Sky Fibre Broadband with DD-WRT
I recently moved house and switched to Sky Fibre (FTTC) broadband.
Overall it seems like a pretty good service – customer service seems excellent and they don’t do traffic management. So great right?
The Problem:
In order to use their service, Sky force you to use their noddy ‘Sky Hub’ by using MER authentication. They actually install a hidden username and password specific to you onto the router they send you – only that router will be able to connect! They will also not give you this password if you ask for it. This means that even if you have your own VDSL modem, it won’t be able to connect. Rubbish.
The Solution:
- Use WireShark to sniff the DHCP requests emanating from the Sky Hub to find the credentials.
- Hook your DD-WRT router up to the line via a dedicated VDSL modem
- Configure DD-WRT to send the credentials you sniffed earlier when requesting a WAN IP address.
- Profit?
Prerequisites:
- This guide assumes you have an S101 or S102 Sky hub.
- You have successfully connected your noddy Sky Hub to the internet and it is working happily.
- You will need a separate dedicated VDSL modem.
- N.B. You need a modem, not a router.
- See below for list of appropriate modems.
- A router with DD-WRT flashed on it already.
- I am using an Asus RT-N66U which is super awesome btw.
- Have installed WireShark – UPDATE: Not required any more (see below)
- N.B. On OSX WireShark takes ages to start the first time (like up to 5 minutes!) – give it a while.
Why DO I need a VDSL Modem?
The vast majority of DD-WRT compatible routers have an ethernet WAN port. They require a separate cable / ADSL / VDSL modem.
For Sky’s FTTC service the last stretch from the cabinet to your house uses VDSL over a copper twisted pair telephone line. This line is installed by OpenReach and as such, you can use one of Openreach’s VDSL modems which can easily be sourced on Ebay. Just search for one of the following:
- Openreach Huawei EchoLife HG612
- Example listing – This one is even unlocked (though unlocking is not required).
- ECI BFocus v2
The Huawei model is the better option since is is much more hackable than the second option. See: http://huaweihg612hacking.wordpress.com
Steps:
Obtain Your Username & Password
UPDATE: Thanks to the commenters who have reported that you can use the following site to generate your username & password: http://www.ph-mb.com/products/sky-calc
Below are the instructions of how to extract these the hard way:
- Connect your Sky Hub to the power and to your computer using an ethernet cable.
- Have nothing else connected to the Sky Hub. Especially not the telephone cable or separate modem.
- Make sure you connect with and ethernet cable, not WiFi.
- Follow the video below to obtain your credentials using WireShark:
- Record the username and password you obtained. It should look something like this:
a0a0a0a0a0a0@skydsl|abcd1234
From now on we will refer to this as your ‘client identifier’ since that is the technical term for it.
N.B. You should notice that the first part of your client identifier is your MAC address. The part after the ‘|’ is your password.
Set Up Your Modem & DD-WRT Router
- First connect your Modem, router and PC together as per the diagram below:
N.B. The diagram above shows a face-plate with a built-in microfilter. If you don’t have one of these then you will need to also use a separate microfilter. - Verify that the power and DSL lights on your modem are solid, indicating a good DSL connection. The Lan1 light on your modem should also be lit, but may be flickering occasionally.
- SSH onto your DD-WRT router.
- If you don’t know how to do this then read this and do some Googling.
- You can enable SSH access on you router using the web GUI.
- Windows users are encouraged to use Putty for SSH, OSX and Linux users can just use the Terminal app.
- We need to figure out which version of udhcpc is installed on your router. In recent versions of DD-WRT, the udhcpc binary was updated and the command needed changed. This step will help you figure out if you have the old or new version and therefore which command to use.
Execute the following command on the router via SSH:udhcpc --help
This should print out the various arguments that udhcpc accepts. You should see either a line like:
-c,--clientid=CLIENTID Client identifier
(You have the old version of udhcpc)
OR
-x OPT:VAL Include option OPT in sent packets (cumulative) Examples of string, numeric, and hex byte opts: -x hostname:bbox - option 12 -x lease:3600 - option 51 (lease time) -x 0x3d:0100BEEFC0FFEE - option 61 (client id)
(You have the new version of udhcpc)
- Now we’ll construct the command to get DD-WRT to connect to the internet.
- If the udhcpc you found in step 4 was the old version then the command you need is:
udhcpc --background -i vlan2 -p /var/run/udhcpc.pid -s /tmp/udhcpc -c "mac_address@skydsl|password_from_wireshark"
Note that you need to replace the -c section with your client identifier you found earlier. You need the quotes.
- If you found that it was the new version, then the command you need is a little different.
