Why my router needs ONR reconfiguration?

Ankit Singh

I asked the same above question to my internet provider when they asked me to bring my router to their office for ONR reconfiguration as I was relocating my residence.

At first, I felt something is fishy! Why you need my router for this?!

Then I decided to first understand the term ONR before escalating this matter further.

So I was provided with 3 things by my provider,

  1. Yellow wire which gets plugged to NLT(network link trust) port
  2. A black box with multiple VLAN ports that can be connected to a router, TV, etc.
  3. My router.

Internet is an industry largely based around fiber, it's used because

  1. Low cost(silica is cheap)
  2. Light and flexible(relative to copper)
  3. 20TBPS+ info can be carried
  4. Different signals can be carried together without interference
  5. Doesn't need repeater, can be sent 1000s of KM without regeneration

Light signals travel in fiber optics using the principles of Reflection and Refraction(not digging deep into this)

Our digital signals must be encoded into analog pulses of light as fiber stands works with light rays.

The router provided by my provider was an ONR(optical network router). There is another type called ONT(optical network terminal).

ONR = ONT + Routing Functionality

So the black box was an ONR which my provider uses as a separate access point for Wifi. My router was an ONT device.

So in technical terms, In my case

The router is a modem - a device that converts incoming signal into data(as it actually attached to network lines)

The black box is all in one(modem + router) - a device that accepts the data and hands it over to the correct user down the chain

Basically, that black box is just a proxy ... my router could have done what it was actually doing.

So, with my current setup, my router can only run in Access Point mode for Wifi and its routing functionality will be disabled therefore I cannot use any advanced features.

Some questions:

why my provider gave me ONR when they could have given me ONT and let me figure out my own router?

  1. Wifi Meshes - there can be multiple routers attached to the black box VLAN if my house is quite big... so every room can enjoy their fair amount of internet bandwidth i.e No Blind Spots!

So is it easy to replace my router?

No, my router cannot do the routing. I need to reconfigure it to act as an AP(access point) i.e acting as a bridge between my devices and ONR(provided by my internet provider)

So can I run a VPN server behind an ONR?

No, my router in that case cannot function in AP mode which my provider won't like.

That’s it for now.