vodafone fault – help me understand my new router please

woke up this morning to no internet.  its a new installation by vodafone and had been working fine, but from their test page (accessed from a different wifi connection obv) it looks like theres a fault on the line which needs an engineer visit.

so….. not asking for a diagnosis as therell be nothing that can be done if it is indeed a fault their end, but, i would like to understand this new router so that i can fault find in future if need be.

there was a thread on moving one a week or so ago which ive dug out and it looks like the lights on it should look like this….

mine looks like this…..

the thing that baffled me as soon as i looked at it after installation was that the ‘red-tagged’ internet cable wasnt connected, but hey ho, maybe there was a reason for that?  maybe its not needed as a different cable gives us the internet?

however, as part of the diagnosis the webpage said to ensure either the red or blue cables are connected.  well theres already one in the blue but i plugged in the red anyway as it just looked wrong being left unplugged.

might be worth asking at this point, what do i actually have?  DSL/fibre or FTTP?  whats the difference?

the red goes into a separate box as per below…..

so at this point it looks like ive got both red and blue plugged in.  and problem with this?  should it be one or the other?

like i said, im not expecting to be able to fix it myself as the fault looks like it lies with them, but just some understand of what ive actually got, what each cables for etc, and what to try if it goes down again and can be fixed.

cheers

EDIT:  looking back at the photos now i realise theres nothing plugged into the green ‘telephone(?)’ sockets.  we do have a phone as part of the package but never use it.  should it be connected to the router anyway?

Looks like you have FTTP, the old red cable is for your previous internet connection and should do nothing.

Red plug is FTTC connections only. I’m assuming that as there’s an ONT fitted that you have just bought FTTP and it has a fault (red light). Not sure what LOS means but google can tell you what that means (search term Openreach ONT LEDs). Have a quick Look outside to make sure no one has broken the fibre to the house anywhere, no one disturbed the green taped fibre under the ONT while hoovering?

LOS is “loss of service,” it’s a fault at their end. The “red” cable is presumably your previous Internet connection. The Tel sockets will be for a VOIP phone if you don’t have a traditional telephone connection, it’ll require an RJ11 to BT adapter.

Description of the lights is here.

In summary, no fibre connection. Try:

Check that the thin white fibre optic cable (green taped one) coming into your Openreach fibre modem is inserted and not damaged. Turn the Openreach fibre modem’s power off, then back on and wait five minutes for the Openreach fibre modem to attempt to reconnect.

Looks like you have FTTP, the old red cable is for your previous internet connection and should do nothing.

right, i’ll unplug it again then, altho it begs the question whats it for?  was it plugged into the previous router and so the engineers just left it unplugged now?  (i really should have taken more interest in the previous setup)

Red plug is FTTC connections only. I’m assuming that as there’s an ONT fitted that you have just bought FTTP and it has a fault (red light).

havent bought anything, voda just told us they were changing it.  we assumed for the better.

Have a quick Look outside to make sure no one has broken the fibre to the house anywhere, no one disturbed the green taped fibre under the ONT while hoovering?

hoovering?  no hoover will fit round the back of the units, that be where spiders make their home 😁

LOS is “loss of service,” it’s a fault at their end. The “red” cable is presumably your previous Internet connection. The Tel sockets will be for a VOIP phone if you don’t have a traditional telephone connection, it’ll require an RJ11 to BT adapter.

thanks, looks like the red one is just a leftover then.  and no idea what a VOIP phone is so safe to assume its not needed.  will an ‘old’ phone become VOIP with that adapter?

Check that the thin white fibre optic cable (green taped one) coming into your Openreach fibre modem is inserted and not damaged. Turn the Openreach fibre modem’s power off, then back on and wait five minutes for the Openreach fibre modem to attempt to reconnect.

at work at present so will check this as soon as im back home.

thanks a lot

well just nipped home and had a butchers, no sign of anything amiss with that little skinny wire altho i couldnt get in it to see the loop, however it all seems fine from the outside.  tried the old on/off trick but no difference and tbh i didnt expect there to be as the red light on the box suggests theres something wrong with the supply to it, rather than our side.

thanks for your advice, at least i understand whats what a little better now.  ill just wait til wednesday when the engineer can visit.

cheers

The LAN light should still be green though, even if there is an external line fault. That is showing the connection between the ONT and your Vodafone router.

I would reseat all cables and reboot both the ONT and the router.

ok ill try that when back home again.
2 things, by reboot do you just mean all cables out, leccy off, wait a few mins then all back together again?  theres no specific ‘reboot’ button as such?
and by ONT i assume you mean the new white terminal box on the wall.  so again, unplug, cables out, leave a few minutes then back together again?  and can i unplug that little skinny cable?  it looked a bit fragile when i inspected it earlier, it unplugs just like a normal cable yep, just squeeze the plastic tab and pull out?
thanks

EDIT:  just thought of something else that may be relevant.  you mentioned the LAN light maybe showing a fault between the box and the router (so our end?).  our laptops were showing full wifi signal but we still had no internet.  so we assumed that the router was indeed finding our laptops fine, but vodafone werent supplying it with a signal.  is that right?

Yes, that’s about it. The ONT (Optical Network Terminal) is the new white box for your fibre.

Badly seated network cables can display odd, intermittent faults.

