OK, I have about had it up to here with my ActionTec 1520 not playing nice with my Watchguard SOHO firewall. Our new DSL connection requires PPPoA to get the static IP address that has been assigned to our office here. All I want to do is make this thing be absolutely transparent and just pass EVERYTHING it gets directly to the firewall where it can then get routed around to the correct servers (as we run Web servers, Terminal servers, as well as a couple other ports I need to have open and routed). But this stupid modem does NOT want to play nice with my stupid firewall. I’ve tried disabling NAT. I’ve tried using the transparent bridge setting. I’ve tried (though maybe I’m not doing it right) a static route from ActionTec to the firewall, no luck. I’ve tried putting the firewall in a DMZ, no luck. The ActionTec has firewall features, but they don’t work at all, either, so I’m not about to put the dozen ports into the modem and hope it works (already tried that).
I’ve spent the last 6 hours kicking the sh!t out of this thing getting nowhere (and this is after the various other days I’ve spent trying, too). My DSL provider has been less than helpful, as well. They can’t seem to find their Tech guy, and when I told them that they were no good to me, they said “Well you’re no good to me, either!” How’s that for customer service? If they weren’t the only broadband providers around these rural parts of Central Oregon, I’d tell them to to f**k off.
Does ANYBODY have any idea what I might be missing? Anybody ever dealt with this modem/firewall and gotten it to work? Anybody? Bueller?
I need a drink…OK, I don’t drink, but maybe I should start… .
Comments
I am having the exact same problem. I have been through everything I can think of. Do you know which firmware version your ActionTec has? I have heard that there are some problems with some of the versions. The latest from my DSL provider is here: http://www.qwest.com/dsl/customerservice/Actiontec1520.html
I am going to load it up tonight and see if it makes a difference.
Jason
The easiest way to avoid NAT problems is to not use it, and the easiest way to do so is to lease a block of static IPs, which is the most common way to fix this. Its a one time 25$ setup fee, and costs 14.95$ a month, but with it you get ips reserved under your name.
First is the reserved network IP, which is assigned to your modem.
The next four are user assignable, static IP addressing for each device connected to one of the four ports in the back. DHCP will hand out those IPs, unless you configure them manually. The 5th and 6th are for your gateway and broadcast address. The last should be the unique subnet mask.
If you order right around the time of this post, it may be slow, the updating servers have had problems and so it may take an extra day or so, otherwise its done in around 30 minutes. The actual purchasing is done online at qwest.net, under account tools. At the bottom should be information about reserving ip blocks.
If you don’t see the link at the bottom of the page, call tech support. It usually is a problem with the way the account is setup.
I hope this helps. Let me know how it turns out 😉
Whoa I don’t think I read that right. But when you say you get the static IP, you mean from an entire block, right? Also, I’ve heard problems from actually typing in the reserved network ip into the settings, as to leaving that blank and letting it be automatic, since when they set it up for your account you should get discconnected (if you were trained) and then reconnect with your static ip automatically. I have an ActionTec 1524, so it may be a different situation :/
I just know that we tried damn near everything to get it to work, with no dice. Then we got a Cisco 678 off eBay, and everything worked fine with no odd-ball configurations to get it to work.
So the solution? Get the Cisco, screw what Qwest says will work and won’t, and save yourself a bunch of trouble. I’m putting my 1520 on eBay, that’s for sure.
I have a GT701-WG wireless gateway modem. I subscribe to Qwest DSL Deluxe with MSN Premium. The documentation for the modem (page 6 at http://www.qwest.com/internet/downloads/gt701-wgusermanual.pdf) says that Qwest Technical Support is responsible for helping customers to enable/disable the modem’s NAT firewall. However, they have given me the runaround. From, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” to, “You’ll have to cancel your current package, and get Qwest DSL Basic.” This seems very weird. All I know is that the NAT firewall, when enabled, slows connections and doesn’t allow incoming connections (like those used in some P2P programs). It seems that if they support this feature, but require that I acquire a block of static IP’s, they would just say that. I hate Qwest.
You’ll like this little article on Qwest Qwest article
For those asking for a company besides Qwest for telecom services and are in Colorado try Liberty Bell at Liberty Bell Pays You Back
Best part about Liberty Bell over Qwest is that they PAY you $1/per month per referral. If you refer 20 people that would pay your basic phone bill!
Liberty Bell leases Qwest lines but still they are a seperate company all together and are a competitor of Qwest.
How many of your are having these issues under linux? Most the currently available DHCP clients like to slap the modems own ip address in you /etc/resolv.conf for god only knows what reason. You can try to make the file immutable or cp a correct version in an init strip.
This would explain slow lookups for websites… As for serving, I dont seem to have this issue when I forward ALL ports to a particular IP.. Although there is an issue with the actiontec not saving changes after a power failure… If your running your OWN nat or dhcp server, in addition to the on actiontec is running, that could be a big problem..