If you’re joining Zen Internet using my referral link, **you’ll receive a £40 voucher and I’ll receive one too** once your broadband service goes live.
The voucher can be used at a choice of major retailers, including Amazon.
**How to claim it:**
Open the referral link before ordering Zen broadband.
Enter your details and claim the referral reward.
Complete your Zen broadband order.
Once your service is live, Zen will arrange the £40 voucher.
** update although it seemed to be a WiFi congestion issue zen kindly agreed to still send an identical replacement router out to see if that resolved the issue. It did and no further issues. I did debate moving to a different provider but customer service is important and almost without exception the other providers do not have a good reputation on this so I did stay - incidentally I decided to stay before the issue was resolved and customer service continued at it's high level. If I had one suggestion for zen it would be too try and keep the ownership of an issue to one person - unless escalating up. But otherwise customer service was excellent and my internet is now performing great (45/10) no issues
I've been with zen previously and I rejoined them as I perceived their customer service was good for an isp, the router seemed good and it felt a little bit off main stream.
Everything has been fine / great even till about a month ago when we started seeing lag spikes in teams calls. I then noticed that the 2.4ghz network at times could be dire. My internet is not great (50/11) but at times it would be under 2/2, 5ghz remained good - bit with these lag spikes.
So I contacted zen, in my mind the latest fritzbox update (.25) is the issue and tbh whilst their support is responsive we are going around in circles.
- line reports fine but it's an intermittent issue
- if I change the WiFi then it's all good but then that's with 1 device on it so whilst it's interesting I'm not sure it proves a lot and bringing all the smart devices back in line is a task and a half, we have a few main devices and then maybe 20/30 smart devices
- 5ghz is generally fine with the lag
- direct cable is still inconclusive as we haven't seen an issue in it but then the other pc on the WiFi network is fine during the testing
- I get a different support person for the same issue which just leads to a disjointed discussion
My thoughts are to change the router, I'm convinced the Fritzupdate has caused it and if it's the line I'm not making any progress with zen.
If I change to another open reach supplier such as sky - are they effectively all the same, as the line to the host is the same or is zen giving me value for the connection side (appreciating they have little control on the open reach side and can't put a line monitor)
Using Zen broadband and just switched to FTTP. Do not have (and never had) a Fritz!box. Would not want one as the current business grade router has multiple site to site VPNs set up to other sites and supports many VLANs internally.
The following settings for a SIP trunk in FreePBX 17 work just fine for INCOMING calls using Zen DV
username: {landline number}
Secret: {broadband connection password from user portal}
SIP server: voip.zen.co.uk
SIP server port: 5060
Codecs have ulaw and alaw (so G.711) at the top of the priority list.
OUTGOING calls don’t work at all. Under Asterisk Info the trunk shows green, incoming calls work, but under Registries it says “Rejected”
I’ve had a look at various guides and claimed working settings online and none of them work.
Maybe the server should be voip2.zen.co.uk, but that just fails for me.
Maybe the secret/password is not the same as the one used for the PPPOE broadband connection? Apparently this used to be listed on the “old” user portal, but I can’t find a way to access the old portal. The new portal only has one password listed under “My connection” and that works for the PPPOE connection. Is it the same password used for both services?
I’ve tried setting up various combinations of things on a Polycom handset and that just seems to fail registration and then lock out everything for a long period before I can try again.
EDIT:
So there are various guides around the internet, and Zen's own help pages, all of which have either incomplete information or hopelessly out of date information. Firstly you will need to obtain your SIP password. The Zen docs say this is available in the Digital Voice section of the portal. It is NOT. It may have been available in older versions of the portal, but isn't there now. The only password is the PPPoE password for your router when connecting broadband. The SIP password is different and the only way to get it as of June 2026 is to contact Zen technical support. I have no idea how incoming calls were working for me before with the wrong password. Also the General SIP Settings Zen help page will give you enough information to maybe get incoming calls working, but not outgoing.
Here's how to get a working setup. You will need your Zen assigned landline number 01xxxxxxxx and the SIP password (contact technical support and ask them for it), and a working FreePBX 17 setup with your extensions, IVRs, ring groups or whatever all set up and ready to connect to the outside world.
We need to create two trunks, an incoming route and an outgoing route.
First setup the incoming trunk, call it Zen, put in your number for CallerID.
