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ScienceDad
join:2020-04-27

ScienceDad

Member

[Internet] A Few Service Questions

I've just a couple service related questions I'm hoping someone may know the answers. I've read through the discussion about using your own router for a static ip, none of which I could reply to due to it's age. I'm looking to deploy a pair of vyos routers here at home. Right now I'm pulling multiple DHCP addresses and just doing VRRP LAN side but I was thinking it would be really nice to do this on the WAN side as well. However, to do it correctly would require a /29 and I just want to confirm or deny that's something even possible for a residential customer. Taking that a step further, does the static ipv4 also come with a static ipv6 prefix? Obviously my dynamically pulled prefix never changes unless my DUID does, but going back to my previous mention of deploying a pair of routers, they each currently pull different IPv4 on different subnets (expected) and subsequently each pulls a different IPv6 /56.

Somewhat relevant, I'm not using RJ45 on any of my >1Gb connections at home. It's all SFP+ or 1GbE in my rack. I'm currently on the 1Gb/500Mb plan using the same ONT mounted on the outside of my house. The 2Gb service is available in my neighborhood. Do I have to use the provided router for the 2Gb service and if not, can it terminate into one of my SFP+ cages from the ONT? Couldn't tell you what ONT I have now since it's locked up in a weather box outside, but I've had it for a good 5yrs+ now I think. Certainly before 1Gb were ever offered. It terminates via 1Gb RJ45 now. If I had to venture a guess, I'd assume they'll want to validate service on their device using a 2.5GbE link and I'm hoping I can just return it after the fact like when my initial service was installed however many years ago that was. I'd like to avoid using a 10GBASE SFP+ module to use my own stuff if I can just use a fiber module or dac cable between my stuff and the ONT. I imagine the 2Gb service would require a new ONT and I'd have them install it inside the house this time. Figured if anyone knew the answers to this stuff, it would be here.
CVGNet
join:2012-04-10
Cincinnati, OH

CVGNet

Member

Re: [Internet] A Few Service Questions

If your ONT is 5 years old the 2 G bps service will need a new ONT.

You do not need to use an altafiber gateway for the 2 Gbps service. You need to have your own gateway device capable of min. 2.5 GbE wired operation. The new ONT will most likely also support 10GbE which is more future proof so I suggest trying that. I would probably avoid an RJ45 SFP+ module - they get very hot and many SFP+ cages don’t distribute the heat well enough. An alternative is to use a dedicated purpose made 10Gbps media converter to do the conversion from SFP+ optical to RJ45. If you have an existing copper 10 GbE port that should be fine since the device will have been built with sufficient cooling for the processing on that port.
ScienceDad
join:2020-04-27

ScienceDad

Member

Re: [Internet] A Few Service Questions

Yea I figured an ONT upgrade would be in order. ONT to gateway is only RJ45? What model ONTs usually get deployed these days?
CVGNet
join:2012-04-10
Cincinnati, OH

CVGNet

Member

Re: [Internet] A Few Service Questions

Currently there are a couple of Nokia ONT models being deployed. The customer connection supports 10GBASE-T although 2.5GBASE-T is sufficient for current services.
mudtoe
join:2005-10-09
Cincinnati, OH

4 edits

mudtoe to ScienceDad

Member

to ScienceDad
said by ScienceDad:

I'm looking to deploy a pair of vyos routers here at home. Right now I'm pulling multiple DHCP addresses and just doing VRRP LAN side but I was thinking it would be really nice to do this on the WAN side as well.


I have a Ubiquity ER-12 router, which is VyOS based, that I'm using with static IP, and I can show you how to do that. I don't do VRRP though; instead I have a cellular hotspot connected to a second smaller Ubiquity router that I used as a backup, but it requires manual routing changes to use the backup router as the default gateway. I have it in place so that if the router or Altafiber fail while I'm in Florida for the winter, I still have a way into my network. My old ONT failed while I was in Florida a few months ago and I was able to get into my home network from the cellular backup to reroute the important things, like my email server.

With regard to VyOS, to use the static IP addresses you have to create what's called a psuedo-ethernet interface, which contains the static IP address, and link it to the WAN interface. The vyatta configuration command sequence for this is:

set interfaces pseudo-ethernet peth1 address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/30
set interfaces pseudo-ethernet peth1 description 'Static IP Alias'
set interfaces pseudo-ethernet peth1 link eth9
set interfaces pseudo-ethernet peth2 address yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy/30
set interfaces pseudo-ethernet peth2 description 'Static IP Alias'
set interfaces pseudo-ethernet peth2 link eth9

eth9 is my WAN interface on the router. As there are two usable static IP addresses available under Cincinnati Bell's static IP scheme (I have an old post here about that), I defined two psuedo-ethernet interfaces so that I can use both static IP addresses. Note that these psuedo-ethernet interfaces are never referenced anyplace else. All routing, NAT, and firewall rules, including those pertaining to the static IP addresses, are configured referencing the WAN interface (eth9 in my case), and the source IP address applied to the outgoing packet on the WAN interface is selected via SNAT.

I use the DHCP provided dynamic IP address for all regular outgoing internet traffic, such as web browsing, as I really don't want websites tying me to my static IP addresses, so the default SNAT setting for eth9 is:

set service nat rule 5013 description 'masquerade for WAN'
set service nat rule 5013 outbound-interface eth9
set service nat rule 5013 type masquerade

The two situations in which I use the static IP addresses are for incoming traffic to open ports, and when I need to make an outgoing connection to someplace that has a need to verify who I am, say a customer of mine whose router I have setup to allow remote administration connections as long as it's coming from one of my static IP addresses, or a site to site ipsec VPN.

