In my previous blogs I have documented the journey to getting Virgin Media’s XGS PON powered broadband installed and as you will see from reading them the inculded Hub 5x is limited in features and at the time of writing (21/7/24) does not have Modem Mode working properly which makes using your own router tricky. It is possible to bypass the Hub 5x altogether with the help of the WAS-110 SFP+ module this blog will detail what is required to achieve this.
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Background
Virgin Media’s new XGS PON broadband powered by Nexfibre’s new network offers speeds up to 2Gbps symmetric and is rapidly being rolled out across the country.
Unlike most FTTP installs all you get is Virgin Medias Hub 5x and the fibre goes directly into this rather than via an ONT.
An ONT would allow you to plug your own router quite eaisly where as the Hub 5x is already the router.
While Virgin Media’s DOCSIS based routers or hubs have offered a function called Modem Mode for years they have still not got it fully working on the Hub 5x.
Modem Mode essentially turns off all the router features of the Virgin Media Router/Hub making it act more like an ONT and it just passes the public IPv4 address right though to your own router.
As I documented in my last blog Modem Mode is not in the GUI natively and while I was able to get it working using a hidden page it only works on Port1 which is limited to 1Gbps or 950mbps throughput which means you are not able to achieve the full line speed of the Gig1 or Gig2 services.
It has also come to light that Virgin’s automated hourly performance speed testing done on Hub5x has caused issues with the service epically on Gig2!
There is another option and that is to use a SFP+ module that you plug the fibre cable into and this handles the XGSPON side allowing you to use your own router with full speeds.
There is a fantastic community called 8311 that have come up with the firmware and instructions to get this working not only for Virgin Media but other ISP’s around the world without them none of this would be possible so a huge thanks to the 8311 community.
Pre Requisites
Before we go any further just a disclaimer that by following this guide you do so at your own risk and note you will not get any support from Virgin Media and if you have any issues with your service you will need to plug your Hub5X back in for troubleshooting with VM.
This is intended for technical people who wish to use their own router and understand the risks involved.
You will need the following for this project:
- A WAS-110 XGSPON ONU SFP+ Module
- LC/APC to SC/APC cable or adaptor
- A device with a spare SFP+ slot (ie switch, router etc)
The WAS-110 can be ordered from Fibre Mall based in China or ECIN based in Canada you can also periodically get it slightly cheaper on group buys in the 8311 Discord. with the added advantage it comes pre loaded with the latest 8311 community firmware!
Note with fibre mall they will ask you what devices your using it with just answer with the device your plugging it into your end.
The WAS-110 is a SFP+module that is essentially an XGSPON ONT/ONU on a stick and together with the 8311 custom firmware allows you to enter the details of your ISP’s device to get connected.
Setup
Here are the links from the 8311 Discord community which provide the full details and may provide more up to date info always worth a read as well.
The following are the steps you need to follow (based on using a Windows device for setup) to get the WAS-110 working with VM XGSPON for those that prefer a video guide see my video above or click here:
Plug the WAS-110 into a 10Gbps capable SFP+ port (note some devices such as Mikrotik switches do not bring up the WAS-110 unless an active fibre is connected to it).
Get a connection to the WAS-110 by either:
- Putting your client device into the same subnet as the WAS-110 by setting a static IP of 192.168.11.2/24 with default Gateway 192.168.11.1
- Adding a static Route to 192.168.11.1/24
See if you can get to Web Gui (http://192.168.11.1) and ping the WAS-110 on 192.168.11.1
Depending on the stock firmware of your WAS-110 stick comes with try the following default web gui credentials:
For Firmware V1.0.21 and above:
| Username | Password |
| admin | BR#22729%635e9 |
| user | user1234 |
For Firmware V1.0.20 and below:
| Username | Password |
| admin | QsCg@7249#5281 |
| user | user1234
alternatively if they are not working try follow these steps:
- a. Enter this URL into your web browser http://192.168.11.1/cgi-bin/shortcut_telnet.cgi?cat%20%2Fptrom%2Fptconf%2Fparam_ct.xml
- b. Copy the XML file into your favourite text editor
- c. Parse the XML for the admin password eg:
value=”admin”></param><br /><param name=”Password” rw=”2″ type=”s” flash_rw=”1″ noti=”0″ noti_rw=”1″ key=”0″ flash_encryp=”1″ value_encryp=”1″ accesslist=”Subscriber” value=”plain text password”>
Once you have found the password log into the web gui.
