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Please help - normal channels won't! Fibre 500 - Failed to retrieve external IP address

Pyewacket
2: Seeker
2: Seeker

tldr: After an outage we can't get back on line due to the router not being given an external IP - Vodafone won't acknowledge as there is an (irrelevant) Openreach call open.

Good afternoon folk,

At the end of our tether here, been through webchat, twitter and the complaints procedure to no avail, posting here in the desperate hope someone with some common sense may be able to help.

For the second time in a month after a local outage our router is unable to get back on line as it is unable to get an external IP address. We live in a remote area, there are 30 houses and three people with fibre in our postcode, one either side of our house. Yesterdays outage was due to Openreach repairing a known issue about a mile down the road, the copper and fibre cable were tangled and they'd told us our fibre would be down for a bit while they sorted it - this has been known about for weeks. So once that was sorted our neighbours were able to reconnect to their broadband happily, seemingly as they are not with Vodafone. Nearly 24 hours later we are still unable to connect.

Our router had the same issue as last month were it could not get an external IP, despite any number of attempts at rebooting the router, the Fibre box, leaving them off for half an hour etc.

Last time this occurred (mid January in the storms) it was due to the storms so when we did a line test it raised a ticket, we were able to put the router logs on that ticket showing the IP address problem, which must have got to correct tech team and it was resolved in half an hour of putting that update on. (Although it had taken us a while to figure out). They still sent an Openreach engineer round the next day despite it working, because there was an Openreach call for the repair work that they did yesterday.! Anyway, he just admired our working connection, shook his head and advised about the upcoming repair work. 

Back to our current situation, Vodafone will not even log a ticket as there is an open Openreach call which will auto close tomorrow. Let alone of course investigate, despite sending the router logs showing the problem and that the router is connected 1000mbps Full Duplex etc. So I can't even shove the info on a Ticket for the tech guys to pick up.

I know it's not an unheard of issue having searched the forum on the previous occassion.

Please can anyone assist? - Further info below. 
Many thanks,
Remote and disconnected of Scotland!

Light on router is flashing two red flashes, pause.
Lights on Openreach box fine (one was red during yeserdays outage).
Router interface stages Fiber is UP, Full Duplex, 1000mbps.

The bits of log I believe are pertinent:
10.02.2024 04:56:51 system Info PROT_TRACE: Nb of retries 150
10.02.2024 04:56:51 system Critical CONNECTION: Failed to create socket.
10.02.2024 04:56:51 system Error SOCK_TRACE: cwmp_createClientSocket - no ip to bind to on interface wan - fail
10.02.2024 04:56:51 system Error UBUS_CLIENT: Failed to retrieve external IP address
10.02.2024 04:56:51 wan Notice Interface 'wan' is setting up now
10.02.2024 04:56:51 wan Notice Interface 'wan' is enabled
10.02.2024 04:56:51 wan Notice Interface 'wan' is disabled
10.02.2024 04:56:51 system Info CONNECTION: Connecting to server retry 149.
10.02.2024 04:56:51 system Info PROT_TRACE: Events are waiting

16 REPLIES 16

Jayach
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

@Sandv wrote:

I have a tried a different router, same thing, don't know what to do at this point.


When you say you have tried a different router, did you get your PPPoE credentials from Vodafone, or are you using a different Vodafone router?

It is up to Vodafone to resolve if you are using your supplied router.

They are sending a new one, which now I'm 99% sure won't work but it's part of the procedure. I tested with a TP-Link Archer AX72 using the credentials provided and vlan ID 911 but it's just talking to the wall and retrying (the date is the router's default):

2023-09-27 00:13:03 ppp[824]: <6> 261021 pppoe send PADI Host-Uniq(338)
2023-09-27 00:13:03 ppp[824]: <6> 261026 pppoe send PADT due to(resending PADI)
2023-09-27 00:12:52 ppp[31339]: <6> 261021 pppoe send PADI Host-Uniq(7a6b)
2023-09-27 00:12:52 ppp[31339]: <6> 261026 pppoe send PADT due to(resending PADI)
2023-09-27 00:12:42 ppp[31339]: <6> 261021 pppoe send PADI Host-Uniq(7a6b)
2023-09-27 00:12:42 ppp[31339]: <6> 261026 pppoe send PADT due to(resending PADI)
2023-09-27 00:12:40 nat[31342]: <6> 211501 Initialization succeeded

It doesn't even get to authenticate.

Cynric
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

@Sandv  Open Reach does not use the Vlan ID, leave it blank.

It's CityFibre in my location.

Cynric
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

@Sandv Oops, reading on a mobile I slid the page up and read someone else's post. My mistake.

After a week, the problem made it to another level, they checked something and it was resolved in 30 minutes, *sigh*

Jayach
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

@Sandv wrote:

After a week, the problem made it to another level, they checked something and it was resolved in 30 minutes, *sigh*


As I suspected. 

@Jayach wrote:
If that doesn't fix it, it's probably not provisioned correctly at Vodafone's end.

Glad you are now working, but getting support shouldn't be so difficult.😞