Can't connect to openreach modem on PC

So I have had an upgrade made to GFast by TalkTalk and an OR engineer came to set it up as well as giving me a white modem which is due to be used into TT's router WAN port. It worked for like 2 hours before dropping completely and has never worked since despite trying different solutions. TalkTalk is obviously incompetent and unable to have a proper technical conversation, so it's hopeless with them. They are sending another engineer but we all know nothing is gonna change.

The engineer could test the line at the master socket fine and had the router connecting to internet after a call with DCoE. Not sure what was said then. I saw the connection myself on his device so I know that everything is ok to the socket.
The GFast modem has all green lights on and seem fine.

I suspect TalkTalk authentication to be at fault but they won't help and their router hides all the settings I'd need to see.

My solution, then, was to first assess if I can connect to internet with my laptop directly plugged into the openreach modem and make a dial up connection with BT standard login details. For some reason though, I can't connect and get the error 651. I tried no login at all and same. Shouldn't I be able to connect to it straight from my PC? That's very odd.

Help anyone?

Dial up will never work, TalkTalk normally does not do the usual authentication, so a PPPoE connection with just enough garbage in the PPPoE username and password fields to get through the field checks should be enough.

If the sync light is on on the G.fast modem then that is synced, so does point to authentication error, does the Talktalk router not have any logs, usually there will be something in that.

I do have logs on the router though they're not dated correctly (probably because it failed to be online for very long) but I do see a WAN DHCP failed on VLAN 36. There are no VLAN option accessible from the router sadly. It did manage to connect to the same VLAN 36 before when it was working, as per logs

Connecting from the modem straight to the PC would have been a great solution whilst sorting out the real issue given I work from home. Isn't there any way to do it?

Edited by deleted (Sat 27-Jun-20 16:26:12)

With Windows 10, I have been able to establish a PPPoE to a VDSL2 modem.

I would agree with your suggestion. TT have ballsed up on the radius servers their end.

Indeed, it seems like it is possible to connect directly to the modem.

TalkTalk is using IPoE with DHCP to authenticate rather than PPPoE, would that be why I can't get it to work on W10?

Is it to say that I won't be able to connect to the modem which is synced to internet directly from my PC if TalkTalk has [censored] the radius?

Edited by deleted (Sun 28-Jun-20 08:45:12)

The modem doesn't sync to the internet, it syncs to the exchange. The ISP has to establish a link specific to your line from the exchange to it's network and from there you connect to the internet. If TalkTalk has fubared the configuration there's nothing you can do until they sort it out.

Oh I see, thank you for the info! I guess I will have to go through their painful customer service... Been three weeks now.

Three weeks without internet, cancel your service with TalkTalk and go to IDNet, or Zen Internet for G.fast migration.

Here is steps how to connect openreach modem to your windows pc computer (I know this steps for FTTC and Windows 8, but these are much the same steps for Gfast and Windows 10) https://support.zen.co.uk/kb/Knowledgebase/Fibre-Opt...

Edited by adslmax (Sun 28-Jun-20 11:42:28)

Indeed, I have already cancelled and went with Zen as I hear a lot of positive feedback on their more tech-savvy customer service.

Sadly though the line will only switch to Zen on the 9th of July which is a long time to go without internet. On top of that I still pay for TalkTalk right now so am still entitled to a working service. I don't assume Zen's own PPPoE details will be active before the switch is completed so no chance to get connected through the modem I guess...

Also a funny note; the OR engineer who came after my GFast install told me that actually I should have never been sold GFast in the first place because my house is too far away from the cabinet, which means I will never reach much more than 80Mb/s downspeed as opposed to 120-150 advertised by TalkTalk. When I spoke to Zen, they did see the line was compatible with GFast but did not want to sell this to me as they can see I am too far from the cabinet. So I guess we can add suspicious business activities to the long list of TalkTalk's terrible practices.

Edited by deleted (Sun 28-Jun-20 12:02:31)