YouFibre and EEro Router Pro.

Hi Folks,

Just had a guy knocking at my door yesterday saying that Youfibre were about to cable the area, we had a longish talk about things, their prices are really good, will buy out any existing contract, so definitely going to keep them in mind.

A bit concerned though about their stock router the EEro pro, in the past I have tried it with Talktalk, didn't like it at all as wireless coverage was really patchy, so after testing never used it. You can get extra units to cover patchy areas with Youfibre at a cost of £7 a month, not a route I want to go down.

I have read that you can use your own router but things can get complicated very quickly if doing so.

I am currently with EE 500 down using the BT hub which is great for a wireless signal, paying £38.25 a month, Youfibre are £30 for a 900 down service, so you may see why I am tempted.

The EEro wireless coveratge is cause for concern though, as I have no intention of paying £7 for an extra unit.

Anyone else using the EEro Pro or with Youfibre as advice appreciated.

Many thanks
Joe.

Currently waiting for YouFibre to be installed (one week today!) and I have absolutely no intention of using their router, preferring to continue using my OPNSense router that I currently use with Voda VDSL (via a suitable Huawei VDSL modem)

There's a good article here with a lot of technical information, although not all of it is still current: https://www.aoakley.com/articles/2022-10-05-youfibre...

Youfibre themselves are pretty open about thison their own help page too.

I'm sure others here can provide you with their own experiences, but I'll be sure and update you in a week's time after my install has completed.

Edited by daern (Wed 05-Jun-24 13:18:09)

Complicated how? Using your own router should just be a case of connect your own router up and you should get an IP from DHCP

In reply to a post by gfibre:

Complicated how? Using your own router should just be a case of connect your own router up and you should get an IP from DHCP

There is some confusion about this. I believe in the past there was some static MAC binding going on that you had to ask Youfibre to remove before it would accept a new router, but I have strong suspicions that, these days, it will just plug in and work. Tell you in a week!

In reply to a post by joemardo1:

Hi Folks,

Just had a guy knocking at my door yesterday saying that Youfibre were about to cable the area, we had a longish talk about things, their prices are really good, will buy out any existing contract, so definitely going to keep them in mind.


A bit concerned though about their stock router the EEro pro, in the past I have tried it with Talktalk, didn't like it at all as wireless coverage was really patchy, so after testing never used it. You can get extra units to cover patchy areas with Youfibre at a cost of £7 a month, not a route I want to go down.

I have read that you can use your own router but things can get complicated very quickly if doing so.

I am currently with EE 500 down using the BT hub which is great for a wireless signal, paying £38.25 a month, Youfibre are £30 for a 900 down service, so you may see why I am tempted.

The EEro wireless coveratge is cause for concern though, as I have no intention of paying £7 for an extra unit.

Anyone else using the EEro Pro or with Youfibre as advice appreciated.

Many thanks
Joe.

Hi I am a customer in one of the newer deployment areas, the DHCP server on their network assigns an IP once an hour / renews existing static IP if paid for, I use a TP Link Omada ER7206 and have their Aris on the Gig symmetric with static IP, all you need to do is plug yourself in wait an hour from unplugging the YouFibre router if it has been used and you will have your own kit working.

All you really need to do is set your firewall to DHCP mode for IPv4 and 6 and then apply a /52 prefix on IPv6 to get the address if you wish to use IPv6.

I have a full Network solution hence why.

I highly recommend and I don't get any downtime other than self inflicted when i make changes to my firewalls.

Let me know if you have questions and I will respond back

You could continue to use your BT hub for wifi. Just disable the dhcp server and maybe change the IP address so that there are no conflicts.

If you have a wired network you might be able to site the BT hub in a place where you get a better wifi signal

Thanks for all replies, If I was to leave EE for Youfibre, I would think that EE will ask for the BT router back, but I do have a few Talktalk routers laying around that have not been bad either.

So good to know that others are using their own routers, will be great to know how its all going for you after install, and how your own router is performing.

Thanks.

In reply to a post by daern:

In reply to a post by gfibre:

Complicated how? Using your own router should just be a case of connect your own router up and you should get an IP from DHCP

There is some confusion about this. I believe in the past there was some static MAC binding going on that you had to ask Youfibre to remove before it would accept a new router, but I have strong suspicions that, these days, it will just plug in and work. Tell you in a week!

Can confirm this is correct, those days of MAC bindings are long gone!

