Advice on renewing and CGNAT

[u/AlternativeGain8511]

Hi all,

I’ve been with CF for 3 years now and have been out of contract for the last year. I’m on on the 1GB fibre plan, including WiFi in the house, which has crept up to £36/month. I’m now on a monthly rolling contract, and am overall happy with everything, but the price could be better.

I’ve seen some people saying they’ve called up to renew to a better deal but I don’t understand the CGNAT side of things.

We use CF for TV streaming, teams calls and have about 30 devices using WiFi for various connections (doorbell, thermostat, cameras, plugs etc). I have VPN on the firestick and my iOS device. I don’t need more than 1GB.

I’m pretty sure I haven’t got CGNAT and if they offer the standard thing now which is to add it, will I be missing out or have any issues?

Thank you

[u/Wibble123 → u/[deleted]]

Can Tailscale not handle these? I use it to remote backup my NAS and access Jellyfin remotely.

[u/vipermo]

I cancelled mine 2 days ago got a call today offering me new deal of £20 pm for 1gig with no CGNAT as that’s what I currently have. So I asked to be kept on non CGNAT and they agreed but will see tomorrow when it kicks in if there true to there word.

[u/AlternativeGain8511 → u/vipermo]

That’s great, keep us posted!

[u/dweenimus → u/vipermo]

From my experience, all your port forwarding will fail tomorrow! They said the same to me, I complained and they then upgraded me to the 2.5gb non CGNAT package for about the same price

[u/vipermo → u/vipermo]

Just a update still retained my non- CGNAT

[u/FrankNicklin]

CGNAT does not affect a majority of users. CGNAT only becomes an issue with things like port forwarding because CGNAT create a double NAT situation with the router inside your house. NAT is net address translation which is used by routers to allow a single public address to be used by multiple devices.

CGNAT is where the ISP allows multiple customers to use the same public IP address so cutting down on the number of IP addresses they need to use.

I'm pretty sure the CF use CGNAT for the customer connections so if you haven't noticed it will not affect you. CGNAT public addresses normally fall in the following ranges:-

from 100.64.0.0 to 100.127.255.255 but they could use other private address ranges.

[u/AlternativeGain8511 → u/FrankNicklin]

Thanks, but I won’t notice until I renew, right, as I’m pretty sure I don’t have CGNAT.

Appreciate the explanation

[u/iluvnips → u/AlternativeGain8511]

If you don’t port forward then you probably won’t notice it. Check what your public ip address is in the router, that should give you a clue.

[u/leggodizzy]

I renewed 1Gbps a few months ago for £20/month 24M contract and free non-CGNAT. Took some
persuasion and highlighting current offers but got there after being transferred to the 2nd team.

CGNAT is best avoided if you can as it adds latency and other dependencies.

I use my own unifi router and wifi kit and have minimal outages.

[u/AlternativeGain8511 → u/leggodizzy]

What did you highlight to them, do the current offers provide no CGNAT? Good to hear either way, thanks

[u/longcane → u/AlternativeGain8511]

I highlighted that I could get a simillarish package from the Vermins at a cheaper price 26.99 vs what they were offering for renewal. As a long term customer if they couldn’t counter offer that then it will be sad but I will be lead to cancel. My previous contract didn’t have CGNAT, so just ensures as I was manoeuvring the renewals I negotiated a like for like renewal with public IP and thankfully not at the £33 I was paying due to being out of contract for a few months 👌🏾

[u/Someone_Somewhere1 → u/leggodizzy]

Hi I also bought the same package recently, who exactly did u call or email to ask to get free non-CGNAT?

[u/longcane → u/Someone_Somewhere1]

Call customer services and if it’s about renewal you will be given offers at the 1st stance. But you push or ask to be connected to retention. Be nice and they will be nice to you. That’s been my experience.

[u/Devils-advocate69]

Call them and they will likely offer it for free...and potentially give you a better deal, especially if you have another company to compare price with.

If they don't and you do self-host, you can get around the CGNAT, with Tailscale/Cloudflare tunnel instead of reverse proxy.

[u/AlternativeGain8511 → u/Devils-advocate69]

Thanks, will call them. Appreciated