Putting a CL modem into a bridge mode where it only handles the PPPoE
connection is simply checking a radial select button and hitting apply.
If your firewall supports PPoE, even better, as you no longer need their
Modem and router in the mix. But, that is just my experience, and it is
limited. I have a CL fiber to the door drop, and they gave me a Zyxel
C3000Z device for connection. I promptly ripped it out and allowed
pfSense to maintain the PPPoE connection. I had to call support for
packet loss one time, and they refused to help me. So goes it rolling
your own I guess. Turns out a day later we had a several hour outage due
to one of the multiplexing cards used to distribute the 40Gb/s core
fiber to the GPON devices failed. Seems like that was a likely culprit
for some of the packet loss the previous day.
Having just gotten off a call in which the Senior Director of Security
Architecture and Engineering (a friend of mine from Atlanta) for Cox was
a participant, before he hung up I asked him about the typical Cox
supplied modems. Very, very few of them are purely bridge devices -
especially with the push to "Panoramic WiFi". A member of CentryLink who
was also on the call (ISP InfoSec sharing/working group) mentioned how
painful it was to support the number of company issued
modems/gateway/router models there are for different infrastructure and
connections - let alone ones that customers buy and bring to the party.
BTW, the MAC address thing is because they do actually use a MAC locking
like feature for security. Apparently it is bad for the network if you
just go plug your modem in at several houses in the neighborhood due to
the way DOCSIS works. I still have to dig into that and ask some more
questions on that one.
There was a collective groan among the engineers when another ISP spoke
up about the number of critical flaws they find in their DOCIS devices
each year.
With the amount of consolidation which has happened in the past 20 years
in the broadband market, the landscape is riddled with legacy bits and
pieces of this provider and that provider somehow being coerced into
working together to accomplish passing traffic. One of the ISPs
mentioned they had no less than 350 different models of core switching
equipment made by more than a dozen manufacturers in their network. They
have a team of 40 (really 5 teams of 8) that simply monitor and ensure
that the OSPF functions properly among the various models and brands to
make sure that the network properly heals/manages congestion.
Anyway, just throwing it out so that people can see and understand the
picture at a higher level. The final comment on the call was from an
engineer at a midwestern rural provider and one that I am sure many of
us can relate to. She said she spends all day pulling her hair out
trying to keep the network functioning at the highest of levels. The
first words out of her kids' mouths when she gets home are "Mom, the
WiFi seems slow today."
I talked with Alexander this afternoon, and it looks like he has a
functioning network again. The APs were reluctant to give up their old
configuration, so a factory reset and new DHCP leases seem to have done
the trick.
Hopefully this sheds a bit of light on something for a few people.
Mac
Michael Butash via PLUG-discuss wrote on 5/4/20 4:59 PM:
> Ideally when you plug into a cable modem, it comes up, and passes your
> ethernet to the cmts in a bridge, lets one mac address dhcp/arp, and
> things work. It learns that one ip/mac, and disallows any other mac.
> No security, nat, nothing, just real dumb dhcp + default routing with
> a public ip. Routers/firewalls try to NAT you, thus double NAT if
> using a router behind it.
>
> CL sells you a dsl modem/router that does your local security whether
> you want it or not, full router/nat/firewall, and probably spyware.
> Making it a modem is possible, but takes work, and your firewall has
> to support PPPoE (not all can/do). Last time I touched a combo Cox
> router/modem, I didn't see any way to do so. I told them to buy a
> real modem, and that worked with their belkin/cisco/linksys/netgear
> they had.
>
> If your "modem" mentions wifi, it's a router/firewall, not a modem.
> Not all are clear about this, as they dumb it down for consumers, but
> an important point.
>
> -mb
>
>
> On Mon, May 4, 2020 at 1:53 PM Stephen Partington via PLUG-discuss
> <plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
> <mailto:plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org>> wrote:
>
> I Owned a Nighthawk Router/Modem combo, The way that Netgear
> handled that is that the modem was hard-wired to a bridge on the
> router side. and technically you could see it as a separate device
> in the router configs if you rooted around enough. but the modem
> side was just a modem.
>
> On Mon, May 4, 2020 at 11:03 AM Michael Butash via PLUG-discuss
> <plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
> <mailto:plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org>> wrote:
>
> Cox modems *are* bridges first and foremost typically, unless
> you get a bundled router/modem, which is only what CenturyLink
> sells. If you got a "router/modem" combo, just buy a
> modem-only device for a dumb bridge and simple ethernet for a
> public ip. I recommend staying with an arris cable modem,
> originally motorola, they basically developed cable modem
> docsis, and are always the best.
>
> I moved from Cox to CL when Cox started adding a usage cap,
> and that was new to me to get my Fortinet firewall online with
> CL and their DSL doing PPPOE. I've seen the router/cable
> modem combo boxes later, but never owned one as I always have
> my own router/firewall.