The former is setup with typical port forwarding NAT, along with firewall rules ensuring that the traffic coming into the open port is directed at a static IP address and not the DHCP address. The latter is done with some SNAT firewall rules to apply a static IP address to specific outgoing packets. For example, I use a non-standard port number to connect to the routers of all my customers, and I have a rule setup so that anytime I make an outgoing connection to that tcp port number the source address is set to a static IP address acceptable to their firewalls, like this:

set service nat rule 5001 description 'SNAT for destination ports using yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy source'
set service nat rule 5001 destination group port-group StaticOut10Ports
set service nat rule 5001 outbound-interface eth9
set service nat rule 5001 outside-address address yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy
set service nat rule 5001 protocol all
set service nat rule 5001 source group
set service nat rule 5001 type source

That's pretty much all their is to it for using static IP addresses with a VyOS based router.
coldfusion
join:2014-10-02
United State

coldfusion to ScienceDad

Member

to ScienceDad
I just run a UDM-PRO for my gateway. Picked up everything new out of the box. I think it can switch at a max of 3.5gbps which is enough for now. From there I just configured it how I want it. But all my network equipment is Ubiquiti but there are other options out there.
nikhil
join:2023-10-03
Mason, OH

nikhil

Member

[Internet] latency and packet loss when gaming

hello! I was told from reddit to reach out here by CBT - Simpson, regarding cincinnati bell and helping people out and I was wondering if i could get any insight on this situation in dealing with. I have altafiber down in cincinnati ohio, and i play this game called valorant. i used to get 13 ping on an illinois server and 20 ping for every other server in east coast and my california and oregon ping would only be 55, all of sudden for a while now it had doubled, my server changes to virginia with my lowest latency being 30, all servers being 60, and california and oregon being 100. Cincinnati Bell claimed they can't do anything until i showed them trace routes showing that one of their nodes is experiencing packet loss and high latency. I also got in contact with valorant tech, and they showed me how another one of cincinnati bell nodes is losing packet loss, now sadly this isn't the only game necessarily i'm dealing with, every game i used to get only 12 latency now i average 30. I'm using my own router and everything is fine with it. When valorant tried to help me and give me their peering info I tried to ask cincinnati bell if they could do anything and they said they will not reach out to them. My main issue is that i'm not the only person with cincinnati bell dealing with this, other people have also told me that they are experiencing high latency with cincinnati bell. They also said they can not reroute me, or anything, if there is anything you can give me to help me or any insight that would be amazing! Thank you for any information. I just am confused why I went from Illinois with this high of latency and packet loss, compared to back then when everything was fine and my Illinois routing was fine. I was able to physically show them a routing issue in one of their nodes which is a 216 ip that ends with .133 and valorant was also able to show proof that another one of their nodes .199 has an issue, I was able to get a tech but i've been waiting for about 2 weeks for the engineers to fix it or see what they can do but I thought it would be great to get some insight from here. Another issue is that Altafiber has supposedly been working on it for 2 weeks but has no information somehow.
Here is the peering db valorant sent to me to give to altafiber but the agents said they do not feel comfortable opening up the link so I had sent screenshots of what it was, valorants tech team asked me to give it to them but when seen by them they said there is nothing they can do, I was wondering if anyone knew by any chance what the point of it was then? I also will send the trace routes sent to Altafiber by me.
Peering db link: »www.peeringdb.com/net/5918
Trace route info taking from a few days ago: Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19045.3448]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\nikhi>tracert 216.68.14.133

Tracing route to xe005.atl1.core.fuse.net [216.68.14.133]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 ping 216.68.14.133

Pinging 216.68.14.133 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Reply from 216.68.14.133: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=60
Reply from 216.68.14.133: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=60
Reply from 216.68.14.133: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=60

Ping statistics for 216.68.14.133:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1 (25% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 27ms, Maximum = 27ms, Average = 27ms

C:\Users\nikhi>

Another set of logs taken just yesterday:
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19045.3448]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\nikhi>ping 216.68.14.133

Pinging 216.68.14.133 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 172.17.74.18: Destination net unreachable.
Request timed out.
Reply from 216.68.14.133: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=60
Reply from 216.68.14.133: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=60

Ping statistics for 216.68.14.133:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1 (25% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 27ms, Maximum = 27ms, Average = 27ms

C:\Users\nikhi>ping 216.68.14.133

Pinging 216.68.14.133 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 216.68.14.133: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=60
Reply from 216.68.14.133: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=60

Ping statistics for 216.68.14.133:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 2, Lost = 2 (50% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 27ms, Maximum = 27ms, Average = 27ms

C:\Users\nikhi>ping 216.68.14.133

Pinging 216.68.14.133 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 216.68.14.133: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=60

Ping statistics for 216.68.14.133:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 1, Lost = 3 (75% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 27ms, Maximum = 27ms, Average = 27ms

C:\Users\nikhi>

awponder
join:2016-02-08

awponder

Member

Re: [Internet] latency and packet loss when gaming

Have you ran this test?

»packetlosstest.com/
HELLFIRE
MVM
join:2009-11-25

HELLFIRE to nikhil

MVM

to nikhil
said by nikhil:

They also said they can not reroute me, or anything.

Basically how the internet works at this scale -- [your game server] tells your ISP how to get to it, not the other way around.

