Disclaimer: This is not guaranteed to work for your ACT connection. There are many different variables at play and each location serviced by ACT could have a different network environment.
I recently bought a TP-Link XZ000-G3 V2.0 GPON Terminal to see if it would work for my ACT FTTH connection. The G7 was actually cheaper on the store that I bought the G3, but there were a few complaints on this forum about the G7 not working with Airtel while the G3 did. Since I am currently exploring other ISPs, I decided to play it safe and buy the G3 instead. I know there is a debate about the compatibility of G3 V1 vs the G3 V2, but the V2 was much easier to find and I did not feel like hunting down the older V1.
If you were looking to replace the ISP's GPON terminal, these are steps I took to get the G3 fully connected:-
Let me know if you have any questions, and if able, I will answer them.
I recently bought a TP-Link XZ000-G3 V2.0 GPON Terminal to see if it would work for my ACT FTTH connection. The G7 was actually cheaper on the store that I bought the G3, but there were a few complaints on this forum about the G7 not working with Airtel while the G3 did. Since I am currently exploring other ISPs, I decided to play it safe and buy the G3 instead. I know there is a debate about the compatibility of G3 V1 vs the G3 V2, but the V2 was much easier to find and I did not feel like hunting down the older V1.
If you were looking to replace the ISP's GPON terminal, these are steps I took to get the G3 fully connected:-
- Prior to connecting the G3 to ACT's fiber cable, I connected the G3 to my PC with an ethernet cable. The device does not come with the DHCP server enabled. You will need to manually configure the IP information to get your PC connected to the G3. This typically involves setting up the IP address, subnet mask, gateway address, and DNS server (any DNS server) in your PC's network settings. Refer to your instruction manual for the specifics. In my case, I set the IP as 192.168.1.2, the gateway as 192.168.1.1, the subnet as 255.255.255.0 and DNS as 1.1.1.1 and saved the settings. Once done, I went to admin page using the gateway address (192.168.1.1) and logged in using the default username and password. In my case, it was admin for both. Refer to the manual for your specific device. Once logged in, consider changing the default password to something more secure. Go through all the pages on the admin portal. Familiarize yourself with all available settings.
- The next step was to update the firmware to the latest version. The US TP-LINK website does have a more recent firmware version available for download for the TP-LINK XZ000-G3(EU1) V2.0 with build number 230129. This was installed onto the device. (Note: Based on my browsing of threads relevant to the G3 and G7, there appears to be more recent versions of G3 V2.0 firmware. However, the links leading to those downloads are no longer active. It appears that TP-LINK has disabled all of those official download links. So, I simply settled for the one I found on the US website hoping it would work.)
- The GPON serial number of the Genexis Earth 1000R was noted down. The G3 requires a 16 digit HEX value for the serial number. According to other people on this forum with the G3, I only needed to convert the first 4 characters of the 1000R's serial number to HEX and then append the rest of the characters to the converted HEX value as is. For instance, if the 1000R had a GPON serial number of ABCD1234567F, ABCD would be converted to HEX as 41424344. The resulting GPON serial number would be 414243441234567F. This was then pasted into the GPON serial number field. This can be found in PON certification under the Network Settings tab for the G3. (Note: It appears ACT in my area does not need a GPON password or for a specific MAC address. Your mileage may vary.)
- The device was then connected to ACT's fiber cable and reconnected to power and my PC. The admin portal went through the various registration steps and ended on Registered (O5). I then went to the VLAN Settings page under Network settings and started a VLAN scan to find the VLAN number. In my case, the detected VLAN mode was VLAN TAG mode and the VLAN VID was 592.
- This forum generally recommends transparent mode for other ISPs, but I was able to get both transparent mode and VLAN tag mode working without any issues, for now. For VLAN tag mode, simply copy and paste the detected VLAN VID into the appropriate field in the GPON terminal's settings. For transparent mode, you will need to enable VLAN tagging in your router's settings and enter the detected VLAN number. On your router, you can keep the original PPPOE username and password and it should get connected.
Let me know if you have any questions, and if able, I will answer them.
