Sonic.net

We have been paying sonic for "rental" of their pace router. We did that so we didn't have to deal with AT&T, worth every penny. It has been several years since we have had problems, so we thought of sending back the router and unfortunately, sonic isn't offering fiber service at our address. We purchased a pace 4111n router on ebay to replace the one we are renting. Unfortunately the one we got was hard coded to "Hawaiian Telecom". It works to access the internet on a ethernet connection but not for wifi. All of the dns settings are hidden and we can't figure out how to change them.

According to what we can find on the internet, the red reset button show clear all settings, but it doesn't seem to do anything. It comes back with the same default settings.

Anyone have any ideas on how to make this work? Otherwise we will toss the router and live with the rental until AT&T cancels landline service and we have to find another internet vendor.

Thanks

Hello! I'm sorry to hear about this. The reset button does need to be pressed and held for around 10 seconds or so before it will clear any saved information. Have you tried this? If this physical button doesn't work, you can sometimes find a factory reset button in the diagnostics software page of your router. I hope this information helps.

Yes, I have tried every different way to push the reset button, including the most extreme I found posted - holding the button in for 60 seconds, unplugging the router for 60 seconds, and then plugging in again for 60 seconds (180 seconds total time the reset button was held in). There are a few other variations on the internet and none work. The reset button seems to load up the Hawaiian Telecom data, erasing any changes I made. I also tried the software reset from the diagnostics page - that doesn't work either.

Understood. Yes, one of those processes should have certainly reset it. There must be some Hawaiian telecom settings hard-coded to the software that won't allow a true Factory reset. Sorry to hear that.

Yup - I think the thing goes in the recycling bin. I wonder if the AT&T units that are on ebay will work with Sonic?

fyfchu wrote: ↑Mon Jan 06, 2025 1:18 pm Yup - I think the thing goes in the recycling bin. I wonder if the AT&T units that are on ebay will work with Sonic?

Most, if not all, company-branded modems are going to be hardcoded the same as the Hawaiian Telecom one you just bought unfortunately. Are you experiencing issues with the rental? If so, we should be able to send a replacement free-of-charge.

If it's more so just to save money on the monthly bill, you'd probably just want to look up a third-party DSL modem/router. However, it's important to note that renting the equipment does come with a lot of perks you might not necessarily think about. Things like covering Sonic dispatches for when there's a problem with the home's internet wiring, allowing our technical support team to access the router remotely for in-depth troubleshooting, regular firmware/security updates, and if the modem/router ever kicks the bucket, we can replace it for free instead of you having to purchase a whole new modem/router.

If you have any questions about anything, please let me know.

Kind regards

Yes, I understand the perks of the rental. That is why we rented it early on when we were have lots of problems with AT&T and Sonic dealt with them when they came out. However, the AT&T issues have been solved for a number of years and we spoke to one of your people about our alternatives. He suggested that we try replacing the rental if we liked. We purchased one which should have been the same model as the Sonic rental, but obviously it has been a headache and won't work. Would an "AT&T" Pace 4111n work? Any recommendations of other modem/routers we could get?

fyfchu wrote: ↑Wed Jan 08, 2025 10:39 am Yes, I understand the perks of the rental. That is why we rented it early on when we were have lots of problems with AT&T and Sonic dealt with them when they came out. However, the AT&T issues have been solved for a number of years and we spoke to one of your people about our alternatives. He suggested that we try replacing the rental if we liked. We purchased one which should have been the same model as the Sonic rental, but obviously it has been a headache and won't work. Would an "AT&T" Pace 4111n work? Any recommendations of other modem/routers we could get?

Unfortunately, it would have the same issues as the Hawaiian Telecom modem. I think our rep was sadly misinformed as Pace 4111N are commercial-only modems, so you're most likely not going to be able to find one that's not hard-coded to a different provider's settings. As for recommendations, I can't provide any, sadly. You would just need to look online for third-party modems like Netgear, Linksys, D-Link, etc. It should work with our service after basic configuration/set-up as long as it's an ADSL2+ modem. Just be careful when browsing to make sure it's not a cable modem/DOCSIS 3.0 as that's strictly for cable service like Comcast and won't work. They tend to pop-up online even if you search "DSL modem".

However, other customers on the forums might be able to personally recommend a modem they found to work well.

Kind regards,

Thanks Brandon,

It was a cheap ($15) lesson - not a problem.