Should just be a case of unplug old router, plug in new one but if you do have issue just ask CS to clear your sessions and you should be good to go.

In reply to a post by gfibre:

Can confirm this is correct, those days of MAC bindings are long gone!

Thanks, good news!

Hi again,

Just thought of something else, at the moment the Openreach ONT is at back of house, the cable was taken through lawn in front There is actually a service duct at front of lawn.

The Openreach cable was taken around outside gable of house, so as to get to back where we mainly live, the original installers weren't that happy as the cable was attached to gable wall and the attachment screws, kept coming out, so took a while to do.

I understand that Youfibre will install their own ONT, I take it they can't use the present Openreach cabling. It would be a lot more convenient if they could use the existing cabling and just switch the ONT and hook up the other side of calbe at service duct to their network.

Edited by joemardo1 (Fri 07-Jun-24 11:22:47)

If YouFibre don't use the Openreach ONT, they won't use the Openreach cable.

YouFibre won't touch anything to do with OR. In fact, they'll leave all of the existing cabling in place and install alongside, including any overhead run from a pole that might be required.

Whether or not they'll run it the same route as the OR ONT is going to be down to the engineers on the day. I would certainly be stocking up on premium coffee and biscuits and do your very best to sweet-talking them into mirroring the existing install!

I've got something similar to do for my own install next week - my existing master socket is in the centre of the house, so it'll need the fibre to run under the floor. There's a large void there and I'll be more than happy to go down there for them to drag it under from the entry point at the front of the house. Hopefully this combined with the finest biscuits Aldi sell will avoid any difficulties!

maybe worth if theres space to put some conduit there and save some time in the future

Honestly, it's just a big open void and a right old mess under there so it would be very much "polishing a turd" were I do put trunking in for this. Only a quick job to go under there myself and drag it through.

Now that my own install is complete, I can add a few notes here:

The engineer was willing to put the ONT more or less anywhere I wanted, but did point out that because fibre can't be bent like copper can, it's much harder to run round neatly around corners which makes it harder to do an invisible install beyond drilling through an outside wall.

In the end, he left me with a roll of fibre and I ran it myself under the floor void (their engineers are not allowed to enter floor voids and lofts) and drilled a new cable access hole at the front of the house to bring it out to where the external fibre came down to. Whole job took me an hour (including the time taken to get the cat out from under the floor afterwards!) and made life much easier for the engineer when he came back later to complete the job. If you have very specific requirements and are happier to do this yourself, I would recommend having a chat with the engineer to see if this would be mutually convenient.

Can't report on the service yet as still waiting for activation - mine is the first install on a new exchange and apparently it's not /quite/ ready yet but should be very soon - maybe even today! I don't mind waiting, so this isn't a big problem for me.

In reply to a post by daern:

If you have very specific requirements and are happier to do this yourself, I would recommend having a chat with the engineer to see if this would be mutually convenient.

Thank you for your post.

That is what I have been hoping to do when Openreach FTTP becomes available.

Eero routers are designed to be used as a mesh network. Using one by itself would lose all the benefits of the product.

You can buy extra routers rather than paying a monthly fee.

If you're swapping kit from theirs to your own, just turn the ONT off, swap the router out and turn the ONT on again. It'll re-acquire a lease and start working there and then, rather than needing to wait an hour or phone CS.

You can also clone the MAC of the originally connected device if the above fails and you're impatient, but beware the EEro box doesnt have the MAC address listed so you'll need to grab it from the advanced settings in the EEro app before you go disconnecting anything. IIRC it also doesnt do a good job telling you which is the one in use for the wan side, so you might need to guess when spoofing it from the 2 listed.

Interestingly, I wasn't given the Eero, but instead a big black router thing which I gathered was more powerful. It's an Arris NVG578LX, I think made by Commscope.

Makes no difference to me as it'll get chucked in the box once the service is actually turned on (Wednesday, apparently!)

In reply to a post by daern:

Interestingly, I wasn't given the Eero, but instead a big black router thing which I gathered was more powerful. It's an Arris NVG578LX, I think made by Commscope. Makes no difference to me as it'll get chucked in the box once the service is actually turned on (Wednesday, apparently!)

That Arris box has GPON fibre interface. It sounds like it IS the ONT, perhaps not wall mounted as they've supplied an integrated ONT & Router in one? You may have to see if it can be put in a "modem mode" or similar.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

That Arris box has GPON fibre interface. It sounds like it IS the ONT, perhaps not wall mounted as they've supplied an integrated ONT & Router in one? You may have to see if it can be put in a "modem mode" or similar.

