HFC PPPoE NBN Not Connecting

• 

  ESEMCE on 20/11/2023 - 14:05

  +1

  What does the NBN modem (the HFC termination box) indicate. I has lights indicating the connection status to NBN's network.
  If that has an issue, then it doesn't matter what router you plug into it.

  What have More/Tangerine's "support" said?
  The fact they've escalated to the carrier (I assume NBN) indicates it might actually be an issue with your actual NBN connection (and the modem isn't connecting, therefore your Telstra router isn't either). In which case you need to hound More for information on what is happening with NBN.

  Assuming your HFC modem is showing all green lights, it might be a router issue.
  If I remember correctly, the Telstra Gen2 Smart Modem can't be configured to default to PPPoE.
  It first tries to connect via DHCP and then if that fails it falls over to the PPPoE config.

  Can you try with a more configurable router that can be set to "default" to PPPoE just to eliminate the Router as a failure point?

  • 

    POSITIVEVIBESONLY on 20/11/2023 - 14:27

    What does the NBN modem (the HFC termination box) indicate. I has lights indicating the connection status to NBN's network.
    If that has an issue, then it doesn't matter what router you plug into it.

    All the 4 lights are green on my nbn box.

    What have More/Tangerine's "support" said?

    They mentioned there's an authentication error. Not much more can be deduced. They said they can see the nbn modem working fine and detecting the MAC address of my modem and router fine.

    It first tries to connect via DHCP and then if that fails it falls over to the PPPoE config.

    I was more wondering about this if there's a way to make sure it's going over the PPPoE config correctly. I don't have another basic modem to try this on but I tried with an old Sagecom Optus router and that didn't work either but I had set the username password in the ADSL2+ fields.

    I will try source another router…

    • 

      ESEMCE on 20/11/2023 - 15:04

      +1

      Have you got the cable in the coorect port of the NBN modem? I believe I recall correctly that the NBN HFC modem has 2 ports.

      And the correct port of the Telstra router? needs to be WAN port

      Have you double checked that the PPPoE Username and Password have been entered correctly?
      If you Copy/Pasted (which is ideal), make sure you didn't append a space at the beginning or end of one or both fields.

      If you typed, triple check that you haven't entered an "O" when it should have been a "0" or Capital "i" when it should have been a lower case "L".

      I was more wondering about this if there's a way to make sure it's going over the PPPoE config correctly

      Not really. The modem logs aren't very detailed.

      Finally note that More's "support" is incredibly basic. You would get significantly better support moving to a better ISP like Superloop, Aussie Broadband or Leaptel.

      • 

        POSITIVEVIBESONLY on 20/11/2023 - 15:20

        Yeah unfortunately I'm double/triple checked all the ports are correct and Password and Username was copied over.

        I had a weird situation where the modem didn't work until I inserted the SIM in the telstra modem the first time it started working. Otherwise might have to wait for NBN to give me a response. Thanks for the help though!

• 

  bobokingdom on 20/11/2023 - 15:17

  +2

  You can isolate the problem by connecting your computer directly to the NBN connection. https://getlabsdone.com/how-to-connect-pppoe-on-windows-11/

  If you can connect using this method, your NBN is fine. Then you have to figure out whether your Telstra modem is suitable for this connection. If it not easy to setup PPPOE on this modem, it maybe design for Telstra network which doesn't need password authentication. You may need to buy a 3rd party generic router for your service.

  • 

    ESEMCE on 20/11/2023 - 15:24

    +1

    Direct connection is definitely worth a try, but the Smart Modem 2 definitely works on a PPPoE connection.
    It's either faulty, user setup error, some random NBN issue or More just being shit.

    Fair money is on the latter… (especially if a direct connection doesn't work)

    • 

      POSITIVEVIBESONLY on 20/11/2023 - 15:28

      I'll be on the NBN or More issue. Hopefully they send someone out soon. Fingers crossed, I'll report back on what they inform me.

      • 

        Twix on 20/11/2023 - 17:00

        nbn won't come out if all 4 status lights on the NTD are green.

        • 

          POSITIVEVIBESONLY on 20/11/2023 - 17:19

          @Twix: I've got a appointment where they're coming tmr, More Nbn scheduled it.

          • 

            Twix on 21/11/2023 - 22:37

            @POSITIVEVIBESONLY: Usually they don't. Did they fix it or tell you to call up More Telecom again?

            • 

              POSITIVEVIBESONLY on 21/11/2023 - 22:39

              +1

              @Twix: Yeah all 4 lights were on the modem but they said it was faulty. They replaced it and it started working on my replacement router. Said lightning may have caused a power surge as usual and fried modem and router.

              Told me to check the blinking lights on the back of the modem where the ethernet cable is connected to make sure it 's working.

              • 

                Twix on 21/11/2023 - 22:42

                @POSITIVEVIBESONLY: Yeah that can happen. What router did you change to?

                • 

                  POSITIVEVIBESONLY on 21/11/2023 - 22:47

                  +1

                  @Twix: I had a spare Sagemcom F@ST from back in the optus days when they just shipped a new router every time you complained the speeds were bad. It's pretty old but I'm getting the expected speeds on it from More nbn so I'll stay off upgrading for now. Been hard resisting with the black friday sales.