- Use this website to convert your client identifier to hexadecimal. Convert the whole client id string from the start of your mac address to the end of the password (including the ‘|’ symbol).
- The command you need is:
udhcpc --background -i vlan2 -p /var/run/udhcpc.pid -s /tmp/udhcpc -x 0x3d:YOUR_HEX_STRING_HERE
Note that you need to replace YOUR_HEX_STRING_HERE with the hexadecimal version of your client id.
- If the udhcpc you found in step 4 was the old version then the command you need is:
- So let’s test it!
- SSH into your router.
- Kill all existing udhcpc tasks using the following command:
killall udhcpc
- Take the command you constructed in step 5, remove the –background and execute it. You should see output like this:
udhcpc (v1.19.4) started Sending discover... Lease of 111.222.333.444 obtained, lease time 3600
If things aren’t working properly, you will just see the ‘Sending discover…’ line repeated as udhcpc re-tries. Let it make a couple of attempts, but in my experience when it is working, it works very quickly.
If it isn’t working then double check everything is wired correctly and that the DSL light on your modem is on. Failing that, try reverting back to the Sky Hub and check that still works. If it does, try all the steps again. - Once you have obtained a lease your internet connection should be working! Hooray!
- Time to set this up permanently so your router connects automatically after each reboot.
- In the web GUI of your router under ‘Administration > Commands’ enter ‘killall udhcpc’ followed by the command you constructed in step 5.
- Include –background this time.
- The killall and command from step 5 need to be on separate lines.
- Hit ‘Save Startup’.
- Restart your router – your internet connection should now work.
- In the web GUI of your router under ‘Administration > Commands’ enter ‘killall udhcpc’ followed by the command you constructed in step 5.
- Put the Sky Hub back in the box in a cupboard where it belongs.
Charles Wilkinson 
Ive bought this tplink archer d5 http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/?model=Archer+D5,after watching your video.I have sky fibre optic 38m .My initial setup following your steps were fine until i got to the ddwrt my router is not supported. Anyway i could still extract username and password , i input those on the router setup , the test came back as no wan connection. when i checked the router its adsl light kept flashing. i left it for a while to see if it would settledown but it didnt. I took the router to a friends house who only has ADSL NO FIBRE. I got it working in less than 10mins ,i used [email protected], and install as login details quoted on sky forum . No ADSL light flashing just stable as it should be . Took the router back home, ran setup again ,had the same flashing light and no connection. When i changed router settings from DSL Modem Router Mode to Wireless Router Mode and connected it through sky router it worked. My question is there something to do to get it working at my house .
Hi chalky35,
It sounds like you are trying to connect your tp-link router directly to the VDSL socket. That will not work – that router supports ADSL not VDSL which is what Sky Fiber uses. You can use that router, but like me, you will need a separate VDSL router like one of the two models I highlighted in my guide above.
Cheers,
Charlie
Thank you so much for replying. Do they make any routers with the VDSL combi. if not what speed do the ports on the bt unit carry. Thanks in advance.
No worries.
There are a couple about, however not very many. The BT modems can handle up to 100Mb but your internet connection will be less than that so it shouldn’t be a problem.
To be clear, the modem is only handling the connection between your router and the internet and so won’t limit the speed of your home network.
I will look at price for the Bt ones. I saw a couple. What do you think about the nighthawk.? Do you think it’s the best value for money. I would invest in a modem to go with the tp-link I’ve bought but misses won’t like the sight of another piece of equipment. Hence my option of the all in one. I will give the tp-link to the friend who allowed me to try it there. Thanks again. Let me know what you think. I’ll keep you posted
I will try and have a quick look when I get to a computer, but I urge caution. Few routers support vdsl. Of those, fewer still support the dhcp client id field needed to connect to sky fiber and not many are supported by DD-WRT.
Wife approval factor is an issue, I just have the modem near the phone socket and run a long Ethernet cable to my router which is out of sight in another location.
Spoke to a guy i know from Bt might be able to get me one . Would i be able to operate with only that piece of equipment .
Hey,
Ok, so I have done a bit of research and I don’t have great news I’m afraid 😦
From my googling, I can’t see any material stating that your TP-Link AC1200 router supports the DHCP ‘Client ID’ (aka ‘Option 61’) with the stock firmware. If that is true, it means that it can’t connect to the Sky Fibre network. This would not be a problem if you could flash DD-WRT, but it does not seem to be supported either officially or unofficially by DD-WRT from what I can tell.
So basically if I am right about the above (notice the IF), you are in a bit of a pickle.
If you have managed to flash DD-WRT or are confident that the stock firmware allows you to specify a client ID, then the only other thing you need is the VDSL modem.