Likewise, changing routes for onesies and twosies hosts -- assuming it were even possible -- is more than likely to cause more problems than it fixes.
The Law Of Unintended Consequences(TM), and all that.

I'm going to take a stab you're on a residential service level, which basically means your ISP provides a working pipe to their network that is connected
to "the internet" at large. If so, your ISP doesn't owe you any guarentee of latency, jitter, Committed Information Rate (CIR), etc., especially if what
you're trying to reach is beyond the boundaries of said ISP's network. A bad analog to illustrate this is to compare your ISP to your city, and this
gameserver is in another city. The other city's council is in no position to do anything about poor road conditions within your own city, and vice versa.
Likewise, the interstate between the two cities is someone else's jurisdiction.

You want to dig more into this, start by putting SOMEthing in place that can measure the particular network metric(s) of interest on a systemic 24x7x365
basis, record it with date/time/timezone stamps, AND store it longterm for easy access. There's several tools out there can do this, ranging from "simple"
to "complex but full featured."

Once you get that in place, 3 specific points I'd set it up to run against :

a. the edge of your own network / LAN -- because issues there are on you to fix
b. something in your ISP's network -- to act as a comparison / control to everything
c. the specific gameserver(s), etc. you're having a problem to

My initial 00000010bits

Regards
nikhil
join:2023-10-03
Mason, OH

nikhil

Member

Re: [Internet] latency and packet loss when gaming

I am not sure if ping plotter is good or not for this kind of situation for keeping track but that is what valorant tech asked me to use for about maybe 10 minutes non stop while in game, Im pretty sure I also have the screen shots of the results there if they would be any use.
HELLFIRE
MVM
join:2009-11-25

HELLFIRE to nikhil

MVM

to nikhil
said by nikhil:

Peering db link: »www.peeringdb.com/net/5918

Something else that's been driving me crazy about your post : I'm really not sure what this link has to do with your problem, but it does not seem to have the correct information, specifically about ASN 6507.
From some other BGP talkers I have access to, 216.68.14.133 IS NOT in this ASN -- and I'm taking this IP address is the valorant gameserver in question.

# sh ip bgp vrf ii6j-vrf-CustAcro-red-01 216.68.14.133
BGP routing table entry for 216.68.0.0/16, version 49461
  AS-Path: 812 6939 6181 , path sourced external to AS
 

# sh ip bgp vrf ii6j-vrf-CustAcro-red-01 216.68.14.133
BGP routing table entry for 216.68.0.0/16, version 13974
  AS-Path: 852 6939 6181 , path sourced external to AS
 

rviews@route-server.ip.att.net> show route active-path 216.68.14.133
216.68.14.0/24     *[BGP/170] 6d 20:51:31, localpref 100, from 12.122.120.7
                      AS path: 7018 3257 6181 I, validation-state: unknown
                    >  to 12.0.1.1 via em0.0
 

Optus Public Looking Glass

BGP routing table entry for 65546:7474:216.68.14.0/24, version 160478913
BGP Bestpath: deterministic-med
Paths: (1 available, best #1, table AS7474)
  Not advertised to any peer
  Refresh Epoch 1
  7474 7473 6939 6181
 

Hurricane Electric

»bgp.he.net/AS6181#_prefixes

»bgp.he.net/AS6507#_prefixes

Peering is a whole separate discussion from your original problem description of high latency, which as I said is best to identify WHERE it's coming from rather than jumping to any conclusions.

Regards
nikhil
join:2023-10-03
Mason, OH

1 edit

nikhil

Member

Re: [Internet] latency and packet loss when gaming

The 216. ip is cincinatti bells ip address, not valorants. I also tried to help them and show them how to get to valorants ip or servers but cincinatti bell is saying they can not do it, or will not even really help much. They also stated that they didnt feel comfortable clicking any links or etc that i tried to send them that valorant ech sent me and i even gave them the personal tech email from valorant but cincinnati bell said they refuse to reach out.
HELLFIRE
MVM
join:2009-11-25

HELLFIRE to nikhil

MVM

to nikhil
said by nikhil:

The 216. ip is cincinatti bells ip address, not valorants.

Okay, thank you for that clarification. Next Dumb Question(TM), what's the IP address(es) of the specific valorant gameserver(s) in question?
Is it something in the ranges for AS6507?
said by nikhil:

I also tried to help them and show them how to get to valorants ip or servers but cincinatti bell is saying they can not do it, or will not even really help much.

Apologies in advance for the weekend AM snark : so exactly why are you taking it upon yourself to tell people "hey I googled something, you
should totally do that to fix this problem you have?" And what expertise do you have to authoritatively say that?

To go back to my city analog earlier : a builder is essentially saying "I know we've a perfectly good road / interchange to City B here, but I really
want a new road / interchange because of reason(s)." I'm sure you can picture the kind of 3rd degree "what benefit is that to us" roasting that
should rightfully get before money changes hands and shovels go into the ground?

I didn't want to get into it, but since you're pushing for it -- peering with someone isn't a simple "wave a magic wand / flip a switch" affair. In my
experience, there's technical reason(s) for and against it, and there's business / financial reason(s) for and against it. Even if you could climb
the technical totem pole high enough in Cincinnati Bell, if there's no business / financial justification, this idea is going to go nowhere.

