O.N.T. Monitoring

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FatController

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#248527 29-Mar-2019 14:44

Hey guys.

First post on here. Wondering if anyone out there has had any luck with monitoring an ONT. I'm on the West Coast but they look the same as Christchurch (Just moved).

Will do anything. Anyone got a ROM for this bad boy? SNMP would be brilliant. But even like a ping reply would be better than what I've got at the moment.

Thought I'd post and see other people experience. A fiber technician told me he thinks if you connect to the ONT from a laptop after its been reset and before letting it download the config from the optical network, after the config comes thru it will still recognise the IP you were connected from and let you ping it. I still have to test this. This weekends project.

Thanks for any help guys !

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#2207122 29-Mar-2019 14:57

Why not just use the fact the router can get out to the internet as criteria that it's working?

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FatController

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2207123 29-Mar-2019 15:00

I've got my O.N.T. directly connected to a software appliance I'm not using a router. Had too many problems.

michaelmurfy

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#2207126 29-Mar-2019 15:08

FatController:

Thought I'd post and see other people experience. A fiber technician told me he thinks if you connect to the ONT from a laptop after its been reset and before letting it download the config from the optical network, after the config comes thru it will still recognise the IP you were connected from and let you ping it. I still have to test this. This weekends project.

Serious here. Do not mess with the ONT. I repeat, DO NOT MESS WITH IT. I can't stress this enough.

There is a good chance you'll break it and if you do, there will be a charge to you to get it fixed. The ONT is a simple media converter - it converts Fibre into Ethernet. It is otherwise quite dumb. Treat it as that.

Just ping something upstream.

FatController:

I've got my O.N.T. directly connected to a software appliance I'm not using a router. Had too many problems.

This is also incredibly bad practise depending of what it is. You're opening it up directly to the internet. There are many routers out there which are rock solid stable - I don't know how you could experience issues here. What "software appliance" are you dealing with here?

Also there are routers such as the sub $100 Edgerouter X which are as a router very reliable and have the advantage of UNMS to monitor internet connectivity.

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DarkShadow

1647 posts

Uber Geek

#2207127 29-Mar-2019 15:09

I wouldn't recommend you reset the ONT. Because if you do that it may require a tech to come out and reprogram it in person. Also, it's not yours. It's the fibre company's property, and you will need to pay for a replacement if you break it.

FatController

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2207130 29-Mar-2019 15:15

Hey guys. Never had a problem resetting the ONT in Chch? Downloaded its config via optical every time without fail? It's not something I do lightly. But when its in its pre-config'd state it lets me ping it lets me www too. I'm running SOPHOS UTM which is designed to be on the edge of the network. In this configuration I get the most out of the SOPHOS software. All features work perfectly. If i open a port in UTM its open. I just wanted to be able to monitor the O.N.T. uptime etc to keep an eye on it.

BarTender

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#2207154 29-Mar-2019 16:15

I think you are approaching this all wrong, as the ONT is a basic Layer 2 service there isn't anything you can do to monitor it. Much like if you use a dumb hub.

As *EVERYONE* has already said just ping your default route / monitor the PPPoE status depending on if you are IPoE or PPPoE.

If the connection goes down for whatever reason then you will know, but unless you have a Mobile Data backup or some other out-of-band monitoring then what are you going to be able to do if the internet *IS* down. Unless you have a SLA against your broadband connection which I very much doubt.

Don't reboot the ONT unless you really need to, just leave it running and you will be fine.

Lorenceo

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#2207156 29-Mar-2019 16:19

The ONT is either working or it isn't. In cases where it stops working, or starts misbehaving, beyond making sure it's physically plugged in and turned on, there's nothing further you can do from your end. Everything else is on the RSP/LFC end, and needs to go through your RSP.

As others have mentioned, leave it be. Ping something upstream from the ONT if you want to monitor WAN up time.

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coffeebaron

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#2207161 29-Mar-2019 16:40

Perhaps some sensor device that will watch the ONT LED's? Connect this to a cellular device so it can alert you.

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chevrolux

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#2207177 29-Mar-2019 17:01

Use SNMP monitoring against your Sophos appliance, not the ONT. Don't even consider it as a device.

hio77

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Lizard Networks

#2207191 29-Mar-2019 17:38

The ONT is a media converter owned by your access provider.

Don't mess with it, for all intents and purposes it's a dumb box.

There is a thread around mentioning access to the UFF ONT, i expect that will vanish soon. people have no reason to be probing in there your likely to just brick an expensive device.

InstallerUFB

840 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2207192 29-Mar-2019 17:41

FatController:

Hey guys. Never had a problem resetting the ONT in Chch? Downloaded its config via optical every time without fail? It's not something I do lightly. But when its in its pre-config'd state it lets me ping it lets me www too. I'm running SOPHOS UTM which is designed to be on the edge of the network. In this configuration I get the most out of the SOPHOS software. All features work perfectly. If i open a port in UTM its open. I just wanted to be able to monitor the O.N.T. uptime etc to keep an eye on it.

