Help with getting rid of Truespeed (FTTP) router

[jimmc]

Hi all. I'm in the unfortunate position of using Truespeed as my ISP (see recent story on the front page) and I was under the impression it would not be possible to get rid of the supplied router. However someone in the comments - 'John' - suggested it is possible:

In Truespeed’s case you can connect your own router to the ONT, though there is no DHCP on the internet VLAN. Their routers grab their configuration on boot from the untagged VLAN on the ONT’s Ethernet port. You can configure the network statically and not worry about this, provided you set the correct tagged VLAN and addressing details for your connection. Obviously this kind of configuration would be beyond the average consumer, and in any case difficult if you were to use their phone service (SIP not on the internet VLAN).

I'm obviously very interested in this. I'm not completely tech illiterate so I fancy having a go. My stumbling block would probably be the part about 'setting the correct tagged VLAN and addressing details' - I assume this will be telling the router the IP of where the internet connection is and making sure the router is in the same IP range? Can the router then act as DHCP for my network?

Not sure where to start. I do have some old adsl routers kicking around that I might be able to repurpose but that will come with head scratches of its own. I think it would probably be easier to buy an actual router to do this with.

Could anyone outline in more detail what might be required?