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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 43.3k Views
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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.

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              • 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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                                • M
                                  MrT0ad
                                  last edited by

                                  Thanks for this info :)

                                  Didn't have any issues before because I was on DSL and I could use PPoE.

                                  Then I upgraded to FTTC and… well... there was a noticeable improvement on speed (more than double) but my SonicWALL TZ200 didn't want to play ball.

                                  Selected DHCP, put Skyusername|Skypassword on the Host Name field... nothing. Tried with hex converted Skyusername|Skypassword not enough characters in the field. Disappointing.

                                  Contacted SonicWALL about it, they said "we don't support DHCP option 61"... which left me perplexed, what is the Host Name field then?

                                  Then I stumbled upon this thread... Luckily I had just bought hardware for a small HTPC, which swiftly became a pfsense box :D

                                  I was up and running in less than 10 minutes.

                                  Now I need to figure out how to integrate the SonicWALL (after all pfsense looks very able but is not a UTM appliance, at least not out of the box) but I'm no longer bound to the Sky router hardware :)

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                                  • _Adrian__
                                    _Adrian_
                                    last edited by

                                    I cant wait till the bring FTTH here too :)

                                    right now im on a lower speed cable…
                                    but cant complain about service.
                                    Im paying for 50/3 and

                                    That's what I'm getting
                                    Also our FTTH service will start at 250/30 and span to 1000/200 :D

                                    Can't wait for November.
                                    They are coming out sometime next week to replace my backdrop as its damaged and they are dropping in a new "structured" cable that contains the fiber and the coax :)

                                    If it ain't broken, fix it till it is :P

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                                    • _Adrian__
                                      _Adrian_
                                      last edited by

                                      Well, my daughter is torrenting now :/
                                      Got sick of the bottle neck this morning so upgraded a bit…
                                      100/5

                                      If it ain't broken, fix it till it is :P

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                                      • _Adrian__
                                        _Adrian_
                                        last edited by

                                        Figured I update this…
                                        They are replacing the underground backdrop to my place and the structured cable is going in the next few days.
                                        Thank you SHAW :)

                                        However...
                                        Not sure how your guys setup is but this is what they are going to use on our end...
                                        http://www.arrisi.com/products/product.asp?id=31

                                        BTW…
                                        Its a dual fiber feed but only one fiber is being lit in a 1310/1550 SM
                                        Cant wait for the launch of Gigabit in this neighbourhood :D

                                        If it ain't broken, fix it till it is :P

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                                        • S
                                          sandman06
                                          last edited by

                                          sorry to bring back this thread to life.

                                          I have recently had fiber installed and i though it was going to be straight forward as shown here before.

                                          Sky sent me new router and the username and password were built in. I used wireshark to retrieve those by sniffing for client option (61)

                                          put those details in host name section in wan interface. and its not picking up and ip.

                                          I don't know what i am doing wrong. It was working before same setup using adsl with different username and password but now its stopped.

                                          screen shot below of my setup

                                          right its not good news.

                                          I came home and no ip has been issued.

                                          here is my setup

                                          ive put the new username|password i have extracted in my settings to replace the old one.

                                          the second picture is the screenshot of my configuration for my hacked huwae hg612 modem. setup for bridged as it was before for MER AUTH

                                          third picture is the systems logs and errors im receiving.

                                          your help would be much appreciated particularly the pfsense devs

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                                          • stephenw10S
                                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                            last edited by

                                            I suspect you have the modem configured incorrectly.
                                            Have you used it before on another connection?

                                            I'll have to re-read this whole thread, I seem to have forgotten most of it!  ::)
                                            There is probably new information at the original linked website also.

                                            Steve

                                            Edit: Ok, read it! Were you using the HG612 on your previous adsl2+ connection? Have you reconfigured it to use vdsl? Have you hacked the HG612 Sky/Openreach provided you with or is it a different one? What router have Sky supplied you?

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