I’ve actually got one of the modems from my guide kicking about that you can have for free if you want it – If you drop me a private email with your address I can post it to you – I’m only gonna throw it away anyway since it’s cluttering the place up.
My email is: b l o g at charleswilkinson.co.uk (remove the spaces and replace the at symbol.
Hope this helps,
Charlie
I would appreciate the modem, I’ll send you a email. But if I get the Bt fibre hh hub. Do you think that will solve all my problems
Um… well no, as I stated – the modem I can give you will only be useful if your router supports dhcp client auth. I’m not sure what you mean by ‘BT fibre hh hub’ but if you mean a BT Home Hub for use with BY infinity, then no. That will not work.
To be crystal clear, you need two things in order to replace you Sky Hub:
1 – A VDSL modem (which I can give you).
2 – A router which supports DHCP client auth. Any router with DD-WRT flashed on it should be fine (you just have to follow my guide above).
To be honest though, with the greatest respect in the world, your questions and answers don’t make you seem like the kind of ‘power user’ who actually needs to replace the Sky Hub. Why do you want to replace your Sky Hub? What features do you feel it is missing? I’m a bit worried you are going to a lot of effort and money for no real reason and want to make sure it is the right thing for you.
Cheers,
Charlie
With all due respect. Everyone who has made this change have had valid reasons why they do so they can get the level of service they require. This is not something I have just got up and said I feel like I messing around with my Internet. I’ve been thinking about this for over a year.
Is someone who needs a high speed stable service 24 hours of the day for work, gaming etc. With a minimum of 6-8 devices running, not a power user then I guess I’m not.
I do know what I want to do. Maybe you don’t understand, thanks for your help so far anyway.
Woah, dude – Sorry, I didn’t mean any offence! I was just genuinely worried that I was leading you down a path you weren’t ready for.
Ok, so let’s get this working for you. Does the router you are planning to use allow you to supply the dhcp client Id with the stock firmware? Which router do you want to use? Are you going to flash DD-WRT on it?
Thanks for the guide – very useful! I’m wanting to use dd-wrt features for QoS and connection management. Reading the guide and subsequent discussion, it seems VDSL modem is required. Its not possible to use the Sky HH (SR102) to connect, turn off wifi on HH, plug in new dd-wrt router to the HH and have everything connect through the dd-wrt router? Probably a silly question and have not seen this particularly suggested, so I guess not.
Yes it is possible to do that, however the HH is also a router with a firewall and DHCP server among other things. If you hook it up in that way then QoS should work, but you will have problems with assigning ports for inbound connections such as SSH or torrenting as you would have to configure the firewall on the HH as well as on the DD-WRT router. This is called ‘double NATting’ (Network Address Translation) and is less than ideal.
Hi Charles – great site and support. Ive the Nighthawk and recently moved to fibre on the SR201 hub. I’ve got the password and the setup with the ECI BFocus v2 but I’m not getting a WAN IP – I’m only using the BFocus out of the box – is there something else I need to do with it as this isn’t mentioned in any guides? I notice you mention the other modem is more ‘hackable’ ?
No, you should be able to use it out of the box. Try plugging your sky hub into the modem instead and see if the smiley face goes green. That should confirm that the modem works.
Thanks for taking the time to write this Charles – concise as can be for a guide like this and up to date. Done this before on my ADSL connection with my netgear 6300 and quite a few steps had changed.
Wish i had been here earlier with the offer of a free BTO modem 🙂
Cheers
Thanks! Hope it helped 🙂
I actually still have a spare modem kicking about if you want it – they guy I offered it too took issue with my advice for some reason (see comments above) and stopped talking to me so he never got it.
Cheers,
Charlie
Hi Charles, Great article!
I’m having a problem trying to configure udhcpc. When I run ‘udhcpc –help’ I don’t get any output and when I run the command without the background switch it just hangs on a new blank line. If I ‘CTRL + C’ I return to a new command line.
I’m guessing it’s a completely different version of ‘udhcpc’ to the two you mentioned. I’m using a ASUS RT-N16 with a 18xxx build of DD-WRT.
What version of DD-WRT are you using?
Any other ideas?
Thanks
James
Hi James, that’s a bit odd. I am using a Kong build: DD-WRT v24-sp2 (10/06/14) kongac – build 25015M-SP1
All I can suggest is to try both command formats and see which one works. Alternatively, try and get the udhcpc command to spit out usage instructions by providing either no parameters or maybe just a garbage one like this: udhcpc -aaaaa
Let me know how you get on, maybe the guide needs updating with your findings 🙂
Hi Charles,
Thanks for the reply.
I re-flashed the router with a slightly newer kong build and still had the same results.
No luck getting any usage instructions either.