Once logged into to the WebGUI go to Service tab>Service control and enable SSH.
Download the latest WAS-110 8311 Basic firmware from
https://github.com/djGrrr/8311-was-110-firmware-builder/releases
Once downloaded extract the contents of the .7z compressed folder.
Enter this in your web browser to change the root password to ‘root’ for SSH login.:
In windows explorer navigate to the extracted WAS firmware folder extracted earlier then shift+ right click and choose ‘run powershell window here’
In the PowerShell window enter this code to copy the 8311 firmware onto the WAS-110 via SCP:
scp -oHostKeyAlgorithms=+ssh-rsa -oPubkeyAcceptedKeyTypes=+ssh-rsa local-upgrade.tar [email protected]:/tmp/
Once the file has finished transferring from Step 9 run this in the same Power Shell window to install the 8311 firmware to Firmware Bank B on the WAS-110:
ssh -oHostKeyAlgorithms=+ssh-rsa -oPubkeyAcceptedKeyTypes=+ssh-rsa [email protected] 'tar xvf /tmp/local-upgrade.tar -C /tmp/ -- upgrade.sh && /tmp/upgrade.sh -y -r /tmp/local-upgrade.tar’
Once the 8311 firmware has installed and the WAS-110 rebooted check it has now got the 8311 firmware by logging into the webgui with user root and no password (be sure to set one after)
You should be greeted with the 8311 web gui.
You will then need to repeat Step 10 to install the 8311 Firmware again.
This is because the WAS-110 has two firmware partitions or banks A+B by installing once you have only installed to one of the banks and the original firmware is still on the other bank/partition.
By installing the 8311 firmware twice your installing it on both Banks/Partitions which in the event it decides to boot from the other bank/partition you will still have the 8311 firmware.
It is possible the OLT at the other end may trigger the change of firmware to boot from the other bank/partition.
note when SSHing onto the WAS-110 after installing the 8311 firmware the host key will have changed so you may need to add/update this on your trusted hosts in your SSH client.
After installing the firmware twice and the WAS-110 has rebooted you should now see the firmware on both banks/partitions
you can find this under 8311 menu and Firmware.
In the WAS-110 web gui head to 8311 from the top menu and choose Configuration.
In the Configuration screen enter the following info leaving everything else as default:
- PON Serial Number (ONTID) = PON serial number from label on hub 5x
- Equipment ID = F5685LGB
- Hardware Version = 1.2.1b
- Tick Sync Circuit Pack Version option.
- Software Version A+B = 3.7.4-2306.5
- MIB File = /etc/mibs/prx300_1V_bell.ini
- IP Host MAC Address = C4:EB:43:00:00:01
Once entered save and then reboot the device using System>reboot from the top menu and if you have not done so already connect the fibre cable (SC/APC end) into the WAS-110.
Once rebooted log back into the WAS-110 Web Gui.
Then under 8311 menu choose PON status
On the status tab you should hopefully see this line
PON PLOAM Status : O5.1, Associated state
O5.1 means it has a connection.
Connect your WAS-110 to your router and you should by now pick up a Virgin Media public IPv4 address and have a working connection.
If you don’t then double check the details are correct in 8311>configuration page.
You can reach out to the 8311 CM discord chat if you have any questions or issues.
My own experince
I ordered my WAS-110 from Fibre Mall which arrived quickly considering it came form China and got it working using the above steps.
It has been working fine now for a few days.
Mine is plugged into a Mikrotik CRS-317-1G-16s+ running in Switch OS mode.
The port on the switch is in its own VLAN which then routes to my pfSense Router for the WAN interface in there.
Once I did the setup and entered the correct details my pfSense router picked up the VM Public IPv4 address and been solid ever since.
The WAS-110 can run hot mines running at ~60C but been told that’s normal.