Also, if you take a look at the HE link I supplied for AS6181 / Cincinnati Bell

»bgp.he.net/AS6181#_peers
»bgp.he.net/AS6181#_peers6

that's who Cincinnati Bell's already peering with. SOMEone in the Cincinnati Bell hierarchy is going to rightfully ask "so why should we directly peer
with AS6507?"
said by nikhil:

I am not sure if ping plotter is good or not for this kind of situation for keeping track but that is what valorant tech asked me to use for about maybe 10 minutes non stop while in game

As I already said :
said by HELLFIRE:

You want to dig more into this, start by putting SOMEthing in place that can measure the particular network metric(s) of interest on a systemic 24x7x365
basis, record it with date/time/timezone stamps, AND store it longterm for easy access. There's several tools out there can do this, ranging from "simple"
to "complex but full featured."

Once you get that in place, 3 specific points I'd set it up to run against :

a. the edge of your own network / LAN -- because issues there are on you to fix
b. something in your ISP's network -- to act as a comparison / control to everything
c. the specific gameserver(s), etc. you're having a problem to

For what it's worth, I do network management in $var(dayjob) -- not for an ISP -- and 10minutes is NOTHING. You need to see, and be able to
historically see, the various performance metrics longterm. If nothing, the importance of this is borne in the old saying "if you can't measure it,
how do you know there isn't a problem." What measurements Cincinnati Bell may be making are entirely focused on their own devices and within
their own network, nothing else.

_IF_ you can show with a high degree of confidence the latency is from within Cincinnati Bell's boundary, you might be able to get some traction with
them. If you can't... *shrugs*

My Networking 00000010bits

Regards
nikhil
join:2023-10-03
Mason, OH

nikhil

Member

Re: [Internet] latency and packet loss when gaming

as far as the " i tried to help them" it is because they asked for the valorant ip and what steps valorant asked them to take hence the reason " i tried to help them" the tech had asked me if i can show them the information. the valorant ip I do believe it might be within something in the ranges for AS6507. and as far as proving that it is cincinatti bell, i have proved it to them when running trace routes, the latency significantly jumps up while still within their servers.
HELLFIRE
MVM
join:2009-11-25

HELLFIRE to nikhil

MVM

to nikhil
Click for full size
Click for full size
More info for you : here's some old graphs of latency and jitter I keep to a gameserver I regularly play on.

I can see it, I can measure it, I can see the historicals on it on a VERY solid basis.

If you're interested, the tool itself is monetarily free, "run .exe simple," and "enterprise level" full featured, but it does take some
networking knowhow to get into and get the most out of. Used it 5+ years myself, and I cannot recommend it enough,
especially for those serious about wanting to measure their network and internet's performance.

HTH

Regards
HELLFIRE

HELLFIRE to nikhil

MVM

to nikhil
said by nikhil:

when running trace routes, the latency significantly jumps up while still within their servers.

Short version : Traceroute != latency, and one traceroute's worth of "high latency" is nothing to go by, troubleshooting-wise.

Longer version, written by people alot smarter than me : »archive.nanog.org/sites/ ··· 2014.pdf In particular read over pp33 and pp36 in the doc.

Also, latency is not the end-all, be-all of metrics to look at.

Regards
nikhil
join:2023-10-03
Mason, OH

nikhil

Member

Re: [Internet] latency and packet loss when gaming

so what exactly can I do to get it fixed? Is there nothing to do at all and just leave it?
HELLFIRE
MVM
join:2009-11-25

HELLFIRE to nikhil

MVM

to nikhil
said by nikhil:

so what exactly can I do to get it fixed? Is there nothing to do at all and just leave it?

From my POV and read of things so far, you haven't shown there is a problem to fix -- akin to a person who keeps calling mulitple doctors about "random
pains all over their body" and demanding the doctor do SOMEthing about it.

I've already given my technical advice where to go next, so up to you whether you do anything with it.

One other kicker I see : even if you could prove Cincinnati Bell has an issue within their network, does the service package you're currently on call for
Cincinnati Bell to actually doing something about it? On a residential package, the usual answer is "No."

You could look into an SLA'd circuit / service where $var(provider) contractually owes you a guarenteed performance metric of something if this is that
important to you, but a. such a service is EX-PEN-SIVE, and b. the best that can be done in this case is a refunding a portion of your monthly cost -- I pulled
a couple SLA agreements here for reference here -- »Re: [Questions/Help/Advice] FTTH new installation 300/300 Speed drop

*shrugs*

I've said my bit. Hope that helps.

Regards
johnnn
join:2007-01-25
Ann Arbor, MI

johnnn

Member

Outage yesterday

Just curious what caused the issue in NE Hamilton County yesterday!
CVGNet
join:2012-04-10
Cincinnati, OH

CVGNet

Member

Re: Outage yesterday

That was probably the digger meets multiple fiber cables incident in Blue Ash.
johnnn
join:2007-01-25
Ann Arbor, MI

johnnn

Member

Re: Outage yesterday

Ahh bummer, way to go splicers.

Anon87262
@174.102.125.x

Anon87262

Anon

Any Synacor / Zimbra (cbt email service) guru's out there?

I may have a personal disaster brewing re: my cbt email.

I decided to drop my cbt landline and port the number to a mobile provider. I *explicitly* told both parties multiple times that this was JUST a phone number port, and that I wanted to KEEP my cbt internet (and email). This morning I went to check my email and got messages about it being suspended. Dug into it, and it appears my entire altafiber account is in the process of being terminated.

Called altafiber tech support and they said there was nothing they could do at this point. The order they received was in-process, and will be completed on Monday. There was some mumbling about I could open a new altafiber account after this was wrapped up, and I requested that my email accounts be preserved (fingers crossed).

