DHCP -- OPTION 61 -- Alta labs switches and AP's -- homelab/server -- HELP!

Switches
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Hi all,

For the past 2-3 years I have been studying networking and even with the small amount of knowledge i’ve gained, i’m still not confident to order the hardware I believe will work with my ISP
In the UK we have a shit ISP called (SKY) and for several years i’ve renewed it because of work and little time to explore new options
Last month I took the jump to have FTTP, and yes, with sky…
However, I am entitled to exemption due to promised events in the past when renewing my contract but sky cover over 13 million customers in the UK alone, minus the 54 million who are with other services and have time on their hands…
Now my sob story is over, I need your HELP!
‘cue the violins’
Sky, being sky, dont like 3rd party hardware and try their up most to make life very difficult for noobs like me.
Sky’s DHCP – Option 61 is
(USERNAME: abcdef@skydsl PASS: abc123abcdefg@skydsl
OR USERNAME: abc123@skydsl PASS: abcdef12345
However, will your switches and AP’s allow option 61?
Im not much of a unifi fan and would rather stick with mikro or TPlink. But again, TP and sky dont work well and only 2 routers from TP work with option 61 and these routers are butt ugly!
I have fallen in love with alta labs even though i dont own any yet, I have seen them in action in my friends home
His ISP is BT, and BT are cool with 3rd party hardware.

My FTTP (ONT) modem from openreach is this
image

And my ugly SKY router is this
image

In the SKY forum they have stated that I can have a 3rd party router to replace the sky router if i connect it directly to the ONT modem. This is great, because i can now throw away with pride smash the f-ing thing with a hammer! the sky router and not use it ever again even as a repeater or anything that might aid me because it wont!
And breath…
But, and there is always a but, like there is always a DNS issue :expressionless:
My main goal here is to create a small home lab/server and I would be extremelly greatful if everyone told me what hardware I would need to achieve this or better still, YOUR homelab/server and what YOU have going on :pray:

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Welcome to the forum, and thanks for the post!

The DHCP option you are requesting would be best to include in your router, so that all of your connected devices do not require adding this option their their DHCP requests. We do plan to release a router at some point, but do not currently have one, so please keep an eye on the forum for more news. We will keep this option in mind as we develop our router product.

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Thank you Jeff!
Option 61 has been a living hell and literally prevented me from building any small home lab. I will be asking more questions to the sky community about alta labs and if anyone has managed to build anything with AL switches and AP’s
If and when you do sell routers I and many SKY customers will definetely purchase your routers. I just hope the routers are not big and bulky like unifi…

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Instructions from DrayTek on how to handle Sky DHCP61 requests.

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Unless they’ve changed it back you don’t actually need the username/password in option 61 any more, I don’t have a Sky/NowTV connection any more but at one point I was sending them bacon@bacon.local or something similarly absurd in the option61 string.

Also, if you want IPv6 to work you need to send the DHCPv6-PD request shortly after bringing up the IPv4 session as otherwise they won’t respond to it.

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Good to know :+1:
We’ll be moving home soon it would be great to know what’s needed or what equipment you and others have for your home lab
Been told to stick with unifi and others say alta labs and the others believe in an all round free open source

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@MD-Geist Who’s telling you to stick with unifi? :slight_smile:

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Just a few ppl I’ve spoken to over the years. Not particularly my cup of tea