BigPipe killing off IPoE

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › BigPipe killing off IPoE

StNick

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#226098 20-Dec-2017 12:29

I woke up this morning to find that I have no connectivity. I've been using IPoE with BigPipe since April as I found the performance (UFB Elite) to be better than PPPoE. When I logged a fault with Bigpipe, I was told that due to network upgrades that they have done recently, I will need to use PPPoE from now on.

Forgetting the fact that I was never warned about this change and I am now sitting without internet connectivity until I can reconfigure my router and firewall, it is a disappointing turn of events to say the least. Has anyone heard anything about this?

Jase2985

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#1922518 20-Dec-2017 13:03

im pretty sure it wasnt the approved method of connecting to their network anyways, was just there for testing

michaelmurfy

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#1922521 20-Dec-2017 13:10

I really hope not... I am currently away from home on another island, doing a change on my Edgerouter remotely is a bloody risky operation.

@ipv6pipe can you confirm?

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StNick

88 posts

Master Geek

#1922526 20-Dec-2017 13:15

Yeah I was told up front when they switched me over that it wasn't "supported" (ie. don't contact us if you need help configuring it or there are any problems). It seems now that it has simply been turned off though, leaving me dead in the water until I can get home.

Update: BigPipe have since responded again.

"You should technically still be able to use IPoE - however you will need to configure your router to accept PPPoE connection first. Once you have had an session on PPPoE you can try connecting on IPoE and see if that works. We enable IPoE for testing purposes - your present IPoE requests cannot be identified due to recent changes on our network and won't be able to be identified until you have reestablished a PPPoE connection."

I can only test this myself this evening when I get home; I'll update this post once I have more details.

michaelmurfy

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#1922539 20-Dec-2017 13:21

Oh crap... Looks like I am doing a remote change on an Edgerouter. This is quite bad.

IPv6pipe

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BigPipe

#1922541 20-Dec-2017 13:32

Sorry to hear about the connection trouble. We're in the process of bringing up extra capacity on our network, to ensure our customers can continue to enjoy their connections as fast as they can go.

At present we have no plans on "killing off" IPoE. Please do keep in mind however that IPoE is not a fully supported connection method. We can enable it on request for testing purposes only. Our officially supported and tested connection method is PPPoE (or A if you're on ADSL).

Just as a bit of background, we use port based authentication on all of our lines. Chorus send us extra data in the packets we receive from each of our lines that allow us to identify which line is wanting to connect. On ADSL and VDSL we receive this identity information on both PPP and IPoE packets, however on Chorus UFB we only receive it on PPP packets.

We work around this by collecting some extra data when a line authenticates on PPPoE, so that if IPoE is enabled on a line in the future we will be able to identify where the traffic is coming from, and determine whether the network should reply to the request or drop it.

In your case, some of the identity information which we previously used to authenticate you has changed. In order for our network to recapture this information you will need to revert to PPPoE again, and then after that attempt IPoE.

Feel free to PM me if you continue to have trouble. :)

michaelmurfy

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#1922543 20-Dec-2017 13:38

Thanks very much for confirming and assuring me that my line is alright for now @ipv6pipe! I was stressing for a moment there.

StNick

88 posts

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#1922547 20-Dec-2017 13:42

Thank you very much for the update and the detailed explanation, @ipv6pipe; it is appreciated.

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StNick

88 posts

Master Geek

#1922714 20-Dec-2017 19:12

Good news for me is that I was able to get back online using PPPoE. However, I have not been successful in getting IPoE to work again. BigPipe support tells me that IPoE is definitely enabled, and I have tried leaving my ONT off for 15 minutes before trying again to no avail.

I think for now, I am going to leave it on PPPoE and see if I notice any difference in speed. If not, I will just leave it on PPPoE.

IPv6pipe

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BigPipe

#1922915 21-Dec-2017 08:22

StNick:

However, I have not been successful in getting IPoE to work again. BigPipe support tells me that IPoE is definitely enabled, and I have tried leaving my ONT off for 15 minutes before trying again to no avail.

This is under investigation at present. No ETA at this time though, sorry. Keep an eye on your emails. :)

phrozenpenguin

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#1940018 16-Jan-2018 17:24

This is about the time that my internet went down as well - Bigpipe fibre using IPoE, which has worked great since I set it up almost a year ago. A restart "fixed" it but now I wonder if I'm operating on borrowed time and should switch around to PPoE...