No connection

Hi,
We have had our internet and phone service from Octaplus since January. They use Cityfibres network.We have been very happy with the service until yesterday. We had a service upgrade from 900mb to 1.2gb, this was done remotely and all I had to do was install the new router, a Heights HT-252AXE.
The router has 2 FXS ports which are for voip. I tried everything but couldnt get a ring tone, it was like a slow engaged tone, and when I rang the home number it rang at the exchange but not here.
I contacted Octaplus who, believe it or not, have told me to connect the WAN port on the old router to a LAN port on the new router and plug the phone into the telephone socket on the old router, they say this will cure the problem.
I’m not happy with this, I cant try it today as I dont have a spare LAN cable lying around and I’m using all the ports on the new router, the wife doesnt want 2 routers taking up,space either.
Surely there must be a better solution, if anyone can help I’d be very grateful.

The first thing to do is to try the suggestion and establish whether it works. If it does, then you can work on the problem of the number of boxes. If it doesn't, then you will have established that the service is not working. If you don't try this, you could find yourself trying to solve the wrong problem.

It might also be helpful to post the details of the old router, if anyone can spot a reason why the one works and the other doesn't.

Thanks for the reply.
The old router is a TP-Link EX530v

OK, looks like standard VoIP on both. Did Octaplus send you the router pre-configured or have they dumped the responsibility on to you?

The manual for the old router is here https://static.tp-link.com/upload/manual/2024/202402...
there is only a less-than-useful datasheet for the new that I can find https://www.heights-t.com/products/ht-252axe#datashe... which states that it is a high connectivity solution with containerized software that allows operators to add value-added services to increase their ARPU and reduce their customers' churn.

So the new router comes from a company which provides 'solutions' rather than products and those solutions are for ISPs, not for ordinary users. Which makes me think that Octaplus is supposed to configure it for you. Especially as there is no manula for end users. Unless anyone else can provide insight, then you need to complain to Octaplus if their 2 box solution is not acceptable.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

OK, looks like standard VoIP on both. Did Octaplus send you the router pre-configured or have they dumped the responsibility on to you?

yeah i'm thinking octaplus screwed up on the preconfig.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

So the new router comes from a company which provides 'solutions' rather than products and those solutions are for ISPs, not for ordinary users. Which makes me think that Octaplus is supposed to configure it for you. Especially as there is no manula for end users. Unless anyone else can provide insight, then you need to complain to Octaplus if their 2 box solution is not acceptable.

it will double nat it though.

If the sip config can be seen on the tplink (which it should in theory) it might be a contrast and compare ..... or if tr69 is enable a re-config by octaplus.

Either case it sucks to be a customer in this instance

Hi,
I’ve mailed octaplus saying this is unacceptable.
I told them that they were selling me the telephone service and had the duty to supply a router that was capable of working with it.
I also questioned how they intended to deal with new customers who didnt have the tp link router to fall back on.
No reply yet so the ball is in their court and we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

In reply to a post by Taras:

it will double nat it though.

Agreed. Far from ideal. But I am only suggesting to try it out to determine if there is actually a phone service on the new setup, which could eliminate unprovisioned phone service as being an issue. Actually, for this, Original Poster could just try the old router on its own if the fibre is half way compatible.

In reply to a post by DFScale:

In reply to a post by Taras:

it will double nat it though.

Agreed. Far from ideal. But I am only suggesting to try it out to determine if there is actually a phone service on the new setup, which could eliminate unprovisioned phone service as being an issue. Actually, for this, Original Poster could just try the old router on its own if the fibre is half way compatible.

i was going to suggest the same but i'm slightly unwell and some of my posts are slightly off lol.

Well, the ethernet cable arrived this morning, and I connected it as instructed.
Now we have a dial tone but any number we ring from the home phone gives an engaged tone and ringing it from the mobile gives a “customer is on another call” message.
I have let octaplus CS know but have little hope as I’m still waiting for a teply to my last email.
I even removed zoiper from my mobile in case that was interfering somehow but no change.

Yes, this needs pushing back to Octaplus. I think it is complainable already. I take it that all was fine with the line on zoiper until you removed it.