Have you ever needed to set up a router for a friend or neighbour? Maybe you’re one of those people who find the whole prospect of configuring a new piece of equipment daunting? I’m happy to say that there’s now a solution to this problem. Over recent weeks we’ve been trialling routers which are easier to set up, all you need to do is plug them into your PC, the power socket, and the phone line and the router does all the rest for you.
Sounds too good to be true? Well it isn’t! From today it becomes a reality.
The technology behind how we manage these new routers goes by the name of TR069
Let’s go through what should happen from the moment a hardware order is placed with us.
A ‘component’ is added to your account on our systems. This contains the router model, order number and delivery address. This order will be sent along with any other hardware orders received that day as part of a batch.
After the warehouse has received this order, they’ll prepare the router to be dispatched. This now includes scanning the serial number and sending it back to us. We then record this serial number on your hardware component and also in the ACS (Auto Configuration Server).
The router is then sent to you, and once you’ve plugged it all in and it’s picked up the ADSL signal, it will authenticate on a generic username. This then connects to our ACS (Auto Configuration Server) which tells the router what username and password it needs to connect on your service. This information is pushed back to the router and it’s forced to disconnect from using the generic username and reconnect using your specific details.
That’s it all done. You should be online and able to browse.
But wait, there’s more!
Previously if you had changed your password via our website, it would mean you’d have to log back in to the router and manually update the password in there. This can be time consuming, especially if you have to look up the address and username/password for the router setup pages. Now this is changed automatically, once you’ve updated your password on our website, this information is passed back to the router (normally within a couple of minutes) and you continue to browse without problems.
We’re looking forward to this being launched and we hope you are too.
This will only apply to customers who have ordered hardware since Thursday 6th August.
If you’ve got any questions, drop a comment below and we’ll get back to you.
This entry was posted by Chris Parr on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 2:20 pm and is tagged with hardware, tr69 and is posted in the category Customer Services. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Will this "feature" be used to lock routers supplied by Plusnet so that only the Plusnet realm can be used?
Will the administrative user/password be left as the default?
The routers are exactly the same as those we currently send out, except with a different firmware.
They won't be locked to Plusnet and the admin username/password will be the same as it currently is.
How secure is all this?
Sorry but I'm not sure I'm 100% happy with the idea of this (really from a privacy point of view more than anything)
Yes, it's a good idea for those who might struggle to set routers up but it seems your taking a bit too much control over users hardware.
If you can change passwords and usernames on the routers remotely, what else are you capable of? Traffic managing, setting restrictions, Wifi passwords etc etc. What if this info gets in the wrong hands? OK, PN probably wouldn't do this but if PN can remotely access routers what's to stop someone else doing it? Especially when all the routers ship with the same default admin username/password.
I use a DG834N which does have the option of remote access (which I always have disabled!!!) and the first thing I did when I set it up was change the admin log-in details.
Setting the users username and password on the router before it leaves the PN warehouse would be a much better idea.
This is different to the remote access that you see on your DG834N, the connection is secured to our ACS server. The access to the ACS is locked down so very few people can access it, and then they have to be on the correct internal network and know the username/password to login.
The admin username/password has absolutely nothing to do with the TR69 functionality and can still be changed individually if required.
It's also worth pointing out that there's no element of PN controlling the router here - rather, the router is simply 'phoning home' one time when it's initially set up and that's it. Once the router's acquired its new connection details then obviously it'll cease to use the 'phone home' ones as it can only maintain one connection at a time.
[...] been happy as we’ve now launched our easier to setup hardware, this should help reduce the number of router setup calls coming into the CSC and ensure that we [...]
I forgot to mention in my previous response, you can also turn off thr TR69 functionality via your member centre controls.
Not sure I like the sound of it all to be honest. Sky do this don't they and their routers do not allow you to login and change settings like port forwarding etc. In essence they've created a 'surf only' ISP.
Is this the route you're taking too?
Yes, worked immediately. Truly wonderful. Thank you Plusnet-------
Glad to hear it Graham! 
Here at Plusnet we're always trying to use clever open source things to make our lives easier. Sometimes we write our own and make other people's lives easier too!
We sell broadband, phone, VoIP and more to homes and businesses in the UK. Winner of 9 out of 11 Categories in the 2008 USwitch survey. Winner of "Best Consumer ISP" at 2008 ISPA awards. Voted number 1 in the Broadband Choices 2008 survey.
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