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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 43.2k Views
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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

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                        • 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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                                • D
                                  dLockers
                                  last edited by

                                  @francisuk22:

                                  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 ::)

                                  Because that's an awful idea.

                                  Stage 3 of my project (Maxterm 8300B > Intel Atom 330D) is to implement Pfsense on an ESXi box.

                                  I wonder if I can do PPPoE through a switch.

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                                  • F
                                    francisuk22
                                    last edited by

                                    @dLockers:

                                    @francisuk22:

                                    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 ::)

                                    Because that's an awful idea.

                                    :D True, Lets hope Virgin Media never do this aswell  :o but recently we have been upgraded to superhub made by NETGEAR all in one wireless and modem combo, But theres a downside from BT side. If your still fair from the bt exchange you wont get say 38 Mbps Down because some of the wires are not fiber from your house to there cabinet is all copper with Virgin Media is all fiber from your house to there cabinet and from there cabinet to where ever is all fiber and you will get your full speeds.

                                    Ok now heres the downside to Virgin Media,

                                    30 Mbps reach 7GB in the daytime they cap you 15 Mbps speed until 5 hours
                                    60 Mbps reach 1TB in the daytime they cap you 30 Mbps speed until 5 hours - The one of the reason why im on this package too many Sky anytime+ downloads from the misses and PS3, Wii, Xbox 360)
                                    120Mbps reach 2TB in the daytime they cap you 60 Mbps speed until 5 hours

                                    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

                                      Capped to 60Mbps doesn't sound too bad.  ;)

                                      The FTTC dsl operated by bt wholesale and used by everyone except virgin uses VDSL2 between your house and the cabinet. VDSL2 is good for up to 250Mbps at 100M.

                                      @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_high_speed_digital_subscriber_line_2:

                                      VDSL2 deteriorates quickly from a theoretical maximum of 250 Mbit/s at source to 100 Mbit/s at 0.5 km (1,600 ft) and 50 Mbit/s at 1 km (3,300 ft), but degrades at a much slower rate from there, and still outperforms VDSL. Starting from 1.6 km (1 mi) its performance is equal to ADSL2+.[3]

                                      So as long as you're within 1km of the cabinet you should see 38Mbps.

                                      Not a problem for me, I'm less than 100M from the exchange!  :P

                                      Steve

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                                      • F
                                        francisuk22
                                        last edited by

                                        if you watch 1080p HD video and downloading Demo on steam and on the PS3 and even on YouTube you can reach up to 2TB easily, I just did some testing watching the following video on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSGBVzeBUbk

                                        240p - 580k/s peak rate, 525k sustained
                                        360p - 1.2Mb/s peak, and around 750k/s sustained
                                        480p - 7Mb/s peak rate, and around 850k/s sustained
                                        720p - 11Mb/s peak rate, and around 2-2.5Mb/s sustained
                                        1080p - 15Mb/s peak rate, 13Mb/s sustained

                                        @stephenw10:

                                        Capped to 60Mbps doesn't sound too bad.  ;)

                                        Yeah is not too bad but i tend to download during the night. But give it a few months and Openreach (BT, TalkTalk, Sky fiber etc) will start capping too because there will be people abusing the system with illegal P2P / Torrents but thats gonna come to a stop soon

                                        On one hand i do torrent linux iso distros because i find them faster then the HTTP and FTP but i seed about 1mbits during the night

                                        @stephenw10:

                                        So as long as you're within 1km of the cabinet you should see 38Mbps.

                                        Lucky for some haha! :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)

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

                                          @francisuk22:

                                          if you watch 1080p HD video and downloading Demo on steam and on the PS3 and even on YouTube you can reach up to 2TB easily, I just did some testing watching the following video on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSGBVzeBUbk

                                          240p - 580k/s peak rate, 525k sustained
                                          360p - 1.2Mb/s peak, and around 750k/s sustained
                                          480p - 7Mb/s peak rate, and around 850k/s sustained
                                          720p - 11Mb/s peak rate, and around 2-2.5Mb/s sustained
                                          1080p - 15Mb/s peak rate, 13Mb/s sustained

                                          @stephenw10:

                                          Capped to 60Mbps doesn't sound too bad.  ;)

                                          Yeah is not too bad but i tend to download during the night. But give it a few months and Openreach (BT, TalkTalk, Sky fiber etc) will start capping too because there will be people abusing the system with illegal P2P / Torrents but thats gonna come to a stop soon

                                          On one hand i do torrent linux iso distros because i find them faster then the HTTP and FTP but i seed about 1mbits during the night

                                          @stephenw10:

                                          So as long as you're within 1km of the cabinet you should see 38Mbps.

                                          Lucky for some haha! :P

                                          Sky ADSL Unlimited never had a cap or throttle.

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                                          • stephenw10S
                                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                            last edited by

                                            Clearly I'm not trying hard enough:

                                            
                                            Billing Period 	 	Allowance Used 	Overnight Usage Total usage
                                            01 Apr - 01 May 	10.27GB 	4.3GB 	 	14.57GB
                                            01 Mar - 01 Apr 	11.01GB 	5.18GB 	 	16.18GB
                                            01 Feb - 01 Mar 	8.28GB 	 	4.05GB  	12.33GB
                                            
                                            

                                            I'll have to step up my downloading!  ::)

                                            Steve

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