TPF v/s Airtel - Long term review and comparison (Pick your poison)

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Actually it's pretty easy to just replace the ONT given by Airtel with a dumb ONU box. I bought the TP-Link G3 ONU and cloned the GPON SN from the ONT, entered the VLAN tag and then just dial up PPPoE via my Asus router. As of now Airtel is not doing much authentication apart from the GPON SN, might change in the future so more of a temporary workaround. I have been using this setup for over an year now and it works fine. The ping also dropped a few milliseconds although the difference is not noticeable but the performance of my current setup is way better than the standalone ONT given by Airtel.

TPF has some additional parameters they authenticate so this doesn't work with the TP link ONU. Maybe a SFP module or a more configurable ONU like the VSOL might work but again that is a significant investment for a residential broadband connection. For TPF the Nokia router is set in bridge mode since day 1 and their customer care proactively did that without any fuss. So yeah when I say that TPF support is better, I actually mean it and have experienced it multiple times.
 
@_rajat why would you want to replace the Nokia ONT (assuming you had a Nokia) which is in bridge mode? I have 2 of them one each for Airtel and TPF. Is there some advantage you see in changing it?
 
@Chip Airtel didn't agree to put the ONT in bridge mode, they were asking me to purchase static IP in order to do that. So went ahead and replaced it with a dumb ONU.
For TPF the Nokia ONT is in bridge mode and working fine.
 
For Airtel its relatively easy to use dumb ONU + router combo. You just have to put same device name, serial, mac address and vlan! and its done! I don't know about tpf though!
 
You just have to put same device name, serial, mac address and vlan!
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None of the parameters are required for Airtel on router level. GPON SN is enough, on the ONU. VLAN is 100 for internet and there's transparent mode for VLAN tagging on the ONU which detects it automatically, no need to enter it manually.
There is a slight catch here, if the ONT is already in bridge mode, this setup doesn't work, cant replace it with a different ONU then.

For TPF SW_v1 and SW_v2 are also authenticated which requires a more configurable ONU box or a SFP module. Not worth the investment for home broadband. Also, TPF guys happily put up the router in bridge so it's not even required.
 
Honestly after these two Nokia ONTs were switched to bridge mode I barely look at them except once in a while to do a visual check if the service is active. Everything is controlled by my Asus router.

Have shifted away from pfSense for the time being. My pfSense router had a hardware failure and required replacement under warranty. I received a new one (very kind of the Protectli Support guys) but then pfSense also goes and changes their licensing so now I am forced to use the open source version instead of the plus version I have used for a long time. Paying $129/year for a subs is not worth it for home use.
 
@Chip Even I am using Asus router since last 1.5 years. Very good experience so far. Coming from TP-Link, Asus felt like a huge upgrade and the performance is amazing.
I got the Asus RT-AX82U for a very good deal on flipkart, costed me around 7k which is 50% less than the current selling price.
 
How much it costed @Chip and any cashback you received in wallet? Hope you took the LITE plan coz prime is expensive
 
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