The Gen1&2 Chorus ONT are not locally resetable - the reset switch (the pin hole labled reset) will only set an ONT into identity programing mode (for the installers to set or resets its ID) and thats all after this turning the power off and on again to the ONT sets it back into operation mode

The rest of the configuration only comes down the fibre connection, on initial commissioning and/or if there is an update to the service plan or a firmware update ( these are normaly done between 00:00 and 04:00 and are pushed to the ONT) and nothing is reloaded if you push the rest switch and reboot the ONT.

The Chorus ONT is monited by the GPON System automaticaly. They are poled every hour to check the Layer2 operational conditions (up stream and down stream optical signal levels) these are recorded and can be retrieved for use by your RSP/Chorus & authorised chorus service techs to check the operation of the service.

Turning the ONT off and on dosen't reset it - that only sends alarms back to the system to say that it has been turned off (these are also recorded)

There is no way to electronically monitor an ONT locally and all the end user can do is just watch the LEDs

Please remember that the ONT is part of the fibre connection which is being leased by your RSP, from the local network operator, so that your RSP can deliver their services via a port to you.

atomeara

324 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2207244 29-Mar-2019 18:34

Chorus have testing tools for the ISP to check the ONT status

Either via a website (see images below) or an API call.

There is nothing you can poll with SNMP. You can't monitor the far end ISAM or any other parts of Chorus or the ISPs internal network. So monitoring the ONT is one piece in large complex network.

They have a network events API as well for service impact beyond what the ONT tool can show.

We are looking to build some of this info into our customer portal for our business customers and internal support staff. However Chorus do limit how many API calls you can make an hour.

In the case of Ultra Fast Fibre, they have an email tool that provides ONT status and details. I am unsure what Northpower and Enable offer.

hio77

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Lizard Networks

#2207248 29-Mar-2019 18:37

atomeara:

In the case of Ultra Fast Fibre, they have an email tool that provides ONT status and details. I am unsure what Northpower and Enable offer.

Northpower actually has an option, it's a pretty bulky B2B though... I'm keen to play with it at some stage.

Enable are still in testing for their api.

UFF need to get with the times and drop their email service and provide a responsive api..

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BarTender

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#2207363 29-Mar-2019 20:49

hio77:

atomeara:

In the case of Ultra Fast Fibre, they have an email tool that provides ONT status and details. I am unsure what Northpower and Enable offer.

Northpower actually has an option, it's a pretty bulky B2B though... I'm keen to play with it at some stage.

Enable are still in testing for their api.

UFF need to get with the times and drop their email service and provide a responsive api..

Enable's API has been running for well over 2 years in their "testing" phase.

And the UFF has that handy dandy email address you can send an email to so you can find out the status a few years ago.

FatController

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2207368 29-Mar-2019 21:08

Thanks for all the input guys. I have motivations RE investigating the ONT because of a large project that may be coming up. I can see we will be working closely with the relevant providers around the ONT.

In old fashioned hacker spirit, I have had a wee play since I posted last. Raised a new direct cabled ethernet interface with VLAN tagging to 10 IP 192.168.200.111/24 and performed an arp-scan. Found the ONT responds to a handful of local IPs in this subnet.

[root@centos1 dc]# arp-scan -l -I enp3s0.10
Interface: enp3s0.10, datalink type: EN10MB (Ethernet)
Starting arp-scan 1.9.2 with 256 hosts (http://www.nta-monitor.com/tools-resources/security-tools/arp-scan/)
192.168.200.0 d2:07:ca:01:42:95 (Unknown)
192.168.200.1 d2:07:ca:01:42:95 (Unknown)
192.168.200.2 d2:07:ca:01:42:95 (Unknown)
192.168.200.3 d2:07:ca:01:42:95 (Unknown)
192.168.200.4 d2:07:ca:01:42:95 (Unknown)
192.168.200.5 d2:07:ca:01:42:95 (Unknown)
192.168.200.6 d2:07:ca:01:42:95 (Unknown)
192.168.200.7 d2:07:ca:01:42:95 (Unknown)
192.168.200.8 d2:07:ca:01:42:95 (Unknown)
192.168.200.9 d2:07:ca:01:42:95 (Unknown)
192.168.200.238 d2:07:ca:01:42:95 (Unknown)
192.168.200.239 d2:07:ca:01:42:95 (Unknown)
192.168.200.240 d2:07:ca:01:42:95 (Unknown)
192.168.200.241 d2:07:ca:01:42:95 (Unknown)
192.168.200.242 d2:07:ca:01:42:95 (Unknown)
192.168.200.243 d2:07:ca:01:42:95 (Unknown)
192.168.200.244 d2:07:ca:01:42:95 (Unknown)
192.168.200.245 d2:07:ca:01:42:95 (Unknown)
192.168.200.246 d2:07:ca:01:42:95 (Unknown)
192.168.200.247 d2:07:ca:01:42:95 (Unknown)

20 packets received by filter, 0 packets dropped by kernel
Ending arp-scan 1.9.2: 256 hosts scanned in 2.581 seconds (99.19 hosts/sec). 20 responded

No ping or www connectibity. Guess I'll be rigging this up for now.

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