Help PLEASE with setting up with FTTP connection

[Cornishrex1]

Please can someone help me. My 87 year father has just moved into a new house which is a 3 hour drive from where I live. We have bought him a Vodafone broadband and phone package as he needs to learn how to use an iPad. But the new house has FTTP and I have never had a house with that set up before. I am trying to talk him through on the phone how to to set it up, and it simply is not working. When we go through the Vodafone trouble shooter, it identifies that we have no internet (or phone therefore, as the phone has to plug into the Vodafone router tel port), but the photos on the trouble shooter do not match up with the BT ONT box we have on the wall. I have a photo of the box from last weekend (i went down to set up the internet and of course Vodafone forgot to post the router and it arrived a week late). The photo is attached. He has plugged the Vodafone router into the far left hand Ethernet port  on the white box`(the one that has the yellow cable going into it in the photo). The BT box on the wall only has the two far left hand lights lit. It doesn’t look like the ONT box photos in the Vodafone trouble shooter. Is this something different? Should we not be plugging the Vodafone router into that port? I just want to speak to someone who can talk us through but all I seem to get is bots. I’ve already had to buy an adapter on Amazon to enable him to plug his phone into the router, but we don’t seem to even be that far down the line yet - we seem to have no internet connection at all.

[Jayach]

The pictures have now been moderated. I notice that you have what looks like an Ethernet cable connected, but no light for any of the LAN connections, which suggests the other end isn't in a functioning Ethernet port.

When the THG3000 (which I assume is the router you have) is connected , try rebooting it. Sometimes if it doesn't "see" something on the WAN port whilst booting up, it gets locked to the DSL connection.

[Cornishrex1]

Ok thanks. I’ve had a few more conversations with my (very fed up) father to double check which ports he has plugged into. The ONT LAN port definitely is not lit up. We have made sure he has pushed the cable all the way in. Can I double check which port on the back of the Vodafone router the other end of the cable should be plugged into - we had plugged it into the red internet port because the cable apparently has a red end and is labelled “internet’. Should we have plugged it into the blue WAN port on the back of he Vodafone router instead?

[Jayach]

If you previously had the cable plugged into the INTERNET port on the router, it's not an Ethernet cable because an RJ45 cable won't fit in a RJ11 socket. you should be using an Ethernet cable, the one supplied by Vodafone probably has a blue/yellow sticker at both ends.

[Cornishrex1]

Ok thank you. I see what you are saying. My father is struggling to understand what I am saying to him over the (very poor quality mobile) phone on this point. I am going to have to try again with him later on, or give up and drive down there after work on Friday night, or find  a computer shop in Penzance and see if I can pay some-one to go round there and plug it in properly.  Unfortunately he has no friends or family down there. This must be what the problem is. Thank you for your help. I will come back if I make any more progress and it still doesn’t work ……

[Jayach]

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@Cornishrex1 wrote:
Unfortunately he has no friends or family down there. This must be what the problem is. Thank you for your help. I will come back if I make any more progress and it still doesn’t work ……

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That isn't a very good position for an 87 year old to be in.

I wonder if there may be a local charity that could help, and not only with the broadband.

I found this on the web, it may be worth contacting them.

Welcome to Age UK Cornwall

[Cornishrex1]

Yeah, thank you, you are kind. I will take a look at this later on. I’ve resolved to driving down there Friday night and hoping that I’ll be able to sort it all  out myself on arrival…

[Jayach]

O.K. Good luck, but it is basically an Ethernet cable (RJ45) from the Blue WAN port on the Vodafone router to one of the LAN ports on the ONT. (probably LAN1)

Reboot the Vodafone router and it should connect, once authenticated to Vodafone I would expect the internet LED on the ONT to light.

[Ripshod]

We're ripping them out these days for everyone but BT users and fitting the new ONT's. It's right that they are a combined ONT/Router and I'm sure it's incompatible with vodafone's service. Also the telephone sockets means sip\voip traffic will be filtered so no way to use Vodafone's digital voice.

What service have you actually ordered for that address, is it fttc or fttp. If it's fttc then that old ONT would naturally be left in place as it's not used. We still install on copper for some vulnerable or older clients so the phone service is kept live for as long as possible. 

[Ripshod]

It is down to the client to request a copper service from the isp, and a risk assessment is completed and stapled to the job sheet. 

[Cornishrex1]

We didn’t specify a type of service. We put our address into the Vodafone search box and it told us what it would offer, which is “Full fibre 2”. Vodafone hasn’t asked us for any further info, it has just provided the router for us to plug in.  I assumed Vodafone can see online whether individual properties are FTTC or FTTP given that it told us that we can get speeds of up to 75MB. I seriously hope the phone will work otherwise I will have another 6 hour wasted round trip down to the property and back this weekend. My understanding was that the phone has to be plugged into the back of the online Vodafone router and then it will work. As things currently stand I have an 87 year old father living there alone with no working phone line for the last week as he cannot get the router to go online. Hopefully I can solve that on Friday night when I drive down. If you think I need to be asking for a different ONT box then please do let me know and tell me who I should be calling, thanks