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    Sky Fibre to the Cabinet Rollout - PfSense support?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software
    70 Posts 9 Posters 43.1k Views
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    • D
      dLockers
      last edited by

      @stephenw10:

      What modem are you using? It has to be set to MpoA to use MER.
      As detailed: http://wiki.ph-mb.com/wiki/MER#WRT54G_.26_Similar_running_Tomato

      Steve

      I set it to MER, still no go.

      Unsure what's happened. Going to try my spare pfsense build and see if it's because I'm messed so much with the WAN settings its corrupt it.

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      • S
        sandman06
        last edited by

        @dLockers:

        Is there a way to check if my exchange even supports MER?

        I tried it last night, both spoofing MAC and not - using the PPPuser|PPPpass - no good, never got an IP.

        Now my connection even on traditional PPPoA won't connect…

        please post dhcp log from systems log, so we can see what is happening

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        • D
          dLockers
          last edited by

          @sandman06:

          @dLockers:

          Is there a way to check if my exchange even supports MER?

          I tried it last night, both spoofing MAC and not - using the PPPuser|PPPpass - no good, never got an IP.

          Now my connection even on traditional PPPoA won't connect…

          please post dhcp log from systems log, so we can see what is happening

          Does it save after a reboot?

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          • D
            dLockers
            last edited by

            Okay, small update to this.

            I tried again last night with the correct modem settings, the DHCP log kept showing DISCOVER but no offer.

            Maybe my exchange isn't MER enabled - I don't know how to confirm this.

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            • stephenw10S
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              Hmm, I don't think it's the exchange that has to be MER enabled. The authentication servers are not in the exchange.
              They probably do have to support MPoA at the exchange though.
              Edit: Nope probably just ticking a check box on some central server.

              Unless you managed to get hold of a friendly sky engineer I don't know how you could find out. How likely is that!  ::)
              Until you are sure you can connect via MER any results you get may just be more confusing than useful.
              Only one more day to wait.

              Steve

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              • D
                dLockers
                last edited by

                May have been a modem issue (or firmware)

                Fibre dropped today, will be attempting to get it up and running tonight!

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                • D
                  dLockers
                  last edited by

                  Boom.

                  First pfsense install on MER/Fibre

                  All you do is use the tool here>http://www.ph-mb.com/products/sky-calc and ensure you select the Sagem one.

                  Then in hostname under DHCP on the WAN connection add your username|password (with the bar).

                  Connected first time. Well happy!

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                  • stephenw10S
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    Ha. Nice.  ;D

                    Steve

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                    • D
                      dLockers
                      last edited by

                      @stephenw10:

                      Ha. Nice.  ;D

                      Steve

                      Couldn't have done it without you, thanks stephen.

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                      • S
                        sandman06
                        last edited by

                        glad to hear.

                        was the MER only enabled when you switched to fibre?, or was it enabled all along.

                        Do you mind posting a brief guide for all sky users that may wish to use pfsense as their firewall/router

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                        • D
                          dLockers
                          last edited by

                          @sandman06:

                          glad to hear.

                          was the MER only enabled when you switched to fibre?, or was it enabled all along.

                          Do you mind posting a brief guide for all sky users that may wish to use pfsense as their firewall/router

                          Yes. For me anyway, I know some users have been using MER for ages on their ADSL line.

                          I was with Sky since 2008 for broadband though so I was using the legacy PPPoA mechanism with no possibility to use MER.

                          All you need to do is enter your router username and password (like this (with the | bar) -> USER|PASS) with the bar that you get from the ph-mb website (http://www.ph-mb.com/products/sky-calc) using your fibre routers LAN MAC and wireless key (8 LETTERS).

                          Drop it into the DHCP connections 'hostname' field:

                          Simple as that.

                          Please Note: It is NOT your previous sky adsl username and password

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                          • S
                            sandman06
                            last edited by

                            thank you very much both of you.

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                            • S
                              sekular
                              last edited by

                              On BT Fiber that I have had working with pfsense for about 5 months, I have to set the WAN interface as PPPoE and set my username and password specified from BT. I wonder why sky uses that connection type and BT does not. Does it make any difference? Just different isp software?

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                              • stephenw10S
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                last edited by

                                Well it means they don't have to use PPPoE. No PPP layer means less overhead and a slightly faster connection. Pretty weak argument!
                                It means they can connect almost anything that has an ethernet port, it doesn't have to support PPPoE. A Sky satellite box perhaps.

