FibreNest - FAQs

Introduction

Since I’ve started posting about FibreNest, it’s been great to hear that I’ve helped a few people making better use of their connection. This has also led to a wide variety of questions, which I’m starting to collate here to help people get help faster.

If you or your neighbors have found anything different or new to the information below, please feel free to drop me an email and I’ll try to keep this page as up-to-date as possible to help others.

Replacing the Linksys Velop Router

An extremely common question, only to be expected by someone who wants a better solution than the Linksys equipment or even just better security. A few tips that may help you in getting your custom router working:

The FibreNest DHCP server that hands your internet connection it’s WAN IP address is very strict on how it hands out IP addresses. It will only hand you a single address, and won’t give you another until it has expired. If you find your custom router not getting a WAN IP address, you can do one of two things:

1. Let your existing lease expire - I find this takes approximately 3 hours to complete if you have just renewed your lease.
2. Clone the WAN MAC address of your Linksys Velop - There is a sticker on the bottom of your primary base station with the address you’ll need to insert into your new firewall/router

Placing your ONT into Bridge Mode

With the newer ONT’s that are doing media conversion only (usually those with a fibre interface in, and a single copper interface out), there should be no need to put these into bridge mode. I’ve found that these connections work purely on a DHCP basis, with no PPPoE or any advanced information required.

For those that have the original Huawei router combo, you’ll need to request a replacement/updgrade from FibreNest to the newer HG8010H model.

I’m not getting a Public IP

Although FibreNest used to hand out public IPs, they have since transitioned over to CGNAT for the majority of their connections. This means that your firewall isn’t automatically directly accessible from the outside world. In order to get access to your own services, there are a few options available:

1. Fibrenest Static IP - This can come at a cost of £5/month unless you have the 500mbit package. Likely the easiest option. Some pointers here
2. An external tunneling service - Something like CloudFlare tunnels work great here if you don’t want your direct connection referenced externally.
3. An external VPN service - If you already have a VPS or other machine running on the internet, this can be used to forward traffic into your network. Wireguard works great here.

Tested Devices

Here are some devices I have tested working as part of my Lab, let me know if you have any other experiences!

If you need any help with yours - feel free to reach out!