OpenReach modem with no LAN light, and Smart Hub 2 flashing purple lights.

[jwynne]

OpenReach put in full fibre to my house 6 days ago, and it hasn't worked yet!

My BT Smart Hub 2 lights are flashing purple all the time, which suggest no cable connection.

I have disconnected the red BT ethernet cable and ensured re-connection (to Port 4 on the hub and to the modem) several times.

The LAN light on the OpenReach ONT box did come on and flicker occasionally at first, but hasn't for days.

BT are sending me a new BT Smart Hub 2, but I don't think that'll make much difference.

I've re-booted the router./hub and the OpenReach SDX611 GPON ONT (Adtran) modem (serial No. ADTN240179F0) several times.

BT asked me to Factory reset the hub, but that didn't help either. I've since gone into my hub settings, and re-set it for fibre, and that hasn't helped either.

The engineer working for a contractor for OpenReach (Kelly Group?) said that there had been a problem because the BT manhole on my front lawn (which he connected to my house with fibre) was not the one tagged in the database (or something like that), but he had spoken to the powers-that-be and had that sorted out.

Can someone help, please?

[naylor2006]

If there is no LAN light coming on then most people will point to the Smart Hub or the cable between the ONT and Hub...actually in my case it was a light problem which had to be solved down the Fibre line somewhere. It took nearly 2 months for Openreach to get around to solving it, it was a brand new installation of Fibre and I was the first in my street to get it, luckily I had Virgin cable as a backup and the 5 quid a day was much appreciated for a failed install.

When powercycling the ONT with something attached to the LAN port the LAN port would indeed flicker but as soon as the PON light went solid the LAN light would go out. I became quite frustrated with people telling me it must be a faulty router or cable....

Didnt matter what I connected to the LAN port, even a laptop or desktop to test it and the LAN light still wouldnt come on. You can do the same if you want to test it, get a laptop and plug it into the LAN port on the ONT, if the LAN comes on solid then maybe it was the router but I doubt it.

I am of the belief that this will be a fault that needs to be raised up by the ISP to Openreach to investigate and solve.

[iniltous · Accepted solution]

More important than the LAN light on the ONT is the PON/LOS light , if the LOS is lit , that’s loss of signal, meaning no ‘light’ or insufficient level of light being received from the OLT ( headend  )  so the problem is in the Openreach network , if the PON light is steady green, then as far as OR are concerned everything appears to be OK , the ONT is recognised and accepted onto the headend, if it’s flashing green , the ONT hasn’t been accepted onto the headend , usually a data issue , so what is the status of these lights ?

If they are OK , but the LAN light isn’t lit , even though connected to the router WAN port , then it could be the ONT output port is not detecting a connection to the router, or the router isn’t detecting the ONT port or the cable between is faulty, the red ends on the supplied cable are irrelevant , any Ethernet cable is OK , the red ends ate from a period when the ports and cable ends were colour coordinated to make connections foolproof, there is nothing special about the supplied cable .

Obviously if there is an issue with the LAN/WAN connection your router won’t be connected and the LAN stays unlit .

What the contractor said about a mismatch between the fibre equipment and what’s expected in the database actually makes sense if the PON light is flashing , not if it’s steady green .

[jwynne]

The PON light is a steady green, like the power light. Thanks

[naylor2006]

I had a solid PON light, no LOS light, so yeah the ONT was connected to the headend but when Openreach tested the line, well the contractor did, it came up with an error which they told me was "EMS CP TAG", I dont know what that means or what it was referring to but they drove off saying its out of their hands now.

After two months suddenly I came downstairs one morning and the LAN light was on, I actually managed to speak to Openreach directly after jumping through 400 hoops and they confirmed it was a 'light issue' but wouldnt confirm much else but mentioning a specialist engineer was tasked to resolve. Everything in my house had just been left connected since my activation day, I changed nothing.

So im saying its entirely possible that there is a fault on the fibre path and that the LAN light can also be a sign of an issue outside of a faulty ONT port, bad ethernet or bad router.

In a way im grateful that the contractors who did the install reported a line fault on the day of installation, because I can imagine that if they didnt it would have been very hard to get the fault logged as everyone was saying if the PON is there and no LOS then its not OR's issue.

EDIT: I just dug out some old information around my case, when I unplugged the Fibre to the ONT my LAN light would come on, when plugging the fibre back in the LAN light would go off.

@jwynne if you are careful you can try this, would be interesting to see if the LAN light comes on without the fibre going into the ONT then you can confirm further the issue isnt inside the house. Of course youll need a device connect to the LAN port such as the router for this test to work.

[iniltous]

If the PON light is steady green the optical path is complete, as the LAN light is not indicating a connection on the consumer side if the ONT , try replacing the cable , obviously when the new SH2 turns up , ensure it’s set to FTTP mode to turn the 4th port from LAN to WAN and try that , if still no good , then the ONT LAN side may be faulty, so a new ONT needed , or potentially it’s a BT configuration issue , ( but that’s the least likely ) , the steady PON light could still be an Openreach issue , but the more likely causes need to be eliminated first .

[naylor2006]

@iniltous just added an edit to my post, what was most interesting about my situation is that when I unplugged the Fibre from the ONT my LAN light came on, it wouldnt matter what was connected to the LAN port, whether this be a dumb switch, the router or a laptop, the LAN light would come on, plug the Fibre back in and the LAN light would go off. I myself was so confused what why would the ONT being connected to the headend shut off the LAN like it was some kind of protection.

Hence my sincere interest in this case as I thought I would be the only one this has happened to.

[licquorice]

@jwynne Have you tried a direct PPPoE connection to the ONT with a laptop to eliminate the hub?

[jwynne]

Don't have a laptop anymore, and my PC's on a different floor. 😞

[naylor2006]

A LAN light on a network port should light up just because there is continuity, there are exceptions to this such as when a port is switched off in software etc but generally speaking if you take two devices that are powered on and connect them with ethernet, regardless of the network config at least the lights will come on. A standalone ONT in my testing was no different.

Switch off the ONT, disconnect the fibre going into it and then power it up making sure it is connected to the HUB via ethernet and it is powered on also, I reckon the LAN light will come on and this is what happened to me. Its so unlikely that the brand new ethernet cable is bad or the router is also, infact you can test any port on the back of the router, the yellow ones will still test the continuity.

Anyway if the LAN light comes on with that test with the Fibre removed it will help rule out things inside the house, plug the fibre back in and I expect youll see the LAN light go off.

Just my hunch based on my own issue, the LAN light comes on before authentication or PPPOE session, it just means 'Link Up', nothing more. My ONT was shutting my LAN port down for some reason, i'd love to know what fault outside my house was causing that.