La Fibre
Datacenter et équipements réseaux => Routeurs => 
Remplacer la Freebox par un routeur => Discussion démarrée par: emily le 07 février 2024 à 14:54:28
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Sorry if this post is in English, I have recently moved into France and prefer English over horrible French + Google translate.
So me and my significant other recently got a subscription at Free for 5Gb/s UP and 700 Mb/s DOWN, now this is great and all, but they provided us with a Freebox V9 which has only 1x 2.5GBe and 2x 1GBe ports which seems very odd to me. The max theoretical speed we can get is 2.5Gb/s over copper which is half of what we pay for.
Now, I had the bright idea to replace it with a dedicated server acting as a router with 10Gb SFP+ NICs, but after trail and error and doing lots of research I found out that the authentication and such happens on the Freebox using ONU or EPON (I'm really new to fiber as my previous ISPs all converted it back to copper before providing it to us) which I can't easily decipher.
Now I was wondering, the SFP+ module they provide is an WTD RTXM166-401-C13 which, from online datasheets seems to handle EPON/ONU natively. This makes me wonder, why can't I use the provided SFP+ module to authenticate in a standard SFP+ NIC?
I've already tried manually setting my IPv4 and IPv6 address with no success obviously, but my SFP+ NIC also doesn't recognize the module when it's plugged in. Now I also have a Mikrotik CRS (mainly switch but also horrible slow router) which can detect it when negotiating at 1Gb/s (which is also very odd to me since in the Freebox it negotiates at 10Gb/s just fine) but this doesn't provide me with any meaningfull connection.
I'd love to contact Free about this but their support seems to be call/Whatsapp only and my French isn't good enough and doing everything through my significant other won't be a fool proof idea either.
Any advice or tips will be highly appreciated!
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is an WTD RTXM166-401-C13 which, from online datasheets seems to handle EPON/ONU natively.
No, in fact it does not. All the 10G-EPON protocol stack is implemented by the chipset in the box.
Currently there's no way to replace recent boxes (Delta, Pop and the brand new Ultra). However I'm a bit surprised because V9 is supposed to be ultra, which has 2 SFP+ ports supporting 10 Gbps. You should be able to connect it to a 10 Gbps capable switch using a SFP+ DAC cable.
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No, in fact it does not. All the 10G-EPON protocol stack is implemented by the chipset in the box.
I figured as much, do you think it might be possible to read the data off of the router and program it into a script to use with a programmable GPON ONU transceiver?
Currently there's no way to replace recent boxes (Delta, Pop and the brand new Ultra). However I'm a bit surprised because V9 is supposed to be ultra, which has 2 SFP+ ports supporting 10 Gbps. You should be able to connect it to a 10 Gbps capable switch using a SFP+ DAC cable.
Below I attached a picture (I hope) of the Freebox that we received with our subscription, in FreeboxOS it says that this is model V9 and this was a result that Google showed when searching for a model V9. We might actually plan to update to the 8Gb/s plan and if that comes with a router with 2 SFP+ cages that'd also work for us. Do you think I could request a new router with the multiple SFP+ cages?
(https://672169d6.rocketcdn.me/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/la-date-de-la-freebox-v9-enfin-connue.jpg)
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It's not V9. It's a Freebox POP.
V9 is this one (on the right):
(https://lafibre.info/images/free/202401_free_keynotte_freebox_ultra_server_10.webp)
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and you need to subscribe to one of the two "Freebox Ultra" plans to get it.
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in FreeboxOS it says that this is model V9 and this was a result that Google showed when searching for a model V9.
i have the same one and it's v8.
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It's not V9. It's a Freebox POP.
My bad I read it wrong! On the admin panel it does say Freebox V8 (r1) :<
Even so it stills amazes me that they provide a router that doesn't integrate a switch capable of providing the speeds they advertise on their website, as we are paying for a 5Gb/s uplink and can only get up to 2.5Gb/s with the hardware they provide.
Either way thank you for the enlightment and kind response to a non native French speaker. My significant other and me have decided to upgrade and get the new Freebox Ultra that does provide the SFP+ cage so we can get 10Gbit LAN.
In regards to the question I asked in my other reply I do still prefer to replace it with my own model as I like to have full control over what comes in and out of my network without being locked behind arbitrary ISP set limitations, so if there is any update I'd appreciate that. Below I attached a link to the SFP+ transceiver I have found researching online, do you think this could mimic the chip that is inside of the Freebox Pop/Ultra in this case?
https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005003792666212.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2fra (https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005003792666212.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2fra)
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Even so it stills amazes me that they provide a router that doesn't integrate a switch capable of providing the speeds they advertise on their website, as we are paying for a 5Gb/s uplink and can only get up to 2.5Gb/s with the hardware they provide.
you can
2.5+1+1 + wifi
Either way thank you for the enlightment and kind response to a non native French speaker. My significant other and me have decided to upgrade and get the new Freebox Ultra that does provide the SFP+ cage so we can get 10Gbit LAN.
i think that's the best move.
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https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005003792666212.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2fra (https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005003792666212.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2fra)
This is not a 10G-EPON transceiver.
Anyway, All Freebox versions support a bridge mode, which make them totally transparent so that you can use your own router behind it. I know it's not a perfect solution (especially regarding power consumption), but that's really the only solution right now if you want to use your own router.
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This is not a 10G-EPON transceiver.
My bad, I keep getting confused by all these new terms I have stuffed in my head the past 3 days. If I do miraculously find a 10G-EPON transceiver could I manage to clone the authorization?
Anyway, All Freebox versions support a bridge mode, which make them totally transparent so that you can use your own router behind it. I know it's not a perfect solution (especially regarding power consumption), but that's really the only solution right now if you want to use your own router
Ye I will be doing this for now until I or someone else finds a better solution, thank you!
