Sky Fibre: using non Sky modem and router?

Padraig Mor · 05-12-2018 11:02am #1

I previously had ADSL provided by Sky. At the time, rather than using Sky's supplied router, I went with a TP Link ADSL modem and Asus N66 wifi router. This was a bit of a faff as Sky make this difficult - I had to use Wireshark to extract my Sky credentials and then apply them to the Asus, with the modem in bridge mode. All good for a few years! I changed to fibre about a year ago rendering the modem redundant. Since then I've been using the Sky Q router (ER110) connected to the phone line, with one of its LAN ports connected to the Asus; wifi on both is switched on.

The net result of this though is that devices on my LAN (predominantly connected to the Asus) are no longer visible to the outside world - I can't interface with my NAS from work any more for instance (I believe this is 'double NATing'?). I've been meaning to sort the whole lot out for a while now but never got around to it - however, now I've added a couple of Alexa devices which require them to be visible to WAN so it's time to bite the bullet! I bought a Draytek Vigor 130 VDSL modem with the intention of using it similarly to the previous TP Link modem. No joy though! I've tried using my previous credentials with both old and new Sky router MAC addresses but got nowhere. I've used Wireshark again (connected over LAN rather than directly to the Sky router) - I see plenty of network chatter but not the relevant text strings containing credentials. Draytek suggested changing the tag value (whatever that is) on the V130 to 10 - nada. Anyone have any suggestions, or have successfully set up something similar themselves? Ironically enough, I helped a lot of people on this forum get set up with their own gear on ADSL previously, but am now myself asking similar questions!

I realise the easiest option is just to return the Draytek, dump the Asus, and set everything up through the Sky Q, but I like my Asus! Have a lot of custom stuff set up on it - fixed IPs etc. Thanks!

ED E · 05-12-2018 7:43pm

You do need to sniff the creds, if they change between ADSL and VDSL I don't know.

VID 10 on the **VDSL** interface is vital too, that should be the missing step.

1. VID 10 on
2. PPPoE Configured
3. Check logs

If Auth fails - sniff creds, if no auth attempt is made then there's something else awry.

Padraig Mor · 05-12-2018 11:09pm

ED E wrote: »

You do need to sniff the creds, if they change between ADSL and VDSL I don't know.

VID 10 on the **VDSL** interface is vital too, that should be the missing step.

1. VID 10 on
2. PPPoE Configured
3. Check logs

If Auth fails - sniff creds, if no auth attempt is made then there's something else awry.

Cheers ED. Pretty sure what I did was VID 10 on VDSL (I changed the customer tag option to 10 - I'm presuming that's what you mean?). I'm going to give it another go in the next few days; also have another support query logged with Draytek.

Re authorisation: yeah, I'm surprised to see no DHCP traffic, but the (Sky) router was definitely working. Maybe it needed to be connected directly to the computer? I'm far from being an expert in this stuff I'm afraid!

Complicating the whole situation is the fact that all the discussion online is from the UK, which may be setup very differently from here. There it seems like any random credential will do.

Padraig Mor · 15-12-2018 11:52pm

I got it.

At last - I bloody got it!

Many hours of ****ing around (with some - eventually correct - help from Draytek) and I got it going. Did a little bit more experimentation as well to examine the parameters and what can be entered. Overall, it's actually pretty simple once you know what you're at. For the benefit of anyone else looking to do this, here you go:

Draytek Vigor 130 setup.
As at this link.
You will also need to change the Customer Tag value to 10 in the Internet Access / General Setup menu.
Unlike what the guide suggests, you don't need to connect the V130 to the VDSL line to setup - you can set it up attached to a PC, and then plug it in - this was important for me as my DSL line is on a shelf over the front door, but my PC is upstairs. Strangely, once set up, the Draytek seems to sync with the DSL much faster than the Sky Q hub.

Router setup.
I have an Asus RT-N66U running Merlin WRT, but I suspect most decent routers will offer similar options.
In the WAN settings, set the WAN connection type to PPPoE (NOT automatic IP, which is what virtually everything else online says).
In Account Settings, enter the account username and password. You do not need your actual credentials to do this! I have my username now as anything@skydsl, and password as 1234567. It works! I spent a lot of time messing around with Wireshark to capture my own details (in the end, I needed to directly connect to the Sky Hub; the details were Option 15, not 61).

That's it - you're done! You do not need to fill in Option 61 on the router. You do not need to clone the Sky Hub MAC address.

It was probably obvious to someone with network experience all along, but I feel a real sense of achievement having cracked this!

rabbidpeach · 20-12-2018 2:13pm

Padraig Mor wrote: »

Strangely, once set up, the Draytek seems to sync with the DSL much faster than the Sky Q hub.

Be careful, this suggests to me that vectoring is not working correctly.

Padraig Mor · 20-12-2018 2:35pm

rabbidpeach wrote: »

Be careful, this suggests to me that vectoring is not working correctly.

Dunno.....everything seems to be working fine so far anyway. No reduction in speeds; slightly higher if anything.

rabbidpeach · 20-12-2018 2:47pm

No worries, the reason I suggested this is that I once had a modem that didn't initially support vectoring and it synced in less than a minute. But after the vectoring update was released, it took three minutes.

Cork981 · 14-01-2019 9:00pm

Padraig Mor wrote: »

I got it.

At last - I bloody got it!

Many hours of ****ing around (with some - eventually correct - help from Draytek) and I got it going. Did a little bit more experimentation as well to examine the parameters and what can be entered. Overall, it's actually pretty simple once you know what you're at. For the benefit of anyone else looking to do this, here you go:

Draytek Vigor 130 setup.
As at this link.
You will also need to change the Customer Tag value to 10 in the Internet Access / General Setup menu.
Unlike what the guide suggests, you don't need to connect the V130 to the VDSL line to setup - you can set it up attached to a PC, and then plug it in - this was important for me as my DSL line is on a shelf over the front door, but my PC is upstairs. Strangely, once set up, the Draytek seems to sync with the DSL much faster than the Sky Q hub.

Router setup.
I have an Asus RT-N66U running Merlin WRT, but I suspect most decent routers will offer similar options.
In the WAN settings, set the WAN connection type to PPPoE (NOT automatic IP, which is what virtually everything else online says).
In Account Settings, enter the account username and password. You do not need your actual credentials to do this! I have my username now as anything@skydsl, and password as 1234567. It works! I spent a lot of time messing around with Wireshark to capture my own details (in the end, I needed to directly connect to the Sky Hub; the details were Option 15, not 61).

That's it - you're done! You do not need to fill in Option 61 on the router. You do not need to clone the Sky Hub MAC address.

It was probably obvious to someone with network experience all along, but I feel a real sense of achievement having cracked this!

Just confirming this worked for me, thanks you’ve saved me countless hours.

I’m using my AC1200 now.

Sky Fibre: using non Sky modem and router?

Comments