The fibre cable is actually quite bendy, you do want to treat it with care but as long as you don’t fold it in half it will be fine.

And definitely leave the old red one unplugged.

Might be worth a hard reset ?

From a chat script

Toiyub : you’ll need to use a tiny pin and insert the same and hold for 15 seconds into the hole provided next to the power button.

Then wait 5mins or so and turn power on/off using the power switch

Good luck!

dont vodafone have a page that shows you if they have a connection problem in your area?

and by ONT i assume you mean the new white terminal box on the wall. so again, unplug, cables out, leave a few minutes then back together again? and can i unplug that little skinny cable? it looked a bit fragile when i inspected it earlier, it unplugs just like a normal cable yep, just squeeze the plastic tab and pull out?

Just pull the power, count to three and replace.

From bitter experience I would strongly recommend leaving the (“skinny”) fibre well alone, for they are subtle and quick to anger. If there is a problem here it’s one for a Voda engineer.

EDIT: just thought of something else that may be relevant. you mentioned the LAN light maybe showing a fault between the box and the router (so our end?). our laptops were showing full wifi signal but we still had no internet. so we assumed that the router was indeed finding our laptops fine, but vodafone werent supplying it with a signal. is that right?

I would concur.

There is a fault somewhere between your ONT (the white wallbox) and Vodaphone’s infrastructure. That is literally what that red light means.

Your internal setup is likely fine. Lean on Voda to resolve the outage, it might not even require a visit to your house but it’s their issue to fix. Any fannying about you do beyond “turn it off and on again” isn’t going to fix anything and may introduce additional issues. My uncle used to ring me up going “my printer wasn’t printing in blue, so I reinstalled Windows and now…” Don’t be my uncle.

haha ok thanks

dont vodafone have a page that shows you if they have a connection problem in your area?

they do indeed, ive checked it and no problem in our area.

You don’t have a vodafone router?

You don’t have a vodafone router?

er…. im confused, what makes you ask that?  yes its a vodafone router, the engineer was openreach sub-contracting so i think its openrach equipment leading to a voda router.

pictures of the rear are in OP.

back home so tried a few things…..

unplugged every cable, unplugged power from wall on both the router and ONT and left a few minutes.  also reset the router with a skewer into that little reset button, holding it for 15 seconds.

and sorry @Cougar, couldnt resist taking the little green plug out too 😀

end result was one more light on, the green LAN light has come on, but still have a red ‘un, and the router is still flashing red, and still no internet.

the green LAN light was on whether the skinny cable was connected or not which i wasnt expecting but hey, i know naff all about electronics.

i suppose id resigned myself to no internet til wednesday anyway, but i did have a little hope when i saw the new green LAN light on.

ah well, back to tethering from my phone for bog standard surfing, but that wont be good enough for netflix/iplayer duties.

cheers

The LAN light is the link between the ONT and the router. The L stands for Local.

we do have a phone as part of the package but never use it.

Out of interest, if you don’t have a phone, what’s the black cable in the bottom half of the NTE in the final picture of your OP?

Out of interest, if you don’t have a phone, what’s the black cable in the bottom half of the NTE in the final picture of your OP?

the phone 😀

its plugged in but we never use it, dont even know our number.

im sure they claim to pay you if your line doesnt work, though i forgot to claim last time it went down.

have you tried looking on local FB groups to see if anyone else has the same problem?

have you tried looking on local FB groups to see if anyone else has the same problem?

i havent no mate as ive spoken to them on the phone and theyve confirmed it looks like a fault their end so even if it was happening to others, i still cant do anything without an engineers input.

but yes, usually if theres an outage FB is full of people asking the same question but havent seen anything.

its plugged in but we never use it, dont even know our number.

Are you still paying BT (or another provider) £20/month for line rental on a line you don’t use? Get it cancelled, you needed it for the old (red plug) Internet connection but it’s redundant with FTTP.

Are you still paying BT (or another provider) £20/month for line rental on a line you don’t use? Get it cancelled, you needed it for the old (red plug) Internet connection but it’s redundant with FTTP.

no extra payments as such, its just one of those contracts where the phone is compulsory, but its still the cheapest broadband that we could find.

think this contract is up in march so we can upgrade, but not sure what to go for.

the current offer is ‘Vodafone Pro 2 Full Fibre’ for £24 pm (100 mbps) whereas we pay £21 now.  just looked and it seems that offer ends at midnight so i ought to make my mind up before its pulled, altho theres usually another along shortly isnt there.

cheers

Fibre has snapped in the spice . It’s winter it’s wet it happens.

That green plug you have taken out will be dirty now tut tut.

😁

I’m currently with Vodafone and will be leaving when my contract is up in May next year – it’s the first time I’ve had fibre and I haven’t been particularly impressed. The connection keeps dropping out, can be up to a few times a day and it completely died about two months ago for 2 full days, not great when I WFH most of the time. I did report the fault, which they did fix, no explanation of what the fault was.

well the engineers just been and fixed it.  it was indeed the splice.

also upgraded our contract to Pro 2 100Mbps for 2 years for £24 pm.  offer finished last night so thought we ought to really, we got a 14 day cooling period so as long as it all plays nicely for the next week or two then we’ll stay with it.  MSE didnt show any better options tbh.

hopefully we’ll have a better experience than you purple_moose, altho its not a great start.

thanks for all the advice, much appreciated.