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Even so it stills amazes me that they provide a router that doesn't integrate a switch capable of providing the speeds they advertise on their website, as we are paying for a 5Gb/s uplink and can only get up to 2.5Gb/s with the hardware they provide.
Out of curiosity, what is your use case calling for such throughput in a residential environment?
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Out of curiosity, what is your use case calling for such throughput in a residential environment?
Currently I would have been happy with 1/2Gb/s as I'm a hobbyist IT'er with a degree in server and local network management. I'm slowly setting up services for me and my peers to use wherever we may be
As a single user you won't saturate even a 500Mb/s link this way, but with ~4 to 10 people having 1Gb/s is nice for throughput of let's me and my significant other streaming movies/shows while outside of the LAN while others might be browsing other services.
The only reason I want a 10Gb/s lan is well, I saw the price difference between 2.5Gb/s, 5Gb/s and 10Gb/s and decided to just jump to 10Gb/s LAN as the connection Free provides was SFP+. This was before I realized I would've needed to create an entirely seperate connection to get 10Gb/s LAN as I can't use their fibre connection and they only provide up to 2.5Gbe on the router combo box.
I honestly don't have a use case for anything greater than 2Gb/s, even 1Gb/s is more than fast enough.
We are currently looking at the symmetric 8Gb/s subscription for the new ISP provided router combo box, access to TV and the streaming services they provide as all of those combined would be more expensive to get separately. And getting a faster uplink to the internet is always nice for getting large files off of the internet.
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Currently there's no way to replace recent boxes (Delta, Pop and the brand new Ultra).
(https://cdn3.emoji.gg/emojis/1101_infowars.png)
please tell me it's a joke
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It's not. All 3 have an internal ONU and until now no compatible 10G-EPON ONU has been found on the market.
However all 3 support a bridge mode, which makes them (power consumption apart) almost the same as an ONU.
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It's not. All 3 have an internal ONU and until now no compatible 10G-EPON ONU has been found on the market.
However all 3 support a bridge mode, which makes them (power consumption apart) almost the same as an ONU.
this is sad to hear, having a high bandwidth plan only to be limited by mandatory hardware... oh well, thanks for giving me closure on several weeks of searching and asking around, I did find it weird that there is no documentation available on how to replace a freebox with a custom router.
hmmmm, I wonder, if I request for it, would they provide one of those "boitier fibre" that other ISPs have between the wall and the box ? (Unless those can't do SFP+ speeds, in which case it makes sense that they didn't get us one in the first place)
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The revolution light plan comes with an external ONU. It is connected to the box through an SFP connector. Indeed, this is limited to 1 Gbps.
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Hi everyone
Does someone can provide here the datasheet of 10G-EPON SFP ONU from whuan technologies (wtd.com.cn doesn't seems to be reachable from outside China, including HongKong) :
I need the datasheet of WTD RTXM166-401-C13
and of WTD RTXM166-401-C11
The actual datasheet posted on this forum is for WTD RTXM166-401 but doesn't specify the part '-c11' or '-c13'.
What is the difference between the 2 references ?
Kind regards
nbanba
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Hello,
For me, the only external ONU I know that may support Free's 10G-EPON is this one:
https://www.fs.com/de-en/products/185594.html
If you see comment from this site: https://hack-gpon.org/xgs/ont-fs-XGS-ONU-25-20NI/
you should be able to update firmware to enable 10G-EPON mode as it is the same hardware that is supporting both 10G-EPON/XGS-GPON.
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Hello
@Fuli10
Thanks for answer which may help me but which is not the answer I was needed.
I want to know the difference between the -C11 part and -C13 part of WTD-RTMX166-401-CXX module (I would access the inside EPROM and change the firmware on a WTD-RTMX166-401-C13 transeiver to use it in my FortiGate firewall XAUI port to mount a 10G-EPON Symetric link without using Freebox, and maybe I will need to use XGS-PON transceiver like WTD-RTMX166-501 or the one you purpose, after modifying its EPROM code)
I need the WTD-RTMX401-C13 datasheet but I cannot access wtd.com.cn from outside China (I already try to access from HongKong without success as if the company had been sold or closed but Wuhan Telecomunication is still registred at Blumberg Stocks, so maybe WTD still exist)
Thanks again for help
hope someone have the '-C13' datasheet
Kind regards
nbanba
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Bonjour,
In the meantime, have you been succesful in your quest to use a custom router? I understand there are 3 ways:
a) setting the original Free-equipment to "bridge mode" and then connecting your router behind the "Freebox-in-bridge-mode" via RJ45
b) getting Free to install an external ONU/ONT (e.g. via the "revolution light" - plan) and then connecting your router via RJ45
c) modifying the firmware of a ONU/ONT - SPF connector so it clones the authentification-data and then plug this connector into the custom router into it's SFP-slot
Is my understanding correct?
Kind regards
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a) setting the original Free-equipment to "bridge mode" and then connecting your router behind the "Freebox-in-bridge-mode" via RJ45
Easiest way even if it obviously increases power consumption.
b) getting Free to install an external ONU/ONT (e.g. via the "revolution light" - plan) and then connecting your router via RJ45
All externals ONUs provided by free have a Direct Attach Cable, so it's not RJ45 but SFP.
c) modifying the firmware of a ONU/ONT - SPF connector so it clones the authentification-data and then plug this connector into the custom router into it's SFP-slot
To my knowledge nobody has done that with Free: First you'll need a 10G-EPON ONU, which is by far more difficult to find than "classic" GPON ONUs. Second you'll have to figure out how to make it authenticating to the OLT, I've never seen any iinformation at least on the forum about what need to be set...