topic Re: Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router in Archive

Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router

TimeaW — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 09:44:45 GMT

Hi,

I'm trying to get my TP Link Archer AX50 Router working to replace my Sky Hub. I've spoken to TP Link and they have told me i need a Username and Password from Sky and a VLAN ID.

I rung Sky Support asking for this information and was swiftly told that they would not give me this information and that it was my "responsibility to find this information out for myself" !

This is an incredible response. The username, passeor dand VLAN ID are all managed and hardcoded by Sky, how am I supposed to just 'guess' this information?!

To my knowledge SKY have been directed by OFCOM to allow people to use 3rd Party routers, but you are intentionally making it as difficult as possible for people to do so.

So, can someone please tell me the username, password and VLAN ID for my connection?

Re: Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router

jamesn123 — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 09:53:40 GMT

@TimeaW

Sky support dont know this information they are basically trained for L1 support and their policy is to allow 3rd party routers but dont support it all.

If you'd used the forum search option you'd have found many posts detailing setup instructions & usernames & passwords. For Sky authentication you need a router thats supports DHCP Option 61 and the login string is just something like this: abc123@skydsl|abc123 or username: abc123@skydsl password: abc123

Re: Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router

cookiemonsteruk — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 09:58:14 GMT

@TimeaW

Are you on sky essentials, superfast or ultrafast?

Strictly speaking username is 12 character mac address@skydsl

Password is last 6 digits of the above

Vlan id is 101

Re: Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router

TimeaW — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 10:01:58 GMT

I've used Wireshark to get the username and password. You are right that it is made up from the MAC address but the password doesnt seem to be related at all.

I have tried with this username and password with no luck. I have also tried with the 'generic' username and password which is all over these forums, again with no luck.

I've tried plugging my PC directly into the Openworld Modem box and doing a direct connection in windows, it also comes back and says incorrect username and password, so it's not the router at issue.

Re: Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router

TimeaW — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 10:04:19 GMT

Looking at the bill we're on Superfast and also have something called "Boost" ?

Re: Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router

jamesn123 — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 10:05:13 GMT

@TimeaW

Have a look at the post below. The AX50 seems to be a bit of a bogey router when it comes to connecting to Sky broadband.

https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Broadband/Using-3rd-Party-Router/m-p/3651705#M242413

Re: Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router

cookiemonsteruk — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 10:05:25 GMT

@TimeaW

What modem are you using?

You may also have clone the sky hub mac

Format of username 12345678abcd@skydsl

Password 78abcd

Re: Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router

TimeaW — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 10:10:41 GMT

I'm going to try the Mac address cloning next. I just need to wait for my wife (account holder FYI), to stop Zoom call a-go-go-ing!

Re: Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router

TimmyBGood — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 10:20:52 GMT

@TimeaW

There should be no need for Wireshark / MAC cloning these days: any instructions you find online referring to such things are outdated. As @jamesn123 indicates, router compatibility may be more of an issue.

Re: Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router

TimmyBGood — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 10:48:06 GMT

@TimeaW wrote:

I've tried plugging my PC directly into the Openworld Modem box

Is the ' Openworld Modem box ' an Openreach ONT?

Note: not necessarily this model, but with the green-tabbed optical fibre connection.

Re: Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router

TimeaW — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 10:55:14 GMT

Yes, just like that. Tred using the Windows Internet connection process as described here:

https://community.bt.com/t5/Archive-Staging/Openreach-How-I-can-connect-my-PC-directly-into-Openreach-white/m-p/717268/highlight/true#M255642

Re: Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router

TimeaW — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 10:56:55 GMT

Using the username and password i had (and also attempted to use the default skydsl one too), not the username and password from that link.

Re: Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router

TimmyBGood — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 11:14:14 GMT

@TimeaW wrote:

Yes, just like that. Tred using the Windows Internet connection process as described here:

https://community.bt.com/t5/Archive-Staging/Openreach-How-I-can-connect-my-PC-directly-into-Openreach-white/m-p/717268/highlight/true#M255642

Those instructions are from 2012 and applied to early BT Broadband FTTC arriving at a (now obsolete) Huawei HG612 VDSL modem, not current Sky FTTP into an ONT which didn't exist back then.

Re: Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router

TimeaW — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 11:26:08 GMT

The wierd thing for me is that i've seen other threads online where people have had no issues at all connecting up the AX50 to their Sky Broadband. (and equally lots like me who are struggling).

Re: Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router

jamesn123 — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 11:33:06 GMT

@TimeaW

If you read the link I gave you then you'd realise thats likely down to native IPv6 authentication

Re: Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router

TimeaW — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 13:42:51 GMT

YOu'll have to forgive my blindness but where does it say this in your link?

The post that stands out for me says:

Approx 80% of Openreach's total GEA footprint, that's both FTTC and FTTP, should now support Leightweight DHCPv6 Relay Agent (LDRA), that we need to natively authenticate DHCPv6.
I believe it's 100% of FTTP services, as well as G.Fast.

I am FTTP.

Re: Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router

jamesn123 — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 13:51:19 GMT

@TimeaW

So the people having trouble are either on FTTC or not attempting to use IPv6. Have you tried via IPv6 on the router?

Re: Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router

cookiemonsteruk — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 14:02:59 GMT

@TimeaW

It means that you may have too do the following to authenticate by dhcpv6 pd

Select the WAN interface section of router GUI, then select dual-stack option WAN interface for IPv4 & IPv6, for the address select DHCPv6 (dynamic option not static), enable prefix delegation (PD) on WAN and then select SLACC for IPv6 creation method on LAN interface is how I see it in the manual.

Re: Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router

TimeaW — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 14:03:10 GMT

Yes, but i've only tried the PPoE option (tried both the "use my ipv4 settings" and by putting the settings in manually.

here's a link to the options i have with Ipv6:

https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/faq/1525/

Re: Sky call center refused to give info needed to switch to a 3rd Party router

jamesn123 — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 14:05:20 GMT

@TimeaW

So try the dynamic IP option, theoretically it should just work if its configured correctly and your line supports it.