Hi all.

I am due to migrate over from BT to NOW Broadnband on the 02/06/2023 and I am panicking!

I have done quite some reshearch and I can't find much up to date about it.

Something about option 61 to retrive login credentials but I am at a total loss here.

Has anyone on here have sucesfully set their draytek router with NOW Broadband?

What are the key changes to the router?

On another note, I'm guessing I'll have to update the firmaware and replace the _BT version?

Any help on this is really appreciated. I need to get this up and running by Monday 05th or I'll be in serious trouble with the misses as she workes from home and internet better be up and running by then.

Meanwhile, back to google.

Much appreciated for any feedback please.

Thank you.
Albert

Hi Albert,

You should not need to change the firmware of the Vigor. All broadband VDSL connections use Openreach lines, when it comes to broadband the ISP can change but the underlying copper / tech is the same. You'll need the _BT firmware for any broadband line in the UK. I'll restrain myself from giving an opinion on Openreach's ability to keep their lines up to spec but that's another topic!

As to credentials, NOW broadband will likely be using PPPoE, please find the following article which I hope helps: https://www.draytek.co.uk/support/guides/kb-btfttc-openreachmodem

Worst comes to the very worst, see if their router can be set to modem only mode and bridge their router to the Vigor2865, but that should be a last resort. If NOW are sane it should be a simple case of asking them the PPPoE credentials and configuring the Vigor with these creds accordingly.

Best of luck!

Tom

Thanks Tom.

I'll be right on it tomorrow and fingers crossed it will be a breeze.

Regards,
Albert

Hi all.

Hope this helps anyone that might find themselves in my shoes one day soon.

I have sucessfully managed to get Now Broadband working on my Draytek 2865ac router.

All I did was to extract my user and password settings from the NOW routers DHCP request packet under option/string 61, by using wireshark.

Then I have disabled PPoE/PPPoA after trying this option for a couple of times without any luck.

I then proceeded to enable MPoA/Static or Dynamic IP, as per other instructions found online. I have only changed the following;

selected the "Obtain an IP address automatically"
ticked off DHCP Client Identifier (used my extracted credentials on here)

Saved configuration and rebooted once and I was online about 10 seconds later after the DSL status light turned green.

I was very worried about this but it turned out to be quite more straight forward than expected.

Now, let's give time and see if the internet connection drops.

Many thanks.
Albert

To configure NOWTV broadband on your Draytek router

- You dont need to extract anything using wireshark (because your username is your NOWTV devices MAC address & the Password can be anything as long as 8 characters)
- Make sure you are using a VDSL compatible router and not a legacy ADSL only router.


Then,

1) look below your physical NowTV router at the MAC sticker (example , 3c9ec7584d0a - no spaces or dashes), this is the first part of the Data line you will insert into the DRAYTEK Client DHCP option 61 entry
2) Set your WAN 1, Internet Access to MPoA (everything like IP / MAC on this page can be left as Default)
3) The password after the pipe symbol '|' as mentioned can be anything, just as long as it is 8 Characters long!!! - therefore use 12345678

Example:
3c9ec7584d0a@skydsl|12345678