Its nice to be able to use my own router without the Hub5x in the equation and being able to monitor the XGSPON light level in my switch (and the web gui of the WAS) is also useful.
Hope people find this useful and again huge thanks for the 8311 community for making this possible!
Great blog post. I have this working and it works a treat.
Cheers Barry
Huge thanks for this guide – just set it up works great. One note – when copying and pasting step 10 the — comes through as a long line rather than a double dash so produces an error in powershell, was easily resolved but wanted to mention it in case it helps anyone else
Thank you for the kind comment glad you found it useful.
Thanks for the heads up on the PowerShell code guess the formatting got a bit messed up will see if I can correct this!
Thanks for this guide, really great instructions and I’ve managed to update the firmware as described.
However, the temperature of the WAS-110 is crazy hot in my UniFi Dream Wall. My unit got to 82 degrees C before I decided that was enough and shut it down. Removing the module required gloves it was that hot. Do you think I have a dud module?
Cheers Matt glad you found it useful. 82C is rather high mine sits around 60C even in hot weather so you may have a faulty unit.
You could get a cooling solution for it to try and keep the temp down.
Hi Matt,
I have a 30mmx30mm fan sat on mine, this reduced it from 69 to 48.
There are 3D printable mounts for it as well.
Link to Fan
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CB1B2193?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title
Link to mount
https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/gadget/30mm-fan-mount-for-azores-was-110-sfp-ont-stick
I used superglue to attach the fan to the mount then cable ties over the stick.
Great post! Just 1 thing to note, Virgin media is an LC/UPC connector and not APC. I’d advise swapping that cable out as using the wrong type creates huge signal losses and can cause issues on the XGSPON network.
Cheers, The provided VM/Nexfibre LC cable and connectors/faceplates are all LC/APC (Green Connectors) LC/UPC have blue connectors.
Hmm, very strange. Mine is the hub 5x and the connector is definitely UPC, maybe they have different models? My hub hardware version is 1.2.1b
Excellent post, did this last night and all is well.
One thing, after step 10 the reboot on my WAS-110 took between 7 and 10 minutes to the point where I thought I had bricked it. When it came back the next reboot after step 11 only took around 2-3 minutes.
Not to worry though I am very happy.
This is really interesting as id be willing to ditch the VM hub.
My issues is where my virgin comes in is not near where I have my comms rack, I have cat6 running from the virgin hub upto where my rack is, are you aware of anything small that can be a replacement for the hub, that I can put the sfp in and and then pass everything over to cat6 to the router, or act as as router itself (that I can just terminate into my switch). Or is there a way to extend the fibre that comes in into my comms rack so I could terminate the fibre there?
Hi Aaron,
You can use a media convertor with a SFP+ and 2.5/10GbaseT RJ45 then plug the WAS into the SFP+ port and your cat6 into the RJ45 port on the media convertor.
You could also use a small switch with SFP+ and a 2.5/10GBbaseT port or you can get fibre extension cables.
I had one of these that did this for me before I got a router that had built in SFP+.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007391933720.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.1.3cf47Yqk7YqkRH&algo_pvid=5ae61d33-415b-4897-967b-eb974d3e6bd0&algo_exp_id=5ae61d33-415b-4897-967b-eb974d3e6bd0-0&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21GBP%2196.42%2129.89%21%21%21875.75%21271.48%21%40211b80e117253493574571335e9c44%2112000040567142154%21sea%21UK%216035032281%21X&curPageLogUid=b8FveCacwu9m&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A
Do you mind to share your pfsense settings.
Prob a bit much to go into here in the comments but feel free to reach out on Discord via the 8311 channel!
Hi Nathan
Thanks for your work! Any guide for BE800? or it has to be some other network switch. it has combo port but when chosen SPF+ port i cant see PON stick. Any chance to look in manual(be800) and get some advice
Hi Adamski I’m sure someone else on the 8311 discord in the UK is using the TP Link Be-800 try posting on their lots of people including myself that can help 🙂
Hi there, i have cityfibre ont, how to replace? Thanks!
CityFibre operate both a GPON network and XGSPON so first thing to find out is which one of those you are on.
then I would advise joining the 8311 discord and posting in the UK general board