BT gfast PPPOE settings for pfsense

mushtafa

mushtafa

mushtafa

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Joined
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West Sussex, UK
Hi, I'm trying to chase a speed issue with my gfast connection. However BT aren't much help because I'm not using the supplied Home Hub. (No modem only mode).

I've spent an age looking for the PPPOE settings, but can't find any 100% solid info, and certainly not from BT.
The settings I did find, and using now are working, but I'm not getting the speed I was expecting.

I want to make sure it's not a problem my end. Any help would be appreciated.
 
Using an Open Reach MT992 I think it is.
Estimated speed is 187 - 290 down, 17 - 48 up. I currently getting 148 down (at the moment below my guarantee minimum) and 20 up
 
mushtafa said:
I don't know. That's a job for this evening/tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Yeah I'd do that first. For all you know you're getting the max speed your line is currently capable of for whatever reason. If its the same speed then it may be the line, if it's faster with the BT kit then it's going to be an equipment/config issue.

Also remember that if it's a new install then the line may be going through it's "learning" phase and may speed up over time as BT find the sweet spot of speed/reliability.
 
They told me that the 'settling in period' is 14 days - for convenient being the same length of time for my cooling off period. I'm sure an engineer told me that's not really a thing anymore, and any adjustments are done within a day or 2.
I had the supplied hub connected on day 1 and the speeds were the same. Need to double check them though.

Spoke to the technical team today, several people over the course of 1.5hrs and got nowhere.
 
Well most ISP still state that for the first couple of weeks speeds may fluctuate, so whether an install engineer believes it or not is kinda moot as most wont really entertain any speed issues until after that period.

If it was the same speed on the supplied kit, I doubt its an equipment/config issue to be quite honest.

And to echo the above, PPPoE settings are as simple as setting a username and password (Sky is a little different regarding DHCP settings).
 
The Openreach modem has no settings you can adjust. Plug in the BT Hub, you should get the same 148Mbps at which point you are below your speed guarantee and you can either accept the discount or cancel the contract.

If, on the other hand, you get more than 148Mbps with the Hub then I’d ask for a new modem, wherever you got that one from.
 
I did some troubleshooting and swapped the home hub in. Sync speed, 168 down - 23 up. Speedtest showed 152 down - 22 up.

I thought I'd replace the DSL cable, and sync speeds changed increased to 202 down - 23 up. Speedtest 182 down - 22 up.

Removed the hub again, kept new cable installed, no sync speeds to check, but speedtest now sitting at 178 down - 20 up.

I can assume the existing cable is damaged, and my settings are OK. It's still slower than expected, but at least I've got a little bit extra out of it.
 
If you're above the "stay fast guarantee" then those are the speeds you're getting. If you're below them then you can leave the contract - I wouldn't bank on the speeds being able to be improved on. G.fast was never that widely deployed, chances are you will get the same engineer for faults each time and if they've decided that the line is performing as well as it can they are incredibly reluctant to try anything else.

G.fast from cabinets was always a really dumb idea, and because it uses such high frequencies it's incredibly susceptible to external interference, so the different sync rates that you're seeing could just be margin of error stuff.

Did you have FTTC on this line before? What sync speed did you get?
 
We originally had FTTC 80/20 but realistically only saw ~50-55 down. We had multiple engineers out as Plusnet said it must be a fault, but nothing was ever found.
It was the last engineer I saw that swayed me to move to gfast. He said very few people know about, let alone have it so the network isn't congested.
 
The easy G.fast router are Zyxel XMG3927-B50A with input your username and password from your ISP and it will connected. G.fast use this settings below:


#NameTypeModeEncapsulation802.1p802.1qIGMP ProxyNATDefault Gateway
1VDSLPTMRoutingPPPoE2101YYY

============================================================================
xDSL Training Status: Showtime
Mode: G.fast Annex A
Traffic Type: PTM Mode
Link Uptime: 54 days: 1 hour: 10 minutes
============================================================================
xDSL Port Details Upstream Downstream
Line Rate: 47.543 Mbps 266.602 Mbps
Actual Net Data Rate: 47.364 Mbps 266.328 Mbps
Trellis Coding: ON ON
SNR Margin: 3.1 dB 3.1 dB
Actual Delay: 0 ms 0 ms
Transmit Power: 4.0 dBm 0.0 dBm
Receive Power: 4.7 dBm 3.0 dBm
Actual INP: 607.0 symbols 550.0 symbols
Attainable Net Data Rate: 47.247 Mbps 266.117 Mbps
============================================================================
Throughput speed:
PING

9​

Ms
DOWNLOAD

249.45​

Mbps
UPLOAD

46.42​

Mbps
 
Last edited:
Unfortunately I can't see any line stats at all with the MT992 - might have to but a new modem.

Openreach engineer is due out tomorrow, see what he finds. BT tech support are telling me the home hub will work fine connected to my pfsense router. :rolleyes:
 
mushtafa said:
Unfortunately I can't see any line stats at all with the MT992 - might have to but a new modem.

Openreach engineer is due out tomorrow, see what he finds. BT tech support are telling me the home hub will work fine connected to my pfsense router. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
How did it go today with the Engineer?
 
bulldog147 said:
How did it go today with the Engineer?
Click to expand...
He's just left. Explained that I'm at around 300m on the line, so the speed is dropping off too quick. He found my internal DSL cable was faulty, and the faceplate was faulty. New cable, and old skool microfilter for temporary measure (He didn't have any new face plates) is seeing 253D and 23U on his tester.

Plugged the HomeHub in and line stats show 222D & 26U - speedtest of 228D & 22U.

Back to the modem - no stats to view - speedtest of 209D & 22U.

He did say the line goes past the property to another junction than runs back. He said he'll include in his report that if they ran a new cable it'll cut down the total length by about 100m which will improve it massively.

Will speak to BT tomorrow regarding the line, see if they authorise it, and I'll look at another modem.
 
I would put money on no copper rearrangement work taking place to improve your G.fast connection - the future is fibre, Openreach are barely maintaining the copper network now. FTTC cabinets that fill up are being left that way.
 
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