Replacing BT Router

I want to ditch the BT Router for something rather better, I guess a username and password for the service will be required; where would such information be obtained from? It is an FFTC service. Is there a webpage that provides essential settings to put into the router?

Thanks in advance for assistance provided.

Yes, it is within the hub itself ...

BT's Hubs are both a modem and a router combined.
Do you plan in using a separate modem and separate router or a combined unit?
Have you got anything in particular in mind?

The modem needs to support/be configured for VDSL2 Profile 17a.
Setting DSL mode to 'Auto' works on most modems.
It needs a VLAN/802.1p tag of '101'.
Set 802.1p to 0

On the WAN side (the router) there's no VLAN tag.
For BT residential the PPPoE credentials are generic.
Username: [email protected]
Password: BT (or blank)

A common mistake is adding the VLAN tag (101) to the WAN settings instead of the DSL settings on a combined unit.

It's actually not as difficult as my post makes it sound.

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

BT's Hubs are both a modem and a router combined.
Do you plan in using a separate modem and separate router or a combined unit?
Have you got anything in particular in mind?

The modem needs to support/be configured for VDSL2 Profile 17a.
Setting DSL mode to 'Auto' works on most modems.
It needs a VLAN/802.1p tag of '101'.
Set 802.1p to 0

On the WAN side (the router) there's no VLAN tag.
For BT residential the PPPoE credentials are generic.
Username: [email protected]
Password: BT (or blank)

A common mistake is adding the VLAN tag (101) to the WAN settings instead of the DSL settings on a combined unit.

It's actually not as difficult as my post makes it sound.

The BT Hub was replaced with a Vigor 2865Vac with the accompanying booklet most helpful of the settings to use. It said nothing about the value for the MTU but there was auto adjusted down to 1492.

I am sort of inclined to force the use of 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 but uncertain of the benefit it will bring. I wanted to VPN into my network for a number of reasons but found it necessary to create a ddns account as the WAN address changed so frequently. I've got an VoIP account with Voipfone which saves a fortune against BT call charges and it provides free calls to all other Voipfone subscribers.

My settings seem to need a minor tweak because a VPN session established drops out with LCP Time-out but I can't find the appropriate setting to stop that happening.

I matched the SSID settings to those used on the BT Hub, and that saved an awful amount of time in the switchover. Non email accounts are used so it places me in good position to move to another provider with the minimum of hassle as the contract comes to an end.

Connection speeds are much better than with the BT Hub and the wireless signal has a much larger footprint as well.

The DSL Status page is shown below, although the presentation is much better in the router!

ATU-R Information
Type: VDSL2
Hardware: Annex A
Firmware: 08-0D-01-0B-01-07
Power Mngt Mode: DSL_G997_PMS_L0
Line State: SHOWTIME
Running Mode: 17A
Vendor ID: fe004452 41590000
ATU-C Information
Vendor ID: b5004244 434da4a1 [BDCM]
Line Statistics

Downstream Upstream
Actual Rate 78453 Kbps 19999 Kbps
Attainable Rate 78763 Kbps 20973 Kbps
Path Mode Fast Fast
Interleave Depth 1 1
Actual PSD 12. 8 dB 7. 3 dB
Near End Far End
Trellis ON ON
Bitswap ON ON
ReTx 0 1
SNR Margin 3 dB 6 dB
Attenuation 16 dB 20 dB
CRC 533 0
FECS 0 s 0 s
ES 104 s 5752 s
SES 1 s 1 s
LOSS 0 s 0 s
UAS 27 s 14209 s

Feedback welcomed.

If you want to change the DNS you will need to disable BT Web Protect on your BT account, otherwise it will still use BT DNS servers, irrespective of what you configure on the router. This is because Web Protect works by intercepting DNS Requests and redirecting them to BTs servers.

It took me a while to figure this one out when I was a BT customer using my own kit.

In reply to a post by mikel543:

If you want to change the DNS you will need to disable BT Web Protect on your BT account, otherwise it will still use BT DNS servers, irrespective of what you configure on the router. This is because Web Protect works by intercepting DNS Requests and redirecting them to BTs servers.

It took me a while to figure this one out when I was a BT customer using my own kit.

An interesting feedback, thank you. What I would really like to known though, is the benefit you get by using 8.8.8.8. and 8.8.4.4 instead.

Main reasons people switch to alternative DNS providers are faster loading of pages due to faster name resolution (some ISPs servers are slow, Plusnet used to be slower than Google DNS),, privacy and filtering out undesirable web sites (OpenDNS provide this service).

This Techradar article gives a good write up on free alternative DNS providers.

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/best-dns-server


https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/best-dns-server

This is a good tool that can benchmark DNS resolvers:

https://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm

You'll probably find that most other DNS resolvers are slower than BT's DNS servers. BT actually has pretty good DNS compared to some providers:

https://i.imgur.com/cvBmZxX.png

https://i.imgur.com/isdWRRi.png

In reply to a post by aidanh:

You'll probably find that most other DNS resolvers are slower than BT's DNS servers. BT actually has pretty good DNS compared to some providers:

The fastest are always on the local network, e.g. at your ISP.

There is no advantage to using Google's public DNS (8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4) but if you were to use Quad 9's (9.9.9.9) or CloudFlare (1.1.1.1) then they filter malware domains.

For info see https://quad9.net or https://1.1.1.1

Edited by jchamier (Mon 23-Aug-21 18:12:03)

In reply to a post by jchamier:

The fastest are always on the local network, e.g. at your ISP.

You'd think so but you'd be amazed how many ISP's screw up DNS.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

There is no advantage to using Google's public DNS (8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4) but if you were to use Quad 9's (9.9.9.9) or CloudFlare (1.1.1.1) then they filter malware domains.

I just remembered another advantage which is why I'm not exclusively using BT's DNS resolvers, they don't properly support DNSSEC which is important for ensuring the validity/integrity of DNS. If you use Google's public DNS, Quad 9 or Cloudflare's DNS you will get DNSSEC validation assuming your client device is configured correctly (you can test with this helpful website: https://dnssec.vs.uni-due.de/).