HOW TO: Use a third party router on Vodafone VDSL

[jonnywombat]

On Firday afternoon Vodafone UK sent a corporate email telling their support team that they can now give out Broadband username and passwords.

I have now set up my own router, and here's what i did.

Step 1 Ring VF on 08080034515 and get your username and password. The support team member then emailed me my Log in info.

Step 2 Swap your router. Keep your VF router in case you ever get an issue and need tech support as they will not support your 3rd party device

Step 3 In your routers web interface access the WAN settings. Set connection type to PPPoE, enter username and password and leave all settings as default EXCEPT enable 802.1Q and set Vlan tag to 101.

Step 4 Save settings and apply. Your router should now connect to VF. Mine took a couple of minutes to get a connection and another couple from the router showing it was connected to actually being able to access the net

Step 5 After a few minutes the connection dropped, and it would not connect again. After investigation I was told this is to do with VF registering your router on there network. Hard reset your router. Power it down remove the power cord for 30 seconds and power back on.

Step 6 Enjoy

This is just based on my experience of setting up my router ASUS DSL-AC68U, YMMV. However the ASUS is syncd at 73.6meg, when the VF router syncd at 72.1 and I have noticed a marked improvment in performance.

HTH someone

Jonny

[machare]

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@asnail99wrote:

Anyone using a TP-Link AC1600 on Vodafone?

Can you advise what settings you used to get it working?

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There is a useful post about Asus routers on the first page of this thread. You generally need corresponding settings in other VDSL2 routers.

[deejayburnout]

I realsied that my current modem is not compatable as it is not a VSDL one.

i am going to use my current router for the wifi and use the vodafone suppled one for the modem as i have been having multiple wifi drops the the vodafone one. I did know these things would happen as most of the provided routers are cheaply made. shame as it does have some great features on it. 

Will save up my pennies for a new VDSL one.

[deejayburnout]

HI all.

still having multiple wifi drops from the stock router and i tried and failed getting the VF to work as a modem and my ASUS as a router in bridged mode. 

When VF was set as modem only ( turned wifi off and DCHP off ) and put my ASUS into bridged mode, it all fell flat on it face and it all died.

has to rested the VF router and back using that POS.

Oh well. back to the stone age of wifi signal until i get a better VDSL modem.

[deejayburnout]

POS = pile of scrap

[MrWhite]

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@deejayburnout wrote:

HI all.

still having multiple wifi drops from the stock router and i tried and failed getting the VF to work as a modem and my ASUS as a router in bridged mode. 

When VF was set as modem only ( turned wifi off and DCHP off ) and put my ASUS into bridged mode, it all fell flat on it face and it all died.

has to rested the VF router and back using that POS.

Oh well. back to the stone age of wifi signal until i get a better VDSL modem.

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You can't put the VF router into a 'proper' modem-only mode, so it may be that you can't use the bridged mode of the Asus.  Have you tried setting the Asus up as an access point - there may be specific instructions for this - continue to use the DHCP of the VF router and then connect the two together via LAN ports?

[UnPotat]

Hi sorry for the absence, started Using TouchID stuff on my phone for sites but was unable to post from safari for some reason.

As for the errors, the ammount you describe is perfectly normal, unless there is some other strange issue with the line they should not cause much of an issue, if you start seeing many 1000's of CRC errors then that would indicate a problem, FEC errors however are fine as they show that errors have been corrected as part of the normal operation of the line, if its crashing due to FEC errors than thats usually a modem issue from everything I saw when sorting out my connection.

For example I'm still perfectly stable on my line since I put the faceplate back on, I still get lots of errors but this router/modem seem to handle it fine, which is the reason I used it, because I had BT Fibre in the past and it worked fine, so I knew this hardware should also work fine.

