Our technical support team are based at Melling near Kirkby Lonsdale and are here to help you with any technical issues with your B4RN service.
How do my devices connect to the internet?
Your devices in the home will connect to the B4RN router via Wi-Fi or an ethernet cable. Ethernet is ideal for devices that are in a fixed position and Wi-Fi for portable devices. Devices connected via Cat5e or above ethernet cables will always give the best speed and reliability.
The B4RN router connects to your local distribution cabinet via a full-fibre connection which will typically run underground through your garden in a 7mm orange duct, possibly running alongside ducts from near neighbours. These ducts then run to a distribution ground chamber in a nearby pavement or field. From the ground chamber, your fibre and those of your neighbours run underground to the local distribution cabinet which usually serves your village or parish. In summary, you have your own fibre that runs from the router to our distribution cabinet.
Your local distribution cabinet is then connected to one or more of our core cabinets and out to the edges of our network. Traffic will flow in and out through our points of presence in Manchester, London, Newcastle or Leeds.
At this point your traffic has left our network and is being handled by third parties until it reaches the destination server or service you are using.
Although we are delivering a connection that runs at close to Gigabit speeds, you may find the service (website, app, your workplace etc) you’re connecting to may have a slower connection than yours, or may have a slow running server.
Finding Technical Assistance
Please visit our dedicated support site to find the answers to frequently asked questions. You can also contact us from the support site or by using the blue help button that features lower right on this page.
We normally use Tuesdays and Thursdays – 01:00 to 08:00 – as a maintenance window to perform network operations such as router firmware upgrades, equipment replacement, security updates, minor cable replacements, and other small works with low impact. Occasionally we may plan maintenance at other times for operational reasons. Any major works will be identified on our Service Status page and customers affected will be notified in advance.
You can check for planned maintenance or other issues here
Firstly, identify the location, ideally using what3words (downloadable app for Android and iPhone – you can also use their website at https://what3words.com), Next please take some photographs showing a general overview of the area involved and some close ups' showing the actual damage. If you have photographs email outage@b4rn.org.uk or alternatively call 01524 555887 (option 1). If you get our voice mail, please make sure you leave your contact details together with details of the location and the nature of the damage.
Other assets would include ground chambers, lids and distribution cabinets. If you notice damage to any B4RN asset, we'd be very grateful if you could let us know as detailed above.
For B4RN's Primary DNS please use 5.83.8.8.
For a Secondary B4RN DNS please use 185.201.32.254 or 148.252.16.254. (Norfolk customers please use 194.113.44.254)
For B4RN NTP use ntp0.b4rn.org.uk and ntp1.b4rn.org.uk or 185.201.32.254 and 148.252.16.254 as appropriate for your system.
Our engineers are based locally, which means the majority of faults for B4RN customers are resolved either same day or next day, with more than 80% fixed within 2-3 days.
The B4RN User Group is a self-help group for users, prospective users and those interested in the B4RN fibre Internet service. Need to know how to make the most of your shiny new hyper-fast fibre Internet access? How to make sure your Wi-Fi reaches through the house? How to set up VoIP? Then this is the place! Only have an iPad? No problem. Access the 'net with your phone? Not a problem; if you're a B4RNie, you're welcome!
The group also meets online on Friday afternoons from 2pm to 4pm.
Find out more at their Facebook page or their website www.thebug.org.uk
Note that the B4RN User Group operates in an unofficial capacity so do report any loss of service and related issues directly to B4RN.
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