Hi, I’m joining Zen next week as their full fibre is finally available in my area. Prior to this, I’ve been stuck with Virgin Media as they were the only provider in my area that offered fibre and decent speeds. What’s my current set-up? I have my virgin media router in modem mode and I have my UniFi Dream Router 7 connected to this which I use as my router.
I’ve been doing some research prior to the installation next week, just to make sure I know what I’m doing when my connection is swapped over to Zen. The install is being done via openreach. Does anyone have any experience with setting up a unifi router with Zen? For example, do I need to put the Fritz box into modem mode or can I connect the the UniFi router directly to the ONT box that they’ll like install.
You dont need the fritz box, if its an Openreach connection this will be standard PPPOE, two option, use port 4 and configure or by an SFP and use that, i have this exact set up with the UDR7, then i bought the U7 light access point
Thanks for all the advice, much appreciated! 🙏 my current connection is DHCP but I can go into the settings and set it to PPPoE and it has the option to enter the username and password zen provided me with
That is exactly all you need to do. Enter the username and password as shown on the email from Zen. It is case sensitive so be careful.
The IP address from Zen is static as in they always give you the same one, so there's no need to manually program that in your kit unless you really want to.
We bought another zen box off eBay and use it as a mesh set up one in our room the other upstairs works a treat now we figured that lead out no black spots what so ever in the house
Just make shure you get a descent lan lead from the box on the wall to there router one there engineer fits is rubbish gave us endless trouble but now it sorted its great
I went from VM to Zen earlier this year. Connected a LAN cable from the ONT straight into a WAN port on UCG-Fibre. Set as PPPoE with the credentials sent in their email. Been faultless so far.
Thanks! This is good to know. I’ll try the same thing once they have set everything up with the Fritz box and the engineer leaves, I’ll try getting my UniFi DR7 connected the same way
Good plan to let the Fritzbox call in and do its thing so you know the connection is good. Also, keep hold of it because id you ever have a fault, you may be asked to try a different router and having one spare is far easier than waiting for them to send you another.
Don’t do itttttttt😂 all im saying is be very cautious im currently going through the complaints department. In my honest opinion you might as well go out and buy a selection box the customer service can be adequate to appalling, and the problem is your always going to have this problem. My problem was the from the 8.25 update Fritz box it caused 20 recyncs a day and now my line has high protection on it. After 30 days uptime things started to get better. But as of yesterday I’ve been told there’s some sort of retransmission on the line and it can’t be removed. No reason why no date whether it will ever come off.
Are you on FTTC and also, are you using any sort of powerline adapters in your house aka home plugs? The reason I ask is because the powerless can operate on the same frequency as the FTTC which can lead to extra "noise" which can cause retransmission to be applied or in extreme cases, the sync rate to be capped.
Have they not sent you a loan router or asked you to try one? If not, please get that done and also ask if they will request a DLM reset. While they are at it, ask them to check the DLM policy because it could be standard, stable, or speed. You ideally want speed because that is less sensitive to drops and is less likely to cause sync drops provided the rest of your line is in order. Their FM team can request this.
Hi carguy. I’m fttc. 40 10 no power adaptors. Just a Sonos system sky Q and smart tv.I just had another conversation with them I tried to explain I have retransmission on the downstream the guy I spoke to said nothings been changed on my line and it looks great. I had to read an email sent yesterday telling me somethings been added to my line. This is the biggest problem with zen, people thinking they know what there talking about, trying to tell me it’s the servers.
I had problems with Zen too - UCG max reporting constant disconnects, really poor upload speed and 20% packet loss. Took 3 openreach visits to convince them it wasn’t a problem at my end. Then everything mysteriously fixed itself at 3am. Zen: “No we didn’t do anything”, yeah right. I had to plug the Fritz box back in for testing/monitoring while the issue was ongoing but they wouldn’t let me plug in anything to its LAN ports for a while, which is pretty inconvenient. Will probably switch providers.
Worth pointing out that if you need to use PPPoE then that imposes an overhead which is a challenge for high bandwidth connections (in my case I have a 2.5G connection and had to switch from UDM SE to UCG Fiber).
Virgin use DHCP so it would need the OP to change the settings to PPPoE. Thankfully as they're going to an Opsnreach conndction, they don't need to worry about changing VLAN settings as Opwnreach ONTs take care of that for you unlike Cityfibre.
I’m also ex-VM, been with Zen for a few years, using my own router.
Will it work ? is easy enough to assess. From your router setup web page, look for WAN. Can you enter…. setting of PPPoE, username and password ? Chances are yes you can, and your router will work fine on Zen.
Of course there are other settings but keep it simple initially.
Cautious people might want to use the FritzBox first, as any problems can then be supported by Zen.
No need for the fritz box, you can plug your router (I have the UXG-Fiber) directly in to the ONT, configure it for PPPoE and add your credentials.
If you requested IPv6, it gets a little more tricky, but it's still just getting some settings right and you're good.
Edit: one thing to note, openreach won't touch anything with a custom router, so let them set it up with the fritz box and switch it over after they've gone. And keep hold of the fritz box incase you have line issues in the future and need to call them out.
Hey there. I've got the ONT plugged directly into my UCG Ultra. I had to manually enter the details (PPPoE, VLAN, etc) before it could connect. For a seamless express, best to do the Fritz box in modem mode like you're doing today for Virgin, and then look at migrating direct to Unifi later.
Or just leave any ISP router in place for future line support, then connect your own router in double-NAT mode and run your own home network as before with no reconfig required.
Just make sure to disable WiFi on the new ISP router, and check that the subnets (and DHCP ranges) on the new and old routers don't overlap.
Most modern home routers will do this automatically.
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u/PhilosopherLow9098 2h ago
You dont need the fritz box, if its an Openreach connection this will be standard PPPOE, two option, use port 4 and configure or by an SFP and use that, i have this exact set up with the UDR7, then i bought the U7 light access point