Broadband randomly stoped working, then started again & using your own hardware

[Anonymous User]

Apologies if this is the wrong board, I couldn't find anything closer.

My broadband had randomly stopped working tonight about 10PM, exhibiting a flashing orange light that became solid orange a few moments later. Just prior to posting this, the connection mysteriously returned. Since I'm paying for an always on connection and my house setup goes a bit haywire when this sort of thing happens, I'm still somewhat concerned about this, as the connection has been somewhat intermittent in performance to begin with (this is a month on from activation, so it's not line stabilization). I'd really appreciate if an admin could check my account\line to see if there's anything wrong, if only for peace of mind that it doesn't happen again, or to answer what happened at 10PM.

Additionally, what's the process for requesting the login details so as to use my own modem, or failing that, is there a proper bridge mode that I'm not seeing so I can at least cleanly use my own routers? It's kind of weird not having options for either and being expected only to use the provided hub. There's a whole industry of commercial routers that seem to be ignored by the general layout of the NOW hub, and many reasons why one would want or need to use their own hardware. For my part, I already have a mesh networking setup with multiple routers, and using the included hub for wireless routing is a massive downgrade. I'd at least like to enable a bridge mode that completely disables the routing portions of the hub and makes it act only as a modem (right now I can only turn the wireless off and clumsily connect it to the proper routers WAN), but as mentioned ideally I'd like to use my own higher performance modem between the line and the router, but am not able to find (or was not given) login details to use it. Thanks 🙂

[RoyB]

@Anonymous User 

Please don’t take this the wrong way, and remember that I am only a customer here like you, but Now broadband is designed to be a simple domestic broadband service that will meet the needs of customers who just need a gateway to the internet for their simple domestic needs.

This is why Now supply a very cut-down and locked-up router, without even a bridge mode, and demand that you use only that (it’s in the T&Cs).

Anybody looking for anything more complex needs to be looking for an ISP who specialise in such customers, like Zen for instance, who will (e.g.) give you a fixed IP address so you can run a server, will let you use whatever router and other equipment you like, and will support you with whatever you are trying to set up.

And of course you pay for this; Now broadband could not be so inexpensive if it catered for this market.

A search of this Community will yield details of people who have successfully used a non-Now router, and the Sky doesn’t fall in on them, but Now are not going to give you the slightest help with this, and nor will they be the slightest bit interested in addressing any connectivity problems you might have unless they can see and interact with the Now router you are supposed to be using.

To use a car analogy, if you needed a Ford Transit you wouldn’t buy a Ford Ka and then complain it wouldn’t do the job, while all around you, other Ford Ka owners were perfectly happy with the Ka for their simple domestic needs.