How to replace the Orcon Genius on UFB

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › How to replace the Orcon Genius on UFB

cybasnypa

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#107361 10-Aug-2012 09:30

Like many users of Genius on UFB, the genius has firmware issues and needs manual restarts everyday. Plus it only has 3 available 10/100 ports and limited functionality. I wanted to use a NETGEAR WNDR3800 that has Dual Band Wifi and Gigabit LAN/WAN and supports IPV6, plus I needed more ports for connectivity.

Here is my work around to use any current consumer router with outstanding reliability and performance gains over the Genius:

Due to the way Chorus is delivering the service over an untagged VLAN service using VLAN 10, and that no current consumer routers support VLAN's on their WAN, all you actually need is a Smart switch or better that supports VLAN's. I choose a NETGEAR smart switch, GS108T its $203 on Ascent.

Step 1:
Create VLAN 10 on the switch under Switching > VLAN > VLAN Configuration

Step 2:
Assign VLAN 10 to 2 ports on the switch using U for untagged. Switching > VLAN > VLAN Membership
I suggest ports 1 and 2 for ease. Leave ports 3-8 untagged - you'll see why soon.

Step 3: Remove Orcon Genius from the Chorus ONT.
Plug the ONT Port 1 into Port 1 on the switch.
Plug your consumer Routers WAN Port into Port 2 on the switch.

Step 4: Plug in a LAN port from the Consumer Router into port 3. This will issue DHCP addressing to ports 4-8 on the switch, plus you still have the other 3x LAN ports on your Router.

Enjoy your new highspeed UFB with full GigE network performance, and the increased port count for connectivity.

Step 1: Create VLAN

cybasnypa

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#670437 10-Aug-2012 09:51

Step 1:

Step 2:

sbiddle

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#670447 10-Aug-2012 10:00

You could also buy a Mikrotik router. Far better performance and it allows you to set a VLAN on the interface.

You can also buy something like an RB750 for a lot less than the lost of a switch if you just want to mangle the VLAN.

Lorenceo

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#670528 10-Aug-2012 12:09

Could also use a router which supports custom firmware, and tag WAN packets as VLAN 10.

hamish225

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#670848 11-Aug-2012 00:17

whhhhhhhhat?

So you can't just plug any old router into your ont?

That's a bit stupid to be quite honest, im not sure what vlan 10 means, will enable be doing this for its christchurch roll out?

I'd like not to be locked down to using the router that my isp locks me into...

*Insert big spe*dtest result here*

Zeon

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#670850 11-Aug-2012 00:26

cybasnypa: Like many users of Genius on UFB, the genius has firmware issues and needs manual restarts everyday. Plus it only has 3 available 10/100 ports and limited functionality. I wanted to use a NETGEAR WNDR3800 that has Dual Band Wifi and Gigabit LAN/WAN and supports IPV6, plus I needed more ports for connectivity.

Here is my work around to use any current consumer router with outstanding reliability and performance gains over the Genius:

Due to the way Chorus is delivering the service over an untagged VLAN service using VLAN 10, and that no current consumer routers support VLAN's on their WAN, all you actually need is a Smart switch or better that supports VLAN's. I choose a NETGEAR smart switch, GS108T its $203 on Ascent.

Step 1:
Create VLAN 10 on the switch under Switching > VLAN > VLAN Configuration

Step 2:
Assign VLAN 10 to 2 ports on the switch using U for untagged. Switching > VLAN > VLAN Membership
I suggest ports 1 and 2 for ease. Leave ports 3-8 untagged - you'll see why soon.

Step 3: Remove Orcon Genius from the Chorus ONT.
Plug the ONT Port 1 into Port 1 on the switch.
Plug your consumer Routers WAN Port into Port 2 on the switch.

Step 4: Plug in a LAN port from the Consumer Router into port 3. This will issue DHCP addressing to ports 4-8 on the switch, plus you still have the other 3x LAN ports on your Router.

Enjoy your new highspeed UFB with full GigE network performance, and the increased port count for connectivity.

If the ONT already has tagged traffic then you will need to set the port on your switch which plugs into it with that VLAN tag, you should only untag the VLAN on the port connecting to your router. Some switches will require the ports to be in trunk mode for any tagged traffic.

Yea I'd suggest get a better router like a Mikrotik, if you want switch ports, wifi etc. then get a switch and wireless access point seperately. I'm not sure how this will work with orcon's voice service though.