FWIW, On the off-chance that something like this might happen, a week ago I used the "export" function buried in the cbt (synacor/zimbra) webmail interface to make backups of all five of my fuse.net email accounts. (i.e. I have five tar-gz files sitting on my PC).

Can any guru's out there shed any light on how I recover from this? Thanks!
coolyman
join:2004-11-01
Maineville, OH

coolyman

Member

Re: Any Synacor / Zimbra (cbt email service) guru's out there?

I cannot tell you how to fix this especially if it is a residential account but this is par for the course. Professionally I have been burned by this more times than I wish to count even after taking the appropriate precautions.
For businesses you are supposed to have the services to be maintained moved to separate accounts since all services are typically tied to the account of the main phone line. Too many times, even after requesting Internet service be moved to a new account and receiving confirmation that it was, porting the main phone number resulted in disconnection of Internet service and/or E-mail accounts associated with the original account.
The bottom line is that unless you know someone who knows someone at Altafiber, their accounting system will wreck everything every time. It is sad to say that. However I do commend them for allowing customers to continue paying for E-mail after all other services have been disconnected. If Sprectum would do this, I would jump on it and switch to Altafiber for Internet and keep my legacy TW E-mail account.

I have been able, for business customers, to get their deactivated E-mail reactivated after the fact but that was only with the help of a special aquaintance who had both the ability and knowledged to do so. In both cases no data was lost. So maybe if you call support and get the right person you could accomplish the same thing. You will probably need the account number for the disconnected services and the account number where they need to be reactivated. Asking for a supervisor (especially if the first person doesn't speak English) may help.

Anon87262
@72.49.164.x

Anon87262

Anon

Re: Any Synacor / Zimbra (cbt email service) guru's out there?

said by coolyman:

However I do commend them for allowing customers to continue paying for E-mail after all other services have been disconnected.

Well that's interesting. Didn't know that was even an option. Is that available for residential accounts?
said by coolyman:

I have been able, for business customers, to get their deactivated E-mail reactivated after the fact but that was only with the help of a special aquaintance who had both the ability and knowledged to do so. In both cases no data was lost. So maybe if you call support and get the right person you could accomplish the same thing. You will probably need the account number for the disconnected services and the account number where they need to be reactivated. Asking for a supervisor (especially if the first person doesn't speak English) may help.

My third call to altafiber tech-support this morning got me someone who seemed to be somewhat more knowledgeable. One thing she dug up and read to me said the email accounts would be preserved for 14 days. She also said they wouldn't be rolling a truck to disconnect the copper from the dslam ports (at least for a while). So *theoretically* I should be able to call Tuesday, create a new internet-only account and then link my emails to it. (Or perhaps pay them just for the email? Intriguing idea...)

Not sure how this would work for the "primary" email account, but luckily my old primary email was almost entirely cbt notices and payment reminders etc. I avoided using it due to that addr being 'privileged'. It's the other four accounts I *really* need to reactivate.

I was kinda hoping someone would be able to share some pointers on how to use the "export" and "import" functions available in the Zimbra web client provided by Synacor. As I indicated above, I took "export" snapshots the day I started the number port, hoping I wouldn't need them, sigh.

I did browse the tgz files with 7zip and saw data and structures that reflected my email folders etc, and googling turns up third party tools that will process the Zimbra tgz's for import to other clients (such as thunderbird), so I probably haven't lost any historical info (I've had cbt email since the dialup days). But I really need to reactivate those addrs!
coolyman
join:2004-11-01
Maineville, OH

coolyman

Member

Re: Any Synacor / Zimbra (cbt email service) guru's out there?

Unfortunately, I do not know how to end up with an E-mail-only account but I have been assured by our business account executive that it is a thing. I also seem to recall mention of it in this forum somewhere? I suppose it should be a thing for residential accounts but again I don't have first-hand experience with it.

Anon87262
@174.102.125.x

Anon87262 to Anon87262

Anon

to Anon87262
The comment about paying to keep the email intrigued me, so I called cbt this morning to see if it was available for residential and what it would cost. Yes, I can do it, for $25/mo, though I'd have to set up a new altafiber account.

Which led to a discussion about what was going on, which led to her putting together a new account order for (upsell grrr) '50mbit fioptics' service with my old primary email addr. After that new account is active, I'm supposed to call back to get the other four emails attached(?) to it.

Background: My old cbt account had a grandfathered 'Priced for Life' Zoomtown bundle of 5mbit dsl+landline, with a ZyXEL VMG4381 that I own (no modem fee). Porting the landline obviously broke that bundle, so once the dust settled I was probably going to upgrade from dsl anyway ('probably' because they ran fiber down my street over a year ago and I've been waiting/hoping for that option). They wanted to hit me with a $39 'account activation fee', but waived it when I objected.

Anyway, because of the dsl->vdsl upgrade, they're gonna roll a truck Monday morning to do what exactly I'm not sure. Same copper, same remote dslam, same modem (both dsl and vdsl enabled in it). Do they have to wire me to a different port in the dslam??

Huh... DSL line JUST went down. Landline still has dialtone. Fwiw, the mobile has been active with my landline number since Saturday (got a telemarketer call lol), but I can still place calls on the landline. Tried rebooting modem and it isn't training on dsl or vdsl now. Well, a truck will be here in the morning... Will post updates...
Anon87262

Anon87262

Anon

Re: Any Synacor / Zimbra (cbt email service) guru's out there?

