Over time we've enabled and disabled various functionality on our internet router (a DrayTek Vigor 2860ac running firmware 3.8.6_BT), so here's a summary of what's what and why:
WANs
We have BT Infinity 1 FTTC as our primary WAN connection, with a cellular modem on the EE 4G network set up as a failover connection.
The setup for BT Infinity requires little configuration. Leave the DSL mode as Auto and Modem Code as Default. Set the Active Mode to Always On, and check the Load Balance box. For BT Infinity you should enable the VLAN tags in the VDSL2 Service cell in the table. Set the Tag Value to 101, and the Priority to 0.
The setup for the cellular modem is focused on the failover mode. Set Active Model to Failover, uncheck the Load Balance box, and set the failover on WAN Failure. Set the Active When option to Any, and ensure that at least WAN1 is checked.
Internet access via the WAN connections requires BT Infinity to be set up as PPPoE/PPPoA, and the cellular modem to be set up in DHCP mode.
Internet Access configuration for BT Infinity is minimal, just set the Username to bthomehub@btbroadband.com and the MTU to 1492.
WANs
We have BT Infinity 1 FTTC as our primary WAN connection, with a cellular modem on the EE 4G network set up as a failover connection.
The setup for BT Infinity requires little configuration. Leave the DSL mode as Auto and Modem Code as Default. Set the Active Mode to Always On, and check the Load Balance box. For BT Infinity you should enable the VLAN tags in the VDSL2 Service cell in the table. Set the Tag Value to 101, and the Priority to 0.
The setup for the cellular modem is focused on the failover mode. Set Active Model to Failover, uncheck the Load Balance box, and set the failover on WAN Failure. Set the Active When option to Any, and ensure that at least WAN1 is checked.
Internet access via the WAN connections requires BT Infinity to be set up as PPPoE/PPPoA, and the cellular modem to be set up in DHCP mode.
Internet Access configuration for BT Infinity is minimal, just set the Username to bthomehub@btbroadband.com and the MTU to 1492.
Internet access via the cellular modem is also straightforward. We're using the EE network, so just set the APN Name to everywhere.
LAN
We have the router set up with IPv6 disabled, and located at IPv4 address 192.168.1.1. We're only using the 192.168.1.x address space, so the subnet mask is set to 255.255.255.0. The router hosts a DHCP server, but we manually allocate addresses 192.168.1.2 through to 192.168.1.149. The DHCP server leases addresses for 1 day (86400 seconds), and periodically clears the leases for inactive devices. The DNS servers are not specified, so the ones allocated by the active WAN connection are used.
Manually allocated IP addresses are bound to device MAC addresses. We do not use strict binding, i.e. if the device's MAC address isn't in the list then it is not allowed to use the network, as it would be a pain to have to register friends and family's devices every time they visited or changed.
WiFi
WiFi connectivity is provided by the router, as well as two additional access points. A single SSID is used at all three transceivers, on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Additionally two more SSIDs are used, but hidden, one each on each band, for devices that struggle with the single common SSID.
To minimise the possibility of interference the router is on Channel 1, whilst the two other access points are on Channel 11 (to enable the WDS bridge), and all access points are set up in Mixed Mode with 20MHz channels.
Each SSID is secured using a Pre-Shared Key (PSK) exchanged with WPA2 only.
The extension of WPA2 called WiFi Protected Setup (WPS) is disabled due to known vulnerabilities.
In order to promote the use of the 5GHz band, to maximise the bandwidth available for the WDS wireless link from the house to the workshop, Band Steering is enabled. When the access points detect a device trying to simultaneously connect to the common SSID on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, the device will be deliberately stopped from joining 2.4GHz for 15 seconds. By which time the device should have connected to the 5GHz band.
The setup for the 5GHz band is similar to the 2.4GHz band.
As the 20MHz channels in the 5GHZ band do not overlap with each other, the router uses Channel 36, whilst the other access points use Channels 40 and 44. These are in the A-Lower (5150-5250GHz) band, so Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) and Transmission Power Control (TPC) do not apply.
Security on the 5GHz band is setup the same as the 2.4GHz band, and WPS is also disabled on the 5GHz band.
Hardware Acceleration
We do not use hardware acceleration, so that all traffic passes through the Data Flow Monitor and Traffic Graphs.
UPnP
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is disabled, as it is insecure by design and enables devices on the LAN to open up ports in the Firewall in order to communicate with external servers.
IGMP
The BT TV YouView PVR uses a combination of the terrestrial aerial to receive FreeView channels and IPTV to stream the other channels via Infinity. This means the PVR needs to be able to join IP Multicast groups, so the IGMP proxy must be enabled. Additionally to avoid swamping the WiFi with multicast packets IGMP Snooping and IGMP Fast Leave should be enabled.
Dynamic DNS
The router is dynamically assigned an IP address for the WAN interface, so in order to enable VPN access to the LAN via the router there are 2 dynamic DNS entries maintained. Every 1 day (1440 minutes) the router reconfirms the WAN IP address with the dynamic DNS service.
These are provided by the free service No-IP.com, and are set up with a Domain Name, Login and Password provided by No-IP.com.
VPN
The router runs a VPN server so that we can connect remotely to the home network via smartphone or laptop in order to access the security cameras, or geo-locked services such as the BBC iPlayer when travelling abroad. We use the Draytek Smart VPN Client, which has clients for the two OS that we use: Android and Windows.
First we will enable VPN via an SSL Tunnel.
Then add a Remote Access user account, with access via the SSL Tunnel enabled, and a 5 minute timeout.
If you create more than one Remote Access user account, you can individually activate and deactivate them.
When the user connects remotely this is indicated with green text, rather than red text.
More detailed stats on the connection are also available.
On a Windows PC you need to install the Smart VPN Client, and then Insert a new Profile for the router that uses the SSL Tunnel and supplies the same credentials as the Remote Access user account.
Once connected Windows sees a new virtual network connection called DraySSLTunnel.
On an Android phone the Smart VPN Client is available through the Google Play App Store, and once installed is available either via the app matrix or via the VPN Settings.
As per the Windows setup, first create a Profile using the + symbol at the bottom of the screen.
First we will enable VPN via an SSL Tunnel.
Then add a Remote Access user account, with access via the SSL Tunnel enabled, and a 5 minute timeout.
If you create more than one Remote Access user account, you can individually activate and deactivate them.
When the user connects remotely this is indicated with green text, rather than red text.
More detailed stats on the connection are also available.
On a Windows PC you need to install the Smart VPN Client, and then Insert a new Profile for the router that uses the SSL Tunnel and supplies the same credentials as the Remote Access user account.
Once connected Windows sees a new virtual network connection called DraySSLTunnel.
On an Android phone the Smart VPN Client is available through the Google Play App Store, and once installed is available either via the app matrix or via the VPN Settings.
As per the Windows setup, first create a Profile using the + symbol at the bottom of the screen.
Then pressing on the Profile connects and disconnects the phone to the router via the SSL Tunnel.
