Fiber to the Home ONT's Plug ang Play or DO they require configuration ?

[Venkatesh Ravi]

Hi, 

My friend's ISP charges him about $20 as a rent yearly for providing a ONT device from ZTE.  It takes in SC APC Connector on one end and gives RJ45 Gigabit on the other. 

Can I buy say the any ZTE GPON device or the Ubiquity UFiber Nano G as a replacement for it ? 

 

In short what i want detail I want is, Does a GPON ONT device just convert fiber to Ethernet ? or does it require some configuration ?

 

I doubt the ISP's knowledge of configuring an access point let alone a self owned GPON.

 

 

[brwainer]

Some ISP's require configuration of the ONT (e.g. seperate VLANs for internet/voip/iptv) while others may be plug and play. Some may not allow you to use your own ONT at all. You'll have to check with the ISP, or at a site like dslreports.com

[Beowulff83]

It would also depend on if the fiber equipment on the backend is setup for gpon.

[brwainer]

31 minutes ago, sambarrett23072 said:

I'm really confused, are you saying you have a physical cable with a sc fibre on one end and a rj45 on the other end ? 

think of an ONT like a modem. Instead of connecting to a telephone or Coax cable, it has an SC fiber connector.

[Venkatesh Ravi]

2 hours ago, brwainer said:

Some ISP's require configuration of the ONT (e.g. seperate VLANs for internet/voip/iptv) while others may be plug and play. Some may not allow you to use your own ONT at all. You'll have to check with the ISP, or at a site like dslreports.com

Oh okay, Awesome. I guess i ll have to borrow an ONT from someone and check if it works.  Also do you know if there is a way to check. 
Like a configuration page or something, like a modem would have ? 

 

2 hours ago, Beowulff83 said:

It would also depend on if the fiber equipment on the backend is setup for gpon.

I thought all connections via FTTH were GPON? ( Sorry I am noob in Fiber Networks ). Am I wrong.

 

2 hours ago, sambarrett23072 said:

I'm really confused, are you saying you have a physical cable with a sc fibre on one end and a rj45 on the other end ? 

 

1 hour ago, brwainer said:

think of an ONT like a modem. Instead of connecting to a telephone or Coax cable, it has an SC fiber connector.

Yeah exactly, An ONT is the (FTTH)  fiber version of a Modem. It converts Light Signals to Ethernet.

[mynameisjuan]

I have never seen an ONT that can just be thrown on fiber and work. 

 

There is usually a management center that handles the config of the ONT and how it handles traffic. The core switches and routers are ALWAYS vlaned off so unless you know the vlan as well you cannot even use the connection or talk across it. I know this because I work for an ISP with fiber and work with other ISPs. 

[Venkatesh Ravi]

26 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

I have never seen an ONT that can just be thrown on fiber and work. 

 

There is usually a management center that handles the config of the ONT and how it handles traffic. The core switches and routers are ALWAYS vlaned off so unless you know the vlan as well you cannot even use the connection or talk across it. I know this because I work for an ISP with fiber and work with other ISPs. 

I use PPPOE in my router to Login.

 

Does this change anything ?

So trying to buy a ONT online and plugging wont works for sure right ?

[mynameisjuan]

3 minutes ago, Venkatesh Ravi said:

I use PPPOE in my router to Login.

 

Does this change anything ?

So trying to buy a ONT online and plugging wont works for sure right ?

No PPPoE is just a protocol used to make a connection. 

 

But yes, long story short is do not buy your own ONT because it just will not work. There is too much custom configuration behind them that the ISP will NEVER give out to set it up. And on top of that if you did and they didnt have VLAN control bandwidth setup you could just set your connection as fast as the ONT could handle it as the ONT is what handles the actual speeds.

[Venkatesh Ravi]

2 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

No PPPoE is just a protocol used to make a connection. 

 

But yes, long story short is do not buy your own ONT because it just will not work. There is too much custom configuration behind them that the ISP will NEVER give out to set it up. And on top of that if you did and they didnt have VLAN control bandwidth setup you could just set your connection as fast as the ONT could handle it as the ONT is what handles the actual speeds.

I got this doubt because the guys who installed the connection brought a freshly packaged ZTE ONT, opened it in my hands, stuck their branding on top of it, plugged it into my router, configured PPPOE and went away. They did call some guy offsite to enable that particular fiber cable. 

Since they appeared to have done nothing I assumed it so, thank you for clearing it out 

[mynameisjuan]

1 minute ago, Venkatesh Ravi said:

I got this doubt because the guys who installed the connection brought a freshly packaged ZTE ONT, opened it in my hands, stuck their branding on top of it, plugged it into my router, configured PPPOE and went away. They did call some guy offsite to enable that particular fiber cable. 

Since they appeared to have done nothing I assumed it so, thank you for clearing it out 

Correct. Also some ONT management centers request mac and serial numbers to allow the ONT to be recognized and attached to a connection which is what I enter in to enable it. But yeah it def can appear as though they are plug and play and I would screen shot and show you the ISP side but so much would be blurred it wouldnt be useful.

 

So long story short. I provision the profile(Speed, what port you are on on the ONT, VLAN (DHCP or Static)) then on site then hook up the ONT, I attach said profile to ONT, profile is pushed out, ONT reboots with new config and boom, you now has interwebs.

[Venkatesh Ravi]

1 minute ago, mynameisjuan said:

Correct. Also some ONT management centers request mac and serial numbers to allow the ONT to be recognized and attached to a connection which is what I enter in to enable it. But yeah it def can appear as though they are plug and play and I would screen shot and show you the ISP side but so much would be blurred it wouldnt be useful.

 

So long story short. I provision the profile(Speed, what port you are on on the ONT, VLAN (DHCP or Static)) then on site then hook up the ONT, I attach said profile to ONT, profile is pushed out, ONT reboots with new config and boom, you now has interwebs.

Aww, Thats much clearer. Awesome dude  !

[schizznick]

On 9/12/2017 at 0:57 PM, Venkatesh Ravi said:

Oh okay, Awesome. I guess i ll have to borrow an ONT from someone and check if it works.  Also do you know if there is a way to check. 
Like a configuration page or something, like a modem would have ? 

 

I thought all connections via FTTH were GPON? ( Sorry I am noob in Fiber Networks ). Am I wrong.

 

 

Yeah exactly, An ONT is the (FTTH)  fiber version of a Modem. It converts Light Signals to Ethernet.

FTTH can come in a GPON, BPON, EPON and others or Active Ethernet. PON's are a shared medium while active is a dedicated fiber and optics. ONT's are simply media converters, most have routing and other functions now as well. Many of my companies ONT's are simply bridges with no local management interface, some however are full Routers with a web gui as you would expect.