Workaround : USE YOUR OWN THIRD PARTY ROUTER

[barryflood22]

Hi everyone,

I have noticed alot of people complaining that they wanted to use their own router and not the Vodafone router which is supplied. We all know this is not possible due to terms and conditions, however - there is a work around which in a way will make the vodafone router function more like a modem and not a router, this will free up your third party router for use.  

Here is how to do it:

1) connect ethernet cable from vodafone router to internet port of your desired router

2) connect to the vodafone router by ethernet or wifi. Now connect to its admin panel using the default ip (192.168.1.1) or by using http://vodafone.connect. The default password is 'vodafone'

3) click on "advanced" followed by "additional settings"

4) scroll to private network settings, change the ip address to "192.168.3.0" do not change subnet mask, change vodafone connect router ip address to "192.168.3.1"

and hit apply

5) disconnect your wifi/ethernet from the router, now connect to your desired router via wifi or ethernet, in this instance for myself it is an asus rt-n66i

in your settings, when connecting to the internet, select "static ip"

not pppoe, pppoa or anything else, ensure it is static ip

6) under ip address insert 192.168.3.100 (100 doesnt have to be exacty, but ensure it is unused by the vodafone router and it between 2 and 250)

7) do not touch subnet mask, set the default gateway to 192.168.3.1 and set the dns server 1 and dns server 2 to 192.168.3.1

😎 apply settings, reboot and bobs your uncle

[barryflood22]

exactly,

my way means you're not breaching the terms as you're still using the vodafone router as the main source of internet

[Denboy]

Would like to try your method as I consider my Asus RT-AC87U to be a slightly better router than the Vodafone router but we also have Sky Q with its own meshing wifi. Would this likely cause a problem with the Sky wifi?

[barryflood22]

it shouldn't as the sky router should be working on its own, the asus router will be on its own and the vodafone router will also be on its own.

[sharkey67]

Thanks for this, so that I understand you correctly, you still ahve the VF Connect router acting as the VDSL gateway and have another router behing it with a static route point to the VF connect router at 192.168.3.1....is that correct ?

I did notice 192.168.2 and 192.168.3 appeared to be used internally by the VF Connect Router .When I swapped over to VF all my LAN already had 192.168.2 addresses but I could re-use these, had to have a new subnet. i trie dto edit the XML config file to not use 192.168.2 but it wouldn't work.

[brutos08]

Hi Glad i found your post am interested moving to vodafone as i already have sim contract with them but was put off when i heard i couldnt use my own gear as i am a power user have my own home build firewall (pfsense).

Now based on when you just stated do you disable NAT as wouldnt this be doing double NAT ?

[barryflood22]

My router has a nat disabler in it for xbox/playstation etc. To get past the NAT in the vodafone router, all you need to do is demiliterize your own router from the vodafone admin panel.

Essentially the vodafone router recognises your own router as a "device", not a router. By demiliterizing it you are removing any and all firewalls, blocks, nat etc from it and giving it free reign onto the internet.

I play xbox this way and have zero nat issues.

[brutos08]

ok cool thanks that was my biggest concern I dont want the vodafone device doing anything other than being a modem.

My pfsense firewall is what i want t be my edge device

[TopBananaBoy]

The VF router is also programmed to your phone line which I found out after trying another router exactly the same.

 https://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Pay-monthly-products-services/Broadband-connect-Router/td-p/2503857

[bobpullen]

@TopBananaBoy, your link is broken?

[TopBananaBoy]

whoops fixed it now :smileyhappy: