Own router with Wightfibre

Does anybody on the Isle of Wight have any experience of using their own router with Wightfibre's FTTP home (not business) service? Their standard offering is a Fibretwist ONT/router configured in bridge mode connecting to a Plume router over Ethernet with the Plume handling DHCP on the WAN. I prefer to use my Draytek Vigor 2865Vn router behind the Fibretwist as this has much better functionality than the Plume. This has an Ethernet WAN port which supports DHCP. However, I will use a static IP address (presumably reserved against a MAC address), but I am not sure whether this will be of the router or the ONT. My Draytek can be configured to match the MAC of the Plume if necessary, provided that this is not hidden from the customer. I need to clarify this before ordering the service. I have asked Wightfibre support but they insist that only the plume is supported. Obviously, I would swap back the plume for testing in the event of a problem.

Edited by IWTim (Wed 12-Oct-22 20:32:48)

If you want a static IP address, you would have to ask Wightfibre to assign you one. They may well charge for doing this. Your router would then get this wan address when it connects using DHCP.

For DHCP, it's almost certainly the MAC address of the router that matters.

Furthermore, if the ONT/OLT were modifying the DHCP to add extra attributes (which can happen), then that would work independently of the router's MAC address.

So I think the chances of this working are high, even if you have to match the other router's MAC address. And they can't really "hide" this: at worst you connect it back-to-back with a PC running Wireshark, and you sniff the DHCP packets it sends, and look at the source MAC address.

Matching the MAC address is the safest bet anyway, because in some networks this is "sticky", i.e. if you introduce a second device with a different MAC address it either won't work for a long time until some cache expires, or may need a manual kick from the service provider's side.

The worst case I can think of is if you also have to match the router's DHCP client ID, which isn't necessarily the same as the MAC address - but that too is sniffable.

I would suggest something like a Netgear GS105e and use the port mirroring facility of the switch. They are £20 delivered on Amazon, though maybe more if you are on the Isle of Wight. Stick that between the Fibretwist and the Plume and capture it all on Wireshark then replicate. They are likely either using plain DHCP tied to the MAC address on the Plume or using something like option 61 like Sky. It is unlikely they could stop a determined and knowledgeable user from using their own kit.

Further, as I understand it WightFibre is using BiDi Ethernet on their network so there is no ONT/OLT, and it is just a glorified media convertor. If you have a router with an SFP cage then you could ditch the Fibretwist with a suitable SFP from the likes of fs.com

Good point. I think it’s been missed that WightFibre is not GPON/XGS-PON but is one of a handful that is point-to-point.

Just need to confirm what waves are on the BiDi

Thanks tor the replies. Since posting Wightfibre have been in contact again and have told me that the Plume is required as it is the point of demarcation with their network (presumably meaning that they regard it as part of their infrastructure). Instead, they have offered their business package with a Genexis DRG7820 in bridged mode, to which I can connect my own router. This is more expensive than the home package that I was considering with the Fibretwist/Plume combination, but with a higher speed (300/300 mb/sec) and a bundled VoIP line and calls.