[dudlow11]

Hey everyone! I have a TP-Link Archer C9 flashed with DD-WRT v3.0-r29002 (02/01/16). I recently upgraded to Centurylink Fiber 40 Mb/sec. They have installed a Calix ONT and a Zyxel c1100z modem. I would really like to use my own router for the wireless speed and range. I have read on multiple forums that the c1100z is not needed and can be bypassed by a router that can perform VLAN tagging but I have spent many hours trying different configurations with no luck. I have reset my router to default again and made the following changes:

1)I have changed the connection type to PPPoE and set my user and password under the Setup tab.
2)Under the Networking tab I have added a VLAN0 interface, assigned vlan2 (WAN port assignment) with a tag number of 201.
3)Under the VLANs tab my WAN port is checked to VLAN 2 by default and checked the tagging box.

I am curious if there is anything else I can try. I am wondering since the WAN is defaulted to VLAN2 is that changing the tagging?

Thanks for your help!

[JAMESMTL]

The vlan tagging section of the networking tab does not apply to broadcom SOCs as they already use vlans for the wan port on the built-in switch.

For broadcom ARM SOCs running DD-WRT the max wan vlan is 15 as shown on the vlan config page. Your example shows your wan port as tagged vlan2 so it fails to connect.

Solutions
1. Purchase a cheap smart switch such as netgear gs108t-v2 or a dlink dgs-1100-05 and have the switch do the vlan 201 tagging. connect ONT->SWITCH->C9
2. Possibly OEM FW supports vlans > 15
3. Certain tomato builds allow vlans > 15 by using an offset

I went with the netgear gs108t. now my situation is a little more complex as I use it to split internet and iptv vlans to different routers

[dudlow11]

Thank you so much for your reply! I will try to flash back to stock FW and try that first. If that doesn't work I will get a switch. I will post back my solution! Thanks again!

[ddaniel51]

Did you set the modem to transparent bridge and turn off the radios in it?

Google will help you find how to set it and your router up.

[JAMESMTL]

[ddaniel51]

OK James. I was going off the Zyxel modem which is a vdsl2 with wifi and looking at an easy setup path.

[JAMESMTL]

Interesting that the OP is listing a vdsl2 modem/router with a gpon install. Maybe OP could clarify.

My provider supplied modem/router combo is a multi-purpose device that supports both vdsl2 in + ethernet in, perhaps centurylink has a custom version of the c1100z that supports both?

Quick google shows more references to the C2000T being used with their gpon service.

[dudlow11]

Thanks y'all.

Yes, centurylink does have their own version of the c1100z. They are charging me $15/month for something that is basically used as a router so I am attempting to bypass so I can send it back. I have received the switch and am just starting to work on configuring it.

The only thing that I should need to set on the switch is the 802.1Q VLAN set to 201 on port 1 and let the router handle the PPPoe login correct? Also making sure that the ONT is plugged into port 1 of the switch.

Thanks again for your help.

[JAMESMTL]

Yes that's pretty much it and the C9 will do PPPoE.

switch port 1 -> ONT
switch port 2 -> C9

Port 1: Tagged member vlan 201 (only) + PVID 201
Port 2: Untagged member vlan 201 (only) + PVID 201

If using the other switch ports for your local network just make sure they never become members of 201

[dudlow11]

Thank you so much! I was easily able to connect after configuration. I have one more question that you may be able to answer.

I have noticed when setting up everything that I can only see my 2.4GHz connection and not my faster 5GHz connection. I looked and both are supposed to be being broadcast. Could this be a restriction within DDWRT? or maybe somehow radio data has been deleted?

I ran a speedtest and I am only getting about 6MB/sec down and 5.5MB/sec up. I will try again later when I get home since maybe it is a high traffic time of the day but the faster wifi connection would be much more suitable for me.

Again thank you for your expertise. It is greatly appreciated.

[JAMESMTL]

I'll assume your getting your provisioned rate when connected via ethernet to the C9.

Unfortunately I don't have a C9 nor do I follow specific issues for that router. That being said DDWRT has recently been testing linux kernel 4.x builds since somewhere around v29000 and there have been various reports of network slowdowns.

