ACT Fiber damages router

B

belictony

Disciple
I have TP Link Deco M4 router connected directly to ISP i.e ACT fibernet. There was a rain and lightining yesterday in our location and since then there was no internet in my home. I have 3 Deco M4 units to have a mesh network. The unit which is connected to the ACT Fibernet is no more recognizing LAN ports, wifi is still working. Other 2 Deco's are working fine.

Deco M4:
Unit 1 ---> Connected to ACT Fibernet via ethernet port 1 (ACT has a junction box near to my home)
Unit 2 ---> Connected to Unit 1 through Ethernet port 2 of Unit 1
Unit 3 ---> Connected to Unit 1 via Wifi

All 3 units are connected to Inverter lines which trips/ shutsdown when voltage exceeds 260v.
Both the LAN ports of Unit 1 is no more working. Raised a complaint with ACT and they say there is no policy to compensate for damage to customer equipment.

2 Units are bought on Jun 21 and 1 unit bought on May 22. What options do I have here?
 
belictony said:
ACT uses Fiber optics. Junction box to home, they use ethernet cables.
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Let me amend my original statement... You should opt for fiber to the home (FTTH) now.

Yeah I remember, I used to have ACT back in 2019-2020. Once the Junction to home Ethernet cable broke and nobody came to fix for 3 days. My tolerance broke and I switched to Airtel FTTH.
 
john1911 said:
Since the wifi is working in all and the LAN ports of Deco 3 is working, you can place Deco 3 in the place of Deco 1 and reconfigure the network.
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already did. But if another deco goes kaput, i wont have enough coverage through Wifi alone.

I am thinking of doing RMA with TP Link. I sent a mail to rma@tp-link.com

Any change of repair or RMA possible here?
 
Lightning strike + equipment damage & downtime while thunderstorms was the primary reason I switched to FTTH.


Are tha LAN ports of Deco 2 working?

Try to find if there's something like RJ-45 lightning/surge protector, I bet there must be something in the market.
 
enthusiast29 said:
Let me amend my original statement... You should opt for fiber to the home (FTTH) now.
Click to expand...
when i opt for FTTH, most common routers wont act as modem to receive fiber signal. Have to rely on the customized routers provided by Hathway or Jio. These customized routers locks out most settings and enables ISP to see wifi passwords, devices connected, access the router remotely,etc. which i am not comfortable with.
 
belictony said:
when i opt for FTTH, most common routers wont act as modem to receive fiber signal. Have to rely on the customized routers provided by Hathway or Jio. These customized routers locks out most settings and enables ISP to see wifi passwords, devices connected, access the router remotely,etc. which i am not comfortable with.
Click to expand...
Use those provided modem in bridge mode only and disable their wifi then you can use your own router.
I'm using the same way with airtel.
 
john1911 said:
Are tha LAN ports of Deco 2 working?

Try to find if there's something like RJ-45 lightning/surge protector, I bet there must be something in the market.
Click to expand...
LAN of Deco 2 and 3 are working. The Unit 1 which was connected to ACT junction box is not working.

Surge protectors for RJ45 costs 4K, the cost of which I can buy another Deco M4 unit.
 
belictony said:
when i opt for FTTH, most common routers wont act as modem to receive fiber signal. Have to rely on the customized routers provided by Hathway or Jio. These customized routers locks out most settings and enables ISP to see wifi passwords, devices connected, access the router remotely,etc. which i am not comfortable with.
Click to expand...
Yup, me too but I don't have anything other than Jio in my hometown. I setup another router (doubleNAT) behind the Jio Router which might provide some protection from the prying eyes of Jio.

If available, opt for Airtel FTTH and you can use your own equipment after setting Airtel Gateway in Bridge mode.

Jio Gateway doesn't have Bridge mode option.


