I'm a potential new Vod Fibre 100 user but have a few questions I'd appreciate some advice on...

[andrewclark555]

I have used Virgin Media cable service since 1999 (yes, really!) but am getting fed up with rather dubious price-ramping practices and hidden charges (17p a minute for telephone on VOIP - just going to 24p shortly!).

1. I use my own Draytek Vigor 2862ac router behind the VM router.  Will that still work - using my own internal IP range?  Can the Vod router operate i n Modem Mode like the VM one?

2. I also use a separate Grandstream HT801 ATA to provide a second line using SIPgate.  Will that work?  (It was a pig to set up securely on both the router and the HT801 but I got their with a lot of help from a US guy who had the same hardware and a load of VOIP experience!). I do get some issues with this setup apparently due to high Jitter.

3. A friend uses the Vod Broadband service but says the performance drops off sometimes in the peak periods.  I don't usually get that with Virgin and it maintains 132GB/s downstream and 20GB/s upstream typically.  Does that happen with Vod?

I'm in Edinburgh and have City Fibre running past the door.

Grateful for any input from all you Gurus on here.

Regards

Andrew

[CrimsonLiar]

So, the current Vodafone routers don't have a bridge mode, but when you switch to FTTP you can plug your (Draytek Vigor 2862ac) directly into the ONT and forget about the Vodafone router unless, of course, you want to use the VOIP that you are paying for.  Elsewhere on these boards, you'll see advice on how to try to get the credentials you need to run your own VOIP hardware with the Vodafone-supplied service.

If you are expecting Giga Bytes per second (GBps or GB/s) then I think you'll be very disappointed as the speeds are Megabits per second (Mbps or Mb/s).  In some areas, Vodafone currently relies on Openreach which has asymmetrical speed profiles similar to Virgin with little evening slowdown reported by users on these boards.  While in other areas, Vodafone relies on CityFibre with their near-symmetrical speed profiles but also reports on these boards from some users of weird routing, slow-downs during nightly peak times, and latency issues.

*I'm currently on the old VF SuperFast2 VDSL2, but thanks to Vodafone's loyalty penalty I'm due to switch to BT on 02-May-23.

[andrewclark555]

@CrimsonLiar 

Thank you for taking time to respond.  Your comments are indeed interesting , very relevant and potentially show-stopping!

And my apologies for the typo on speeds - I get 132MB/s.  I really must learn not to type technical stuff after 10pm when i'm tired!

Interesting the the VF router can't be used in Bridge Mode.  Would it be possible, do you think, just to keep it as a router and allow for double NATting?  I do this currently with VM as for reasons I won't bore you with I had to take it off Modem Mode and that setup does work fine, with the possible exception that it might have caused the deterioration in VOIP quality.  The only thing is I am using 192.168.1.1 for the Draytek so I would need to be able to change the VF router to use a different range for the LAN.

The other thing I forgot to ask, assuming I can address the issues above, is whether I can use my existing  wired Binatone SpeakEasy 6 (wired) analogue phones directly into the TEL port on the VF router?

Thanks in Advance

Andrew

[CrimsonLiar · Accepted solution]

I'm still sure it's 132Mb/s not MB/s (bits not Bytes) 😜

You can of course double NAT, it works for some but not for everyone!

As for your Binatone Speak Easy 6 phones, you may receive or have to buy an adapter that allows you to plug a phone or two directly into the router.  You may be able to wire existing extensions into one of the phone ports, remembering that these need isolating from any incoming phone line, but again mileage seems to vary on this (working mostly).

[andrewclark555]

Thanks again CR.

You are are, of course, correct about the accepted convention on the units for connection speed as it is usually Mb/s and I confess it annoys me when uninformed Meeja writers and sales blurbs talk about speeds of xx Mb or MB.  Mea Culpa, as an Engineer I should take more care!

[Jayach]

If you don't mind the possible problems of double NAT, you can of course use it.

You could also connect the Draytek directly to the ONT (or fibre modem as some call it) and do away with the Vodafone router completely.

You will then lose easy access to the Vodafone supplied phone service, but others have found a way to use Grandstream devices on the Vodafone service instead. 

Landline phone with own router on FTTP - Community home (vodafone.co.uk)

How that would work with your existing VoIP service I'm not sure, but I know nothing about VoIP.

[andrewclark555]

HI

Thanks for that info and the link to the battles people have had with VOIP on VF.

Having experienced that over an extended period with VM (not their fault - my lack of knowledge about all the parameters needed to get it working -  and finally got a working solution I am now in danger that Inertia Wins and I end up staying with VM.

I'll sleep on it!

[Jayach]

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@andrewclark555 wrote:

Thanks for that info and the link to the battles people have had with VOIP on VF.

It not so much problems with VoIP on Vodafone, that will work fine with another VoIP service. (and I believe you have one)

It's the difficulty of using the Vodafone VoIP service, if you don't use their router,

But yes, sometimes it's better the Devil you know.