Can Vodafone open up another ethernet port on the fibre box to allow another router, which can be used to run a phone line?

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Can Vodafone open up another ethernet port on the fibre box to allow another router, which can be used to run a phone line?

JayJWLH

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#300859 9-Oct-2022 17:16

Previously I had been using cable broadband back when I was located in Johnsonville. The modem had two ethernet ports, and I would use one with my own purchased router (EdgeRouter 6P) for the internet, and the other port for the vodafone supplied router as a ATA connection to some cordless phones around the house.

Now I have moved house to the Horowhenua District, and had a fibre connection installed.

Problem is, I can't use more than one of the ethernet ports on the Chorus equipment. Is it possible to ask Vodafone to open up another port to allow a seperate connection for the phone line, or should I look at some other solution?

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#2979791 9-Oct-2022 17:32

Hi no doubt they will, they will charge you for that at full rate.

The VoIP line you want to attach, I presume it's a vodia supplied one, why not just move to 2talk or hero and break the Voda lock in.

Cyril

JayJWLH

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#2979795 9-Oct-2022 17:45

cyril7: The VoIP line you want to attach, I presume it's a vodia supplied one, why not just move to 2talk or hero and break the Voda lock in.

HG659, Huawei but Vodafone branded.

I have considered other VOIP solutions (even getting rid of a landline entirely), however it is only about $8-$10 a month. It isn't for me personally, it is for someone else in the house. Mainly it is just being used to receive phone calls, but also make some landline calls as well (free national landline calling as part of the deal).

cyril7

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#2979801 9-Oct-2022 18:04

Do you have good mobile coverage, it's 2022, is the person attached to the line really that inflexible.

Cyril

MaxineN

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#2979802 9-Oct-2022 18:05

Hey there.

We could run a new asset so another VF connection would be on Port 2 but if we're doing this purely for a second connection for VOIP it's going to cost and it's absolutely not economical for any reason.

If you do want to start using your own hardware you would have to port away from us as we will only do it on our gear(so Cyril's suggestion would actually work in your favour).

I am unaware if passing SIP traffic through the Edgerouter would work(but also it's very unsupported from our side).

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

cyril7

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#2979804 9-Oct-2022 18:14

Running a Voda router with the sip connection down stream of a third part router does work, just need to supply the Lan on vlan10 to the Voda router wan.

May need to adjust utp timeouts and it's all go.

Cyril

JayJWLH

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#2979808 9-Oct-2022 18:29

cyril7: Do you have good mobile coverage, it's 2022, is the person attached to the line really that inflexible.

Cyril

The mobile coverage is fine.

The problem is that the person living here wants landline to landline calling. Seniors. Each can call the other by landline as much as they want without having to worry about any additional charges (or at least for a flat rate). It would be nice if they could do internet based calling through something like WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, etc. But again they are a bit of an older generation, and it is hard to justify against it if they are willing to pay and it isn't that expensive per month anyway.

JayJWLH

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#2979810 9-Oct-2022 18:40

MaxineN:

Hey there.

We could run a new asset so another VF connection would be on Port 2 but if we're doing this purely for a second connection for VOIP it's going to cost and it's absolutely not economical for any reason.

If you do want to start using your own hardware you would have to port away from us as we will only do it on our gear(so Cyril's suggestion would actually work in your favour).

I am unaware if passing SIP traffic through the Edgerouter would work(but also it's very unsupported from our side).

Yeah I've been recently learning about how the equipment Chorus install works. One fibre line coming in, with potentially multiple (up to four) connections going out. Certainly useful if you want one residential connection and three other business connections, but it sounds like a hassle when you want to treat it like one internet connection (an asset) going into multiple local networks just like the cable modem would do. My first thought was that the Chorus equipment was just a wireless router dumbed down to a modem, and everything coming from the fibre connection itself was treated as one asset.

I did have a side thought though. One ethernet connection coming out onto a four port switch, then from the switch one towards the Vodafone/VOIP equipment/router and a second to my own router. I know normally you should go router first and switch second, but maybe.....

I haven't seen any information online yet that suggests you can get VOIP settings from Vodafone and just slap it onto some other equipment like a ATA device. Currently (without any further configuration) I have the Vodafone router put behind my own router, which is a bit of a double NAT situation and doesn't really work. It could be something as simple as configuring some kind of passthrough?

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MaxineN

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#2979811 9-Oct-2022 18:59

Slixious:

I haven't seen any information online yet that suggests you can get VOIP settings from Vodafone and just slap it onto some other equipment like a ATA device. Currently (without any further configuration) I have the Vodafone router put behind my own router, which is a bit of a double NAT situation and doesn't really work. It could be something as simple as configuring some kind of passthrough?

Correct. We do not supply the SIP info and we will only provision it on our RGWs(HG659, UltraHubs, DN8245s).

