Vodafone fibre broadband connection issues - CityFibre ONT lights meaning

[Chris85]

Hi,

I couldn't find a similar post - please add link if someone knows if it exists...

We have Pro Full Fibre 900 and the broadband connection has gone down the last 2 days. We have the 4g backup dongle, but the slow speeds rule out video conferencing. 

When troubleshooting with the WiFi Xperts I explain that the CityFibre ONT has the Power and Ethernet lights solid green, and the Broadband and Service lights off. They tell me this is an issue with the cable from the ONT to the router and to replace the Cat 5e cable - but doing this only turns the Ethernet light off and on again.

I'm pretty sure that the Broadband and Service lights relate to the connection to my house, i.e. one represents if the line is active and one that it's connected to Vodafone - but I can't find something that confirms this on this forum. Can someone confirm or correct please?

We had near daily dropouts in June where the lights on the ONT were the same, and the WiFi Xperts often want to do something with the cabling to the router. (It was eventually resolved by CityFibre then, though bizarrely Vodafone disputed this afterwards.)

Can cabling from the router or anything in the house affect the Service and Broadband lights on the CityFibre ONT?

Thanks.

[Ripshod]

You are right, they are wrong. Keep contacting them until you get someone actually listens to you and shows at least a modicum of understanding.

These agents are in Egypt, and it shows. If you're with openreach there should be automatic compensation too. 

[Chris85]

It's with CityFibre - they're actually here right now, which is very impressive as it was about 90mins ago that I called. Last time it took ages before someone from CityFibre came out. They've checked and it's an issue at the pole - signal is too weak - and neighbours are affected as well. They need to get a "build team" out to sort it though - hopefully later today.

While they were here I asked about the lights on the ONT for my own sanity:

• The Broadband light means the fibre line is active or not
• The Service light means you are connected to the ISP or not.

The engineer said they normally go hand-in-hand, but there can be a situation where the line is active but connection to ISP isn't there. And these lights have nothing to do with the router - only Ethernet.

[Ripshod]

Yeah, I'm dumb and didn't read the title properly.

Prompt service indeed, they'll have you connected soon enough. Their monitoring systems likely saw your disconnection and flagged it, or they were working locally and noticed a block of "lights off". 

[jacp10]

Hi,

Does this mean it is possible to call City Fibre directly? I have a problem with an intermittent fault where the ONT service and broadband lights go off/red about once a month, but the drop is only for an hour or two. Vodafone first line support can't figure anything out, and I only get contacted by second line a day later, by which time the fault is cleared and they can't see any issue when they run tests. They claim not to have logs that let them investigate past problems. Even second line support can't seem to understand that the fault is not with the router, no matter how many times I explain to them it is between the ONT box and the ISP.

[Jayach]

For further reference, and for anyone finding this thread in the future, Zen have a nice help page explaining the CityFibre ONT.

https://www.zen.co.uk/help-support/cityfibre-ont-diagnostics/