Generally unhappy with Sonic FTTN

[lewellyn]

So far, I'm trying hard to find anything I can like about Sonic FTTN. But it's hard:

• I apparently can't bridge my modem, which upsets my dual-WAN router (it expects to have a public IP on each WAN port, unsurprisingly) and effectively makes me have to have two different LAN segments (Sonic and the other ISP).
• My speed tests are all over the map (all the way down to about 5 megabits sometimes!), which would make the dual-WAN part of my router that much more useful.
• The hold times for calling in are generally atrocious.
• Calling into support seems to have a common answer of "post to the forum", which defeats the purpose of calling in for support.
• Also, I can't use my own SIP equipment (phone/ATA) with the Voice service.

Can anyone help me figure out how to deal with any of these things? I really, really want to like Sonic. But right now, it looks like I've signed up for a service which is simply unusable.

As it stands, the only thing I'm actually liking with Sonic is the phone number I was assigned (and I can't even use it since I don't have a POTS phone and I'm not going to buy one until I know Sonic internet service can work for me).

[Guest]

• I apparently can't bridge my modem, which upsets my dual-WAN router (it expects to have a public IP on each WAN port, unsurprisingly) and effectively makes me have to have two different LAN segments (Sonic and the other ISP).
• My speed tests are all over the map (all the way down to about 5 megabits sometimes!), which would make the dual-WAN part of my router that much more useful.
• The hold times for calling in are generally atrocious.

1. You can use IP Passthru/DMZ+ which will pass the WAN IP to your designated device.
2/3. AT&T problem. Go to https://www.sonic.com/support_cba_request and request a call back. Tell Sonic your connection is not stable and have them get AT&T over to your property and fix things.

Generally you have a 30-day money back guarantee. If you can't get your connection stabilized getting a refund is your only option.

As it stands, the only thing I'm actually liking with Sonic is the phone number I was assigned

Let me guess... Asian? Lots of 2s, 8s, and maybe a couple of 6es? Or it spells something that's been written on cars on Top Gear UK?

[andsonic]

I just want to say that I was an early bird with FTTN. Getting a stable connection was challenging at first. After a second visit from AT&T, in which they replaced the modem and did some other stuff, the connection and speeds have been rock solid.
My feeling is that the olde copper network is just not up to snuff for handling broadband speeds. I'm just waiting for fiber to be announced.

[lewellyn]

1. You can use IP Passthru/DMZ+ which will pass the WAN IP to your designated device.
2/3. AT&T problem. Go to https://www.sonic.com/support_cba_request and request a call back. Tell Sonic your connection is not stable and have them get AT&T over to your property and fix things.

Generally you have a 30-day money back guarantee. If you can't get your connection stabilized getting a refund is your only option.

1) DMZplus doesn't solve the fact that my router gets an RFC 1918 address rather than a publicly routable address. This makes a few of the features work "oddly". I'm not willing to compromise on the reasons I got my router just to accommodate the "quirks" of what has quickly become my secondary WAN connection (and as of last night, it's my failover connection since load balancing was being weird in a way I've never seen with this router model before… but I've never deployed one where both WAN ports weren't public IPs…). WAN1 has a public IP (I'll provide an unredacted screenshot to Sonic) and you can see that WAN2 still gets a private address in DMZplus mode unless there's a poorly-worded setting I missed:
(I don't know how to make the forum thumbnail the image so click through for it)

2) Sonic's response was literally "post to the forum" after an hour of waiting. Which is why I had posted in another thread. At this point, I probably have no real recourse but to take advantage of the refund and dealing with the holes AT&T drilled in my apartment somehow.

Let me guess... Asian? Lots of 2s, 8s, and maybe a couple of 6es? Or it spells something that's been written on cars on Top Gear UK?

It's also somewhat memorable.

