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Recommend FTTC ISP (Own Kit)

voyto

Member
Hello! 👋

I will soon be moving home to a property limited to FTTC. I have my own OPNsense router and Omada AP’s I’ll be bringing along.

I’m looking for an ISP that will happily let me use my own kit, ideally with their supplied kit able to act as a modem only. Working out who’s does and doesn’t support this isn’t easy.

The best value options seem to be OneStream, PlusNet, NOW or Vodafone.

Can anyone make any recommendations? Thank you ☺️
 
Of the names you mentioned I’d be going with Onestream if looking for the cheapest option, or Plusnet if you want a little better. Both have UK customer service.

Onestream may give you higher latency on your connection depending upon how they decide to route you and where you are. Additionally they don’t actually give you a router at all and expect you to use your own. So you’d need to get yourself either a VDSL Router or at least a modem anyways. Easiest way is probably to pick up an Openreach modem off eBay.

Plusnet do give you a router but while some do have a bridge mode others don’t. If you get one of the latest routers without this feature you’d have to just disable WiFi and otherwise use it as-is which isn’t ideal, or supply your own modem again as above.

Now TV (and their parent Sky) is the only one you mentioned that’s really against you using your own router. They don’t support it at all, and if you do go down that route you’ll need to ensure you have DHCP Option 61 support.

Off the top of my head, I’m struggling to think of any ISPs that include their own kit that specifically has a modem mode built in nowadays. Most of them thankfully are happy to let you use your own equipment though. Just with somewhat limited tech support unless you revert to their router for troubleshooting.

Most aren’t like Virgin Media where there’s an obvious and easy button to switch to modem mode.

As a side note, if limited to FTTC only unless G.Fast happens to be an option for faster speeds you might be better off considering mobile broadband instead? Whether you supply your own equipment or go with equipment supplied by one of the networks most of them include support for you to set them up as a modem only. And unless you live in a really poorly covered area at least one of the 4 networks should be able to give you faster speeds than the maximum you can manage through a phone line.
 
> I’m looking for an ISP that will happily let me use my own kit

If you pick up a second-hand FTTC modem on e-bay, e.g. Draytek Vigor 130, then that should complete your "own router" setup. You could then choose an ISP which doesn't provide any router at all, such as Aquiss.
 
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Hello! 👋

I will soon be moving home to a property limited to FTTC. I have my own OPNsense router and Omada AP’s I’ll be bringing along.

I’m looking for an ISP that will happily let me use my own kit, ideally with their supplied kit able to act as a modem only. Working out who’s does and doesn’t support this isn’t easy.

The best value options seem to be OneStream, PlusNet, NOW or Vodafone.

Can anyone make any recommendations? Thank you ☺️

IDNET are happy for you to use your own kit - they don't even provide a router unless you add it as an extra... Great service, includes static IP.
 
Zen too.... :)
They will give you the RADIUS details upfront if you want them :)
 
Hello! 👋

I will soon be moving home to a property limited to FTTC. I have my own OPNsense router and Omada AP’s I’ll be bringing along.

I’m looking for an ISP that will happily let me use my own kit, ideally with their supplied kit able to act as a modem only. Working out who’s does and doesn’t support this isn’t easy.

The best value options seem to be OneStream, PlusNet, NOW or Vodafone.

Can anyone make any recommendations? Thank you ☺️
Have you checked bidb.uk to double check?
 
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Plusnet have great customer service and can upgrade to FTTP when it becomes available. The Plusnet Hub 2 supports bridge mode which I switched to when I had issues with my Draytek Vigor 130 modem dropping connections and had a better sync rate. So you just need to setup PPPoE credentials on your OPNsense WAN interface.
 
The latter. Although it doesn't have to be the G.Fast version unless you were ordering G.Fast connections. For bog standard FTTC/VDSL The two most common Openreach models are the Huawei HG612 and ECI 061513.

The top one you linked is an ONT which is designed for full fibre (FTTP) Connections.
Thanks for that (y)

is this any better or worse than the Huawei(s) you mentioned? -

Draytek Vigor 130 ADSL2+/VDSL2/FTTC Ethernet Modem PPPoE Bridge
 
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I've had Zen as my ISP on FTTC for a number of years and they will allow you to use whatever kit you want (and will help you set it up). Not the cheapest but cannot fault their service and support - all top notch. Plus you get a static IPv4 and a /48 block of IPv6.

I use a Zyxel VMG8324-B10A in bridged mode and an EdgeRouter 4 as router/firewall and use 2 Unifi APs (controller running on a Pi).
 
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