Smart hub and bridge mode

[andyman]

Hi,

I've been an EE customer for many years and used my own router to connect over the DSL side (An Asus on which I use VPN host and client). The broadband speeds have always been very low (FTTC and about 34Mbits DL/9.5UL.)

I've been trying to get them to up the speeds for ages as I could see from the BT Broadband test system that the line would support  up to ~60mbits, they offered me a new plus service and asked about using my own router/VDSL and the EE unit as a slave just for digital telephony to which the answer was yes I could.

However I now have my new service configured at the DSLAM/Exchange and on plugging the delivered EE Super Hub and trying to use the advanced network pages to set it up as a simple client via the WAN port to the Asus I get no options to change anything just status reports... is this locked by them?

I simply want it to be a client on the Asus router via it's WAN interface so it can supply the digital voice telephony, even more so since I checked and my original modem trains up at 10% higher speeds than the Superhub's VDSL modem(!)

Do you know if this is possible?

Many thanks for any help you can give.

[Mustrum]

@andyman   No, the EE router needs to be directly connected to the phone line for EE digital voice.

[andyman]

Oh great! Why on earth would that be a requirement though? They simply need a WAN gateway as with FTTP don't they.

[JimM11]

@andyman All of the digital voip control is built into the EE router, if you don't have it as the primary then you wont have a landline.

[andyman]

Thanks for the response but that's  what I can't understand.. it's simply an IP protocol, which maps a PSTN  type adapter circuit to an IP connection.

What happens when you have FTTP then and the EE hub uses the WAN ethernet  port to connect to the Fibre modem via IP over  PPOE?

[Mustrum]

@andyman  same thing - if you take EE - same as BT - Digital Voice, the EE router needs to be the first on after the ONT.

Of course you don't have to take EE or BT Digital Voice - there are plenty of VOIP providers out there where you could use an ATA or other method to connect a phone.

[andyman]

An ONT is essentially just a modem though isn't it? You connect via a WAN port and route the 'PSTN' encapsulating traffic in the same way you route lots of other services.

[Mustrum]

@andyman  Yes, the ONT is the fibre modem, and yes you connect it to the WAN port.

The issue is that the EE router is set up to do all the PPOE and other messages back to base and unlike your own router that can't be switched off.

You could try switching the WiFi on the EE router off, and change your ASUS router settings and connect it to a LAN port on the EE router. If it is anything like my Asus router the IP range will be different to the EE one and will not clash.

[XRaySpeX]

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@Mustrum wrote:

The issue is that the EE router is set up to do all the PPOE and other messages back to base and unlike your own router that can't be switched off.

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That isn't the issue. Your own router can be set up in exactly the same way to handle the PPPoE & like the EE router can be switched  off. 

Mind you I don't know what the issue is other than what @JimM11  said ("All of the digital voip control is built into the EE router") & then I can't see why that VoIP control can't be moved 1 step down the line.

[andyman]

Yes, I did think about that but the issue then is that the Asus which is doing all the DDNS, VPN etc has no awareness of the external IP address of the EE gateway router.