Fibre broadband confusion!!!

MDian

MDian

MDian

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I'm told that my area should receive fibre broadband within a few months after enduring years of speeds around 1Mbps. At the moment I have an Asus DSL-N55U purchased from Overclockers which I've found to be absolutely brilliant and massively helped stabilise my line speed.

However, from the research I've done so far, it seems that this router can't be used directly with fibre, is this true? Do I need some kind of fibre router which connects to the home line and then in turn to the Asus router? Is there a way in which I can buy an all-in-one Asus unit because I've just run cable specific for the router and don't fancy having two boxes with respective power etc?

I'm currently on Zen broadband and will be staying with them for fibre.

Thanks for the help.
 
I have Zen fibre, you will have a BT engineer visit who will carry out the installation. First he will replace the BT faceplate at the main socket in your house and then he will install a VDSL modem. You will then need to supply a cable router, such as the Asus RT-56U which you need to setup with PPPoE settings provided by Zen.

Setup is straight forward, myself and others on here will be able to point you in the right direction, or Zen will talk you through it over the fun.
 
It is going to mean 2 devices though, as the modem is a BT bit of kit. The annoying thing is it needs to plug directly into the master socket, so you may want to look at getting that moved.

The router is then up to you. Zen will probubly send you one.
 
Skeeter said:
It is going to mean 2 devices though, as the modem is a BT bit of kit. The annoying thing is it needs to plug directly into the master socket, so you may want to look at getting that moved.

The router is then up to you. Zen will probubly send you one.
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Would they move it FoC ? Or how does it work ?
 
Thanks for the quick replies. My Asus N55U has a PPPoE setting within the WAN menu. Does that mean it will work ok in conjunction with the BT modem they will install?

Do you know of any Asus modem/routers that do the job of both devices so I only have to use the single plug and don't have to house two units? Would BT install this or is it very much seen as a no no?

I assume within the router you enter your normal username/password data and all it does is simply communicate with the BT modem which already has the broadband connection to it?

Can the BT modem be used to connect to my home network via Ethernet, or does it not have any Ethernet ports apart from one for the router?

Sorry for all the questions!
 
Tute said:
Do you happen to know if any of them are worth the outlay?
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Its just more for convenience I think, they are still slim pickings in terms of whats on the market, Billion and Draytek I think have their foot in the door at the moment.

In terms of performance etc I would "assume" they are ok, although you will have to do some research.

I just never bothered (at the moment) as I am ok with using two boxes for now as they are neatly tucked away. Until the price comes down a bit.
 
The latest firmware for the dsl-n55u allows you to set one of the lan ports as a WAN Port (which you would connect up to the vdsl modem). So no need to get a new router. But you would have two devices.

There is the new DSL-N66U which can be a fibre modem too I believe. Read up on it first.
 
MDian said:
Can the BT modem be used to connect to my home network via Ethernet, or does it not have any Ethernet ports apart from one for the router?

Sorry for all the questions!
Click to expand...


The BT Openreach modem alone will not do any PPPoE RADIUS Auth, and wont be able to do any routing services alone, so no

You would still need a seperate router, or, an all in one VDSL Router.
 
bledd. said:
The latest firmware for the dsl-n55u allows you to set one of the lan ports as a WAN Port (which you would connect up to the vdsl modem). So no need to get a new router. But you would have two devices.
Click to expand...

Does anyone have a guide to switching one of the LAN ports to WAN, i.e. know where I find this setting within the control panel? Reason being that I'm on version 3.0.0.4.374_159 and don't fancy a fireware update at the moment, so if the option is within that particular version, I'll stick with it for now.

Firmware updates make me nervous!

There is presently a setting for PPPoE in WAN but not sure if that means it is ready? The back of the router only has 4 LAN ports and of course the smaller modem port!
 
Generally no, you would still need to use an Ethernet WAN port if you are looking at configuring PPPoE to work, so you would either still need to use a LAN port as a WAN port if it is supported, or you would need a dedicated WAN port (RJ45).

If you still have the option for PPPoE on ADSL on WAN settings, this will either be for ADSL auth or bridging, or, your device "may" have a selectable WAN port from a LAN port without having to do a firmware update, its worth checking.

They still put the option for PPPoE on some ADSL routers as it does have its uses elsewhere.
 
So frustrating as I cannot find a guide on the net to setting up a LAN as a WAN port, so I have no idea if my present firmware supports it!!!

If I were to just buy an equivalent Asus router to work with the BT modem, which is best? N66U? Do fibre customers generally just use the BT modem, or go for a built-in device, options seem limited?
 
But then it wont have any of the advanced features that a router will give you? it will basically just act as a dumb modem. I guess if you were planning on just feeding that off to an ADSL router to its LAN port though I guess this could work.

Although I would just prefer to use a router with Ethernet WAN.
 
As has already been commented the Asus DSL-55U needs a new firmware to support the Dual WAN mode, I always prefer to be running the latest firmware anyway. Installing the latest firmware should be as easy as selecting update/upgrade from the menu, unfortunately I don't have an Asus to hand to check where the settings are.

If I recall the BT modem is supplied as part of the service and is required for it's use. BT provide the fibre service via the Ethernet on the rear of the modem. You could use a modem/router with a built in VDSL modem, but support from Zen/BT could be come an issue.

For ease of setup/support I would keep with the BT modem and buy a cable router, the Asus RT-56U or the Asus RT-AC66U if you prefer a little future proofing for faster wireless and are happy to pay the extra. Obviously there are other routers available, but I've listed Asus as presumably you are at least somewhat use to their interface.
 
TP links are cheap enough if you dont want to spend too much, £20-£30 on ebay will get you a router with an Ethernet WAN port, 10/100 LAN ports or they have a model with 4 x gigabit ports, enough features to keep you going, a 150mbps wifi version, or 300mpbs wifi version with multiple antenna support, and a USB slot on the back either for things like 3G dongles, or USB storage.

Or if you want to pay more, go for the bigger players.

However try the firmware update on yours first.
 
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