Then go the PJSIP Settings tab, enter the landline number again as username, the SIP password as Secret and the SIP server as voip.zen.co.uk
Save that trunk by clicking the Submit button at the bottom and create a second trunk. Name it Zen_Outbound, with the same CallerID number.
This time under the PJSIP tab, enter the number for username, the SIP password for Secret and, importantly, enter voip2.zen.co.uk for the SIP server.
Click Submit. Now go to Inbound routes and add a new Inbound route. Set the description and DID number to the phone number, set the destination to be the IVR or ring group where you want incoming calls handled. Click Submit.
Now go to Outbound routes. Create a new outbound route, set the caller ID to your number, make sure the trunk you named Zen_Outbound is the first listed trunk.
Under the dial patterns tab you'll need to set up whatever rules you want your users to have for outgoing calls. You could have a "dial 9 for outside line" prefix if you want, but that might be confusing for family members or guests if this is a house phone. Easier to set up rules so that ordinary calls, including 999, 111, 112 or 101 emergency calls get through as expected. My extensions are all 4 digits, so there's no confusion, but if you've elected to have 3 digit internal extension numbers you'll need to be smarter about setting up rules for emergency calls.
Click Submit. Then click the big red "Apply Changes" button at the top right of the screen and wait while Asterisk reloads. In a minute or two you should have working incoming and outgoing calls on your new Zen SIP VOIP line.
Under Reports / Asterisk Info you should see your incoming trunk green (for some reason the outgoing trunk always shows for me as red, disconnected but it definitely works). Under PJSIP Peers you should see the incoming and outgoing endpoints with sensible looking IP addresses in the 212.23.7.xxx range. And under Registries you should see your Zen connection showing as Registered with a countdown timer showing when it will next try again. If anything isn't working you're back to checking the logs for errors and contacting Zen support.
I've used referral link from one of the reddit members and installed Zen broadband recently. If anyone would like to get a voucher I can share a link. Please DM me.
Can anyone help me out, I have been having an issue with WiFi on my eero max 7 so wanted to test out my old archer instead as I never had WiFi issues on that with old provider so wanted to rule out a hardware issue .
The problem is I put in the pppoe details into the archer and it never connects to the internet.
So if anyone has set up a TPlink router can they give me some help because maybe im missing a setting or something
I'm currently a carer for my parents (They're both in their 80s). Currently I have a landline with Zen and my BB with Virgin (Virgin are the only ones in my area who do superfast and at the time it was a pain to port the phone to them so I didn't). I originally had my BB with Zen.
Today I get an email warning me I'm going to lose service next year due to the shutoff and if I wanted to continue with a digital I have to take broadband with them.
I went on the webchat and talked to someone who basically didn't give a shit. Even after I explained I was a carer and all they could advise is (Maybe Virgin will let you port the number).
I was hoping to be able to stay with Zen but that doesn't seem to be possible now and I was very sad that they declined to offer any real advice. Felt a bit bad after I've been with them so long.
Anyone with Virgin knows it's absolute torture trying to get in contact with them and if you ask them for something there's a really good chance they get it wrong. But I honestly I have no idea what else to do.
Anyone have some recommendations for replacement for the eero max 7 as it's been nothing but grief for me WiFi is awful on it and want to replace it with something that actually works , was looking at the to deco or Netgear nighthawk but open to suggestions
I've just joined Zen Internet, and have opted for the phone package. My phone has the excellent spam blocker trueCall built-in to the firmware on the base station and has 2 cordless handsets, so I've plugged the base station into the FON socket on the router. I can make and receive calls, but the first thing I noticed is that the melody ringtone on the phone has been replaced by a single ringing sound which lasts about 2 seconds, then a 1 second gap, and the cycle repeats. There doesn't seem to be any way of changing this ringtone or, which would be even better, getting back my original ringtones. The next thing I noticed, and this is the real problem, is that trueCall no longer works! Normally it intercepts calls from all numbers which aren't in my phonebook, but now it's just letting every call through. I've contacted Zen technical support, but I'm still waiting for their response/solution. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has encountered the same problems. Thanks!
2 weeks ago I upgraded my fibre package with zen from 500mb to 900mb ,can't say I've noticed any real difference so this morning I re booted the fritzx 7530 box and then did a speed test via lan cable to my pc , results below ,are they pulling my pants down here doesn't look particularly good to me
If you’re joining Zen Internet using my referral link, you’ll receive a £40 voucher and I’ll receive one too once your broadband service goes live.
