Zen IPv6 and bridging to pfSense

Greetings all,

I'm a refugee from Virgin Media and considering Zen's UF2 package. Particular attractions are price stability (VM increases prices twice a year), static IPv4, IPv6 and a reputation as an ISP that understands the more technical user.

I'd appreciate clarification on a couple of points from existing Zen users.

First, what IPv6 do they supply? Is it a /64 WAN address plus a /48 prefix allocation or something else? I asked the question of Zen Sales and they mentioned a single address with bundles of 8 addresses for £7 per month but I'm not sure the question was understood.

Second, what modem/router do they supply and can it be configured in bridge mode? I've seen mention of the Fritz!Boz 3490 and 7530 and this post implies that both support bridge mode but I asked Zen Sales and they said the modem they supply doesn't. I should have asked then what they're curently supplying but didn't think of it at the time. My requirement is to bridge the incoming VDSL to my pfSense router/firewall and I'm happy to buy a modem if needed - recommendations of an IPv6-capable modem very welcome.

Thanks for any insights you may have.

This might help;

https://support.zen.co.uk/kb/Knowledgebase/Does-Zen-...

You have to email them to enable IPV6 and they then send you all the details. Yes, you get a /64 and a /48

Current Zen FTTC router is a Fritz!Box 7530 (I just received one last week).

I also hope someone else will be able to confirm whether IPV6 works when bridged to pfSense on Zen FTTC. I know that when I last tried I wasn't able to get it working on Zen FTTP to a WatchGuard firewall directly connected to the ONT. I haven't tried recently.

There's a bit more reading, admittedly from a while back, here; IPv6 and Zen

Hi,
If you want IPv6, you must contact [email protected] Every other department will deny any knowledge of IPv6 until you have done that.

Just to point out that Zen gets its IPv6 via the IPv4 uplink at the moment, so you can use any modem and a PPPoE connection into pfsense if you need to.

The Fritzbox 3490 does not support bridge mode, so I bought a Vigor 130. This is a good modem.

If Zen are saying the 7530 can't do bridge. I would be inclined to believe them.

Thanks to both of you for very hepful responses. I've now placed the order with Zen.

It turns out that the bundle of 8 addresses for £7 per month applies to extra IPv4 and that IPv6 is at no extra charge as expected. I've seen good reports elsewhere about the Draytek Vigor 130, so I've ordered one on the assumption that the Fritz!Box 7530 can't do bridge. The 7530 seems a capable device and I can make use of it elsewhere.

For the benefit of anyone else who finds this thread in ther future, I'll update it when the service is live about my experience with Zen's IPv6 and pfSense.

In reply to a post by ashdown:

Greetings all,

I'm a refugee from Virgin Media and considering Zen's UF2 package. Particular attractions are price stability (VM increases prices twice a year), static IPv4, IPv6 and a reputation as an ISP that understands the more technical user.

I'd appreciate clarification on a couple of points from existing Zen users.

First, what IPv6 do they supply? Is it a /64 WAN address plus a /48 prefix allocation or something else? I asked the question of Zen Sales and they mentioned a single address with bundles of 8 addresses for £7 per month but I'm not sure the question was understood.

Second, what modem/router do they supply and can it be configured in bridge mode? I've seen mention of the Fritz!Boz 3490 and 7530 and this post implies that both support bridge mode but I asked Zen Sales and they said the modem they supply doesn't. I should have asked then what they're curently supplying but didn't think of it at the time. My requirement is to bridge the incoming VDSL to my pfSense router/firewall and I'm happy to buy a modem if needed - recommendations of an IPv6-capable modem very welcome.

Thanks for any insights you may have.

The extra cost is for an IPv4 /29, the IPv6 allocation is a /64 & a /48 - it's intended to conform to TR187. However, I think you still have to ask them to enable it manually.

The supplied modem/router is definitely a Frizbox, although I'm not sure which, they quietly change it from time to time.

Fritz bridge mode is better avoided - they don't have a bridge mode per se, but they do have a mode where you can make a 2nd PPPoE connection through them from a different router such as pfsense. I tested it, though "what sort of **** is this" and promptly disabled it and put in a real VDSL2 modem!

I don't remember exactly what happened to the IPv4 address, except that the router behind the Fritz got the static IP. I suspect it would have fallen down in the long run. I do remember that it capped the MTU and for that reason alone I'd recommend avoiding it and treating the Fritzox as not having a bridge mode...

Thanks for the comments about bridging the Fritz. I'll go with the consensus and use the Vigor 130.

I've just migrated from a Vigor 2860 to an Openreach modem and a pfSense. I've got my /29 ipv4 setup and working and applied for an ipv6 range yesterday. Have you got your ipv6 range running?

In reply to a post by clmfsh:

Have you got your ipv6 range running?

Not yet - I'm waiting for a line to be installed, scheduled for next Thursday. I'll post again when the service is up. Please let us know whether you have any issues with interfacing the IPv6 range to pfSense.

My migration from Virgin to Zen with IPv6 and pfSense is complete - thanks to everyone for their advice.

For anyone else doing this, this is my (fairly easy) experience:

I emailed [email protected] several days before activation, requesting an IPv6 allocation. They replied promptly saying I'd be given an allocation when the service is connected.

On the day of activation, I kept it simple by connecting the Zen-supplied Fritz!Box 7530. That worked without any configuration and I was connected via WiFi on IPv4.

The next morning, Zen emailed the IPv6 allocation. I replaced the Fritz!Box with my new Draytek Vigor 130 modem and connected it to the WAN interface on pfSense in place of the VM hub. I reconfigured pfSense to use PPPoE on the WAN interface:

Interfaces > WAN:
General Configuration:
IPv4 Configuration Type: Change from 'DHCP' for Virgin to 'PPPoE' for Zen
IPv6 Configuration Type: Change from 'None' to 'DHCP6'
DHCP6 Client Configuration:
Request a IPv6 prefix through the IPv4 connectivity link : Ticked
DHCPv6 Prefix Delegation size: 48
PPPoE Configuration:
Username: <as supplied by Zen>
Password: <as supplied by Zen>
Save, Apply Changes

I switched on the Vigor 130 modem and it "just worked" - no configuration needed. pfSense acquired my static IPv4 address and my IPv6 block from Zen and reported both on the dashboard under the WAN interface. My LAN was up and running on IPv4 but not yet on IPv6. A quick test in pfSense confirmed that IPv6 was working:

Diagnostics > Ping:
Hostname: www.google.com
IP Protocol: IPv6
Click the PING button and it works!

I then configured IPv6 on the LAN. Suppose that the IPv6 allocation supplied by Zen is 2a02:1234:5678::/48. Then:

Interfaces > LAN:
General Configuration: IPv6 Configuration type: Static IPv6
Static IPv6 Configuration: IPv6 address: 2a02:1234:5678:: / 48
Save, Apply changes

Services > IPv6 Server & RA:
DHCPv6 server: Enable DHCPv6 server on interface LAN: ticked
Range: 2a02:1234:5678::2 to 2a02:1234:5678::1000
Save, Apply changes

I booted up an IPv6-capable Raspberry Pi, it acquired an IPv6 address from pfSense and started merrily talking away to IPv6 servers. Perfect!

I'm impressed with Zen. They know what they're doing and everything's worked.