3rd Party Router Issues

I am hoping that somebody can clarify something for me. I have been looking at moving to use my own router with Sky Broadband on my Gigafast Sky Product. I have been seeing random reboots with my Hub 4 (SR203) and am getting fed up with it.

Looking within the Sky help forums (https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Broadband/bd-p/sky_broadband), I can see that Sky authenticate using IPoE instead of PPPoE. In December 2020 user -rpnz- stated (https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Broadband/Third-party-router-with-FTTP/td-p/3541862/page/2)

"So for our FTTx products (both FTTC and FTTP), we use IPoE instead of PPPoE.



For DHCPv6, nothing special is required, if you setup your CPE router for DHCPv6 Prefix Delegation (PD). About 80%~ of Openreach's network we can authenticate DHCPv6 natively, and then DHCPv4 can piggy back on that.



The remaining 20%, will need to be authenticated based on DHCPv4 (and then DHCPv6 can piggy back on that). For DHCPv4, we require Option 61 to be present, and this just allows us to identify that the DHCP message is coming from the Sky Hub rather than a laptop or client on your LAN."



Since then many people on the forums across multiple threads have continued to quote this 80% figure but tend to put it with Openreach exchanges rather than w.r.t the Openreach network. Could somebody, such as MrSaffron, please explain a bit more on this. Is the 20% that doesn't (or didn't in December 2020) due to older hardware? If so will Openreach upgrade it at some point?I was wondering if there is anyway to workout if your line supports DHCPv6 Prefix Delegation. Knowing this provides a better choice of routers, as opposed to finding one that needs to support DHCPv4 Option 61

I am specifically interested in the Nest WiFi Pro which I think would 'play nicely' with my other Google Smart devices. Going for a 3 pack and using the mesh should provide a reliable Wi-Fi signal throughout my house. However I don't want to buy this if it won't work as I don't know if I can try it and then return to Google if it doesn't work.

I know that in mesh mode it can't be setup in AP mode so connecting it to the Sky Hub would cause double NAT issues.

If anybody can answer the questions above I would be very appreciative.

Thanks,
Paul

Hi hope you get the answers you want but I think its unlikely that anyone on these forums will be able to say for sure if you personally still need to use Option 61 or not. The only way I found out was to use a router without Option 61 set.

Edited by PCJM40 (Wed 20-Dec-23 14:36:12)

Can't comment on their fibre connections, but I used to be able to connect on VDSL without using option 61 as long as I had IPV6 enabled, but I set the client id anyway and at some point that changed and it now requires an option 61 client id, or it won't connect. No idea when it happened, I only noticed it when I updated the firmware on the router.

I purchased the Nest WiFi Pro and it works using DHCPv6 Delegation Prefix authentication, so I have been able to do away with the Sky Hub.

I am still interested to understand the accuracy of the 80% of Open reach network support for it though.

Paul