FIBER: Airport Extreme & Open Reach

[mofish]

Hi All,

I currently have Sky Fiber using the following setup - whereby my Sky Fiber credentials are stored in my airport extreme. This works fine.

Current Setup

My question is - could I potentially remove the OpenReach modem and have my airport extreme wired directly into the wall? Would this work? Does the Airport Extreme support this? I'm not 100% sure on the purpose of the openreach box to be honest.

Ideally...

Thanks,

mofish

 

[keysofanxiety]

I don't believe you can as the AirPort Extreme only has Ethernet ports and Sky Fibre uses fibre>RJ11 cables from the exchange, which then plugs into your Sky/BT router.

If your Internet connection is pumped from an Ethernet cable rather than RJ11 (modem), then what you described would work fine.

 

[belvdr]

If the Openreach is truly a modem, even when using an RJ45 connector, then you cannot do this. The purpose of a modem is to modulate and demodulate signals and the Airport does not do this.

 

[mr_bam]

I have exactly the same setup as the top picture in the opening post.
The BT modem is required, you can't connect the AirPort directly to the BT line.
It's a great setup, one of the best. I have the older flat TC gen3.
Keep hold of that modem, it's not available anymore and very sought after on business lines!

I believe if they made it Fibre to the Premises in the future verses current FTTC (Cabinet) then the AirPort could connect directly. I get 65MB down 18MB up on FTTC though with this setup.

Sadly with Apple having dropped the AirPort series we'll have to get something else when it fails.

 

[davidoloan]

I'm kind of surprised you think the BT modem is great. Mine wasn't.

I replaced it with a Draytek Vigor 130 VDSL modem, and also bought a cat6 cable to replace the cheap included RJ11 cable. In the UK you can buy these ready made from http://www.mymatevince.com/. Youtube

I have no problems now. I did before.

To the OP:

if you are just looking for a neater looking setup you can achieve the look of just plugging your Apple Router into an ethernet wall plate.

My modem is in the hall on the wall, directly below the BT connection. I have a CAT6A cable coming out of the modem like in your first illustration, but rather than going directly into the Airport Extreme, it goes up a conduit in the wall and then it emerges about 20m away in a different location and I have the CAT6A cable connected to an ethernet wall plate.

My first Airport Extreme (i have a roaming network) is plugged directly into this wall plate, a completely different location to that of the modem. I have all my Airport Extreme's in the loft. Other than RJ45 wall plates around the house, the only visible part of the network in the house is the modem, in the entry hall with the BT connection.

It works perfectly for almost a year now. This gives you the big advantage of the BT connection not dictating the location of your Airport wifi.