Full Fibre 900 - using own own router and Wifi

[NozzaC]

Currently with Virgin. I'm using their Hub 3.0 in "modem mode" which allows me to use my own OPNsense router plugged into the Hub's ethernet port and avoid double NA and have my Ubiquiti Unifi system running wifi.

What's the story with Full Fibre 900's "Intelligent Wifi Hub"? does it have a modem mode? Does it still have a co-axial cable coming in?

Thx

[Ripshod]

No modem mode, and no coax. Broadband comes through am optical fibre and an ONT. 

You'll be able to connect your OPNsense directly to the ONT and set up a PPPoE connection, though that will lose you easy access to the digital voice Landline. 

[NozzaC]

OK  that sounds good. Thanks.

[Vorix]

If I connect my Netgear Orbi router directly to the ONT and set it up with the broadband user name and password support have just given me and then connect the Vodafone router to that, will I be able to use the digital voice landline, do you know?

The standard router is pants compared to the Netgear mesh and if i put that into AP mode I lose my guest network, apparently.

(Similarly just moving over from VM)

Cheers

[Ripshod]

No. Vodafone's firmware expects, and will only connect to a PPPoE session.

[jdvega]

You will likely have to disable gateway monitoring, if you use it in opnsense - Vodafone, on my connection anyway, seem to have a crazy ICMP limit.  Even when NOT using their router.

.. which gets worse at peak times.  The connection itself is sound, they just aggressively limit ICMP - so if you're using it for gateway monitoring, opnsense can mark the gateway as down when it's not really dead.

Vodafone will refuse to support you if you try to raise issues and you don't have their router plugged in.  Their support, I'm afraid to say, is pretty shocking - if it's not part of their script, they cannot really help and won't escalate up the tiers to someone who can understand basic technical details.

Most of Tier 1 that I came across, do not understand packet loss - they understand 'up' and 'down' and that's it.  They'll run a line check on CityFibre, if it comes back clean you end up in a never ending cycle of them having you factory reset their router, reconfigure, run speedtests, etc.

Oh and it's PPPoE rather than DHCP (as you have on Virgin) which brings with it it's own problems, especially on BSD.

[Ripshod]

How often does gateway monitoring ping? I know thinkbroadband's BQM pings are far enough apart to make it through, but with the resolution of the graph produced it would only be every 5 minutes. 

[jdvega]

> How often does gateway monitoring ping?

It's configurable, by default every 1 second and is then averaged over 60 seconds.

>  I know thinkbroadband's BQM pings are far enough apart to make it through,

BQM is every 1 second and for me, it's not.  

There is a considerable difference in the ICMP loss seen, when I remove BQM - especially at peak times - with BQM it can show 50-60% loss at peak periods, without still 30-40%.  

The ICMP limiting is absolutely bonkers. The support haven't got a clue what you're talking about, when you mention packet loss.

If you run a TCP MTR, instead of ICMP, zero loss.

[jdvega]

pastedump - tcpdump of BQM:

https://pastebin.com/sWexbqp9

Every 1 second. This is not on Vodafone, hence they all complete.