TP-Link use your own router ER7206 (Omada) advice

[#1]

Some help for anyone wanting to use a TP-Link router with Plusnet Full Fibre, FTTP, and particularly the ER7206. I think the principles here should apply to lots of other routers too. Plusnet themselves handily provide advice for anyone wanting to use their own router on their service. Not so handy though, the help they provide turned out to be wrong.

I thought I would explain what worked for me here. For completeness; I was previously a BT customer so I have an Openreach modem. I don't know if this makes a difference. The modem is the box that turns the electrical signals into fibre. The router plugs into the modem using an Ethernet cable from the router via its WAN (wide-area network) socket. The router has two sides to it, the inward facing LAN side and the outward facing WAN side and it is this outward side that has to be set up correctly. Be aware that you will need access to the original Hub 2 box that you were sent to do this configuration.

To find these WAN settings in the ER7206, log in to the router and go to the 'WAN' tab which is under 'Network'. Within this tab it is the the section labelled 'Connection Configuration'. 

Broadband username or login name: yourusername@plusdsl.net

[CORRECT]

Connection type or encapsulation: PPPoE Always On

[CORRECT for the ER7206, this is labelled 'Connection Type']

Password: The password you use to log in to the My Account

[CORRECT]

VLAN: Active

[WRONG. It turns out that VLAN should be disabled on the TP-Link router; there is a checkbox labelled 'VLAN' that you uncheck]

IMPORTANT

As well as setting all of this up so far, you need to change (fake or spoof) your Hub 2 router's MAC address. This is the crucial part that is unfortunately not described in Plusnet's advice. If your router cannot fake a MAC address, it won't work; at least in my experience. 

For the ER7206, go to the 'MAC' tab which is also under 'Network'. There you will see separate MAC addresses for LAN and WAN. It is the outward-facing WAN address that you want to change. This makes the box pretend it has the same permanent identification number (MAC address) as the router that Plusnet sent you.

I could not find the Hub 2's MAC address anywhere. Here is how I guessed it. With the Hub 2 powered-up and running you can go into its menu system. The password is on the little sticker Plusnet provide with the unit. In the Hub 2's menu system it tells you its LAN MAC address. Here's what worked for me; take the LAN MAC address and add one.

The MAC addresses are hexadecimal. So adding one is a bit more complex than decimal. Look at the last digit of the address.The address will be something like this:

01-23-45-67-89-AB

Note that each digit pair has a dash between it and the next pair. If you are used to colons (:) then you need to know that for the ER7206, it has to be a dash and not a colon. If the last digit is 0 through to eight then you add one in the normal way. If it is nine or a letter, do the following:

9 -> A

A -> B

B -> C

C -> D

D -> E

E -> F

F -> 0

If the value was 'F' though you must also add one to the previous digit (repeating this process for the earlier digit) because you have rolled over. In the same way if you added one to a number ending in nine you would roll over for decimal numbers.

As an example, the MAC address given above would become:

01-23-45-67-89-AC

With one being added to the last digit 'B' making it 'C'.

I hope that this is helpful to someone. Best of luck.

For reference, Plusnet's advice page with the errors is here:

https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/broadband-connection-settings/

[#2]

You are correct about the vlan settings. Connecting to the ont is just like connecting via an openteach modem.

There is no need to spoof the Mac address though!! I have used many third party routers with Plusnet,  including currently a Tplink ER605 and have never had to spoof a Mac address.

[#3]

@MisterW 

The help pages need careful reading , the confusion about VLAN settings would be due to a misunderstanding of terminology.

"What settings should I use for fibre broadband?" - this will be referencing the product name rather than connection. (copper vs fibre)  As a modem is required for Fibre (copper) connection type so the VLAN is required. 

"What settings should I use for a fibre router that's connected to a BT Openreach modem" - The BT Openreach and router should removed and ONT should be added.

Maybe a change to maybe

"What settings should I use for Fibre or Full Fibre that's connected to a Modem or ONT" 

@TheBarn 

"As well as setting all of this up so far, you need to change (fake or spoof) your Hub 2 router's MAC address." 

Interested to know why you thought this? 

[#4]

Hi Dan_the_Van, thanks enormously for the feedback. I can only say that the router would not connect with its original factory MAC address but did connect once I copied the MAC address across from the Hub 2. It is interesting to hear that others have had different experiences. When I get a chance, I will try again changing the MAC address to something else. 

So, from the rest of what you say am I getting this right; if I were to connect the fibre direct into the ER7206, then the VLAN would have been necessary? It is because I am not going direct in with the fibre but going indirectly via a modem (ONT) that the VLAN has to be turned off. If this is the case then you would be right that the way this is described on the Plusnet page is confusing.