I'm not sure about the website but this product checks out.

https://www.moglix.com/ubiquiti-eth-sp-gen2-ethernet-surge-protector/mp/msnekpqld7ow52
 
enthusiast29 said:
Use those provided modem in bridge mode only and disable their wifi then you can use your own router.
I'm using the same way with airtel.
Click to expand...
that only address one part of the issue i.e ISP viewing wifi passwords. Remote access is still possible. God knows what else these guys track.
www.indiatoday.in

Do Airtel, Jio, ACT spy on fiber internet users? ISP-supplied routers raise privacy, digital rights concerns

Airtel, Jio, ACT and others insist on bundling their free routers with their fiber connection. Users are not given any choice, and that is now sparking privacy and digital rights issues, with some believing that these free routers allow Airtel, Jio, and others to snoop on users.
www.indiatoday.in www.indiatoday.in
 
@belictony I had the same issue with ACT, I lost one Unifi USG firewall as it was full of water. It happened with me last year.
The issue with ACT is that they don't have FTTH but FTTB. The junction box was installed on top of our building and then they run ethernet cables to individual houses. When it rains the cables carry water to the router and damages them. Even after multiple cable changes, the issue persisted untill Jan this year and eventually I got rid of them. Currently using Airtel which has FTTH
 
john1911 said:
what..
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If you are using ISP provided router, you can call their helpdesk and they can view and tell you back your wifi password. It happened to me in Hathway broadband. If you set it to bridge mode also, lot of tracking can be performed.

Moving back to the original discussion, can i RMA with TP Link given that it has 3 year warranty?
 
panks21 said:
@belictony I had the same issue with ACT, I lost one Unifi USG firewall as it was full of water. It happened with me last year.
The issue with ACT is that they don't have FTTH but FTTB. The junction box was installed on top of our building and then they run ethernet cables to individual houses. When it rains the cables carry water to the router and damages them. Even after multiple cable changes, the issue persisted untill Jan this year and eventually I got rid of them. Currently using Airtel which has FTTH
Click to expand...
ACT does provide pure fiber too. But you'll need to haggle with them quite a bit and they'll push you to go for a long term plan or ask for exorbitant installation charges.

All said and done, it's working great so no complaints post installation.
 
panks21 said:
@belictony I had the same issue with ACT, I lost one Unifi USG firewall as it was full of water. It happened with me last year.
The issue with ACT is that they don't have FTTH but FTTB. The junction box was installed on top of our building and then they run ethernet cables to individual houses. When it rains the cables carry water to the router and damages them. Even after multiple cable changes, the issue persisted untill Jan this year and eventually I got rid of them. Currently using Airtel which has FTTH
Click to expand...
This issue will happen irrespective of fiber or ethernet cable. When I routed the ACT wire to my router, i ensured that the cable is in downward slope before it reaches the window hole and also before the ethernet port as a fail safe. just a trick using gravity. For this purpose, i asked the ACT guy to leave additional 2 metres wire outside the window and inside the window to achieve this. .
 
belictony said:
If you are using ISP provided router, you can call their helpdesk and they can view and tell you back your wifi password. It happened to me in Hathway broadband. If you set it to bridge mode also, lot of tracking can be performed.

Moving back to the original discussion, can i RMA with TP Link given that it has 3 year warranty?
Click to expand...
Best to go for RMA. Don't mention the lighting strike part, as they might quote some fine print saying it's act of god and deny warranty
 
nithin1992 said:
ACT does provide pure fiber too. But you'll need to haggle with them quite a bit and they'll push you to go for a long term plan or ask for exorbitant installation charges.

All said and done, it's working great so no complaints post installation.
Click to expand...
I have taken 1 year plan. If thats an option, I would go for it. My concern is that the ISP routers are not safe from privacy standpoint. Any L1/L2 helpdesk guy can access the router remotely, check the devices connected, router logs, etc. Even when using it as bridge mode (if available), I am still afraid to use their routers.
 
belictony said:
I have taken 1 year plan. If thats an option, I would go for it. My concern is that the ISP routers are not safe from privacy standpoint. Any L1/L2 helpdesk guy can access the router remotely, check the devices connected, router logs, etc. Even when using it as bridge mode (if available), I am still afraid to use their routers.
Click to expand...
Even if you change the default router settings admin pwd, do they still have a way to reset it remotely?
How does an independent router (not provided by ISP) protect against that?
 
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