When i get FTTH connection, i just connected the ethernet cable from FTTH ONU to existing DSL router TP-LINK TD-W8968 WAN port. Logged in to TP-LINK router management interface at 192.168.1.1, set it to work in “Wireless Router Mode” instead of “ADSL Modem Router Mode”.

Click next, on this page, you need to enter your PPPoE username and password.

You can configure WiFi just like you done for DSL. At this point you will get internet on your PC if you connect to TP-LINK router with LAN cable or WiFi.

Connecting FTTH ONU Directly to Ubuntu

First connect the ethernet cable from FTTH ONU to LAN port on your PC.

Now you need to run

pppoeconf

This will scan all network interfaces available on your PC for PPPoE connection.

Once it find a network interface with PPPoE Access, it will ask you permission to modify few files, select Yes.

Next it ask for some options, select Yes

It ask for username and password

One next page, it ask for some DNS setting, select No (or yes, won’t make much diff, i tested both, if required you can always edit /etc/resolv.conf manually, no big deal).

LIMITED MASS PROBLEM – select Yes

DONE – select Yes, this will start net connection by itself.

ESTABLISH A CONNECTION – Select Yes

CONNECTION INITIATED – Select OK, you are done, now you are connected to internet.

plog

To see pppoe log, run

sudo plog

Example

boby@hon-pc-01:~$ sudo plog
Jul 30 08:17:14 hon-pc-01 pppd[8199]: Using interface ppp0
Jul 30 08:17:14 hon-pc-01 pppd[8199]: Connect: ppp0 <--> enx000000003eb7
Jul 30 08:17:14 hon-pc-01 pppd[8199]: PAP authentication succeeded
Jul 30 08:17:14 hon-pc-01 pppd[8199]: peer from calling number 54:1E:56:9A:82:80 authorized
Jul 30 08:17:14 hon-pc-01 pppd[8199]: local  IP address 100.65.237.194
Jul 30 08:17:14 hon-pc-01 pppd[8199]: remote IP address 172.31.34.2
boby@hon-pc-01:~$

poff

You can use poff command to disconnect from the internet.

sudo poff dsl-provider

Example

boby@hon-pc-01:~$ sudo poff dsl-provider
boby@hon-pc-01:~$ ping yahoo.com
ping: unknown host yahoo.com
boby@hon-pc-01:~$

pon

You can use

sudo pon dsl-provider

to connect to Internet.

boby@hon-pc-01:~$ sudo pon dsl-provider
Plugin rp-pppoe.so loaded.
boby@hon-pc-01:~$ ping yahoo.com -c 1
PING yahoo.com (98.139.180.149) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from ir1.fp.vip.bf1.yahoo.com (98.139.180.149): icmp_seq=1 ttl=39 time=278 ms

--- yahoo.com ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 278.963/278.963/278.963/0.000 ms
boby@hon-pc-01:~$

ppp0

When you connect to internet using PPPoE, you will have a new network interface get created, to see more details, run

boby@hon-pc-01:~$ sudo ip addr show ppp0
11: ppp0:  mtu 1492 qdisc pfifo_fast state UNKNOWN group default qlen 3
    link/ppp
    inet 100.65.238.133 peer 172.31.34.2/32 scope global ppp0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
boby@hon-pc-01:~$

Files Modified by pppoeconf

Following files are modified by pppoeconf.

/etc/network/interfaces
/etc/ppp/pap-secrets
/etc/ppp/peers/dsl-provider

/etc/network/interfaces

On this file, pppoeconf added following entry

auto dsl-provider
iface dsl-provider inet ppp
pre-up /bin/ip link set enx000000003eb7 up # line maintained by pppoeconf
provider dsl-provider

auto enx000000003eb7
iface enx000000003eb7 inet manual

Here enx000000003eb7 is name of my network card, that connect to FTTH ONU.

/etc/ppp/peers/dsl-provider

This is an auto created file. You can delete it if you don’t want to use pppoeconf, it will auto generated when you run pppoeconf.

Here is the content of this file

boby@hon-pc-01:~$ cat /etc/ppp/peers/dsl-provider
# Minimalistic default options file for DSL/PPPoE connections

noipdefault
defaultroute
replacedefaultroute
hide-password
#lcp-echo-interval 30
#lcp-echo-failure 4
noauth
persist
#mtu 1492
#persist
#maxfail 0
#holdoff 20
plugin rp-pppoe.so
nic-enx000000003eb7
user "my_user_name"
boby@hon-pc-01:~$

/etc/ppp/pap-secrets

This file contains username and password. By end of this file, pppoeconf added my username and password in the format.

"my_user_name" * "my_password"

Accessing FTTH ONU Management Interface

I was happy with FTTH ONU connected to TP-LINK router so i can use WiFi. But for some reason i was not able to access the Admin Area of the FTTH ONU.

I tried connecting FTTH ONU directly to my PC using pppoeconf to get access to Admin Area of FTTH ONU Device. The manual come with the device says, i can connect to admin area using IP 192.168.101.8/24

But the local IP i get from ONU was something like 100.65.238.133

I did a scan for IPs available on range 100.65.238.133 using netstat, but it was all other railwire customers, i was able to see some of the modem, even able to login to some of them as they use default username and password for their modems. But for some reason, i can’t access my modem on the IP.

I tried adding a route to 192.168.101.8 using “route add” command, no luck accessing the ONU Admin area so far. For now i reverted the changes, went back to old way of connecting using TP-Link router. Need to find a solution to access the admin area of ONU Device.

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