Re Wireless Modem Router supplied by TPG

[Rubicon]

My street gets FTTC Jan/March 2019.  I need to retain my landline so will want a W/M/Router with VOIP.

1. Can I purchase my own?

2. Does TPG offer any choice?

[BasilDV]

Good day @Rubicon,

Welcome to TPG Community!

The home phone VoIP service that comes with our NBN package only works on the NBN modem/router that we are providing our customers for free.

If you are going to use a third party modem, the internet will work, but the VoIP feature will not work.

Kind regards,

[Rubicon]

I am totally, utterly flabbagasted at TPG's reply to my question about using a non-TPG supplied wireless/modem/router.  The uncompromising threat that I will be DENIED access to VOIP if I utilise my own W/M/Router displays monopolised arrogance and is to my knowledge, so contrary to Australian consumer laws and the spirit of those laws that I immediately lodged a formal complaint with the ACCC, citing anti-competition rules as the basis of my complaint.

TPG DOES NOT own VOIP.  The rentention of PSDN access is MY RIGHT as a consumer.  Further enquiries to TPG about just which W/M/Router would actually be available resulted in the reply, "That it depends what device is available from stock at the time of my purchase!"

This means that I have NO CHOICE WHATSOEVER.  What kind of customer relations policy is this damnable nonsense?  I have since gone on to enter negotiations with several other ISP's who do offer UNRESTRICTED access to VOIP and YES,....YOUR CHOICE OF A COMPATIBLE W/M/Router.

I have had many years customer association with TPG and yes, never a complaint.  Customer Service or Technical always attended to me promptly, hence the reason they have hitherto, retained my business.  However, I WILL NOT be dictated to with a flat out threat linked to denial of service.  In terms of an insulting attitude to customers, it rivals only that you would expect from the arch-enemy of Australian consumers: i.e, TELSTRA.

I have crossed the Rubicon!

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi @Rubicon,

The modem we provide is a standard modem and we’ve optimised the setup to complement our specifically configured modem settings. It is a reliable and efficient modem. We provide the modem for all our NBN plans as they are sold as an Internet & Home Phone Bundle. As the Home Phone component of your bundle is encrypted for security, you will need to use our modem if you are to make and receive phone calls.

Our modem is also pre-configured for internet access Some customers who do not use the home phone component of our bundle sometimes prefer to use their own NBN compatible modem. If this is the case, then we can provide you with the settings required to configure your 3rd party modem with the settings required to access the internet.

Let me know should you require further assistance.

Cheers!

[Bolek]

Hello Shane,

Here's my problem with your reply to @Rubicon.

I have an ArcherV1600V modem supplied by TPG. It has a number of problems, been replaced once, to no effect. Now @orbistat seems to intimate that the issue might be an underpowered CPU. I've tried a few of his suggestions, to no avail. Now a possible solution for me would be to dump the TPG supplied modem and buy a better performing one, such as the Draytek 286x series. So your answer to @Rubicon suggests that I'll lose my home phone service because TPG can't supply a modem/router thats up to the task?

[Anonymous]

Hi @Bolek,

The VOIP service will not work if you choose to use a 3rd party modem/router as it is encrypted on our own supplied modem/router.

[orbistat]

Hi @Bolek, I'm sure that either model of router that TPG supplies are more than up to the task when used as intended, IE: a standalone residential gateway, your setup does not allow for the supplied router to work on its own, I would be letting the vr1600v handle all the routing and wifi for a test and work from there.

[Bolek]

Hi @orbistat I'm not sure what you mean by the router working on it's own? Do you mean I should switch off the second access point? I did that for an earlier test as you suggested. That action It didn't alter the situation.

Perhaps I've confused the issue of my network configuration, so to be clear:

Archer VR1600V is the direct and only DSL connection to the NBN internet.

It provides wired and wifi LAN connectivity for all devices (except those occaionally connected via the second "access point".

I have a number of wifi devices, and depending on who is here this might be as many as 20 or more. Certainly there's always at least 6 or 7 wifi devices (phones,tablets, laptops, printers, TV, media streamers) connected

There are also 6 devices (PCs, NAS, printers, media streamers etc) connected via hubs etc to the wired lan so that I run a gigabit LAN internally.

I have a older router configured as an access point only, and it is wired (about 40m cable) to one of the LAN ports on the ARCHER VR1600V. It's main reason for existence is to extend the wifi range to all parts of my house/office. It's located beyond the effective range of the ARCHER VR1600V.

DHCP is disabled on the router.  I have a server in my network,  so I can configure all my wifi devices to keep the same IP address through reboots.

Firewall is set to "low" filtering, for now, to reduce workload.

The same server handles mail, web and internal DNS as well as a number of other functions.

The ArcherVR1600V was supplied as part of the TPG Business (as opposed to residential) package mainly because I needed the static IP option only available in that package.

I have a number of other configurations I'd like to set up but they need to wait until the router issues are resolved. E.g I'd like a second subnet for my security IP cameras so that I can isolate them from the internet except via a purpose built device for more security than that typical commercial IP cameras provide.

I'm concerned that if ARCHER VR1600V is "underpowered" then my options are very limited. In another thread, @shane made it plain that using another router from elsewhere would result in loss of the VOIP service.

So I'm stuck?

[Bolek]

Not trying to be a pain here, but what happens if I need to set up say, more than one ipsec VPN tunnel. I have a mobile site I plan to set up a VPN tunnel to and a related company that would like to set up a VPN for some support activities.

That's fine, the mobile site could probably work with openVPN and the related company can be set up using IPsec. What happens for the next VPN?

I've checked the Archer user manual and it doesn't seem like it supports multiple concurrent ipsec tunnels.

[orbistat]

Hi @Bolek I'm trying to picture what's happening in your setup, so the VR1600v is on it's default 192.168.1.1 ? Are your wired devices on static ip's in the same subnet? EG: 192.168.1.2 > .  What is the server's IP and subnet ?