[dherr]

Hmm, odd about the 1918 address for the DMZ+ router. My Netgear behind the Pace 5031 shows:

IP Address 108.85.228.141
Connection DHCP
IP Subnet Mask 255.255.252.0
Domain Name Server 68.94.156.1, 68.94.157.1

And my traceroute only shows the single hop of the Netgear, without the Pace showing. While first playing with DMZ+ I did see a hop each for the Netgear and the Pace. Currently showing:

>traceroute -n google.com
traceroute to google.com (74.125.239.133), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 192.168.10.1 0.367 ms 0.489 ms 0.466 ms
2 108.85.228.2 20.768 ms 22.186 ms 19.519 ms
[snip]

[Guest]

1) DMZplus doesn't solve the fact that my router gets an RFC 1918 address rather than a publicly routable address.

I've run into this bug before. You need to start over by going to (on my 5031) Settings > LAN > LAN IP Address Allocation. Search for your appliance and choose the settings as follows:

Device abc
Device Status DHCP
Firewall Disabled
Address Assignment Public (select WAN IP Mapping)
WAN IP Mapping Router WAN IP address (default)

then Save.

Then in Settings > Firewall > Applications, Pinholes and DMZ
Choose your device in 1) and then click on the Allow all applications (DMZplus mode)... radio button then Save.

Finally, in Settings > Firewall > Advanced Configuration, uncheck Strict UDP Session Control, and everything in Attack Detection, then Save.

Some gateways support DMZplus, some IP Passthru. IP Passthru's setup is different so you'll need to scour the web for how to do that if your gateway requires it.

Make sure your Cisco router is getting its IP via DHCP and not static. If the settings don't match it may not work. When I first set things up, I was also getting a non-routable IP. I can't recall what exactly corrected it, but I tried it several times. Make sure you're not using Cascaded Router in Settings > Broadband > Link Configuration.

Once it's set up properly, your device in Settings > LAN > LAN IP Address Allocation will show

Device: abc
Current Address public IP
Device Status DMZ device
Firewall Disabled
Address Assignment Public (select WAN IP Mapping)
WAN IP Mapping Router WAN IP address (default)
Cascaded Router: No

[Guest]

It should show "public" with a "disabled firewall" ???
Am I missing something? That sounds like anyone can hack in and get personal info.

[Guest]

Am I missing something? That sounds like anyone can hack in and get personal info.

Yes you are. Most people who use DMZplus/IP Passthru do so by placing their own firewall/router behind the Pace gateway since the AT&T-provided devices no longer have bridge mode. Sonic-provided CPEs have bridge mode but once it's enabled Sonic can't perform any troubleshooting and the configuration is "unsupported."

[lewellyn]

Once it's set up properly, your device in Settings > LAN > LAN IP Address Allocation will show

Device: abc
Current Address public IP
Device Status DMZ device
Firewall Disabled
Address Assignment Public (select WAN IP Mapping)
WAN IP Mapping Router WAN IP address (default)
Cascaded Router: No

I've done your trick of trying the above several times, but I persist in the following:

Code: Select all

Device: router94b610
Current Address 192.168.1.75
Device Status DHCP RENEW
Firewall Disabled
Address Assignment Public (Select WAN IP mapping)
WAN IP Mapping Router WAN IP Address (default)
Cascaded Router: No

I'm confused, I guess, as to why it's stuck in DHCP RENEW state even across reboots though it's definitely configured as best as I can tell to pass through the public IP. I had originally taken this to mean that the configuration is unsupported. Now I am wondering if I'm just going crazy. I also keep wondering if Sonic really is my best choice since the speeds are slowish (especially versus my WAN1 link, which consistently gives me at least 100 mbit but I rarely see more than about 20 mbit from Sonic FTTN), the VoIP isn't usable for me (so I can't add it to my fancy SIP phones), and I'm still not seeing why everyone's told me how awesome Sonic support is.

Also, other-Guest, yes the point is to have a disabled firewall. There's no sense in having two firewalls behind each other.

[Guest]

I've done your trick of trying the above several times, but I persist in the following:

Code: Select all

Device: router94b610
Current Address 192.168.1.75
Device Status DHCP RENEW
Firewall Disabled
Address Assignment Public (Select WAN IP mapping)
WAN IP Mapping Router WAN IP Address (default)
Cascaded Router: No

Once you made the change, did you reboot your gateway? When I set things up I only had a notebook that I connect to one port on my AT&T gateway and my firewall used another port. You may want to press the recessed button behind the gateway to restore to defaults and start over.