Using the Huawei HG612 on Digital Region instead of the Cellpipe

[alexatkin]

If all it takes is a HG612 and knowing the VLAN ID to become a "security issue" then god help us. But I doubt that is true, the DSLAM should only be allowing me access to Origins network which seems to be true, otherwise the settings would have been different per ISP.

Plus I haven't heard of anyone at BT complaining that people unlocked their HG612s yet, although I suppose as they are still using the designated CPEs it might take BT longer to notice.

I'm really disappointed at how Digital Region have dealt with this. I only wanted to improve their service by identifying where they went wrong with their VDSL profiles compared to BT. Instead they threaten to cut me off? This does not appear to be the Digital Region I spoke to on the phone a year ago who said they would do everything they could to get line stats, etc, for their more tech savvy customers. But then, nothing ever came of that.

This just makes me feel like they really do not care about the quality of their service, we are "only" residential customers so can take a flying leap. No wonder they are losing money hand over fist. They have done more damage to their reputation by threatening people with disconnected than I ever could. I repeat, I wanted to IMPROVE to help improve their service and thus their reputation, instead they tarnished it with threats.

All I wanted is to "fix" my higher than necessary latency ffs and to be able to see my sync speed once I am on Max. This would allow me to: a) calculate my theoretical bandwidth for QoS in my router and, b) inform Origin if I am syncing faster than the Cellpipe can handle once on the Max trial, which is highly likely.

[SpencerUk]

@alexatkin

You have done no wrong so there is no need to be worried.

I've actually considered letting ISP Review & ThinkBroadband know about how Digital Regions management of something up for tender is laughable.

I actually have already contacted some of my legal people who have been laughing. The statement I've had from them and, this is beautiful;

"Digital Region may as well threaten me with a Hot Dog as it would be far more effective"

[alexatkin]

Exactly.

They may have a contract with Origin saying "customer must use Cellpipe" but I'm pretty sure none of the documentation I have ever been given said that.

Oliver did confirm something else though. The ZyXEL IS an official Thales provided unit that was intended to be a replacement for the Cellpipe. But either availability or cost has prevented them from doing it network wide.

It still remains to be seen what they plan to do when I get on the Max trial and sync at >100Mbit. I suspect they will do nothing and expect me to be happy that I might be losing 20Mbit of potential speed.

[KarlAustin]

I'd laugh if it weren't such a sad story of waste and incompetence

The problem is a lack of oversight from the councils, they should have had an independent body of local experts (and I don't mean Mr. S and all of his buddies only) keeping tabs on Thales and we could have avoided rubbish such as this.

There have actually been meetings of like minded individuals to see if anything can be done on the issue, as we're all pretty concerned.

[alexatkin]

What is unclear is if Digital Region are pissed at me, or Thales. I would have expected it to be Thales but Oliver specifically said Digital Region.

What doesn't make sense is that he said they saw the instructions on this site (he didn't SAY this site, but I posted them nowhere else), so why didn't they politely contact us here instead of threats?

Their stubbornness to communicate with us is directly responsible for what happened here. If they had politely asked us to NOT try using other VDSL modems, we would have complied.

[KarlAustin]

Who knows. Either way they should be thankful, and if it causes them security issues then they should be very ashamed.

[alexatkin]

Its a foolish thing to admit if true, which is why I suspect its an excuse.

Oliver did say they it was about them being "perceived" as being less secure. Which is stupid as it seems to me that they wouldn't have appeared insecure, had they just left us to it.

They would have appeared a lot MORE secure if they had said "go on everyone, use whatever you want because our network security doesn't rely on anything in the Cellpipe", which is what I believe to actually be the truth.

[SpencerUk]

@alexatkin & @KarlAustin

I've been using the Openreach modem far longer than they know and they ain't said diddly.

If Digital Region and Thales are to be pissed off with anyone, its me. I'm the guy firing the bullets and I will continue to until this network improves.

Same can be said with ISP's, I've had a go at some of them, probably enough for them to get a voodoo doll on me!...Most of my bridges are burnt but my belief is that they were never there in the first place.

I remember a time when the Thomson router was exposed on BE's/O2 network..They thanked the user and patched it up. Digital Region don't know how to thank people.

I'm going to go on record saying that if the Openreach modem improves your connection, continue to use it.

Until said proof can be brought to the table from either Digital Region or the ISP's on the network, continue to use it.

On the topic of that, to let things cool off, if Digital Region want to discuss this issue or the ISP's for that matter, the ISP private chat room on this forum is there.

Alex; Going to send you a PM. If you can be on later, I wouldn't mind a chat with you

[KarlAustin]

Not unknown though. We have several Be lines, in the past we've been able to use IPs allocated to one line, on one of the other lines - as far as Be are concerned these are 3 separate accounts.

[LeJimster]

Hey Digital Region, if you are reading this thread go **** yourself. And quit harrassing Alex. You think you are going to encourage people onto your network if you don't understand the *customer* comes first? Most of us are used to using our own routers and finding what works best for OUR line. It may not be that your Cellpipe or Zyxel branded stuff works best for US. Rather than being anal, how about you come here and interact with us and inquire why we want to run our own hardware.

BTW.. I do not like the idea that somebody can login to my router/modem and alter settings without my knowledge. This backdoor technology while may make it easier for ISP's to diagnose issues, is quite creepy and it only takes one bad actor and they can be snooping.

What if anything you should do is only support your own hardware but allow users to use whatever they want at their own risk. I've been with o2 5+ years and I've barely took their wireless router of it's box because I found for me the best hardware for stability and speed was my Belkin 7633.