PS
In case anybody's wondering, I have had *both* the (grandfathered) CBT bundle AND (grandfathered) TWC ELP service in my home forever, as well as T-Mobile cell service on my son's (grandfathered) family plan. A combination of
1) Spectrum retiring the TWC ELP plan last month and force migrating me to their 'Internet 100' plan (at a discount),
2) my son upgrading his t-mobile family plan to their Go5G service last month (that I don't want to pay for), and
3) Spectrum offering me a free year of mobile service as an option on top of the migrated internet service
led to this upheaval. Of course now I'm back on the 'promo price good for 1 or 2 year' train, but I knew my previous setup wouldn't last forever. c'est la vie

I'm obviously less concerned about speeds than I am connectivity. For example, just now when the dsl line went down I switched over to the cable line to post this (note the IP changed in the anon box). I've got mixed feelings about giving up the ol' reliable pots line, but cbt has been horrible at doing anything about robocall blocking and I can't stand it anymore ARGHHHH

So now my cell phone is running dual-sim and I'll text everyone in my contacts that my t-mobile number will be going away and to start using my old landline number for both voice AND text. Just need to get this email thing resolved now...
Anon87262

Anon87262

Anon

Re: Any Synacor / Zimbra (cbt email service) guru's out there?

Wow! Just wow...
Truck arrived yesterday morning. I explained what was going on, he did some stuff on his pad(?), said 'huh they didn't need to roll a truck for this, just reprogram the port on the dslam'.

We did a walkthru, I showed him where the whole-house splitter was, where the modem was in my wiring closet. There was a moment of confusion about the modem itself, I made clear that I owned it (shown as 'customer provided modem' on old account), he made some update so that new account would reflect that (holy smokes - the modem fee is up to $10.99/mo!!)

He went back to his truck, and next thing I know the modem connected at 50/5. He opened the SNI, ran some tests, gave it a thumbs up. He said the splitter I had was 'old' (yup), ran some tests at the modem, was satisfied. Yay!

This morning I noted that the landline no longer has dial tone. I have had a browser open with tabs logged into damn near everything (spectrum and altafiber) for the past week - opened a new tab to 'my.altafiber.com' and it automagically logged in (a cookie perhaps?) and asked which account I wanted to access!!

Went to the old account, says 'inactive'. Went to new account (weird number 513103xxxx), it had most of the same profile and settings and showed the new internet service. Yay! Opened a new tab to 'email.altafiber.com' ("Manage my Email"). It wouldn't accept the my primary email credentials, but I see a link to "Activate New Email Address". It takes me to a page that says to call 513-565-9890. Okay...

Worked thru the menu tree, eventually got someone in tech support. Gave her both account numbers, explained what was going on and that I wanted to (re)activate my old email addrs on the new account. She 'did stuff', seemed slightly confused by what she saw, asked me to try logging into email using my primary addr. New tab to 'webmail3.cincinnatibell.net' - last Friday it would give me 'account suspended', today it let me login (same password) and there were all the emails! Yay! Logged in/out of all five and everything was there. YAY!!

And then things went a bit weird. She said she didn't see ANY email addrs tied to the new account. Asked me to send a test email, it was delivered fine. At this point she seemed clear on how to proceed and created a Tier2 ticket to move/activate all five addrs to new account. Said Tier2 would fix it and then call me back 'in a few hours'. Hmm...

So... I've got access to my emails, but for how long? (previous rep said 14 days).
Think I'll snag another Zimbra "export" snapshot of everything while I wait ...

Also need to test logging into 'my.altafiber.com' on a PC without any cookies laying around - that automagic login (above) was a bit scary!
coolyman
join:2004-11-01
Maineville, OH

coolyman

Member

Re: Any Synacor / Zimbra (cbt email service) guru's out there?

said by Anon87262 :

Wow! Just wow...
Truck arrived yesterday morning. I explained what was going on, he did some stuff on his pad(?), said 'huh they didn't need to roll a truck for this, just reprogram the port on the dslam'.

We did a walkthru, I showed him where the whole-house splitter was, where the modem was in my wiring closet. There was a moment of confusion about the modem itself, I made clear that I owned it (shown as 'customer provided modem' on old account), he made some update so that new account would reflect that (holy smokes - the modem fee is up to $10.99/mo!!)

He went back to his truck, and next thing I know the modem connected at 50/5. He opened the SNI, ran some tests, gave it a thumbs up. He said the splitter I had was 'old' (yup), ran some tests at the modem, was satisfied. Yay!

This morning I noted that the landline no longer has dial tone. I have had a browser open with tabs logged into damn near everything (spectrum and altafiber) for the past week - opened a new tab to 'my.altafiber.com' and it automagically logged in (a cookie perhaps?) and asked which account I wanted to access!!

Went to the old account, says 'inactive'. Went to new account (weird number 513103xxxx), it had most of the same profile and settings and showed the new internet service. Yay! Opened a new tab to 'email.altafiber.com' ("Manage my Email"). It wouldn't accept the my primary email credentials, but I see a link to "Activate New Email Address". It takes me to a page that says to call 513-565-9890. Okay...

Worked thru the menu tree, eventually got someone in tech support. Gave her both account numbers, explained what was going on and that I wanted to (re)activate my old email addrs on the new account. She 'did stuff', seemed slightly confused by what she saw, asked me to try logging into email using my primary addr. New tab to 'webmail3.cincinnatibell.net' - last Friday it would give me 'account suspended', today it let me login (same password) and there were all the emails! Yay! Logged in/out of all five and everything was there. YAY!!

