Free to use router "managed" by ISP

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ArnieD

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I would like to obtain some advice on the following please;

I changed to a new ISP and took the free to use router that they offer. Once activated I discovered that I could not log on to the router with the default username and password in order to customize my wifi SSID and password etc. I contacted the ISP who informed me that they own the router and it is managed by them and I am therefore not allowed to log on to the router unless I buy it from them and then they will unlock it. If I want to change anything on the router I have to contact them and they will apply those changes (SSID, password etc.). That can obviously only happen during the support hours available. Nowhere prior to this did they communicate this to me, yet point out that it is their interpretation of "managing the router"

I have never had any ISP do that with routers provided (free to use and managed by the ISP). Anybody else had this experience please and am I unreasonable to be upset by this?
 
Had the same. Resetted the router and phoned them up for the PPPOE username and password the next day. They gave it to me and locked the router down again. Bought my own router, unplugged theirs and boxed it up. I'd like to manage my own router thanks. Even if it's just the Wifi username and DNS servers. Best is to buy your own router. Totolink etc. is cheap as chips.

eg2505 said:
what ISP is this? also never heard of such things,
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Posted about it before and some people even defended it... https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/thr...rend-when-did-this-started-happening.1086071/
 
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madness pure madness,
I get why people want this, but seriously? not everybody has the intelligence of JUJU and the Brains of Dudu,

some of us know how to manage our own routers and switches perfectly well enough.
 
backstreetboy said:
Had the same. Resetted the router and phones them up for the PPPOE username and password the next day. They gave it to me and locked the router down again. Bought my own router, unplugged theirs and boxed it up. I'd like to manage my own router thanks. Even if it's just the Wifi username and DNS servers. Best is to buy your own router. Totolink etc. is cheap as chips.


Posted about it before and some people even defended it... https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/thr...rend-when-did-this-started-happening.1086071/
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Thanks for the info, I understand that "managing" the router from the ISP side have some advantages. If I now pay the purchase price for that very same router, they unlock it and I then don't "manage" it any longer. Same router, same ISP. If I provide my own router or buy theirs, then they still have support available for issues........
 
Suck it up or buy their/your own router.

Nothing is going to change by making a thread about it.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Suck it up or buy their/your own router.

Nothing is going to change by making a thread about it.
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Thank you very much, my intention with the post was to ask for advice and to see if I was the only one experiencing this. I still do not think that it is acceptable to let a customer first switch over and then inform them of this, if they told me this from the start I could make better informed decisions. Thank you for your input.
 
ArnieD said:
Thank you very much, my intention with the post was to ask for advice and to see if I was the only one experiencing this. I still do not think that it is acceptable to let a customer first switch over and then inform them of this, if they told me this from the start I could make better informed decisions. Thank you for your input.
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They did inform you, you likely just ignored it and didn’t bother to read all the T&C’s quoted or linked when signing up.

Many local ISP’s do this now and it’s been standard form internationally for decades.

Nothing is ever truly free.
 
SauRoNZA said:
They did inform you, you likely just ignored it and didn’t bother to read all the T&C’s quoted or linked when signing up.

Many local ISP’s do this now and it’s been standard form internationally for decades.

Nothing is ever truly free.
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With all due respect, how would you know that they in fact did inform me? They did not and in fact, I did read the T&C's. Agree with your statement about nothing ever being truly free.
 
ArnieD said:
With all due respect, how would you know that they in fact did inform me? They did not and in fact, I did read the T&C's. Agree with your statement about nothing ever being truly free.
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Because either in an email or on the very box that router shipped in or somewhere in the process of acquiring it you would have accepted conditions of “sale” and the details would have been right in there.

You are not the first and certainly won’t be the last to have missed it and then have regrets after the fact.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Because either in an email or on the very box that router shipped in or somewhere in the process of acquiring it you would have accepted conditions of “sale” and the details would have been right in there.

You are not the first and certainly won’t be the last to have missed it and then have regrets after the fact.
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Unfortunately not the case, but I wish not to labor the point. Have a good day.
 
Vox do the same with their Mikrotik. I went out and bought a TP-Link WiFi router and connected the ONT to that. Got full control of my WiFi network again!
 
I just put my preferred router which I have full control over behind the managed router, so to my network the managed router is just the first part of the Internet. Never had problems so far

You can even use your old dsl router if it has a telephone wan port, as most an be set up to use port 1 on the lan as a wan port
 
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