In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Duff Virgin 5X hub innit.

The swap to an ONT stick has worked magically to resolve all the BQM 'tears of death', the paltry 6 Mbps upload when it should've been 2000 Mbps etc.

Nightmare vanquished 🤣

Don't get too carried away now, this is Virgin Media! Im sure there's a few more bullets in the chamber yet to be fired.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by suttonscloud:

But definitely a lot better now i have ditched the 5X hub,

Great outcome! I always wondered why Nexfibre didn’t use a powered ONT with Ethernet as almost all other UK FTTP networks. Would make changing the CPE much easier. Great you made a PON SFP work. 👍

To be honest, I quite like the idea of having a true 'full fibre' network, mines full fibre into the router, and then full fibre out to the Cisco SFP switch, in which my PC is also 10gb SFP.

I was using the 10Gbit Ethernet port on the 5X, into a Cisco SFP-10G-T-X which went into my SFP switch, and it used to make me boil knowing my 'full fibre' connection wasn't technically full fibre, lol.

Seen a few horror stories of bad patch leads causing people to not get the correct speeds, and customer services having absolute nightmares diagnosing the issue as people assume a cable either works, or doesn't. And most faulty patch leads will pass ISP testing, as they're not generally tested for throughput and only connectivity, so it can be a complete oversight by the support team.

Guess its not all doom at the end of the tunnel.

Edited by suttonscloud (Thu 16-Jan-25 05:17:31)

In reply to a post by suttonscloud:

We are scheduled to have Openreach FTTP rolled out to our area, with advertised speeds of 1600mbps download and 115mbps upload, so will be interesting to see what equipment OR decide to use.

Nexfibre really do need to address their current setup though, if you know a neighbours PON address and MAC address for their router, you can basically buy the same SFP as me and probably get a free broadband subscription as long as you have a connection to the same OLT, and the fibre hasn't been made dark.

Very interesting.

Have an Openreach-based 1.6Gbps connection (EE) in Suffolk. It just uses their standard deployment method and an ONT with a 2.5Gbps Ethernet port rather than their previous ONTs with a 1Gbps copper port. In my case its a Nokia G-010G-T

When Openreach launch their 1Gbps symmetric plans in a few months, they will utilise existing GPON hardware.

Openreach PON authentication is based on the serial number of the ONT/ONU also. Folks do use ONT sticks for these connections, and spoof the serial number of the ONT.

In reply to a post by suttonscloud:

So this morning, i'd had enough. Thrown the 5X in the bin and now have used my own custom SFP with the 8311 software, configured my PON address, S/N and MAC address and managed to get a link, put it into my OpnSense server and voila, things are magically better.

Rubbish 5X router looks to be the problem.

To be fair: it *could* be a faulty instance of the VM router, but it could also be that your SFP just happens to have an optical power output 0.5dBm higher, and has just taken you over the threshold where things work properly. If that were the case, your link could still be borderline - and the proper fix might be to sort out a bad splice somewhere upstream.

If your SFP module is DOM manageable you may be able to get some RX power stats from it, which would give you a degree of confidence that the light levels are good.

If you want to be sure that the link is good, it's still worth getting VM to fix the problem using their kit.

OP given their background, ought to have access to a proper optical power meter…

In reply to a post by aidanh:

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by suttonscloud:

But definitely a lot better now i have ditched the 5X hub,

Great outcome! I always wondered why Nexfibre didn’t use a powered ONT with Ethernet as almost all other UK FTTP networks. Would make changing the CPE much easier. Great you made a PON SFP work. 👍

They probably don't want you using your own equipment in the first place, or maybe they were trying to avoid the situation of needing to replace all of the ONT's in everyone's homes like BT is going to have to do because they're only gigabit and can't support 10 gig.

Doing it this way requires effectively an ONT swap each time a new Wi-Fi standard comes along because it's integrated into the CPE, installing an XGS-PON ONT when someone buys a service that utilises it is probably a once in ten years thing assuming the device doesn't fail or get damaged.

In reply to a post by jpm:

Doing it this way requires effectively an ONT swap each time a new Wi-Fi standard comes along because it's integrated into the CPE, installing an XGS-PON ONT when someone buys a service that utilises it is probably a once in ten years thing assuming the device doesn't fail or get damaged.

ISPs are doing that anyway though because the Wifi standards drive the speeds offered by ISPs and they do have to provide a piece of plastic capable of achieving those speeds, even if you're going to replace it with your own equipment anyway. From their perspective, swapping a CPE is probably easier than swapping an ONT, even if that's only a once in 10 year thing when the Ethernet standards change. Ignoring the fact that BT tried to save money by not deploying XGS-PON everywhere, could we ever see 25 gig, 50 gig, or 100 gig over Ethernet? If so, Nextfibre will only have to change the CPE but BT will have to go round everyone's homes replacing the PONs again.

In reply to a post by aidanh:

Ignoring the fact that BT tried to save money by not deploying XGS-PON everywhere, could we ever see 25 gig, 50 gig, or 100 gig over Ethernet? If so, Nextfibre will only have to change the CPE but BT will have to go round everyone's homes replacing the PONs again.

You’ve lost me - how are Nexfibre going to deploy 25, 50 or 100GS-PON without changing their gear?

They'll just send you a new CPE and plug the fibre into that instead. Yes, they'd also have to change their gear too but they won't have to waste man hours replacing an ONT. Or am I misunderstanding how it works?

A fibre plugs into an ONT or it plugs onto a combo ONT+router. That’s the only difference.

Whether the provider in question deems it necessary to send staff to effect this is unknown.