It might do (I admit I've not checked), but I also have a separate, Netomnia-branded ONT with a 2.5G ethernet connection to the Arris router.

In reply to a post by daern:

It might do (I admit I've not checked), but I also have a separate, Netomnia-branded ONT with a 2.5G ethernet connection to the Arris router.

Sounds more traditional.

You're quite right about the router having fibre capability, but Youfibre haven't installed mine like that, instead providing a standalone ONT (with 2.5G ethernet for my 1000/1000 service) alongside the router:

https://imgur.com/a/eSW0i0g

My guess is that, in most cases, they probably will keep the two separate, which certainly suits me better.

In reply to a post by daern:

You're quite right about the router having fibre capability, but Youfibre haven't installed mine like that, instead providing a standalone ONT (with 2.5G ethernet for my 1000/1000 service) alongside the router:

https://imgur.com/a/eSW0i0g

My guess is that, in most cases, they probably will keep the two separate, which certainly suits me better.

I have the exact same install, other than a 1GB adtran ONT, the Arris would not work on their network as they use XGSPon

In reply to a post by gfibre:

In reply to a post by daern:

In reply to a post by gfibre:

Complicated how? Using your own router should just be a case of connect your own router up and you should get an IP from DHCP

There is some confusion about this. I believe in the past there was some static MAC binding going on that you had to ask Youfibre to remove before it would accept a new router, but I have strong suspicions that, these days, it will just plug in and work. Tell you in a week!

Can confirm this is correct, those days of MAC bindings are long gone!

Should just be a case of unplug old router, plug in new one but if you do have issue just ask CS to clear your sessions and you should be good to go.

My service went live yesterday, so thought it worth adding my experience here for the sake of any future customers doing the same.

The ONT / network does indeed enforce a MAC binding. It only allows a single MAC address on the ONT at a time, and won't issue an IP address if a lease is already active. The lease is one hour, so the upshot of this is that you need to plug in your new router and then wait an hour for the DHCP lease to expire, at which point the new router will be issued with a DHCP lease for the new MAC address and it will all work perfectly. Restarting the ONT does not speed things up here - I was still getting DHCP NAKs back even after this was done. Just wait it out and it will start working. Alternatively, unplug the stock router for an hour before switching across and you can enjoy a seamless transition. Just don't be impatient like me!

You can use MAC cloning too, but I seemed to be having issues with that, probably due to OPNSense + Proxmox refusing to allow it. YMMV with different hardware.

This thread was originally asking about whether the eero router was any good but seemed to be hijacked about getting YouFibre installed and how to connect other routers. Does anyone have any good news about eero routers?

In reply to a post by daern:

In reply to a post by gfibre:

In reply to a post by daern:

... nested quotes trimmed ...

There is some confusion about this. I believe in the past there was some static MAC binding going on that you had to ask Youfibre to remove before it would accept a new router, but I have strong suspicions that, these days, it will just plug in and work. Tell you in a week!

Can confirm this is correct, those days of MAC bindings are long gone!

Should just be a case of unplug old router, plug in new one but if you do have issue just ask CS to clear your sessions and you should be good to go.

My service went live yesterday, so thought it worth adding my experience here for the sake of any future customers doing the same.

The ONT / network does indeed enforce a MAC binding. It only allows a single MAC address on the ONT at a time, and won't issue an IP address if a lease is already active. The lease is one hour, so the upshot of this is that you need to plug in your new router and then wait an hour for the DHCP lease to expire, at which point the new router will be issued with a DHCP lease for the new MAC address and it will all work perfectly. Restarting the ONT does not speed things up here - I was still getting DHCP NAKs back even after this was done. Just wait it out and it will start working. Alternatively, unplug the stock router for an hour before switching across and you can enjoy a seamless transition. Just don't be impatient like me!

You can use MAC cloning too, but I seemed to be having issues with that, probably due to OPNSense + Proxmox refusing to allow it. YMMV with different hardware.

Just to clarify what i meant by this, in the old days your static IP was reserved using your MAC, this isn't the case anymore, you don't need to tell CS the MAC of the router you'll be using.

If the router doesn't release the lease properly then yes you'll need to wait an hour for the lease to expire, or as you mentioned just clone the MAC