Configuring HG612 VDSL Modem for use with BT Infinity

I have just bought myself an unlocked HG612 from a well known online auction site. I have just asked the seller whether I need to do any configuration with it to work with BT Infinity or whether its pretty much plug and play.

His response was:

The modem has been reset to factory defaults, so it should be more or less plug-and-go - much the same as when the Openreach engineer installed it, except you can now look inside and change the configuration. BT isn't my ISP so I can't just say yes or no, but I've sold a few of these and nobody has reported any problems, so I assume it "just works", or maybe requires minimal configuration.

The unlock survives a reset OK and is pretty robust, but you might want to disable the TR069 interface so it can't be updated remotely.

I don't know how techy-minded you are, so a word of caution - you can alter pretty much anything, so make sure you understand what you are changing. For instance, there are a number of firewall levels you can select, but do NOT select the BT firewall - that will block LAN2 again and you've locked yourself out. Special care if you're using telnet; you have root access so it's possible to delete something critical, and if you tell it to do something silly it won't ask you "Are you sure?" !

This begs the question - Do I need to bother disabling the TR069 (or I think it might be called CWMP on the web interface) and if so how do I go about doing it?

In reply to a post by adrian109:

Do I need to bother disabling the TR069 (or I think it might be called CWMP on the web interface) and if so how do I go about doing it?

If you disable the remote management BTagent, then you won't get any firmware updates. This means you can keep the web interface that lets you set the second ethernet IP.

However the firmware updates CAN be good news, they increased a lot of people's sync speeds and reduced error counts.

So its your call.

Try this page:
http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php?board=5.0

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by adrian109:

Do I need to bother disabling the TR069 (or I think it might be called CWMP on the web interface) and if so how do I go about doing it?

If you disable the remote management BTagent, then you won't get any firmware updates. This means you can keep the web interface that lets you set the second ethernet IP.

However the firmware updates CAN be good news, they increased a lot of people's sync speeds and reduced error counts.

So its your call.

Try this page:
http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php?board=5.0

If I was to reset it back to the BT default and allow for remote updates is there anyway I could access the sync speed stats?

It sounds like it is already configured to receive updates and access the stats. It may have the older unlocked firmware so it may auto update, but you will still have telnet access, but not the Web page. There is a later firmware on the kitz site which has the newer firmware and the webpage.

The modem is running firmware version A2pv6C035m.d22g - Is that the latest version?

I was going to say that was the old firmware, but I'm not so sure, looking at this post which is the latest hacked firmware I'm aware of he staets that the new blob is A2pv6C035m.d22g.

Now here's the but, my modem is reporting firmware A2pv6C038m.d24g which appears to be newer.

Ah, it looks like he may have just typed the wrong number according to this post A2pv6C038m.d24g is the latest, which you can download from the link above.

Edited by R0NSKI (Mon 07-Apr-14 15:12:50)

In reply to a post by R0NSKI:

Ah, it looks like he may have just typed the wrong number according to this post A2pv6C038m.d24g is the latest, which you can download from the link above.

Could you be a bit more specific about where to download it from because I can't find it? I also have A2pv6C038m.d22g and the stats program still says "NOTE: The modem has *NOT* been updated with the October 2013 Firmware"

Thanks

The first link in my last post links to this post on Kitz, within that post is is a link to where the various modified firmwares can be downloaded from. The ones with the GUI added back are located in the folder named experimental.

OK, I hadn't tried the "experimental" ones. I've just done that and the version still shows as A2pv6C038m.d22g. I'm updating the firmware from within the GUI (Maintenance/Device/Firmware Upgrade) - does this actually work? It appears to.

Unfortunately it's never worked from the GUI, you have to do it the same way you hacked it in the first place. Google hacking HG612 if you need the instructions. The experimental ones are perfectly ok to use if you want to keep the gui.

Edited by R0NSKI (Mon 07-Apr-14 16:29:32)

That could explain a lot, thanks.

In case you missed my ninja edit,the experimental ones are perfectly ok to use if you want to keep the gui.

OK, thanks, I have now updated and version is showing as 24g. It hasn't benefited me, both my sync speed and attainable have gone down a bit, but at least the stats program now says that I have had the October 2013 update.

There's been a slight drop in your ping so either your routing has changed or interleaving has dropped very slightly. You have a good speed for your distance, the newer firmware seems to improve lower performing connections, it seems a bit more forgiving. I'm the same distance as you but currently getting 46/9 on fast path which it changed back to a few days ago.

My modem, which I've not bothered blocking auto updates on, is showing the firmware version as A2pv6C038m.d24j.

I think this was updated on the 3rd April because the resync log in the Current_Stats directory has Retrain Reason: 1

The update was rolled out in October, so if you've had fttc for any length of time the chances are it was updated long before now.

Yes, I noticed the slight drop but I think that's just normal variation between gateways. Actually the sync in my sig is a little out of date, it's been at 65k for the last month or so since interleaving was put back, I go through phases of no interleaving and 10ms pings then interleaving with 20 ms pings. It doesn't affect normal usage at all. My attainable has been showing anything up to 78k recently so I'm reasonably hopeful there's room for a bit more when vectoring is finally rolled out.

The correctly updated firmware version will report these in the xdslcmd info --stats data when run from a Telnet session:-


Bearer: 0, Upstream rate = 4742 Kbps, Downstream rate = 19403 Kbps

Last initialization procedure status: 0

TPS-TC: PTM Mode(0x0)


If Path is used instead of Bearer, Last initialization procedure status is absent & PTM Mode does not include (0x0), then the modem's firmware is at best only partially updated (probably by doing it via the GUI rather than following Asbokid's original instructions to the letter).


This is my updated firmware version:-

xdslcmd --version
xdslcmd version 1.0
DSL PHY: AnnexA version - A2pv6C038m.d24j
******* Pass *********


EDIT:

It seems that I replied before realising you now have the correctly updated firmware version that is reported as updated via the stats program.

I haven't deleted it though as it MIGHT be useful information for other users.

Edited by deleted (Tue 08-Apr-14 21:21:47)

In reply to a post by Bald_Eagle1:

EDIT:

It seems that I replied before realising you now have the correctly updated firmware version that is reported as updated via the stats program.

I haven't deleted it though as it MIGHT be useful information for other users.

Yes, thanks, the xdslcmd info also confirms that it has updated OK.

Edited by kasg (Wed 09-Apr-14 14:57:34)