Here’s a clip of my terminal when I try.
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=143501A4769C82A8!7605&authkey=!AHbI0VAf3o3_3oQ&ithint=video%2cmp4
At this point I’m not sure if it’s device specific or it’s the version of udhcpc. Which to be honest I don’t how to findout anyway…
Thanks
James
Ok, I have been doing some digging and have found that udhcpc on DD-WRT is part of busybox, not a standalone version. As such, you need to figure out what version of busybox you have. to do that, simply run the command: busybox
You should get the version of busybox printed out. Then you can look up the busybox man page for that version online. It will include the usage instructions for the udhcpc command.
I will update the guide above. Let me know how you get on 🙂
P.S. If you have just updated to a newish firmware, I would bet good money you have the new version of udhcpc, not the old one.
Just managed to get it working…
I couldn’t workout how to upgrade udhcpc or busybox… It looked like it was way over my Linux skill level… 🙂 Anyway, after trying a number of different builds I found an article on the DD-WRT forum stating there was a 3.x kernel based build (24461) that would run on the Asus RT-N16(Model I’m using). After flashing it I tried getting some usage instructions out of ‘udhcpc’ and it worked :).
Oddly the Busybox version was the same as some of the other 2.6 kernel builds I had used. I did read somewhere that some of the commands are striped down to save space.
Even though the command was now output what I wanted I still couldn’t get an IP address… After about 30 minutes of googling I noticed my mac address I noted down had an ‘L’ in it…. haha funny hexadecimal character. I changed it to a 1 and it started to work 🙂
All is now working, added it to startup, rebooted a couple of times and everytime I got an IP address…. The only odd thing is the messages below, are they a problem? Seems to be working ok…
root@DD-WRT:~# udhcpc -i vlan2 -p /var/run/udhcpc.pid -s /tmp/udhcpc -x 0x3d:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
udhcpc (v1.22.1) started
Sending discover…
Sending select for AA.BB.CC.DD…
Lease of AA.BB.CC.DD obtained, lease time 3600
vlan2: No such process
/bin/sh: can’t create /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/br0/loop: nonexistent directory
/bin/sh: can’t create /proc/sys/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_udp_timeouts: nonexistent directory
/bin/sh: can’t create /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/br0/loop: nonexistent directory
/bin/sh: can’t create /proc/sys/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_udp_timeouts: nonexistent directory
/bin/sh: can’t create /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/br0/loop: nonexistent directory
/bin/sh: can’t create /proc/sys/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_udp_timeouts: nonexistent directory
Anyway apart from those errors, I now have a strong wifi connection everywhere in my house and I don’t have to use the rubbish SR102…
Thank you so much Charles for posting this article and for your help.
Great news! Glad you got it working.
I’m afraid I don’t know what those errors mean and quick googling doesn’t give much either.
Let me know if you ever get to the bottom of it!
Hi Charles
I wondered whether you know if Sky can detect that we’ve replaced the Sky Hub? I know that they send automated updates down the line. As you know i’m sure, for some weird reason, although they approve 3rd party routers for broadband, they specifically veto this on fibre. Think it’s pretty outrageous that they insist on a below spec, unstable and outdated piece of eq and have replaced it with the brilliant asus rt-ac68u, but having posted various queries (naively) on the sky forum, i’m concerned that they might test the line and shut down my connection. Not entirely as paranoid as it sounds, there’s all sorts of warnings on the forum about it (that i noticed too late of course)
Let me know your thoughts
Hi Lisa, I wondered the same also. My thinking is that to actually perform that test would cost Sky money and they have absolutely nothing to gain from it, so they won’t bother. Sky don’t really care what router you use, the only reason they lock it down is so they don’t have to train/pay for support staff to diagnose problems with any possible router – which makes sense really.
In any case, even if they did terminate your connection, you wouldn’t have to pay them any more so you could switch to a different provider like Virgin.
I wouldn’t worry, I’ve had mine in place since October 2014 with no issues and I’ve chatted with Sky employees on their forum about it – all they say is ‘We can’t offer support for other routers’.
Charlie
Hi Charles.
First hope you can help. Read your blog and I think I need a separate modem. I’ve brought a TP-AC1750 router, and have sky fibre, so currently my pants sky hub SR102 direct into filter box into wall.
Firstly I can’t seem to find my router on WwWrt list? Is it supported do you know?
I’ve managed to get my username and password from sky hub, but bit stuck now…
Hey there!
I’ve had a look into it and I’m afraid that as far as I can tell, your router is not supported by DD-WRT and does not support the MER authentication that sky uses out of the box.
That being said, you may still have a chance. Your router does seem to be supported by Open-WRT (see here) and Open-WRT does apparently support the feature required (in much the same way as DD-WRT does in my guide). See here and here.
