Week-long UFB outage

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dqmcdonald

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#248481 28-Mar-2019 07:06

My previously totally reliable and performant UFB connection stopped working suddenly about a week ago.

Since then I've been on the phone with my ISP (ICONZ) daily and they've tried to bounce it around to Enable (I'm in Christchurch) and 2Degrees, declaring a couple of times that it is "fixed" but to no avail.

As far as I can tell the router can see a PPP server, the log suggests it makes a connection but the password/username auth fails. ICONZ says they can't even see the failed attempts.

Unfortunately, my mental model of how UFB works is not really solid enough to know what could be going on. I assume that somewhere I should be "magically" pointed to ICONZ and that their PPP server would process my authentication request? Or does it not work that way? My ISP says that when they configure a router with my credentials it works for them. It seems to me that I'm being pointed to the wrong PPP server, in which case somebody has been getting failed auth attempts every 20 seconds for the last week!

Does anybody have any suggestions for things I could try? I've had the same problem with two different routers, replaced all the cables and yes - cycled the power on everything that has a power switch including the ONT. Been reliant on my phone/4G and it's getting expensive...

Thanks,

Quentin

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#2206052 28-Mar-2019 07:36

Your ISP needs to log a fault with Enable and make sure the provisioning is ok.

We can't fix a problem that realistically the ISP is the only party able to fix it.

dqmcdonald

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2206054 28-Mar-2019 07:41

"Logging a problem with Enable" appears to be something of a black hole. They say they've "reinstated the service" but it seemed to have no effect.

Yes, I do understand there's not likely much I can do. Basically, I'm primarily interested to know more about what the problem is likely to be and secondarily whether there's anything specific I should ask my ISP to do/investigate.

Thanks,

Quentin

ANglEAUT

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#2206070 28-Mar-2019 08:45

dqmcdonald:

... Unfortunately, my mental model of how UFB works is not really solid enough to know what could be going on. I assume that somewhere I should be "magically" pointed to ICONZ and that their PPP server would process my authentication request? ...

I too would like to know the low level details of this.

Who out there on the internet receives the initial DHCP request from my router?
How does that get routed to my ISP
What does the VLAN 10 tagging do?
Why do some ISP require a username/pwd whilst other don't?
Not relevant here but related: Why does PPOe have such a big overhead?

Please keep this GZ community vibrant by contributing in a constructive & respectful manner.

dqmcdonald

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2206462 28-Mar-2019 18:06

Thanks to the persistence of the ICONZ tech the problem was eventually found to be a fault in the connection between 2Degrees and ICONZ. So my problem is resolved, but I'm still curious about the questions ANglEAUT has.

Sounddude

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#2206555 28-Mar-2019 19:33

ANglEAUT:

dqmcdonald:

... Unfortunately, my mental model of how UFB works is not really solid enough to know what could be going on. I assume that somewhere I should be "magically" pointed to ICONZ and that their PPP server would process my authentication request? ...

I too would like to know the low level details of this.

Who out there on the internet receives the initial DHCP request from my router?
How does that get routed to my ISP
What does the VLAN 10 tagging do?
Why do some ISP require a username/pwd whilst other don't?
Not relevant here but related: Why does PPOe have such a big overhead?

I can answer these for you.

1) This will depend on your ISP and how they have built their network. ICONZ is this case buys UFB via 2Degrees. Alot of smaller ISP's buy off larger RSP's to give them more coverage. But the Wholesale RSP's will receive your DHCP/PPPoE request, and then forward them onto your RSP.

2) Again depends on your ISP, but LFC (Local Fibre Company) will route your connection to the RSP at layer2 layer.

3) This is so the ISP can support QoS. QoS markings are in the dot1q header.

4) Some ISP's will authenticate off the DHCP Option 82 field (so basically off the port details). Some require user/passwords. Its just the RSP's choice on what they feel easier to support. Port auth comes with its challenges.

5) PPPoE wraps packet headers around your packets. The your router has to add them on, the ISP has to strip them off. CPU's have to do the work, so its expensive.

ANglEAUT

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#2206606 28-Mar-2019 19:50

👌

Sounddude: I can answer these for you...

👏

Awesome. Thank you very much for that. 🍻

I'm guessing, similar to point 1, When Enable / Chorus connect the fiber on my premises, they "label" the port in the cabinet as servicing my property. When I change ISPs, does the ISP then simply contact Enable / Chorus stating that "my property" is now serviced by the new ISP and they want the initial DHCP requests coming via the cabinet port servicing "my property"?

Please keep this GZ community vibrant by contributing in a constructive & respectful manner.

Sounddude

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#2206615 28-Mar-2019 20:03

ANglEAUT:

👌
Sounddude: I can answer these for you...
👏

Awesome. Thank you very much for that. 🍻

I'm guessing, similar to point 1, When Enable / Chorus connect the fiber on my premises, they "label" the port in the cabinet as servicing my property. When I change ISPs, does the ISP then simply contact Enable / Chorus stating that "my property" is now serviced by the new ISP and they want the initial DHCP requests coming via the cabinet port servicing "my property"?

Yes pretty much this. The "routing" is done on the ONT port in your house. That way Chorus/Enable can sell multiple services to different ISP's off the same ONT.