And then things went a bit weird. She said she didn't see ANY email addrs tied to the new account. Asked me to send a test email, it was delivered fine. At this point she seemed clear on how to proceed and created a Tier2 ticket to move/activate all five addrs to new account. Said Tier2 would fix it and then call me back 'in a few hours'. Hmm...

So... I've got access to my emails, but for how long? (previous rep said 14 days).
Think I'll snag another Zimbra "export" snapshot of everything while I wait ...

Also need to test logging into 'my.altafiber.com' on a PC without any cookies laying around - that automagic login (above) was a bit scary!

Too bad their aren't real-life video game achievements. You would have racked up a bunch.
But what's the final boss like? Did you get there or will it be game over?

Anon87262
@72.49.162.x

Anon87262

Anon

Re: Any Synacor / Zimbra (cbt email service) guru's out there?

Update:
Well, the Tier2 person didn't call back Tues afternoon. I had dental surgery scheduled for Wed morning, so of course they called back Wed afternoon while I was laying on the couch with bloody gauze in my mouth. She offered to call back, but there was no way I was gonna do that!

She said it was 'fixed'. I already had a tab open to the 'primary email' so I refreshed it to make sure that email was still working - it was. Then I opened a new tab to 'email.altafiber.com' (i.e. "Manage my Email"), entered the primary email credentials and - Hurray! it came up, populated with all five of my email addrs! So I've made it past that hurdle!

I did investigate the 'my.altafiber.com' automagic logins (above). Went to a different PC (that was configured to use my spectrum connection), went to 'my.altafiber.com', was prompted for credentials (yay), logged in, and in the process was reminded of a couple things:

1) That login page has a checkbox to 'remember me' (i.e. it sets a cookie when checked) which I normally never do (just like I NEVER let Windows/Android/etc save passwords) but I NOW remember I checked it when this whole adventure began. Mystery solved.

2) The login credentials for 'my.altafiber.com' are NOT actually tied to the primary email creds. In particular, the password I had (long ago) set for (the cincinnati bell version of) 'my.altafiber.com' did/does NOT get changed when you change the primary email password via "Manage my Emails" (which I did a couple years ago)!! And that sheds new light on some of the "Profile & Settings" items (hmmm)...

One other interesting tidbit... Whereas I can log into 'my.altafiber.com' and 'webmail3.cincinnatibell.net' via my spectrum internet connection, cbt's system prevents
using "Manage my Emails" unless you are accessing it from a CBT IP address. I.E. After supplying valid credentials to 'email.altafiber.com' it brings up a page with a notice to that effect. (Which, as a side note, makes me wonder how folk who pursue the 'pay cbt to keep their email' are supposed to manage them?)

Anyway... There is still some clean-up I want to do with the 'my.altafiber.com' "Profile & Setting" and "Manage Associated Accounts" stuff, but I'm going to leave everything as-is for a week or two. Their billing system is due to generate my final 'old account' and initial 'new account' bills shortly, and it's probably prudent to wait to see (and fix?) those first, LOL.
coolyman
join:2004-11-01
Maineville, OH

3 recommendations

coolyman

Member

Re: Any Synacor / Zimbra (cbt email service) guru's out there?

Be aware that this now makes you the expert on it.

Anon64fa6
@72.49.162.x

Anon64fa6

Anon

technical question(s) re: cbt vdsl service

I recently upgraded from 5mb dsl to 50mb vdsl service (long story, preceding topic).
I'm using the exact same zyxel vmg4381, same wiring, same remote dslam.
They rolled a truck (even though it wasn't strictly necessary) and tech tested line as 'ok'.

Not experiencing and problems, but looking at the 4381's "xDSL Statistics" page I see:
============================================================================
    VDSL Training Status:   Showtime
                    Mode:   VDSL2 Annex A
            VDSL Profile:   Profile 8b
            Traffic Type:   PTM Mode
             Link Uptime:   3 days: 23 hours: 28 minutes
============================================================================
       VDSL Port Details       Upstream         Downstream
               Line Rate:      5.309 Mbps       50.097 Mbps
    Actual Net Data Rate:      5.120 Mbps       50.013 Mbps
          Trellis Coding:         ON                ON
              SNR Margin:       15.5 dB           15.5 dB
            Actual Delay:          7 ms              8 ms
          Transmit Power:      - 1.2 dBm          18.7 dBm
           Receive Power:        0.4 dBm           4.9 dBm
              Actual INP:        1.5 symbols       2.0 symbols
       Total Attenuation:        2.0 dB           13.7 dB
Attainable Net Data Rate:     10.403 Mbps       69.575 Mbps
============================================================================
      VDSL Band Status    U0      U1      U2      U3      D1      D2      D3
  Line Attenuation(dB):  2.9    29.4     N/A     N/A    14.9    35.4     N/A
Signal Attenuation(dB):  2.8    29.3     N/A     N/A    14.7    35.4     N/A
        SNR Margin(dB): 18.9    15.3     N/A     N/A    15.9    15.1     N/A
   Transmit Power(dBm):- 7.3   - 2.4     N/A     N/A    17.9    10.2     N/A
============================================================================
 
Does this look "ok" to any knowledgeable eyes out there? Several of the upstream stats catch my eye, in particular the "U0" vs "U1" band values.

I don't know what frequency ranges they represent, but that's a big jump in attenuation and associated transmit power. I do have an old DSL whole house splitter in place, and of course the vmg4381 is on the SNI side of it, but is there a chance its presence is affecting things?