Unfortunately I can’t help you much with Open-WRT as I have never used it, but theoretically it should be a very similar process.
What I can tell you is that, as per my guide, you will need a standalone modem as well. I have a spare one if you want it.
That being said, there is a simpler approach that you could take. You can leave the Sky hub plugged in, but turn off the WiFi (optional) and simply connect the WAN port of your shiny router into one of the ethernet ports of the Sky hub.
This way you will be using the Sky hub as your modem and it does all the MER auth crap. The only disadvantage is that you are in a situation where you are using ‘Double NAT’.
This means that your Sky Hub has a firewall and port forwarding and so does your TP-Link router. This is only really a problem if you need to open inbound ports as it means you have to do it in two places (not very convenient).
It also probably means that UPnP won’t work and so you may have trouble accessing online services used by consoles like the PS4 and Xbox.
Good luck!
Charlie
Hi Charles. Looking to get rid of my SR102. Was initially looking at the Asus RT-N66U – 900Mbps but I’m just wondering if it’s worth forking out the extra thirty quid for the Asus RT-AC66U AC1750 http://goo.gl/5HkU0G ? What do you think?
Thanks in advance
Lee
Personally I always prefer to pay for the best and have it have a longer useful life. That being said, I can’t see enough of a difference that it will cause you any trouble saving the 30 quid.
Hi Charles,
Thanks for the guide, but I am having some trouble…
I have been for a while now running sky fibre, using the sky router and then my Netgear R7000.
I figured I’d try this guide today, and after flashing a version of DD-WRT onto the Netgear, followed this guide to the letter.
However I never get a lease, just endless “Sending Discover…”. What am I doing wrong?
Hey there Sam,
Sorry for the delay. I had the same trouble and it was because I was using the wrong command for my version of udhcp. Try and find out what version you have and check the man page for it. It is possible that you need something different from the two alternatives in my guide.
Also, you probably did this, however do triple check that you copied all the values and hashes properly…
Good luck!
Did you fix this? I’m having exactly the same issue.
Hey,
The link to the video doesn’t work any more. Is there an updated one or alternative please?
Thanks
Dan
Hi Dan,
Thanks for the notification! I will endeavour to update it as soon as I find/record a decent alternative.
Cheers,
Charlie
Updated – there was some issue with the Youtube Embed tag.
Thanks,
Charlie
Hi Charlie
I recently purchased archer c5 from tp link. I have it connected to Sky Hub on normal connection, but I am having fibre activated on the 9th April.
All these steps seem scary to me, I don’t want to break the terms of Sky so just want to go through the Archer. There seems to be a Dd wrt firmware which supports this router but is there a simpler way to do this?
I work full time and don’t have the time to fiddle about it took enough of my bank holiday last night on the phone to tp link with a Chinese call centre to get my unlimited to work, finally managed to get it up and running.
Please help. Is there any YouTube videos to better explain this? Or another way around it.the router seems to have Mac settings but whatever that means blah.
Regards
Garry
Hi Gary,
I totally understand – it’s a little involved. Unfortunately I wrote the guide as simply as I could. However, we should investigate if you really need to get the Archer actually handling the internet connection itself.
The key question is, what do you need the Archer to do that the Sky Hub is not able to do, or do well enough?
Basically you may be able to use the Sky Hub as the modem and the Archer as your router, but it depends on why you want to use the Archer at all e.g. better WiFi range, better QoS settings, VPN etc..
Let me know your thoughts and I’m sure we can get something working for you 🙂
Cheers,
Charlie
Basically the 5ghz band and the wireless AC and wireless n
Sorry for the delayed response.
Basically then I don’t think you really need to do the steps above in order to get what you need.
You can simply connect the Sky hub according to the instructions, connect your Archer’s WAN port to a lan port on the Sky hub and then put the Archer into the DMZ of the Sky Hub.
This will mean you are effectively using the Sky Hub as a modem only – You can turn the wifi on the Sky hub off.
I’m afraid I don’t have explicit instructions on how to do this, but Google should be your friend.
If I get some time I will probably update the guide above with instructions on how to do this – but time is not something I have a lot of… 😦
Cheers,
Charlie
Hey buddy. All seems to be working had it connected like that. Hopefully it’s legal and I don’t get caught.
Definitely not illegal, and actually this way, it isn’t even a violation of the Sky Ts and Cs. Glad you got it working 🙂
Thank you Charles! Excellent guide, took me a bit of fiddling around but I got my new Netgear R7000 working in a single evening 🙂
I have a potentially cheeky request.. I work at a computer reseller and I’d like to borrow this guide if I may? (I was thinking of just writing one myself but your step by step approach is probably more informative than what I could come up with to be honest!)
