From: zsd@jdvb.ca   
      
   On 2025-12-30 at 18:26 AST, Lawrence D’Oliveiro  wrote:   
   > On Tue, 30 Dec 2025 17:50:15 -0400, Jim Diamond wrote:   
   >   
   >> On 2025-12-30 at 01:42 AST, Lawrence D’Oliveiro  wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>> I wonder why you would use an ISP-supplied router -- don’t you get   
   >>> to connect your own?   
   >>   
   >> No.  The fiber comes into a box and the box also has the wifi router.   
   >   
   > Here in NZ, the fibre terminates in a separate box called the “ONT”.   
      
   When I first got fiber, I had two separate boxes, one for fiber<->ethernet,   
   and a wifi router.   
      
   > Everything up to and including that box is the responsibility of a   
   > company called “Tuatahi Fibre”, which is *not* an ISP (and is not   
   > allowed to become one).  Basically they provide a layer-2 connection   
   > between my house and the routers/switches/whatever for the service   
   > providers, and their job is to treat all service providers equally.   
      
   Interesting!  That sounds good, although perhaps there are some down sides   
   to that as well.  (Do you think there are such downsides?)   
      
   > Also, that box is to be considered part of the fittings of the house, so   
   > it stays with the house, and doesn’t move if/when the residents move   
   > house.  The installation of the box (and the physical fibre connection to   
   > it) was done free of charge, under a Government-funded plan.   
      
   Also interesting.  Is that NZ-wide?  Or just in certain areas?   
      
   Someone I know moved (from Canada) to NZ a few years ago, and we have never   
   talked about internet infrastructure.  I might have thought that had there   
   been something interesting there, he would have mentioned it.  But maybe not.   
      
   > The particular ONT box in my house has 4 Ethernet ports and 2   
   > telephone landline ports. These can be independently assigned to   
   > different services, coming from different providers. E.g. the one   
   > that’s live for my ISP connection has an Ethernet cable running   
   > between it and my actual router, which I bought from a local store.   
      
   My ISP heavily flogs their TV service, which the "all in one" box also   
   handles.  Can you get TV through this?  If so, does the TV just stream over   
   the ethernet like a "normal" network connection (as opposed to something   
   like a coax cable carrying many channels)?   
      
   >> I could try turning off the DHCP server in the ISP's box.  However, they   
   >> have a habit of resetting and updating the software in their box, and I'm   
   >> not sure how long turning off that DHCP server would last.  I am not sure   
   >> what would happen when two DHCP servers are on the same LAN, but I imagine   
   >> Bad Things would happen.   
      
   > Hmmm ... I’m thinking it might be possible to isolate that box on a   
   > dedicated Ethernet port on a Linux box, so you could use a packet   
   > filter to block anything DHCP-related, and only let through the stuff   
   > you want   
      
   Yes, I could probably do something along those lines.   
      
   They upgraded the s/w in the router so that it isn't quite brain dead as it   
   used to be.  Formerly, if you wanted to tell it to reserve a particular IP   
   for a particular MAC address, 19 times out of 20 it wouldn't do it, which   
   really pissed me off.  The "support" (insert bitter laugh here) from the   
   ISP for anything like that was laughably bad, and there was no getting any   
   help from them on fixing their horrible router software.  But it is less   
   bad recently.   
      
                                   Jim   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)