I presume you want to use a landline telephone? Because if you don't then you can do what you want in terms of routers.

In reply to a post by Rhubarb:

Not really. It's just that the only option for my connection is to take DV so I'm stuck with a SH2. I'd like to have a little control over DNS and IP allocation so something like Pi-hole might offer me this with the BT router.

Assuming the SH2 lets you turn off DHCP, then nothing stopping you using the Pi-hole for those services on your network. This should not affect the service the router is using for Digital Voice.

However most ISP routers I have seen have very few options, to reduce support calls.

Post deleted by omnius

In reply to a post by jpm:

I presume you want to use a landline telephone? Because if you don't then you can do what you want in terms of routers.

Yep, need to keep the landline contact, we use mobile for outbound calls but we're at the age where a good few of our friends and relatives only use landlines. I'd be happy to keep the landline on copper as long as we can but it's not a option if we want FTTP. Appreciate there are other options/suppliers but it just makes things more expensive/complicated.

In reply to a post by Rhubarb:

Yep, need to keep the landline contact, we use mobile for outbound calls but we're at the age where a good few of our friends and relatives only use landlines. I'd be happy to keep the landline on copper as long as we can but it's not a option if we want FTTP. Appreciate there are other options/suppliers but it just makes things more expensive/complicated.

In the long run, moving to third-party VOIP will make your life easier. You can change broadband provider or move house in future without having to worry about losing your number, and you can answer your home phone from anywhere in the world!

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Assuming the SH2 lets you turn off DHCP, then nothing stopping you using the Pi-hole for those services on your network. This should not affect the service the router is using for Digital Voice.

However most ISP routers I have seen have very few options, to reduce support calls.

Yep, my Son has an SH2 on FTTC, that has the option to turn off DHCP. Since posting earlier I have found a post on the Pi-hole forum where someone has PH working with the SH2 but there's no mention of digital voice. As you say it should hopefully allow the DV to get an IP as would any other client/process. That would probably leave the SH2 doing not a lot as I would also be disabling WiFi to use BT Whole Home WiFi disks.

SH2 allows DHCP and Wifi to be turned off, leaving it as a simple passthrough device. I have an Asus Router which I have changed to Wireless Access Point mode, and disabled Wifi on the SH2. The Wifi on the SH2 is reasonable, but the range and speed doesn't come close the to Asus. I have left the SH2 as the DHCP server as it that was easier, plus it allocates IPv6 addresses that can access the internet, although if you wanted, the DHCP server could be disabled and you could use the one on your router or other device on your LAN.

If SH2 is not the device that establishes the PPPoE session, then Digital Voice does not work.

In reply to a post by Rhubarb:

Hi. Trying to decide whether to go for FTTP at this stage. Service just become available but it looks like I'd have to have Digital Voice meaning that I'd have to use the SH2. Does anyone know that if I were to turn of DHCP in the SH2 and redirect DHCP & DNS to the likes of pi-hole would DV still work via the router? Cheers - Andy

You can take out BT FTTP without voice using the prev link provided, or indeed use an ISP that does not bundle voice with it's services.

In reply to a post by gary333:

In reply to a post by candlerb:

like the never-ending sales at Allied Carpets.

Showing your age there . They went out of business 5 years ago.

When I was a lad, we didn't have Angry Birds. We had Mellow Birds.

In order to test if the PPPoE server idea will work to allow the SH2 to be connected behind another router, I did the following:
1. Create a PPPoE server on my LAN. It has a local IP the same as the external gateway, and a remote IP the same as my external IP. I'm not sure if this is necessary, but I did it in case SH2 sends any messages with the IP addresses it sees in them.
2. Add NATing from the external gateway IP on the LAN so that it will forward and NAT the traffic.
3. Plug the SH2 into the LAN with the PPPoE server on.

The SH2 connected to the fake PPPoE server and established a connection. I connected to the SH2 wifi and checked the status web page and it said it was connected to the internet. I was able to access the internet as the data went from my PC to the SH2 via wifi, down the PPPoE connection to the fake PPPoE server, the IPs were NATed and forwarded to my ASUS router and out to the internet on the real PPPoE connection. I was able to browse the internet the same as if the SH2 was connected directly to the ONT.

Digital voice did not work. It kept making TLS connections to linediscovery.hub.bt.com:443 but got no further. Checking my previous traffic sniffing when the SH2 was connected to the ONT, it connected to linediscovery.hub.bt.com before connecting to imsee.bt.com. I therefore assume it is getting the SIP details from linediscovery.hub.bt.com somehow. As it's TLS encrypted, I can't see what is being sent to linediscovery.hub.bt.com and why it doesn't work as I set up the fake PPPoE server so the SH2 would think it has the same IP as the real one and is connected to the same gateway IP as the real one, in case any of those IP addresses were sent to linediscovery.hub.bt.com. There must be something else that SH2 is sending to linediscovery.hub.bt.com that is causing it not to work (real PPPoE server MAC address maybe?)