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Router question

kroma

Casual Member
Hello everybody,

I've been with 'You' since early June and I have to say that the service is excellent. I'm on the 150/150 service (with added phone and static IP) and it hasn't missed a beat. I'm steadily recommending it to neighbours and, next in line, my in-laws!

However, I am having router issues and thought I'd ask some advice here before contacting support.

I was supplied with the ONT without a phone port along with the Arris router (with a phone port). I was glad to get this setup as the Arris has more ethernet sockets than the Eero.

In general, it works well and I get more than the quoted speeds.

But, on the first day of setting up, I noticed that I was unable to enter all the port forwarding details I wanted to apply. I had to change the ports on some of my devices to get round this and, even then, I was met with a few error messages and ultimately not all my port forwarding settings showed up on the list (even though they worked). Other spurious error messages kept appearing including the dreaded 'SDB write lock' wven though I wasn't logged in from elsewhere.

I'd do an occasional reboot but, some of the unlisted port forwarding would then fail and I'd have to choose another empty port and apply the new settings.

I had also noticed that the free memory of the Arris was gradually creeping downwards.

I went on holiday and, a few days in, my devices started to become unavailable. Eventually, once I'd lost access to my wired PC, I had to get my father-in-law round to my house to restart the router. All was good again.

Since then, the user interface has become more laggy and I've had more issues with disappearing port forwarding settings.

I've factory reset the device and started from scratch - applying fewer customisations (no alias names for devices, fewer reserved IP addresses and certainly no device icons) in case I was over-taxing the router although there are many functions which remained untouched.

I've now noticed that, when I restart the router to counteract the memory leak (every week or two) the WiFi doesn't come back on (even though it says it has). To get it working again, I have to disable and re-enable the 2Ghz radio and then do the same with the 5Ghz radio. My WiFi network names then appear again and everything connects.

More alarming is my discovery yesterday that, until I re-enable the WiFi radios, what's happening is the router is generating an open SSID of 'Broadcom' without any security. I logged onto this network, and had full internet access as well as uninhibited access to the router admin pages (as they are set to be accessible via WAN).

I assume that, should a power cut occur, the router will be left broadcasting this Open network until I can intervene.

So, there we have it. As I write, the router is currently working and doing as I need but it needs intervention every now and then and I am concerned about the security aspects. The open Broadcom SSID is particularly worrying.

My question is, does anybody else have any experience of the Arris router? Am I just unlucky or is the Arris famously temperamental? Are there any firmware, software or security updates available? I've looked and can't find anything.

I'm tempted to ask if I can try reconnecting my old router (a Fritzbox 7530). I understand that its MAC address will need to be tied to the system as I'm on a static IP. Would it be likely to work with the phone service? After all, it's another of those rare routers which has a phone port so it seems to fit the bill

It isn't a WiFi6/ax router though. Would I even notice? However, despite my old connection being ADSL, the Fritzbox just worked and accepted my settings without issue (unless of course I'd made a genuine mistake in which case it would tell me what I'd done wrong).

In any case, I think the Arris needs replacing. I was hoping to set and leave it to do its thing - but I'm regularly checking to see if it's still working properly and ensuring that the Broadcom SSID hasn't popped up.

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks,

Kroma
 
I have used my Fritz! Box 7530 successfully. You just need to power down the ONT first before connecting.
That's good to hear. Do you have the phone service as well?

I assume I'd need to call them as I have a static IP address.
 
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That's good to hear. Do you have the phone service as well?

I assume I'd need to call them as I have a static IP address.
No I've had the static IP since the start. That's why you need a long down time to free the device for the other router to connect. You may need more than 30 min. They've only just implemented IPv6 locally, so I might ditch the static IPv4.

I'm thinking about getting the phone service, and would need the ONT with the RJ11 connector (though my Fritz!Box has a RJ11 socket anyway).
 
Would the phone service 'just work' with the Fritzbox phone socket or would I need to type in details (which I understand aren't provided).
 
I'm assuming it would just work. I hadn't really considered any other possibility, tbh.
I've just done a quick search. While the basic phone service should work, there may be problems with signalling that means an attached answering machine may not respond properly.
I think I would ask for the ONT to be upgraded to one with an RJ11 port and use that, rather than the Fritzbox socket.
 
I'm assuming it would just work. I hadn't really considered any other possibility, tbh.
I've just done a quick search. While the basic phone service should work, there may be problems with signalling that means an attached answering machine may not respond properly.
I think I would ask for the ONT to be upgraded to one with an RJ11 port and use that, rather than the Fritzbox socket.
This would be my suggestion - it'll take them 10 minutes to swap the ONT out for a model with POTS ports.
 
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