BSNL FTTH Pune users

[vishalrao]

Also, you are probably aware, your current ONT would most likely be whitelisted on the OLT side, so just swapping the ONT might not work, depending on how the OLT is configured.

Looks like there is no OLT side whitelisting in my area as today the other ONT just worked after LCO guy connecting and configuring it at my side. I dont know if he maybe had it pre-whitelisted or something though. I will know when I get my new ONU I ordered online.

 

[varkey]

Yep, totally weird. Although I think it's the power adapter , do you have another one lying around that you can just swap it with. As long as the voltage is around the same it shouldn't be an issue.

 

[varkey]

Looks like there is no OLT side whitelisting in my area as today the other ONT just worked after LCO guy connecting and configuring it at my side. I dont know if he maybe had it pre-whitelisted or something though. I will know when I get my new ONU I ordered online.

Yeah, he probably just pulled another working ONT right seeing that it is not a brand new unit. Plus it doesn't seem to be user specific, so if an ONT is whitelisted it should work from any location coming under the same LCO/OLT.

 

[vishalrao]

Yep, totally weird. Although I think it's the power adapter , do you have another one lying around that you can just swap it with. As long as the voltage is around the same it shouldn't be an issue.

I tried with another adapter from an old Belkin router I had, device seems to power up and work but the same problem persists.

Now last thing to try before I pull out my non-existent hair is the new ONT due to arrive from Amazon, plus also asked my LCO to get a new ONT for since mine is still under warranty but that will take a few days I guess - will report back later.

 

[vishalrao]

Update! Breaking News! (TLDR) Looks like using the ONU in bridge mode works around the rebooting problem and my connection is now stable!

Today I tried fiddling around with some more settings and managed to figure out how to set my OptiLink ONU to bridge mode (I guess) and put the BSNL FTTH username/password on my Netgear router.

At first it didn't work but then I put the VLAN ID and selected all LAN ports and WiFi radios in an obscure section of the Netgear advanced config called "VLAN/IPTV settings" And lo and behold it worked!

It authenticated and connected fine without needing to get any OLT whitelisting done (no need to clone any MAC) so not sure if the LCO guy has configured the PON MAC (instead of the WAN MAC) or none at all.

Connection has been up and stable for more than an hour now whereas before it would reboot within 20-30 minutes or less, so fingers crossed it stays this way.

So it must be the NAT module of the ONU's operating system (ZTE chipset) which is unstable and probably crashes (causing the ONU to reboot) with multiple client devices connecting and sending traffic to it. When I had earlier tried only connecting my PC via LAN to router and disabled wifi so that only 1 device was connected the ONU again seemed to be stable thus leading me to believe the NAT module is the culprit.

@varkey Earlier I thought my ONU did not support bridge mode because there was no explicit mention of it in the UI but all I needed to do was delete the WAN configuration where the BSNL username/password was provided and leave it blank/empty. That apparently leaves the ONU in bridge mode by default even though DHCP server feature is enabled. I just gave it a shot in the dark and this worked!

 

[varkey]

Wow, that's an interesting problem and solution! Good to know that it's resolved, it would be interesting to see how it would behave with the new ONU that you ordered.

Usually the MAC binding is on BSNL's side with their PPP authentication server, looks like that isn't there in your case. For me switching to bridged mode needed BSNL to reset the MAC binding so that it works with the new WAN side MAC address. (This is the MAC address which shows up in the self care portal usage reports)

If it worked without entering any VLAN IDs etc on the ONT site, I guess it supports working as a transparent bridge. In mine, I need to explicitly define WAN interfaces with the VLAN IDs that I need bridged, although I never tried the technique of removing all WAN interfaces, something to keep in mind!

 

[airforce]

@varkey no Mac binding is required for our customers just unique vlan

 

[vishalrao]

it would be interesting to see how it would behave with the new ONU that you ordered.

Got the new "ElectroLine" branded ONU couple of hours ago. Same problem This ONU also has exactly same looking web UI as the other two (Digisol and OptiLink) and also ZTE based chipset I guess which has buggy firmware.

Thankfully there appears to be no MAC whitelisting at the OLT (new ONU just worked) and the bridge mode works for now, fingers crossed.

 

[varkey]

I'm curious now, how did it work all these days? The config on your side remained the same right but the number of disconnects were definitely much less earlier but has now increased now to a point it's crashing very frequently. And the issue can be reproduced on multiple devices running the same underlying firmware and hardware.

Perhaps, there was an upgrade or change on BSNLs PPP authentication server and post upgrade, possible bug in the PPP client on these ONTs is causing issues?

 

[vishalrao]

Yeah it's hard to narrow down the root cause of this issue but I still suspect NAT module being buggy. I wish there was a log on the ONU to view that might have helped.

If it is PPP client issue then why is it stable with single PC connected directly to the ONU?

One thing I didnt mention is that my fiber was cut/down in my area for 12 days before LCO guy repaired it then soon after that the issue started to happen frequently, so not sure if that is a factor or just a coincidence.

But then again, the main clue in this mystery is the ONUs are stable with only single PC connected but rebooting as soon as multiple devices are connected via router.

Note that even when router was connected but with only single PC via ethernet (wifi radios disabled) then again it was stable, so it's not like router sending weird ethernet signal/power level to the ONU causing reboot.

I had even tried an old Belkin N150 wifi router (many years old) then also ONU was rebooting.

BTW @varkey any clues to get to look at logs on the ONU? I tried telnet to it, it only accepts root username but tried various standard passwords it does not log in. Any default passwords you suggest for this firmware/hardware?