VLAN tagging on Fibre connection

[#1]

Hi,

To cut a long story short I bought Google Nest WiFi but the cloud services aren’t working properly and google keep telling me it is because their routers do not support VLAN tagging, there last and final response to me was the following.

We understand. As previously mentioned, VLAN tagging isn't supported by Google Nest Wifi and can cause connectivity issues. We checked this with our team and we'd like you to try these suggested steps:

1. Best to put a managed switch or a third-party router that supports VLAN in between your modem and Nest Wifi router

Previous to this I had never heard of VLAN tagging and have never had an issue with any other equipment I have used. I used a Draytek Vigor 130 and that automatically puts in the 101 VLAN for Plusnet, I do not need a router that has VLAN support! Anyone have the info on VLAN tagging so I can get through to someone on their side that will stop talking rubbish. 

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Every ISP/CP in the UK supplying a service, carried via the Openreach FTTC (VDSL2, ITU-T G.993.2) product, makes use of a VLAN (tagged 101) between the modem and the upstream equipment. The VLAN end-point is the modem. Any equipment connected downstream of the modem has no knowledge of that VLAN. The Openreach modems (in their default configuration) will remove the VLAN tagging, so as far as the router is concerned, there is no VLAN on your connection

I would assume since the Draytek 130 is Approved to Sin 498 (https://www.draytek.co.uk/products/business/vigor-130) then it does the same. Google are talking rubbish, the Nest will have no knowledge of VLAN (and doesnt need any). If you are getting a basic internet connection, which it sounds like you are, but Cloud services are not working then it sounds like Google are using the VLAN issue as a smokescreen to avoid investigating

[#3]

Thank you sir

[#4]

@MisterW I let them know and they came back with the following;

Got it. According to the status report, the gateway IP address is 172.16.17.129. If the Gateway ends with anything besides .1 or .254 it will indicate VLAN Tagging is in use. We'd like to clarify, have you tried resetting your network to its default settings? Also, this article might help: https://goo.gle/2Yo7QZq

[#5]

@Yorkshirelion  they're talking complete and utter rubbish!. The IP address has nothing to do with VLAN tagging.

Where did they get that gateway address from ? it's a private IP it can't be the PlusNet gateway

[#6]

I think that when the device does its original setup after you enter the PPPOE details it times out talking to the router so it records the routers own address as a temporary one instead of the actual address. Even though after this is works because of this entry in the log support won’t let it go.

[#7]

TBH I don't know much about the Nest Wifi (and there doesn't appear to be any online manuals!) but this https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleWiFi/comments/8tuiuu/discovered_theres_a_diagnostic_report_any_other/ seems to indicate there may be some diagnostic screens

Can you try the https://192.168.1.1/api/v1/diagnostic-report and http://192.168.1.1/api/v1/status ones (assuming your nest is on 192.168.1.1). I'm looking for something that shows the WAN status...

Careful if you post screenshots that there's no personal info as this is a public forum

[#8]

Here is the information, as you can see there scan brings up a VLAN flag which they love and you can see the dodgy gateway address. 

[#9]

That gateway address is rubbish, its a private non-routable address see https://www.speedguide.net/ip/172.16.17.129 .

The PPPoE connection should be obtaining a PlusNet gateway address , something like 195.166.x.x . I don't see how you can be getting an internet connection with the gateway address you have !!

Strangely though, it's getting the PlusNet DNS server addresses correctly !

Can you try this diagnostic page http://192.168.1.1/api/v1/wan-configuration

[#10]

They don’t seem to able to work that out either and I think that they have given up at this point, when you setup the system it asks for the PPPOE connection and sometimes it works but other times it straight up says it cannot connect to cloud services. However it always has the dodgy gateway address.