Slightly tempted to fit an SFP and try direct connection.

[#5]

You'll have no success using an SFP module to connect directly, so save yourself the hassle.

[#6]

Hi Bob. Thanks for letting me know that, really appreciated.

This now leaves me confused. In my case, VLAN has to be disabled or the connection does not work. To be clear again, this is FTTP full fibre through the previously installed Openreach modem (ONT). I would like to understand what @Dan_the_Van said earlier that the VLAN sometimes has to be enabled and sometimes disabled. it read like VLAN needed to be enabled when the ONT was not there, but you are saying that the ONT is always there. 

[#7]

On advice from other contributors below, I retried setting the MAC address back to the router's own MAC address. When I originally connected the TP-Link router, I tried for four hours and it did not work until I changed the MAC address to replicate (clone or spoof or whatever) the MAC address of the provided Hub 2. 

Today I tried to get the router working using the original MAC address that came with the TP-Link router, and it now works. I am left puzzled as to why it this configuration not work on that first day. If anyone has any ideas why that might have been, then I would be glad to hear.

[#8]

@TheBarn  Both FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) and FTTP (full fibre) require a VLAN ID of 101, however if a separate Openreach modem (FTTC) or ONT (FTTP) is in use that device has the VLAN ID already configured so there is no VLAN config needed in the router.

The only case where the router requires a VLAN to be configured is when a combined VDSL2 modem/router (Such as the HUB2) is connected directly to the FTTC service, i.e. the phone line. This obviously is not the case with FTTP where the router WAN connection goes to the the Openreach ONT.

As for the router MAC address there has never been any need to change it. When you couldn't connect there must have been some other reason which will remain unknown.🤔

[#9]

@RealAleMadrid 

Just about to post my answer, which much the same.

I know you do not use ISP provided modem/routers, both the Hub One and Two are preconfigured with VLAN 101.

Dan

[#10]

Thanks for both of those posts RealAleMadrid & Dan_the_Van. It's good to get the advice sorted but also complicated 😀!

The MAC address thing is weird. Having tried repeatedly for some hours, changed the MAC address and straight away the router connected. Ho hum, I guess I will never understand that bit.

Clarity

For clarity with the VLAN then, if the installation is fibre broadband, in other words if you can see fibre, if you have FTTP, you will have an ONT box, a fibre modem.

Your router will be connected to that modem. 

If you have an ONT box, if you have a fibre modem, this box will handle the VLAN. You have no choice, it just will.

Therefore with fibre, with FTTP, your router must not try and manage the VLAN, for FTTP your router must not have VLAN enabled. 

Decoding Plusnet's Advice

Plusnet's advice talks of 'fibre broadband' when they actually mean broadband that is not connected via fibre. Instead, if you are looking at the incoming link, they mean broadband that is connected on copper cable. Some might feel that this naming could be confusing and especially in the light of the fact that fibre connection is available (see below).

The advice then talks of other connections that have a BT Openreach modem. Connections with a defining characteristic that they do come to the house as fibre but are not classed by Plusnet as simply fibre because that is used to describe copper connections (see above). These are instead classed as connections made with a "fibre router"(see below).

When Plusnet say a "fibre router" they do not mean a fibre router. The router has nothing to do with the fibre, doesn't need to have a fibre capability, and does not connect to the fibre. Indeed if the router does have a fibre connection capability, and you connect it to the fibre, then the advice is that it will not work.

[#11]

@TheBarn  I think you are now overcomplicating the issue, suffice to say Plusnet call a lot of things "fibre" when they are not.🙄

@Dan_the_Van  Interesting point about the Plusnet HUB default configuration with VLAN 101 enabled, does that mean HUB2 devices sent to FTTP customers would have a different configuration with no VLAN defined?

[#12]

@RealAleMadrid 

On power up or reboot both the Hub One and Two autosenses the WAN connection, looking for an active link either on the DSL or WAN port.

This is the message for a Hub Two for my FTTC connection, WAN Auto-sensing detected port DSL WAN

I run a PPPoE server with a Hub One connected it reports WAN operating mode is Ethernet

So the VLAN 101 must be hard coded in the firmware.

HTH

Edit: with DSL it must again detect if ADSL or VDSL to use the relevant settings as VLAN 101 is not required for ADSL

[#13]

@Dan_the_Van  So the router detects the active WAN port and configures the VLAN if required, makes perfect sense and would save a lot of bother that manual configuration would cause.

Edit: Yes it would also have ADSL connections to deal with.