At the end of the day I think if more Sky customers that have a bit of technical knowledge were aware that it was this straight forward to change to a higher end router more people would buy them.
I’m now going to be buying a few more 802.11ac adapters to go with the router..
Hi Mikey,
Glad the guide was helpful! By all means consider this guide free (as in free beer) so use it how you like. Your choice, however I would appreciate it if you would name me as the author, or even better simply link your customers to my blog page. I have the domain and hosting paid up for the next decade so it should stick around!
Cheers,
Charlie
Also, just a thought – a link to the guide is always going to get your customer to the latest version of the guide. For example, I need to update the video link as soon as I can find/record a decent one…
That’s great, thanks 🙂 I’ll drop the link on here when I’ve written the post.
Hi Charles, not sure if I am the only one struggling here with SR102, but I never see discover packets. I have tried all LAN pots, tried disconnecting WAN port from the router also. I only see Request and ACK packets. Any suggestions?
Answered my own question — turn off sky shield .. your guide works. thanks
Well done! Although I am surprised that Sky shield had an impact as I thought it was a web configuration rather than anything actually installed on the router… How did you disable it?
Hi,
Thanks for sharing this info.
I haven’t done any packet sniffing just yet but have found that the sky router will give up various passwords if you simply use the “backup config” option on the maintainence page. The username given in my .conf file is 6 characters added to the front of the wireless MAC address.
If that sounds familiar it may be an easier way to discover the username and password?
J
Hi Charles, great guide, thank you!
I would like to clarify something, if I may. I am currently running a SR102, with a second router (ZyXel USG40 Firewall/Router) attached via the DMZ. However, for the USG device to work “properly” it needs to receive the correct WAN-IP that is supplied by the ISP (Sky). Currently, it just sees the DMZ IP at the WAN-IP (192.168.1.254).
If i were to use my spare DD-WRT router and connect this to a HG612 modem (I have one unlocked) and follow your guide, would it then be possible somehow to forward the WAN-IP to the WAN port of the USG device, rather than using it as just 2 linked routers and the USG device only getting the DMZ IP?
Hope what I’m asking is making sense.
Basically, if I could turn the SR102 into “modem only” or “bridged” mode, I suspect it would just be a case of connecting the 2 together, but alas, the SR102 doesn’t allow that. Would using a DD-WRT router allow it to pass the WAN-IP?
Any help would be very gratefully recieved.
Baz
Hi Baz,
Sorry for the very slow response – I have not been paying enough attention to my blog recently.
The lack of “modem only” mode is exactly what this guide deals with, so yes – this guide will solve you problem.
However, if you can hold on a little longer, I am in the middle of putting a guide together on how to add a modem only (bridged) mode to your SR102. It does require cracking it open and flashing via a serial connection which makes it more scary for n00bs, but it is actually easier in some ways.
Watch this space 🙂
Thanks,
Charlie
Hi Charles,
Great article, thank you!
I was wondering if you post the guide how to add a modem only (bridged) mode to y SR102?
Thank you.
Hi
before i start all this process
Please help me out
Been stuck with sky fiber
main problem ip release time is atleast an hour
If i get it working with DD-WRT woukd i be able to generate fresh ip instantly
please guide
If not than just have to sulk in this situation and run down the contract
Please reply
thnx
Releasing IPs frequently is quite an unusual requirement – do you mind if I ask why you want to do that? – There may be an alternative approach.
Also, I’m not sure how Sky allocates IP addresses, but you are unlikely to be able to demand new ones as frequently as you like – indeed, this is likely the same for most service providers…
Hi Charles,
Firstly, thanks for the great guide 🙂
Secondly, can I just ask, is dialling into the router via SSH necessary, does the DD-WRT router simply not ask for your Sky username and password? Genuine question, as I’m about embark on this journey for the 1st time.
Thanks,
Lee.
Hi Lee,
Yes it is necessary. The DD-WRT GUI does not support the weird authentication protocol that Sky uses. As such, we have to ssh onto the router and configure it on the command line.
Good luck, let me know how it goes and get in touch if you hit any issues 🙂
Charlie
Hi Charlie,
Excellent, thanks for the clarification 🙂
I’ve just bought the TP-Link Archer C9 & a BT Openreach HG612, but I don’t think the C9 natively supports Sky fibre, so will install the latest DD-WRT (I assume I can just install the latest BETA?)
Lee.
Best advice I can give you is never assume anything with DD-WRT. Don’t think of it as a beginner friendly, pretty much gonna work easily sort of task installing it. Also, don’t download the firmware from the router database – it is very often out of date. Check the wiki page for the router and also read up on the forum thread dedicated to that router – that is where you will find the best version of DD-WRT to use.