As per Cyrils' comments you could pass through the SIP traffic through the Edgerouter(they alluded to a configuration that could work).

cyril7: Running a Voda router with the sip connection down stream of a third part router does work, just need to supply the Lan on vlan10 to the Voda router wan.

May need to adjust utp timeouts and it's all go.

Cyril

But this is 100% not supported by us and is not the intended way, however if it does work, great, yay problem solved. The moment it stops working, we may(likely will) want you to plug in the HG659 directly.

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

RunningMan

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#2979814 9-Oct-2022 19:20

Slixious:

I did have a side thought though. One ethernet connection coming out onto a four port switch, then from the switch one towards the Vodafone/VOIP equipment/router and a second to my own router. I know normally you should go router first and switch second, but maybe.....

Nope. The connection needs to terminate on a router that is doing the authentication (even if only port based). The exception is an ISP that uses the voice port(s) on the Chorus ONT. In this case, you plug your land line phone(s) into the ONT voice port and your router into the specified ONT ethernet port. Spark is one of a handful that do use the ONT voice ports.

JayJWLH

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#2979817 9-Oct-2022 19:57

RunningMan:

Slixious:

I did have a side thought though. One ethernet connection coming out onto a four port switch, then from the switch one towards the Vodafone/VOIP equipment/router and a second to my own router. I know normally you should go router first and switch second, but maybe.....

Nope. The connection needs to terminate on a router that is doing the authentication (even if only port based). The exception is an ISP that uses the voice port(s) on the Chorus ONT. In this case, you plug your land line phone(s) into the ONT voice port and your router into the specified ONT ethernet port. Spark is one of a handful that do use the ONT voice ports.

I've done it before, even if only using the cable modem. Apart from setting up a VLAN (I don't know if the fibre connection needed one, probably did since I barely touched the config), both routers can just connect to the ONT through a switch. If I had a cheap switch on hand I would try to prove this concept. Is Vodafone able to provide a phone service through the ONT? If so, that would make things a lot easier.

Also, looks like I'm not the only one who had a similar problem five years ago: https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=49&topicid=224088

michaelmurfy

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#2979819 9-Oct-2022 20:04

No, you can’t just shove a switch on the ONT and magically get 2 connections…

Why do you even need another router? What are you wanting to achieve by using a secondary router that the Vodafone router doesn’t already do?

Especially for an elderly person as you state don’t mess with the configuration.

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JayJWLH

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#2979824 9-Oct-2022 20:09

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=40&topicid=198107&page_no=3#1595908

JayJWLH

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#2979825 9-Oct-2022 20:13

michaelmurfy: No, you can’t just shove a switch on the ONT and magically get 2 connections…

Why do you even need another router? What are you wanting to achieve by using a secondary router that the Vodafone router doesn’t already do?

Especially for an elderly person as you state don’t mess with the configuration.

I don't need another router. It just so happens that the other router will act as a ATA device as well as the undisclosed phone credentials to allow Vodafone to provide me with a phone line.

The senior person just wants the use of the phone line. I live here though (using the internet connection), and handle a more advanced setup through my own router because it has advanced features and the processing power to back it up. If it was just them, then I would have been happy to keep it simple.

michaelmurfy

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#2979828 9-Oct-2022 20:27

@Slixious You still haven't really stated why you -need- to use another router. The existing router still provides an internet connection and allows the senior to contact Vodafone support if needed plus allows Vodafone to remotely configure it to keep everything running properly.

If you're messing around with this configuration they lose all support from Vodafone + there is also the chance their phone line may not work as expected. For an elderly person this is vital. I personally wouldn't be messing with it even though I know I could get it working myself. If the elderly person suddenly stops getting calls this could be a major problem.

Instead, why not just activate your own service with any ISP on the 2nd ONT port and use that for your own needs? That way you're not messing with their configuration at all. Internet plans are cheap, and there are providers like Quic (https://www.quic.nz/) that have a zero contract self-managed service you can activate on the 2nd port.

RunningMan

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#2979829 9-Oct-2022 20:28

Slixious:

RunningMan:

Nope. The connection needs to terminate on a router that is doing the authentication (even if only port based). The exception is an ISP that uses the voice port(s) on the Chorus ONT. In this case, you plug your land line phone(s) into the ONT voice port and your router into the specified ONT ethernet port. Spark is one of a handful that do use the ONT voice ports.

I've done it before, even if only using the cable modem. Apart from setting up a VLAN (I don't know if the fibre connection needed one, probably did since I barely touched the config), both routers can just connect to the ONT through a switch. If I had a cheap switch on hand I would try to prove this concept. Is Vodafone able to provide a phone service through the ONT? If so, that would make things a lot easier.

You haven't done it before with a UFB connection though, becuase it simply won't work.

No, Vodafone don't provide voice though the ONT ports.

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