You may want to give Kong's latest test build for your router a try as he has reverted to kernel 3.x until the issue is resolved.

As for the 5G wifi issue and specific issues related to the C9 I would start a new thread mentioning C9 and 5G wifi in the title as you are more likely to get a response from someone using that router than this thread.

[Keystone]

------------------ previous post -------------
"The vlan tagging section of the networking tab does not apply to broadcom SOCs as they already use vlans for the wan port on the built-in switch.

For broadcom ARM SOCs running DD-WRT the max wan vlan is 15 as shown on the vlan config page. Your example shows your wan port as tagged vlan2 so it fails to connect."
---------------------snip ----------------
I'm sorry to read this because the same information is found in a number of places and it is incorrect. Generally, the authors cite the fact that you can select 0-15 VLANs, so the user is out of luck with Centurylink who uses 201 VLANs.

The mistake here is that we are confusing the number of possible VLANS that a particular router can define, with the TAG number of the VLAN frame. They are 2 different things. By tagging an already existing internal VLAN, we are not violating the rules. We are simply using tag 201 which is set on the Networking Setup page. The default WAN VLAN port (usually 5) is set to route to the 4 LAN ports but is not tagged. To get a router to accept the tagged packets from the Centurylink ONT, simply tag the existing VLAN on which the WAN connects to the routing logic. Then the information on the tagged WAN VLAN is available. I can't see how you would exceed the maximum count of 15 VLANS, when you don't really have to add any more VLANs to the router just to connect.

To determine what port is called what, and what the existing internal VLANs are called, you have to get into Telnet mode and run the three inquiries
listed in other Wikis:
nvram show | grep vlan.*ports
nvram show | grep port.*vlans
nvram show | grep vlan.*hwname

So, if someone is actually hooked up to Centurylink FTTH, let's hear from them what their router settings are. Certainly the supplied Centurylink routers are nowhere near the complexity offered by the standard dd-wrt firmware. That's the story as I see it.

I will admit that the dd-wrt gui is not intuitive and is downright tricky to set up without expert advice. Only a few maybe older routers cannot do the tagging, but some customers document a workaround by defining et0 as et0.201 in the command window, which apparently is acceptable to the Centurylink ONT.

[AntiTrust]

[JAMESMTL]

LOL, I'm actually surprised no one on the centurylink dslreports sub-forum hasn't mentioned this. This subject comes up every month or so in the bell canada sub-forum as we use vlan 35 for internet.

anyhow good to hear you got it working.

[VernonDozier]

I spent about 3 days researching this and found something that works, along with quite a bit of details..

I have two LinkSys/Cisco routers- A LinkSys/Cisco EA6300v1 (now running DD-WRT as a EA6400 ). The LinkSys/Cisco EA6300v1 is similar to the EA6400, however, Cisco's firmware limits WiFi from the Broadcom processor slower. Getting DDWRT on a EA6300v1 a project all of itself, but this tutorial worked for me- http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1009864#1009864

I also have a LinkSys/Cisco E4200v1 which currently is only working as a wired router and performing VLAN translation. To get it working with CenturyLink, I found that loading Open-WRT with Luci on the E4200v1 accomplished VLAN translation properly. DD-WRT seems to have a limit of vlan tags as described by others above.

Through trial (and mostly) error, along with patience and a lot of reading and research, one person using WireShark found that DD-WRT is sending the PPPoE authentication to the WAN on VLAN 0. Ultimately, this means no authentication occurs or DHCP address given. There's very few posts online about this.

CenturyLink requires PPPoE authentication sent to the ONT (Mine is an AdTran) tagged to VLAN 201. I called CenturyLink, spoke to a tier 3 technician also. They offered to change the VLAN on the ONT to un-tagged, but it *still* didn't connect on either WRT platform on VLAN 0 or untagged. So, I don't know. However, and as you can imagine, I spent a lot of time trying to figure it out.

All that said, if you do get a hardware router to perform VLAN tag translation, (Maybe something running OpenWRT) I suggest purchasing one which supports Gigabit on both WAN and LAN. Staying Gigabit between the ONT to the local lan would provide pingtimes on SpeedTest of 3-5ms. Placing a 10/100 device to perform vlan translation would increase ping to 14ms.

Good Luck!