Don’t mean to scare/discourage you, just make sure you do the reading up first – its much easier than recovering from a bad flash ( trust me – I’ve been there )
Charlie
I tried dd wrt couldn’t get it to work with sky fibre, so i my set up is modem zyxel q1000z (us quest/century) in transparent bridge mode with asus DSL-AC68U (not to clever as one box solution) as a router handling the mer option. it works great gigabit Ethernet too.
Hi Charles,
I am having a massive problem with setting my r7000 up with sky fibre. I have done all the steps but it just gets stuck on sending discoveries. I have tried starting from step 1 but I still get the same thing. I have tried MANY guides on Google but this one seems to get me the furthest but still not all the way.
I really hope you can help me out.
Thanks,
James.
Hi James,
I had the same problem – that was before I realised that I had a different version of udhcpc (hence the two different options in my guide). Double, then triple check the version of udhcpc you have and that you have entered the command correctly.
If you are still struggling, paste the output of udhcpc –help as well as the connection string you are trying to use and the output of busybox so that I can help you debug.
Cheers,
Charlie
Did you fix this? I’m having exactly the same issue.
hello great post but I’m having problems on wireshark highlighting option61 as I’m using a macbook pro. any tips on how i can extract my username and password into text form?
What trouble are you having with wireshark? On my Mac it took so long to start I thought it had hanged. Give it 10 minutes if that is the problem you are hitting.
When I highlight option 61 the client info how do I get the username and password
Instead of using wireshark, I found this info. It worked much, much faster than using wireshark or tcpdump.
http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/extracting-sky-router-passwords/58491-difficulty-replacing-sr102-dg834pn-2.html
what about the sagem fast2504? looking to replace it with dd-wrt router
Hello I m from pakistan I am using sr102 sky hub for secandory router but now router will problem it every time I will start the router router go to sky hub satting every time now please help me and solve my problem thanks
Hi,
Thanks for the guide. It worked beautifully with my old TP-Link, but I recently switched to a Linksys WRT1200AC and I cannot get udhcpc to work at all.
The command “udhcpc –help” does not work. I am using latest DD-WRT firmware for linksys [Firmware: DD-WRT v3.0-r29059 (02/09/16)].
When I use the connection command “udhcpc -i vlan2 -p /tmp/var/run/udhcpc.pid -s /tmp/udhcpc -x 0x3d:xxxxxxxxx” [where xxxxx is hexadecimal of sky username/password]; I get error message of “udhcpc: ioctl 0x8933 failed: No such device”
Please can you help? I am at my wits end…..
Hmmm. That’s a pain. I’m on my phone at the moment so please excuse any brevity.
When I was having a similar challenge I discovered that udhcpc was installed as part of busybox and so I had to work out which version of busybox my dd-wrt version was running, then find the udhcpc section of the busybox manual for that version.
I think there’s a command to show you which version of busybox you are running.
It’s not much, but hopefully it helps…
Have you confirmed if vlan2 exists? Do a ifconfig to see what is there.
Hi, Thanks for the guide – managed to replace my SR102 on Sky Fibre with a C9 fairly painlessly!
I’m getting a WAN IP address and its working fine but also get the following messages;
vlan2: No such process
cannot open /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/br0/loop
cannot open /proc/sys/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_udp_timeouts
although as I said – it seems to be working anyway 😉
one more thing – I didnt need to use wireshark – the username calculator here http://www.ph-mb.com/products/sky-calc seems to be fine with the sagem option 🙂
Got to say what a great guide, Thanks
Thanks! Glad it helped 🙂
Doesn’t work for me. I keep getting:
Sending discover…
Sending discover…
Sending discover…
No lease, forking to background
Can’t understand what’s wrong. I know the username / password / HEX conversion is correct. The line is working with the Sky SR102 router. I just don’t understand why it’s not working for me.
Hi Kotek,
I’m afraid that it is difficult to help directly. I had the same trouble when I first did this…
I realised that I had a different version of udhcpc (hence the two different options in my guide). Double, then triple check the version of udhcpc you have and that you have entered the command correctly.
If you are still struggling, paste the output of udhcpc –help as well as the connection string you are trying to use and the output of busybox so that I can help you debug.
You need to try and prove that you have the correct udhcp command syntax – DD-WRT/busybox may have updated udhcpc and changed the command syntax.
Thanks
Charlie
Thanks Charlie, I appreciate your help. This is what I get:
Problem resolved!
I reset the HG612 to factory settings. After I did, I noticed that, in Basic>WAN, DHCP transparent transmission was enabled (before reset it was not enabled).
