FTTP installation

[The Natural Philosopher]

Following a thread on uk.telecom this might be of use to people here contemplating FTTP as well.

[spuorgelgoog]

Firefox refuses, and Chrome dislikes, your page because of security

NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID Subject: mx.xen19.node00001.gigatux.com Issuer: mx.xen19.node00001.gigatux.com Expires on: 11 Nov 2021 Current date: 5 Aug 2020

Owain

[Dave Liquorice]

Slightly more useful from Firefox:

Secure Connection Failed

An error occurred during a connection to vps.templar.co.uk. Peer using unsupported version of security protocol.

Error code: SSL_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_VERSION

The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified. Please contact the web site owners to inform them of this problem.

Learn moreà

This web site might not support the TLS 1.2 protocol, which is the minimum version supported by Firefox. Enabling TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 might allow this connection to succeed.

TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 will be permanently disabled in a future release.

[John Rumm]

What is in the external box?

Looks like they have "cost reduced" the install and done away with the battery backup for the PON terminal. (they used to include the termination and the battery backup both installed in a larger wall mount box:

(the box on the right has 4 AAs in it).

Interesting they actually made use of the copper pair in the drop wire... On mine they just wound it up near the termination and saved it for some future time if required (there are already 2 x pots drop wires into the house). They did moan that the very thin teflon insulated wire was very difficult to strip and use!

[Dave Liquorice]

Think that went out the window a year or more ago. Not sure why. Maybe that as "everyone has a mobile" these days the expectation is for that to work under local power fail conditions. That might be a reasonable assumption in built areas where there is reliable blanket coverage and a mobile can see many cell sites and the chances being not all of them will be affected by the power outage. Doesn't work quite so well in rural areas with patchy coverage and a single cell serving many square miles.

Or peoples expectations have changed, power goes, normal life comes to a crashing halt.

[Scott]

This produces a warning message here - attackers may be trying to steal your details.

[Scott]

I have seen this on the other thread. If you are over 65, can you just register as 'vulnerable' and tell them you need a reliable system that works 24/7?

[Andy Burns]

Use instead as the server doesn't speak new encryption

[Theo]

That's Openreach FTTP btw, other networks vary.

On ours it was just a joint between the dropwire and the pigtail that goes through the wall. I assume the pigtail comes pre-terminated in an SC/APC connector so they don't have to put one on the dropwire.

Since 2018. I think they decided the battery backup wasn't much use - it only had 4x 2000mAh NiMH cells in it (about 10Wh, or about the average battery in a mobile), so it wasn't a backup for very long. And you'll probably find the cells are dead when you come to need it in any case (ours were when we moved in, an OR engineer changed them).

The handwave being assuming you have a mobile for emergencies - apparently they will fit a BBU 'on an exceptional basis' for those who depend on their landline for voice. If that were me I'd look at a UPS or a more substantial solution than what's effectively a £5 powerbank.

Ours had a pre-existing copper pair that was used for voice, with the fibre being separate.

Theo

[Scott]

Would it not simply be possible to install an uninterruptible power supply to photo 6?

[Andy Burns]

All the openreach installed bits (apart from their pole) look a bit scrappily done, considering how long they ought to be expecting it to stay in place ...

[Andy Burns]

Even nicer would be if the ONT (or whatever they call it) could accept power over ethernet, instead of needing a wallwart, I know most people won't have a PoE switch yet, but even a remote power injector would look neater

[John Rumm]

For most existing users this will be for broadband provision only, so any existing phone lines will carry on working as they currently do.

However they are moving toward disbanding the copper network, and FTTP will become the default install even if all you want is voice. That will then be provided by VoIP on a "slow" (500Kbps) FTTP service. It may be that for voice only users they will provide the battery backup.

(they probably figure for data users, its a moot point since few of them will have a UPS to hold up all their other IT kit to actually benefit from the broadband staying up during a power cut)

[John Rumm]

Its using an old standard for the transport layer security and some browsers will whinge. Change it to http:// and it will be ok.

[John Rumm]

Yup you can...

In fact I took mine off my rack's UPS since it has its own backup batteries, and they will run longer than the rest of the rack.

[polygonum_on_google]

The battery backup was not supplied when ours was installed at the start of December 2019 - looks as if it was done away with some months prior.

Unlike many, our phone line remains on copper. The ONT's phone socket is de ad. (When they installed FTTP, I plugged the phone into the ONT and nothing happened. It was all checked out at the time and someone had intentionally not switched our phone over to fibre.)

This works to our advantage in that we might lose internet but the phone sh ould be as reliable as any POTS phone.

[Dave Liquorice]

+1

What does the ONT live on? You can get fixed voltage, 15 W output, PoE spliters at 5 or 12 V for about a tenner now. I've got a 5 V output one for powering a Pi III via PoE, this was going to have and SDR dongle attached and shoved some where out of the way. Trouble is the PoE splitter produces a lot of interference. Not yet chased that down to actual RF radiation and/or a horrible amount of noise on the supply.

I use a TP-Link PoE adpater for the blitzortung receiver. That required an LC filter in the power lines to tame it. B-)

And could be placed far more conviently and maybe on the UPS that keeps other kit up in the event of a power outage.

[polygonum_on_google]

Few will have a UPS, indeed. But many will have tablets, laptops, phones, e tc., which have a UPS effectively built-in as they are battery devices.

The problem often becomes having sufficient power for both the ONT and the local router (plus anything else like LAN extenders) rather than the end de vice. Keeping the ONT up while letting the router drop is very likely daft.

[The Natural Philosopher]

take the 's' out of https then

[The Natural Philosopher]

oh it is all sound enough. I need to redecorate next winter anyway...