Does UFB really require the router to connect via VLAN 10? I thought the ISP can choose?

Speedtest 2019-10-14

cybasnypa

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#670871 11-Aug-2012 02:11

hamish225: whhhhhhhhat?

So you can't just plug any old router into your ont?

That's a bit stupid to be quite honest, im not sure what vlan 10 means, will enable be doing this for its christchurch roll out?

I'd like not to be locked down to using the router that my isp locks me into...

Right now most mainstream brands do not support Vlan on the wan side. Not sure about enable, however it appears to do with how the fibre service is delivered. Perhaps someone with more knowledge can answer why??

Not being locked into ISP hardware is exactly what the smart switch setup solves.

cybasnypa

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#670872 11-Aug-2012 02:21

Zeon:
cybasnypa: Like many users of Genius on UFB, the genius has firmware issues and needs manual restarts everyday. Plus it only has 3 available 10/100 ports and limited functionality. I wanted to use a NETGEAR WNDR3800 that has Dual Band Wifi and Gigabit LAN/WAN and supports IPV6, plus I needed more ports for connectivity.

Here is my work around to use any current consumer router with outstanding reliability and performance gains over the Genius:

Due to the way Chorus is delivering the service over an untagged VLAN service using VLAN 10, and that no current consumer routers support VLAN's on their WAN, all you actually need is a Smart switch or better that supports VLAN's. I choose a NETGEAR smart switch, GS108T its $203 on Ascent.

Step 1:
Create VLAN 10 on the switch under Switching > VLAN > VLAN Configuration

Step 2:
Assign VLAN 10 to 2 ports on the switch using U for untagged. Switching > VLAN > VLAN Membership
I suggest ports 1 and 2 for ease. Leave ports 3-8 untagged - you'll see why soon.

Step 3: Remove Orcon Genius from the Chorus ONT.
Plug the ONT Port 1 into Port 1 on the switch.
Plug your consumer Routers WAN Port into Port 2 on the switch.

Step 4: Plug in a LAN port from the Consumer Router into port 3. This will issue DHCP addressing to ports 4-8 on the switch, plus you still have the other 3x LAN ports on your Router.

Enjoy your new highspeed UFB with full GigE network performance, and the increased port count for connectivity.

If the ONT already has tagged traffic then you will need to set the port on your switch which plugs into it with that VLAN tag, you should only untag the VLAN on the port connecting to your router. Some switches will require the ports to be in trunk mode for any tagged traffic.

Yea I'd suggest get a better router like a Mikrotik, if you want switch ports, wifi etc. then get a switch and wireless access point seperately. I'm not sure how this will work with orcon's voice service though.

Does UFB really require the router to connect via VLAN 10? I thought the ISP can choose?

Mikrotik seems to have no phone support in NZ, just forums and online guides that need some fairly expert knowledge to setup and deploy. I'm no expert in networking setup, just using a solution that works easily and cheaply. Buying a router, then switch, and separate wifi may be great long run but defeats the idea of 'doing more with less' and all in one for ease. I'm sure an ISP might have clear answers on why it's Vlan10 traffic, however it seems consistent, ie my neighbours are the same, as are all people I know that have UFB installed already.

Quic Broadband

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sbiddle

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#670892 11-Aug-2012 08:38

VLAN10 is also required for EUBA xDSL installs so presumably Chorus decided to keep things simple and keep the same setup.

Most mid range to high end devices all support VLAN10, it's basically just your cheap as chips devices that don't and no ISP is going to have a mass market deployment of these anyway since your average Linksys or Belkin device from (for example) from DSE has no remote provisioning model to go with it.

Sounddude

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#670910 11-Aug-2012 09:17

Hi Guys

Orcon uses tagged ports on the ONT/Genius port to priorities the voice over the fibre network. The dot1q is required to tag the voice packets with the higher priority bit and the data packets with the BE bit.

So if you want to not use the genius modem on our fibre installs, you need to have the following

1) Router than can tag vlan 10 on the wan port using DOT1Q.
2) Router needs to be able to do DHCP on the Wan port. We authenticate on option82. We also only allow one router per ONT port.
3) Orcon wont allow 3rd party modems to connect to the VOIP network for residential accounts.

This is the Orcon setup for all LFC areas (including enable). I can't comment on how other ISP's have decided to configure the LFC's ONT.

The helpdesk will only support genius modems on the fibre network. So if you choose to go down this path you are on your own.

But more than happy to help on here :)

Hope that helps.