After that, ran the script, connected! DD-WRT all setup now and seems to be working fine.
So to those other people who had the same error as me – try restoring your HG612 to default settings. Charlie – thank you for your guide! 🙂
Awesome! Well done 🙂
Sorry I didn’t reply – I wiped my phone and forgot to install WordPress app so missed the notifications about your comments. Glad you got it sorted.
Hey, I’m considering using a VPN and stumbled upon this guide during my research. Would this setup allow me to do this or is there an easier way as I don’t need massive functionality (I’m not a power user)
Hi,
I am using the HG612 setup with R7000. However at 12pm midnight exactly (every night) the connection is dropped. Anybody else experienced this?
Cheers,
Marty.
Hi Charlie,
I am using Firmware: DD-WRT v3.0-r30870M kongat (11/10/16) on the R7800 and have a question on the startup string I am using. I tried yours but it didn’t work for me
So string in question is:
killall udhcpc
udhcpc –background -i eth0 -x 0x3d: -p /var/run/udhcpc.pid -s /tmp/udhcpc &
which works in terms of getting a lease for an internet connection but throws up the following errors:
Then got what appear to be a series of error messages below
eth0: No such process
cannot open /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/br0/loop
cannot open /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/br0/loop
Do you have any idea what the errors thrown up are caused by and how to fix them? I suspect the startup string does not have the right syntax or there are incorrect parameter settings but dont’t understand enough about udhcpc to troubleshoot
Thanks
Ded
Hi Ded,
Did you ever resolve the issue with the start up string you are using on your R7800?
One thing I dont quite understand though, is why does Sky Authentication accept the openreach modems Mac address?
It doesn’t. Even if Sky can see the openreach Mac address, which I doubt, they are just looking for the authentication request, which we set to include the SkyHub’s Mac address instead.
Hi could you please throw some light on this question as it has been raised but not answered.
after entering the ssh command with the hex information it returns the below
“udhcpc (v1.24.1) started
Sending discover…
Sending select for 188.220.199.28…
Lease of 188.220.199.28 obtained, lease time 3600
vlan2: No such process
cannot open /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/br0/loop
cannot open /proc/sys/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_udp_timeouts”
could you please explain if the last three lines are issues that need to be addressed or is this normal.
I am using an Asus ac88u with wrt v3.0-r28647.
I have entered the information into the command of the router and I do have internet connection but the internet light on the router shows red.
Regards
Darren
Hi Darren,
I’m afraid I’m not sure what those errors mean. However it does look like the router has successfully established a connection, which is good.
It may be that your router doesn’t use vlan2. I would suggest trying to figure out what vlans are active.
Alternatively, you can simply try the command with vlan1 instead and see if that works…
Would this work with a standard sky adsl connection?
I’m actually not sure, but worth a shot!
Worst case is that it doesn’t work, but it won’t break anything.
Let us know if it does 🙂
The issue is that the master socket in my home only has one socket instead of two. I think I would need to split the line for another socket. I’m using a microfilter currently for the broadband and the telephone line.
Hi Charles,
great guide, many thanks!
I’ve managed to get my Netgear R7800 up and running with DD-WRT and it seemed to be working fine. However I have a few gremlins you might be able to help my with.
1. I recently noticed the internet would go down every hour. It seems to coincide with the DCHP lease renewal, and I realised I managed to accidentally switch on IPV6. I was getting NTP server issues in the log. I have disabled IPV6 so hopefully that’ll fix the issue, but do you have any experience with IPV6?
2. Using you udhchp script doesn’t work exactly – I have to add ‘&’ at the end of the command otherwise it doesn’t seem to do anything. However when I do add the ‘&’, it seems to connect OK but the WebGUI crashes, so I have to restart the router.
My concern i that I cannot add the command to the start-up script, otherwise my WebGUI will keep crashing?
Once again may thanks for the great guide
Lee
Just to follow up, I have reset the router to factory defaults and the 1 hour lease problem has gone.
However it now disconnects every 24 hours instead!
Don’t have Fibre (just regular ADSL Sky Broadband), but would like to be able to use my DD-WRT router. Can you tell me if the same procedure applies? Will I need a different kind of modem?
Sky did send me an SR102 but I’m not using it – still using an old DG834G – but neither have the Ethernet out to connect to the DD-WRT router.
Hi, not sure if you still monitor this chat? I followed your guide and it worked thanks however the speeds have reduced considerably. Using the sky modem router I was getting 70Mb/s but now only getting 25ish. Is there anything i should change?
I have a BT Huawei HG612 and R7000
thanks
Rog
meant to say R7000 running DD-WRT v3.0-r40559