this was a very nerve racking moment. When I talked to the engineer, we discussed about drilling above the Virgin socket, so for simple reasons it came out above the Virgin Media cover on the outside wall. We both thought this method was the most simplistic, Virgin Media’s ONT being installed behind their huge dinner dish sized faceplate… right?
Well, this is where the process became nerve racking. Obviously the picture above was taken at an angle, so you don’t see it as much when you’re up close to it and missed it.
I can’t fault the Youfibre engineer for this bit, he scanned the wall with Bosch scanner and took pictures at every step to prove it was OK before drilling. However this is why you can’t rely on technology, or other Businesses network installations. The engineer drilled a hole, and had a minor arse twitch moment because he felt the resistance change and worried he drill through something. So we went out to check
Luckily, he didn’t but it was BLOODY close.
As it turned out, the point where the Virgin engineer drilled a hole through the wall, was where the main power line for the house. The hole was around 3/4″ away from the mains power.
As a house on single phase electric AC, you’re talking somewhere in the region of 20,000VAC (assuming 230V and a 80A main fuse), and the Youfibre engineer had only just missed it by less than 1 inch. It’s not in the picture below, but further down the same line.
Excusing the install process for either Virgin Media or Youfibre, potentially drilling through this wire could have killed the engineer. So he was very very lucky. If I ever contemplate install again, I’m thinking of having a false brick / cover installed somewhere and engineers have to use this for installation so that there’s no risk of injury and for simplicity of installation. If a company refuses to do this method, then I’ll refuse to go with them. Or at the very least, I’d want them to reuse existing holes drilled into the wall so that I know where they’re coming out.
How fast is the speed I’m receiving on my package?
Like my previous article that I wrote on my Virgin Media broadband, it is important to understand when referring to internet speeds. That there are two differences in speed. A package that is referenced in Mb/s is not the same as MB/s. A lot of people see speeds like 100MB/s for their internet and think they’re being duped. As your computer reports in Bytes, but internet is provided in Bits.
An example : 1000Mb/s (Megabits) is 125MB/s (Megabytes)
- To convert Mb/s to MB/s – Divide by 8
- To convert MB/s to to Mb/s – Multiply by 8
Using my tried and tested method of “test files”, again using the Vodafone test files website I achieved the following speeds downloading multiple files. It’s kind of hard to download multiple files at the same time with your internet browser when using fast internet. As normally they finish before you start, plus my PC is old as crap. This method isn’t 100% because anything can affect the results such as the time of day, and any other background tasks running but it’s a method I prefer to use.
Anyway, I downloaded 4 files (I think) and the speeds below are listed. One of them not shown. If you work on a speed conversion factor (88.7MB/s is around 709.6MB/s). I actually think I had another file downloading which was around 20 MB/s which would be a more realistic speed of 869MB/s so I’ll say it was this speed as I know when testing it was close to it’s rated speed which is confirmed by the 2nd test below
This is the result from the Speedtest Ookla website, as you can see I had a download speed achieved at a speed of 870.87 Mb/s and an upload speed of 923.86 Mb/s. I love the upload speed, as it will be excellent when it comes to uploading Youtube videos again. You can see my pingtime was 2ms aswell
Have I had any problems with Youfibre broadband?
It’s still early news now, as I have only just migrated to this new internet provider. As such I’ve had no problems. There are a few things that I wanted to point out, at least mention
Like Virgin Media, the Youfibre router (if you can call it that) has it’s own Gateway address, which is different to the BT router. As such I had to reconfigure my Hikvision CCTV system. WIth Youfibre, the default gateway address is 192.168.4.1, which is a bit weird, but meant I only needed to change a couple of bits of information with my home network. Once I changed the settings everything was OK again
In terms of WiFi, there was no problems there, it’s just a case of inputting my WiFi information into the Youfibre app (there’s no router management, more on this later) in order to connect to WiFi.
Now, the main problem I have had with Youfibre (or at least one to note) is the router devices they use. They’re not really routers, they’re more streaming devices. The WiFi network is good on them, however you’re a bit limited in terms of connectivity
The router provided by Youfibre is an Eero 6 streaming device, however it has no portal page for management of services, and only 1 network port. This makes it a simplistic device in terms of network connectivity for Youfibre. If it works, it works. As someone who likes to dabble with technology and also likes to configure his network more, this device (for me personally), is a pain in the ass. It’s not bad, just doesn’t suit my taste. I do also “think”, it causes lag spikes, as when I do download tests, there’s also a delay. This could be a simple issue with a bottleneck in my home computer; as a note though however I never had this problem with Virgin Media. There isn’t an enormous lag spike, but it’s noticeable for me when using my computer for those first couple of seconds
Now, EXCLUDING the negative fact about, there is one really good positive with Youfibre. They let you install your own routers (whilst retaining their ONT connection), which is an an amazing positive for someone who likes to control their own network and configure their settings more. This is good for me, because I plan on swapping it out with my own equipment sooner rather than later, and then eventually building a Pfsense router so I have more control over the network.