I.e

Status: UP
Line State: showtime_tc_sync [0x801]
Line Mode: G.993.2 (VDSL2)
Annex: B
Profile: 17a
Data Rate: 34.948 Mb/s / 6.000 Mb/s
Max. Attainable Data Rate (ATTNDR): 40.388 Mb/s / 6.678 Mb/s
Latency: 8.0 ms / 0.0 ms
Line Attenuation (LATN): 25 dB / 26.1 dB
Signal Attenuation (SATN): 22.6 dB / 26.1 dB
Noise Margin (SNR): 5.8 dB / 6.4 dB
Aggregate Transmit Power(ACTATP): 1.1 dB / 11.4 dB
Forward Error Correction Seconds (FECS): 43967187 / 53483
Errored seconds (ES): 49 / 1959
Severely Errored Seconds (SES): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal Seconds (LOSS): 0 / 0
Unavailable Seconds (UAS): 25 / 25
Header Error Code Errors (HEC): 0 / 0
Non Pre-emtive CRC errors (CRC_P): 48 / 0
Pre-emtive CRC errors (CRCP_P): 0 / 0
Line Uptime: 3d 10h 15m 6s
ATU-C System Vendor ID: Broadcom 164.140
Power Management Mode: L0 - Synchronized

So even though I have almost 44 million FEC errors its still perfectly stable as the router appears to handle them fine along with the cabinet/exchange, as far as the connection goes, vodafone only really handle the authentication of the line as far as I know and setting what speed its at, the actual connection and everything else is all Openreach.

My only advice would be to try the BT one as im using, however I'm not sure if they would like that to be reccomended especially since its unlocked/flashed BT hardware, however mine has been running fine as you can see, I've even enabled QoS/SQM as well as AdBlock on the router its self and it all just works.

I can't speak for any other hardware, all I can go by is my own experience using this compared to the vodafone router, its strange that it would do better than your current one, with myself the Vodafone router would throttle down to 22 down and 3 up and would still be unstable, as soon as I got this one connected up I was stable for over a day and the line automatically started reconnecting at faster speeds until I hit this current speed(fastest I've had with Vodafone).

If anyone wants me to put up a few images at some point of how to setup an OpenWRT/LEDE based router like this with Vodafone Id be happy to, otherwise I'm all sorted on my end

[djbenson]

Has there been a policy change with regards using your own equipment? I signed up this time last year and then cancelled as soon as I found out I'd need to use their own CPE (I have my own equipment which I refuse to downgrade by using ISP routers).

I just did a live chat (EDIT: two live chats) and they (both) said I cannot use my own equipment, only "bridge" it from the official router to my own router (again I'm not prepared to do that).

Is it guaranteed that I will get my login details to use my existing equipment or is it not worth the risk?

[machare]

Yes, I had no difficulty getting my details in Augustjust said I would use a particular router on the BT approved list.

I had the details some weeks before the service was activated, as I was waiting for another contract to end.

[MSV]

If I had seen this thread a few weeks ago I would have stayed with BT...

Since going live with VF 2 weeks ago, internet drop outs regular when I connect new devices or switches. Am I correct in assuming the incoming internet line is not the issue - its the supplied router thats the problem? Is it the Lan ports being overloaded or the DHCP server not handling a large number of devices? Crazy why VF havent sourced a better unit so could avoid so much headaches for customers and their support staff.

For a sizeable network with 6+ switches, 60+ wired devices plus 20+ wireless. Should any mainstream brand like Asus or Netgear router solve the issues and cope with a large number of devices without slowing down and dropping out? Was on BT home hub 6 before and no issues, however have added more devices since.

Trying to decide which router to purchase that supports VDSL2 higher speed fibre up to 76mb/s. and will give the best network performance. WiFi doesnt matter and with be switched off, I use BT Whole Home mesh access points.

Thinking of this but Amazon reviews are mixed:-

ASUS DSL-AC56U AC1200 Wireless Dual-Band VDSL/ADSL 2+

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B016BWRBVG

Looking for experienced thoughts?

[machare]

@MSV.  Have you tried turning off Wifi on the Vodafone router?

With regard to choice of routers, try www.thinkbroadband.com forums.