Using Vodafone / Pure Telecom Fibre with own router

bdehora

I’m looking at options for Gb fibre broadband, moving off Virgin after losing the ability to set a working bridge/modem mode [1] with their fibre. It's the D18 area, no SIRO available yet, so I'm guessing OpenEir.

At this point I'm down to Vodafone, maybe Pure Telecom, and wanted to ask:

(i) If your experience replacing their router with your own (eg direct to an ONT) has been positive/straightforward.

(ii) How their broadband has been for you in terms of bandwidth and stability.

Browsing some threads here and on Reddit, replacing the router seems to broadly work for either, but I wanted to check again :)

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[1] Virgin now provide modem mode on request for their Hub 5, but I'm unable so far to get it to allocate a WAN IP.

pizzahead77

I have Pure Telecom FTTH on the Open EIr network and I use my own router. It has been rock solid apart from a couple of weeks where the upload was non-existent. I had to raise a formal complaint for them to actually contact Open EIi to fix it (turns out an installer had damaged my particular connection in the man hole.

But other than that it has been rock solid (was with Sky the previous year and no issues either)

I think Pure is a little easier to configure your own router as all you need to set is VLAN 10 and connection is DHCP. With Vodafine, you need to using PPOE username name and password and VLAN 10 (SKy is the same as Vodafone)

macchoille

I’ve an ASUS mesh system in now over 3 years (possibly 4+). Bit fiddly to get going initially but it’s been rock solid. Getting 450mb+ in nearly every room (500mb connection), Btw …..we’ve bison slabs so thick walls and steel. The VF router is in it’s original box in the attic.

macchoille

@bdehora apologies only noticed you don’t have Siro. We’re on VF Siro, not sure if the ASUS will integrate with regular fibre as well as SIRO.

Vodafone actively discourage using your own router and disable Bridge mode on the firmware. They also hijack all DNS traffic to their servers.

Avoid.

bdehora

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122457848#Comment_122457848

Right, I got the impression they weren't keen after talking to them (you can have it, you're on your own, much the same as Virgin currently). I'm thinking about replacing the router rather than bridging, although I'm wondering if that will get in the way of a static IP (changing the mac addr might work if so). I'll look into the DNS thing, thanks!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122458050#Comment_122458050

Eir are much more relaxed about all this.

It's all to do with th ISPs obligation to clamp down on illegal streaming - this is the most effective way to control traffic to illegal sources.

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122457848#Comment_122457848

never had an issue but always used my own hardware

bdehora

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122457841#Comment_122457841

No worries! I hear you about the concrete/steel thing, glad to hear the ASUS mesh can deal with it. It's much the same here, but the house is wired with cat5e and I run APs off the wall points to compensate (fun fact, it was built not that long after cat5e shipped so am grateful whoever built it did not plumb in 100Mb eth 🙏).

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122458063#Comment_122458063

If they don't supply you with your login credentials (which they absolutely won't) it very challenging to break free from their walled garden.

bdehora

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122457809#Comment_122457809

Thanks! That's good to know, and DHCP should be a bit easier. Pure's site was… interesting: the availability check ended up being a request to call me back and not a lookup, which I was not expecting. I've heard elsewhere their support has been decent, so sorry to hear you had to push to get that sorted out

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122458075#Comment_122458075

it's generic for ftth, vlan10 and vodafone@vodadone.ie or something