Given I no longer have landline service, is it worth is to disconnect it (and hence all the house wiring) from the SNI feed? The upstream error counters are showing zeroes for all timeframes, but my experience is that sometimes they can't be trusted (e.g. is the dslam really going to tell my modem about FECs?).

Thanks!

•••

bjf123
We Want... A Shrubbery
Premium Member
join:2000-02-11
Hamilton, OH

bjf123

Premium Member

Email Question

I’m trying to add my fuse.net email to Gmail so I can check it there. About the only emails I get there are billing notices and a little spam. What settings should I use for server and port? I’ve tried imap.fuse.net and both 993 and 143 per the instructions I found online, but it says the information is incorrect. I know it’s the right user name and password because I can login on the altafiber site using those credentials. What am I missing?

•••
pfisterfarm2
join:2017-07-07

pfisterfarm2

Member

mywaytv?

I've been trying to find a way to cut back on my TV expense. I've seen something, I think it's called My Way TV. What is that? The Altafiber site doesn't seem to have much info on it. Anyone have experience with it? We have the Elite TV package, and I think really only one person watches TV (about 4 or 5 channels) on 1 of the 2 TVs we have.

••••
mudtoe
join:2005-10-09
Cincinnati, OH

1 recommendation

mudtoe

Member

[Internet] Did Altafiber just speed up the fiber upload speeds?

I've noticed in the past couple of weeks the backups I transmit to an off site location are transferring at about double the speed that they used to. I've had the 750/125 service for a couple of years, but as of a couple of weeks ago the uploads are transmitting in excess of 200mbps, I think at the limit of the read capability of the hard drive as I was using an old USB 2 hard drive as the staging drive for the file transfers, so perhaps the upload speed limit is even higher.

I haven't had a chance to do a proper speed test as I'm out of town and it's hard to get a valid result when you invoke the speed test while remotely connected over a VPN.

Anon786df
@163.182.115.x

1 recommendation

Anon786df

Anon

Re: [Internet] Did Altafiber just speed up the fiber upload speeds?

You’re probably upped to the 800/400 plan now
mudtoe
join:2005-10-09
Cincinnati, OH

1 recommendation

mudtoe

Member

Re: [Internet] Did Altafiber just speed up the fiber upload speeds?

I tried running a speed test remotely and I couldn't get dslreports speed tests to work at all via a remote desktop connection to a windows VM I have running at home. I tried a couple of others and I was getting about 800mbps down and 250mbps up, but again this is while being connected from a VPN which is using at least a little bandwidth. I also tried copying the backup file to a USB 3 hard drive and re-transmitting it from there, but I was getting about the same upload speed as when it was on a USB 2 hard drive, so that apparently wasn't a limiting factor.

Anon1fff2
@72.49.162.x

2 recommendations

Anon1fff2

Anon

Android app updates failing on Altafiber?

odd thread on reddit

»www.reddit.com/r/cincinn ··· apps_on/

I also experienced this,
hax0rwax0r
join:2010-10-14
Cincinnati, OH

1 recommendation

hax0rwax0r

Member

Internet Speed Unchanged After Upgrade

Yesterday I had my 1/1 Gbps service changed to 2/1 Gbps service and was told it would reprovision with the new speeds overnight. It did not.

I already had an on-site tech visit last year when I upgraded to 1/1 Gbps symmetrical service and they did some sort of port swap upstream from my house and gave me a new Nokia XS-010X-Q ONT.

I have no tech appointments scheduled and am worried that I am stuck in some sort of non-upgraded limbo. Anyone encounter this before or know what's going on?

Thanks.

••••
steve2mh4
join:2016-11-15
Petersburg, KY

steve2mh4

Member

GIBIT SPEED

Hello All

I am getting 279.3 mbps for download speed and 529mbs speeds for upload for a 1gigibit connection.
Do know if is an issue or is this is best I will get for a 1gigibit connection?

»altafiber.speedtestcusto ··· 5f99a480

awponder
join:2016-02-08

awponder

Member

Re: GIBIT SPEED

Is this wifi or wired connection?
drake3
Premium Member
join:2015-03-09

drake3

Premium Member

South Lebanon outage - what happened?

Was it the construction going on for the new Kroger? Going on 12 hours and still down. Must be a major cut or equipment outage.

••••
agmattas
join:2008-12-02

agmattas

Member

[Internet] 2/1 Gb + Static IP

Does anyone know why you can't get a static IP with a 2/1 Gb connection?

When I called in they told me it was because they require you to use their router for a static IP. In practicality, it's likely supportability because the ZyXEL routers understand the unusual static IP scheme Alta uses, and the ZyXEL routers, of course, can't support multi-gigabit speeds.

In reality, they require you to get a DHCP lease and then use it as the next hop for the static, which works fine when I have a border router and an internal router. I'd turn off NAT masquerading on the border router mapping the dynamic to the output port, and then put the static IP on the internal router using the WAN port as the next hop.

Am I missing something?

•••••••••••••••••••••
coldfusion
join:2014-10-02
United State

coldfusion

Member

Speed upgrade coming?

So I logged in to pay my bill the other day to pay my bill and the wording on my service has been changed. I'll attach a screen shot but it used to be Fioptics 2/1 but shows Fioptics 2/2 now.

•••••••••••••••••••
wagnerg123
join:2024-03-16

wagnerg123

Member

[TV] Fioptics+ on Roku

Just recently upgraded to fioptics+, is there any hope of running the fioptics+ on Roku or do I just need to bite the bullet and purchase and Android TV box? If so, what is best and cheapest Android TV box?

Thanks.

•••••