                                I have a mate who deals with this sort of thing I'll ask him.

                                Steve

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                                • S
                                  skyuser
                                  last edited by

                                  Hi All,

                                  I'm in the process of moving to sky (Adsl not fibre), and they are sending me straight onto the SVBN, which I believe means I will be on a MER only connection (no option to use PPPoA).. Currently I connect to my BT broadband using a ZyXEL P660R-D1 Ethernet router, with ipcop handling the actual connection.

                                  It appears that it wont work with the new Sky setup.. but I believe that pfSense will..

                                  Can anyone confirm that the settings and advice in this thread is equally relevant to the ADSL connections? Im just wondering if I should move to pfSense now in preparation as I have no desire to use the Sky ADSL Router.. I'd like to put my router into ENET ENCAP mode which ZyXEL tell me is the same as RFC1483 MER, and then use pfSense with the modifications above to get it all connected.. (Which I hope means I can get rid of the sky router)

                                  Thanks (and apologies for this not being 100% on topic but it didnt seem to deserve a new thread either)

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                                  • stephenw10S
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                    last edited by

                                    Should be the same. It will be completely dependent on your modem supporting the correct mode. Ethernet encapsulation sounds pretty good. The only known configuration is using the Draytek V120, where you have to set it in MpoA mode:
                                    http://wiki.ph-mb.com/wiki/MER#WRT54G_.26_Similar_running_Tomato

                                    Steve

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • D
                                      dLockers
                                      last edited by

                                      @skyuser:

                                      Hi All,

                                      I'm in the process of moving to sky (Adsl not fibre), and they are sending me straight onto the SVBN, which I believe means I will be on a MER only connection (no option to use PPPoA).. Currently I connect to my BT broadband using a ZyXEL P660R-D1 Ethernet router, with ipcop handling the actual connection.

                                      It appears that it wont work with the new Sky setup.. but I believe that pfSense will..

                                      Can anyone confirm that the settings and advice in this thread is equally relevant to the ADSL connections? Im just wondering if I should move to pfSense now in preparation as I have no desire to use the Sky ADSL Router.. I'd like to put my router into ENET ENCAP mode which ZyXEL tell me is the same as RFC1483 MER, and then use pfSense with the modifications above to get it all connected.. (Which I hope means I can get rid of the sky router)

                                      Thanks (and apologies for this not being 100% on topic but it didnt seem to deserve a new thread either)

                                      For me, it didn't work for ADSL.

                                      I had to use PPPoA bridge on the Draytek Vigor 120.

                                      If you have a modem thats capable of bridging it will be the same.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • S
                                        sandman06
                                        last edited by

                                        @dLockers:

                                        @skyuser:

                                        Hi All,

                                        I'm in the process of moving to sky (Adsl not fibre), and they are sending me straight onto the SVBN, which I believe means I will be on a MER only connection (no option to use PPPoA).. Currently I connect to my BT broadband using a ZyXEL P660R-D1 Ethernet router, with ipcop handling the actual connection.

                                        It appears that it wont work with the new Sky setup.. but I believe that pfSense will..

                                        Can anyone confirm that the settings and advice in this thread is equally relevant to the ADSL connections? Im just wondering if I should move to pfSense now in preparation as I have no desire to use the Sky ADSL Router.. I'd like to put my router into ENET ENCAP mode which ZyXEL tell me is the same as RFC1483 MER, and then use pfSense with the modifications above to get it all connected.. (Which I hope means I can get rid of the sky router)

                                        Thanks (and apologies for this not being 100% on topic but it didnt seem to deserve a new thread either)

                                        For me, it didn't work for ADSL.

                                        I had to use PPPoA bridge on the Draytek Vigor 120.

                                        If you have a modem thats capable of bridging it will be the same.

                                        cheers, it worked for me on adsl2+ unlimited. so glad
                                        cant wait for fibre in june

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                                        • F
                                          francisuk22
                                          last edited by

                                          Why do you just put the WAN port into the Sky router and on the Sky port just DMZ the pfsense IP on that Sky router  :P ::)

                                          2.0.2-RELEASE (amd64) - Dell OptiPlex GX520 SFF @ Intel P4 HT 3.0GHz
                                          Cisco SR224 24-port Switch (4 PCs, 1 Wireless AP, 2 Consoles)

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                                          • stephenw10S
                                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                            last edited by

                                            Because that leaves you at the mercy of who ever wrote the firmware in the Sagem router as well as being dependent on the throughput of it's hardware.  ;)

                                            Steve

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