What hardware to replace BT Inifnity Home hub and add firewall functionality ?
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Yep those will work fine as long as you have a separate modem. I understand that some BT devices now have the VDSL modem built in.
The ALIX box is good for ~85Mbps and the APU for 350-400Mbps. That's without running any packages.
Steve
I've just recently switched ISP's and I've got one of these BT Home hub 5 boxes. It does indeed do away with the separate modem, the VDSL is built in. I'm looking to set up a pfsense router for the first time and I'm also looking at one of these http://linitx.com/product/linitx-apu-1c-4gb-3nicusbrtc-pfsense-msata-firewall-kit-blue/14230
Is this not possible with having the built in VDSL?
Ignore this one mate you just answered in the other thread : )
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Is the VDSL you refer to the fibre port?
If so, this works on talktalk routers just like a normal Ethernet port, in other words, I can plug my pfsense into the talk talk fibre port and then serve the net over the talktalk's wifi.
Are BT having a US based IP address accessing the routers and downloading usage data with these new hubs or is it restricted to the home hub 3's I've seen?
If you go into the BT home hub logs, you will see it in the home hub 3 logs, but yet to setup one of these new fibre one's so cant check.
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Nope. The HH5 has the VDSL modem built in so it has an RJ11 socket that connects directly to the openreach face plate on the master socket (or filter I guess if they've brought those in for VDSL yet). See this review for pics.
Steve
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If we are talking about the red socket, thats what I call the fibre port, its identical to the heuwei talk talk routers.
I know BT or openreach were talking about rolling out two different fibre services some time ago, one which I suspect is the more common rollout is the fibre to the larger than life green street cabinets and then copper to the property, basically shortening the adsl cable as its no longer going to the exchange but in some instances, they can place a small equivalent of the green cabinet, in this case a small grey box of sorts, to the outside of the property and then you have fibre to the property which has a different setup AFAIK.
I suspect it will be possible to put the BT HH5 into bridge modem and just use them as a modem much like how we do it with the talktalk routers, which can then feed onto the pfsense box. Without seeing one of these devices in the flesh, thats still mainly a WAG though, parents might be getting it soon although BT having been trying to push a leased line instead of fibre and thats way more money for what they need.
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Exactly, that have two services both being referred to as 'fibre'. The common one is FTTC where the service is fibre to the green cabinets and then VDSL to your house from there. Much more expensive is FTTH where the fibre is terminated actually in the customer premises in some fibre to ethernet box.
The HH5 can operate on both those services. It has an Ethernet WAN (the red port) for FTTH but it also has a VDSL modem (the grey port) for directly talking to FTTC cabinets.Steve
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I've just received my Pfsense box this morning and I'm about to go about installing it. I'm just wanting to clarify. I have the BT home hub 5 as mentioned above but I also have an old BT open reach modem from a previous ISP. Is it going to be best to use the home hub 5 with the built in VDSL or the old openreach modem and just use the HH5 as my wireless access point?
Secondly how exactly do I go about it if using the old openreach modem? does it need to be unlocked and then configured somehow?
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I would use the old Openreach modem. That way you know exactly what is happening on your connection. You can always fall back to using the HH5 instead if you have some problem and getting it to work takes longer than you think. ;)
To use it set it up the WAN as a PPPoE interface and connect it to the modem.Steve
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It looks like I've got one of the problem BT modems. https://hackingecibfocusv2fubirevb.wordpress.com/ I've got the /r model and it would seem this is a pain to unlock. I guess my best bet is to order one of the HG612 models on ebay.
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You don't need to unlock the modem to use it with pfSense.
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