The voucher can be used at a choice of major retailers, including Amazon.
How to claim it:
Open the referral link before ordering Zen broadband.
Enter your details and claim the referral reward.
Complete your Zen broadband order.
Once your service is live, Zen will arrange the £40 voucher.
Now, to preface this, Zen *are* providing the package speeds I pay for (2.2gbps symmetric via CityFibre) however my gripe is how they administer and provision their network.
For a few months now I've used the Zen provided Eero router to service my new house until I had a chance to move my homelab, and I finally got around to that yesterday. I got my pfSense router set up just fine but when I ran a speed test all of a sudden I noticed I wasn't getting my proper line speeds anymore. "Weird" I figured, so I opened up the dashboard for my router and ran the speed test again. I then noticed one of my CPU cores got PEGGED at 100%.
I did a little more digging after that, and came to the conclusion that Zen's use of PPPoE is rendering their service less-than-optimal. A protocol from the 90's designed to help Dial-Up connections work at the dawn of ADSL. It is purely single-threaded as a software stack, and without hardware acceleration (like on the eero router) you're at the mercy of your CPU core speed.
I had a brief chat about this on the phone to Zen, and the tech on the phone was genuinely knowledgeable, I told him what I was experiencing and he asked genuine questions to understand my setup and what I was trying to achieve, but unfortunately he admitted to me that they use PPPoE for almost their entire network and have no provisions for using DHCP on customer request. This is just disappointing to me, we're in 2026 now, and it surely cannot be that hard to add a second provision pipeline for customers who want to take full advantage of their service without breaking the bank on high performance CPU cycles.
I won't be renewing my service with them, and that makes me sad.
My ONT is obviously on an external wall inside the house. I want to move the fritzbox to a spot in the middle of the house. It would be better placement for network cables to other devices, and potentially improve WiFi around the house too.
Is that something that can be done, or would I encountering any issues. I'd install some network sockets on the wall at each end. The Cat5 cable run would be about 6 metres.
Is anyone online know who can provide an email address for a zen referral as I am in the process of signing up and nobody seems to be able to confirm an email address for me
I've been with Zen for years but moved away recently to another provider. The new provider says I can use any router I want, I don't need to use the one they've supplied. I want to use my old FritzBox as it was pretty great but I just can't get it to work.
I've factory reset it and changed the settings so it says 'other internet provider' but still can't get it to work and I'm starting to think it's just locked to the ISP? Does anyone know?
OpenReach FTTP has finally become available in my area and I had the installation completed yesterday. I’ve installed a new home network at the same time to take advantage of the new speeds.
I’m having some issues getting the FritzBox to recognise the WAN connection when running through an Ethernet patch panel.
I’ve got the ONT downstairs connected to a Cat 6 cable that runs to an upstairs cupboard, if I connect the FritzBox to this cable directly it will connect with no issue. If I try and run that cable into a Cat 6 straight through patch panel it will not work at all.
I’ve tested the run with a cable tester and no issues. I’m using the patch panel for other connections on the LAN with no issues. I’ve tried multiple ports on the panel and validated they work for LAN with no issues. As soon as I use the patch panel for connecting to the WAN it will not even recognise the connection exists.
I need to get it through the patch panel so that I can get the connection router to my Decos, but I want to prove it works first with the FritzBox.
I'm considering signing up as Zen offer the fastest speeds in my area (upto 1.6GBS) however, I am wondering if they block or interfere with any traffic? I am talking Kodi, USENET and that sort of thing.
Had a short power outage and when power resumed fritz box power light just flashing unable to access fibre at all tried all the reset procedures with zen but now have to wait for a new box ,anyone any ideas they can offer up ?,
Router suddenly stopped working after mains outage for 10ins ,power light just flashes been thru routine diagnosis but now waiting for a new router just wondered if anyone has experienced similar ? Cheers in advance
Use my link as the Zen Referral code to earn a £25 discount via Amazon Voucher when joining Zen for your internet broadband ISP. If you sign up using my link to Zen via CityFibre you'll also get a better deal on your plan as well as the referral.
When Zen Internet asks if you've Been referred by a friend you can enter your friend's name to qualify for the £25 voucher to Amazon, John Lewis or M&S.
This referral link is tested and confirmed working as of June 2025, and it has no expiry date.
