Sorry for writing in English, I can read and understand Flemish without any issues but proper writing is bit difficult, especially when I plan to write long story like this
Few weeks ago i got the letter from Belgacom that equipment in my street has been upgraded and that I can come to take free BBox3 in order to enjoy faster speed. At that moment I had 50/6 profile on my BBox2 and I used old FritzBox 7170 for my VoIP lines. FritzBox was set in network client mode, so bbox2 was handling both VDSL and PPPoE, and that worked without any issues for several years. So I took free bb3 and from the moment I connected it, issues started...
I immediately noticed that speed was increased to ~70mbit/sec, but
1) my VoiP phones stopped working and
2) Belgacom TV stopped working and
3) DSL connection was quite unstable, couple of times per hour lights on bb3 were blinking and DSL connection was getting up and down.
I connected bbox2 again and everything started working normally, but from that moment bbox2 was syncing at repair profile speed (4/0.5) which was kind of expected. I called Belgacom several time and after 3-4 days of line checking and explanations to different operators what is going on, they decided to send someone onsite to check. Some friendly guy arrived to my place next time, and in front of him modem started blinking and he immediately said i got bad modem and he replaced it with another copy. In 10 minutes my TV was working again, internet was up and I did not check VoIP, thinking that new modem would fix that as well. He left, and I changed ethernet IP address on Bbox 3 to the range 192.168.178.x to match the rest of my network, and as soon as I did it, Belgacom TV stopped working and I again got message "no signal" or streaming stopped after 3 sec on each channel!
Conclusion 1 - BBox 3 has problems is Ethernet IP is changed from the default value and Belgacom TV does not work in that case.
I changed IP of bbox3 to default value, reconfigured the rest of my devices to that range and TV started to work again... I thought, ok, no big issue. Then I checked my VoIP phones, and surprise - FritzBox could not log in to the Sip servers when it was behind BBox 3. I found then couple of articles on this forum that bbox3 is breaking SIP protocol, and I confirm that here
Conclusion 2 - SIP clients behind BBox 3 are not work due to the packed mangling done by Bbox3, resulting in resetting SIP connection
Next what I tried is to set FritzBox to act as PPPoE client behind BBox3, but it also miserably failed as i got PPPoE timeouts, and after 1-2 hours of retries FritzBox was able to establish PPPoE session. During the night, after midnight for example, Fritz was able to establish PPPoE session instantly, and later I found few posts on this forum explaining exactly the same problem, with the conclusion that something is wrong on Belgacom PPPoE servers side, probably some sort of saturation was creating PPPoE timeouts.
Tired of everything, i ordered FritzBox 7490 hoping that it would solve the issue and I cashed out 275 EUR for international version. But, unfortunately, PPPoE was still giving timeouts even FB was acting as VDSL2 modem and PPPoE client, and also I had some nasty hostid mismatch errors. I found later on the forum that Belgacom and AVM are accusing each other for this errors, and basically there is no solution.
At that point I was so pissed off and furious, I called Belgacom and fighted with those poor L1 support ladies, and they told me there are still issues on my line and they sent someone onsite for the second time. This guy listened to issues I had, he confirmed BBox3 will not support VoIP client and on the phone with someone in central they changed my VDSL profile back to be able to work with BBox2. I got 30 Mbit speed (although I had 50 before), but my new expensive FritzBox could establish now SIP sessions. In PPPoE mode (with bbox2 as modem), I still had PPPoE timeouts all day long. Technician told me that I have to live with 30mbit speed for 96 days and that automatic line manager will then automatically increased speed back to 50 mbit, and that I should not connect bbox3 or FB to DSL line directly as that would turn vectoring on again and I will have same issues.
Just out of curiosity, two days ago I tried to configure FB to establish PPPoE session behind BBox2, and on my surprise, now it works each time! No timeout messages since then. I also tried PPPoE from my PC, and that one also worked instantly and it still works (and before my PC also could not establish PPPoE link, it took many many retries before I could connect). I have feeling that they changed or fixed something on Belgacom PPPoE side so the timeouts are gone. Now I am tempted to connect BBox 3/FB back to DSL line, turn on vectoring and get back 70 mbit/sec speed back...
After this long introduction, here is my question - is anyone aware that PPPoE timeout problem has been fixed by Belgacom? Would it be smart (or stupid) to try to turn on vectoring back by connecting bbox3, because if PPPoE timeouts start to appear again, I would be back to repair profile with BBox 2 and then I would again need to fight with belgacom front line...?
Thanks all for your opinions
