[LINK] From my friend re NBN change

Rachel Polanskis gr0ve at exemail.com.au
Sat Dec 13 00:02:44 AEDT 2014


On 12 Dec 2014, at 11:03 pm, Frank O'Connor <francisoconnor3 at bigpond.com> wrote:

> Mmmm,
> 
> Telstra is also encouraging existing customers to sign uo for new deals which include a new router.
> 
> I'm guessing (and this is my nasty suspicious nature at work) that the new routers are all models that Telstra is using to implement its "Gee Whiz Wow' Last Gen Public WiFi network ... with the public IP turned on by default. That raises all sorts of security considerations for me, as well as the fact that I'm providing Telstra with the power to run their network gratis, and presumably sharing my bandwidth and getting lower performance in times of high public IP demand as the router struggles to juggle two competing data streams.
> 
> I'm currently considering dropping my landline, reverting to an ADSL connection with a third party ISP for about 2/3 of the costs, and using my mobile as my major phone, as Telstra has penny ante'd its way into my heart way too much of late.
> 
> Just my 2 cents worth ...

I am on FTTH with Exetel and we also switched our landline to VOIP with them.  I had to setup my own switch and VOIP client and 
it works OK although I lose registration periodically and I have had to reboot the router. I have my SIP configured according to Exetel standard
which includes locking down the client via some IP restrictions and so on, some of which may be difficult for less technical users.  Also we 
got the NBN backup battery as part of the $50 install cost before the election.  We had a very transparent move from the ADSL2+ to the FTTH.

The switch I decided to use after a brief fling with a Netcomm junk box was a Cisco SRP-5xxx which is now discontinued. This was apparently a box
pushed out by Telstra for small business and so on.  It has a bad reputation for being easy to hack, but the last patch before it was EOL resolved
all that and it is indeed a very good gig-e WAN router (we are only 100/40) with gig-e LAN and an FXS port so we could just use a regular phone.
This switch is very powerful and I cannot find anything of equal or better features to replace it without spending about $850 or more, so I 
am sticking with it for now. 

The issues an end user needs to deal with, even with the NBN battery backup is that any switch infrastructure or VOIP service you have 
will disappear when you lose power, despite the NBN battery backup.  To assure that you are still able to dial out during a power outage,
you need a UPS for your switch and phone at the very least or you are toast.

What I would like to know, is that my NBN ONT interface has 4 ethernet ports but we only use one, with the Cisco WAN port configured.  
Is it possible for example, to stick our VOIP phone on one of the ports and configure it to work like that, rather than from the switch?  We have a phone with built in SIP client so in theory I should be able to do so, but I am not sure how those NBN ports are used/configured.


rachel 

—
Rachel Polanskis                 Kingswood, Greater Western Sydney, Australia 
gr0ve at exemail.com.au		 IT consulting, security, programming
	The more an answer costs, the more respect it carries.









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