@tennykim - thanks for advice, yeah I reckon you're closer to the root cause with the authentication resolution, I sent the following to the moderator -
Apologies for delay I've had no internet and my phone's data plan has been exceeded due to me using it to access the internet whilst my nbn is down. TPG refused to add data to the mobile plan whilst my home service is down, instead advised me to claim compensation once it's sorted - and keep topping up the plan myself until then. Not very helpful and no guarantees I'd get my money back. I've had to purchase a $50 Telstra sim usb modem to get back online......topping up data with TPG was too expensive and didn't appear to work (I purchased $10 and it lasted about 2 hours of standard browsing...it's meant to be 1GB's worth).
This is what I believe the home internet issue may relate to - taken from the thread - thank you @tennykim
"Finally, another Indian lady answered from the engineering team and told me that the PPPoE password must be the one I set when signing up. It cannot be anything of minimum 8 alpha-numeric characters. This contradicts to the advice I got from Ken (TPG Tech Support).
"You have to use the correct username and password for PPPoE authentication. This is different to the one you use when logging into tpg.com.au (unless you set it that way). The engineering department can (not the Tech Support), with your permission reset it. Minimum 8 characters of alpha-numeric combo. e.g. tpgsuc45"
I have reset my password twice and the router will still not authenticate, I can log in to my account / tpg website with no issues. However I rang TPG and asked if they could reset my ppoe username / password and they advised if I can log into the tpg website there is no need - nbn authentication = the exact same username and password. i'm thinking this may not be the case. I have tried 4 different routers now. Authentication seems to be the problem, I can see it in the router logs attempting to authenticate but getting nowhere. If as this forum suggests I may need to use the original password, maybe ppp.tpg.com.au in the username?...or get the engineering team to reset it rather than the online 'forgotten password' or change password tools?
The NBN tech eventually arrived after I rang TPG and had to make a complaint that they couldn't confirm attendance. Only after I asked for specifics re: who I was speaking to and when they would call me back did the nbn tech call me ...note this was all after the 1-5pm window I was given - so I didn't actually need to take the day off work. NBN tech was unable to find any issues with the NBN box...no surprise there, as TPG had confirmed multiple times that they can 'see' it from their end. So back to square one - authentication issues. TPG are sending me another loaner router which I can keep if I sign with them for another year, in light of the current debarcle, somehow I think not! 9 days no home internet.... and counting + $150 bucks down (new router, usb router and data plans).