There are known slight issues with your own equipment if you have a static IP address with Youfibre (which is also offered for an extra £5 month), more details below
Static IP address and router changes on Youfibre
As noted previously you can use your router on the Youfibre network. This is allowed with Youfibre, it’s just when it comes to troubleshooting the connection if you have any problems you’re better off installing your original equipment
If you have a non-static IP address with Youfibre, and want to change the router. It’s just normally a case of plugging the network cable from the ONT into the router and waiting for the DHCP lease to renew if it doesn’t connect.
When it comes to static IP addresses, there are a couple of things you need to do. The routers address for Youfibre is registered on the network, and when it comes to static IP addresses, you need to do a little bit of work first.
The first step is to set your router to DHCP for the WAN port, and in order for your router to work on the network with a static IP. You need to register the Routers Mac address with Youfibre. This is done in one of two ways.
- Calling Youfibre and give them the routers Mac address
- Cloning your routers mac address to match that of the eeror router.
Rather than go into too much detail on this point, there’s a nice article written by Andrew Oakley on the Youfibre network which explains this in more detail you may want to consider reading
What don’t I like about the Youfibre network?
At the moment, the only thing I’m not fond of is the management of the Eero 6 router, you have to install an application on your phone in order to manage it because the router doesn’t have it’s own web portal.. That and the delay, staggered responsed I noted previously which I think is more of a issue with the routers not having Quality of Service. Hence the reason I want to test them out
I also don’t like their aggressive sales tactics, but I can understand the need for being pushy to accrue the business and being a market leader.
A thing which worried me though was one of the marketing mails the person wrote that certain house numbers nearby had Youfibre installed. This to me feels almost as if it’s a GDPR breach, what happens if you have a vulnerability on the equipment, someone can then potentially known which places to target. The information isn’t personally identifiable, but I don’t think they should be so loose lipped with this information either. After all, when the internet is installed, a giant van doesn’t exactly give it away now does it?
Would I recommend internet through YouFibre?
Whilst it is early stages, at this moment in time I will say yes.
I will be writing a follow up article in around 1 years time between the two services to give my overall opinion on both of them, and who I’m most likely going to go with.
I will say for full disclosure (at this moment in time) from initial testing. I would most likely go back to Virgin Full Fibre broadband, IF, and I must stress IF it doesn’t work out changing the Youfibre Eero equipment to my own at the very least, because I find the Virgin Superhub seems to be a lot more balanced with broadband possibly due to the DOCSIS design on the data streams. However they’re limited to 1 GB, whereas Youfibre aren’t. If Virgin update their networks to the newer DOCSIS framework (which support 10Gb), my view may change a lot. I do love the option of the symmetrical broadband and swapping out the routers with Youfibre, and static IP. So this could heavily sway my vote
I may also continue to use both, which is why initially this article is written in the initial stages, and a further follow up article will be written after I’ve used them for around 1 year to monitor any outages, problems, etc.
There are problems with Youfibre, because they’re so cheap, they have to oversell the services in order to make a profit. They also aren’t a huge business like Virgin or BT, so they’re customer services are known for being a bit slow or lacking. Generally you’re better at finding the support online, or waiting patiently in order to get a response. They’re also slow with install dates, so just be prepared to wait
In terms of speeds, I’m getting speeds close to the rated speeds for my service. The installation engineer actually got higher speeds on his phone but I’m a realistic person, I work on more true speeds of what are achievable through download tests
My internet is currently £31.99 per month for 18 months, with no advertised in contract rises. Although Youfibre are due to change the prices around April (just in general), although I “shouldn’t” be affected as I’ve already signed my contract. They supposedly pay off your contract with old ISP up to £300, but not sure how that works unless they deal with it during the switch process. I know my cancellatation is around £140 with Virgin, so in theory I shouldn’t have to pay, or just forward them a bill. I’ll update when I find out what’s happening on this bit with Youfibre
If you like this article and considering a move to Youfibre yourself, you can use my referral link below. I have also added the payouts that yourself, and I would receive depending on the package selected after qualifying period has passed.
(Youfibre is the same as Virgin, you receive qualifying reward after 3 month)
Here is my referal link : https://aklam.io/x57x7J
Disclaimer: This page contains affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase after clicking a link, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!