>
> -mb
>
>
> On Mon, May 4, 2020 at 8:36 AM Donald Mac McCarthy
> <mac@oscontext.com <mailto:mac@oscontext.com>> wrote:
>
> Will Cox allow for a bridge/virtual bridge mode? Xfinity
> does, which allows you to put in a firewall, and use the
> modem only as a gateway, therefore preventing a double NAT
> situation. Never lived in a Cox area before, and currently
> ride CL fiber.
>
> Mac
>
> Michael Butash via PLUG-discuss wrote on 5/3/20 2:00 PM:
>> Cox modems will learn and allow only 1 mac at a time
>> (unless business is set to allow more, but not on
>> residential). If switching out firewalls, I 99% of time
>> reboot the modem first and foremost.
>>
>> -mb
>>
>> On Sun, May 3, 2020 at 12:08 PM Snyder, Alexander J via
>> PLUG-discuss <plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
>> <mailto:plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org>> wrote:
>>
>> I got it working.
>>
>> I assigned the SFP+ port as my LAN and assigned it
>> the 10.x.x.x/16 network. Then I had to call COX and
>> list the WAN Mac address with them. Upon doing so I
>> was able to reach external sites, and all downstream
>> devices started coming alive!
>>
>> Thanks for all the suggestions and help!
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Alexander
>>
>> Sent from my Galaxy S10+
>>
>> On Sun, May 3, 2020, 03:14 Herminio Hernandez, Jr.
>> via PLUG-discuss <plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
>> <mailto:plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org>> wrote:
>>
>> Can you login to the FW via the LAN interface?
>> Can you ping the FW LAN interface? Check the
>> routing and NAT policy on the FW. All outbound
>> traffic should NAT to the FW WAN interface and
>> there should be a default (0.0.0.0/0
>> <http://0.0.0.0/0>) route to the internet.
>>
>> On Sat, May 2, 2020 at 7:27 PM Seabass via
>> PLUG-discuss <plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
>> <mailto:plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org>> wrote:
>>
>> I'm with Mac, I think it is not the firewall,
>> but if you have the ability to plug it into a
>> display with a keyboard, you can use that for
>> configuration and modify a different device
>> at the same time.
>>
>> Makes it easier to troubleshoot by giving you
>> the ability to configure your pfSense ports
>> at the same time.
>>>
>>>
>>> Message: 2
>>> Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 09:04:35 -0700
>>> From: Donald Mac McCarthy <mac@oscontext.com
>>> <mailto:mac@oscontext.com>>
>>> To: "Snyder, Alexander J via PLUG-discuss"
>>> <plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
>>> <mailto:plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org>>
>>> Subject: Re: pfSense + Ubiquity
>>> Message-ID:
>>> <18adfa38-3e72-7b0a-e31a-1ddf175d717f@oscontext.com
>>> <mailto:18adfa38-3e72-7b0a-e31a-1ddf175d717f@oscontext.com>>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>>>
>>> I can help - but I am unavailable to do so
>>> until tomorrow.
>>>
>>> Make sure there are not any thing other than
>>> default VLANs on the
>>> interfaces to start with. Ubiquiti is famous
>>> for not havinght eSFP+
>>> ports active in the default configuration,
>>> and I believe the switch has
>>> all the ports to shutdown on default config
>>> as well.
>>>
>>> I think it is the switch not passing traffic
>>> through - no the firewall.
>>>
>>> Mac
>>> Snyder, Alexander J via PLUG-discuss wrote
>>> on 5/2/20 8:53 AM:
>>> > Does anyone out there have experience with
>>> pfSence and Ubiquity switches?
>>> >
>>> > I have zero with either but that didn't
>>> stop me from buying both ....
>>> > how hard could it be?! LOL.
>>> >
>>> > I bought a Negate XG-1537-1U. I bought a
>>> Unifi Pro 24 PoE switch.
>>> >
>>> > I can configure the FW immediately after
>>> > firstboot/restore-default-configs, but
>>> only if i set the LAN interface
>>> > to be the cable that goes directly to my
>>> laptop. That's great, but
>>> > that does shit for the downstream switch.
>>> >
>>> > I have a 10GB SFP+ Port that I want to
>>> configure as the downstream
>>> > port to ubiquity, but any configuration
>>> other than mentioned above
>>> > fails .... and I'm now on my 12th "Reset
>>> To Factory Defaults" ... any
>>> > help on this would be greatly appreciated!
>>> >
>>> > Thanks,
>>> > Alexander
>>> >
>>> > Sent from my Galaxy S10+
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> ---------------------------------------------------
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>>>
>>> --
>>> Donald "Mac" McCarthy
>>> Director, Field Operations
>>> Open Source Context
>>> +1.602.584.4445
>>> mac@oscontext.com <mailto:mac@oscontext.com>
>>> https://oscontext.com
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> --
> Donald "Mac" McCarthy
> Director, Field Operations
> Open Source Context
> +1.602.584.4445
> mac@oscontext.com <mailto:mac@oscontext.com>
> https://oscontext.com
>
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>
>
> --
> A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you
> from rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze
> button.
>
> Stephen
>
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