Landline phone with own router on FTTP

[bruce_miranda]

Just got FTTP and everything is working fine off the VF router. Phone lines are plugged into the VF router, VF router's WiFi is switched off. 3rd party Mesh has been switched to Bridge mode and plugged into the VF's ethernet port.

However I am shocked at how feature poor the VF router is. e.g. There are no Parental controls at all. I know I can get rid of the VF router and plug my own Mesh router into the Openreach ONT, but what about the Landline. 

Are there any 3rd party routers in the market that have a telephone socket at the back to allow the home phone to be plugged in? 

[Ripshod]

As always after flashing the firmware it'll need a factory reset. 

[Luciftian]

@g7omn After you have done a reset and upgraded your GS to the latest firmware, have a look at this post https://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Landline/Landline-phone-with-own-router-on-FTTP/m-p/2723154/highligh...
Bear in mind that those are settings for BT Openreach, not Citylink.
I use a GS HT812; there is a screenshot of the full settings, and links to the original posts which cracked this issue.

[g7omn]

I've updated the device and done a full reset. The reset has set it off trying to reconfigure against talktalk servers.
It still looks like it must have a custom profile in it that sits outside of the firmware.

You can see on the status screen it's trying to provision, and you can see it defaults to a talk talk ACS URL

@Luciftian I'd already followed your settings, and the tried the variations that follow in the thread.
I can stop the auto provisioning and software updates by removing them and I have then manually configured all the other settings. Note it also appears not to save / import a config that is different 

[Ripshod]

Not a lot you can do with that then. Likely the bootloader is locked down. 

Carefully shopping on ebay will snag you one from ebay. I don't know what they're going for on amazon though you may be lucky and get a good deal on an open box or refurbished. 

[g7omn]

😁

Ebay - that's where i came unstuck last time, not realising that there is custom firmware about and thus not realising to ask if it was left over from another ISP - there's a lesson learned for people reading the thread!.
Before i buy a "clean" one, i do want to check every setting in basic and advanced menus,  if anyone can provide them, from a working HT801 (or HT812 as it should be able to figure out the differences for dual port accounts) ?

[Toocomplicated]

g7omn  My understanding of the Grandstream system is that when it is factory reset, it will go off and connect to Grandstream's provisioning servers when it boots up again.  For mass deployments like TalkTalk, they keep a copy of the MAC addresses so they can then redirect to the TalkTalk (in your case) server, which then will provision with the talktalk XML files.

If you change the provisioning server to a local tftp server that should override this behaviour.  That, or add an DHCP option 66 or 43 on your DHCP server, which has the address of your preferred local provisioning server.

As mentioned before the important things are

1.  It's definitely going out to the internet via your Vodafone connection (only an issue on multi-wan connections)

2.  The SIP server on your ATA is running on port 5065.

3.  There is a static outbound NAT setup on your firewall, so it does not rewrite port 5065 to something else when it exits the router onto the internet.

4. Your ATA supports DNS SRV Requests

5.  You use Vodafone's DNS Servers on the ATA (or on your router) so it can lookup the Proxy server, which isn't available from other DNS providers.  (DNS IPs:  90.255.255.90 and 90.255.255.255)

What router are you running?  Does it have a packet capture ability?  Can you see the firewall states and the NAT Table on it somewhere?

[Luciftian]

@g7omn I got mine from Amazon. I got the Grandstream HT-812 2FXS Gateway as the price wasn't that different (just under £57); £64 at the moment. £49 for the HT801.

The server for the firmware update is firmware.grandstream.com using http

[g7omn]

I seem to have made some progress and now have got the HT801 to register, so i guess i had missed a setting somewhere.
It's now making outgoing and receiving incoming calls...

Thanks to all!

[g7omn]

Spoke too soon. I moved it across the room and rebooted it and it doesn't register anymore....

Moved it back again, still doesn't register.

Go figure.

[Jayach]

At least you now know it can work, you just have to figure out what setting it lost in the move.