said by jfeise :

So, it seems that ICMP is blocked.
Is there a way around that, other than bridge mode (which I don't really want to do)?

said by wayjac :

The modem in the other thread has a different software version 7.7.3r5

If the modem has been set to drop icmp pings the only workaround is bridge mode

There are some other ways to access the modem when its in bridge mode

said by jfeise :

I even tried the 7.7.3r7 Southeast firmware (which has some other issues), but none of them responded to a ping from the outside.

said by jfeise :

I talked with level 2 support from AT&T, and the guy recommended a 2-Wire 2701, but that has a router built-in (and useless wireless without WPA), I don't know if the 2-Wire can be set to give one computer on the LAN side the WAN IP address.

said by wayjac :

The "bellsouth" user interface displays more if not all of the router options.
It may be that the setting you need is labeled with a term other than "ping" and its overlooked
Can you give more details about your "(which has some other issues)" comment

The 2wire 2701HG-B supports wpa-psk and wpa2-psk authentication it also has a "dmzplus mode" where one computer shares the public ip address

said by jfeise :

It didn't give the public IP address to the computer. It kept renewing the 192.168.1.64 address all the time.

said by jfeise :

While the bellsouth interface has more options, I didn't see anything ping or ICMP related.

said by jfeise :

Looks like it fits my requirements then. I won't use the wireless, though, since I already have an internal wireless WPA setup.

said by wayjac :

You should also consider a used speedstream 5100b, 4100 or 4100b dsl modem one may be a better fit

said by wayjac :

Why is the ping so important to you

said by wayjac :

So.....the speedstream 4100 only blocks outbound IPv6 packets

The motorola 2210 blocks icmp pings

said by jfeise :

Another modem I tried was a D-Link 2320B. Ping worked, and it gave the WAN IP to the local computer, but with a DHCP lease renewal time of 15 seconds, not changeable of course...

said by jfeise :

All I need is a DSL modem that lets all packets through, and allows me to get the WAN IP address on the local computer, with a reasonable DHCP lease time.
Not too much to ask, I think

said by jfeise :

It has a checkbox to disable ping responses (which I have not checked, of course), and the public IP address can be assigned to one local machine, and the lease renewal time is about 5 minutes, I haven't found a setting to change that for the public IP address

said by wayjac :

I don't think you'll find a way to change the public ip lease time, the speedstreams and the motorola also use a 10 minute lease time for the public ip address

said by jfeise :

I can see the use of the short lease time if the modem or their hardware lose power. But I still should be able to change the lease time, since it doesn't seem to even matter much to upstream. And some people know how to do a /release and /renew...

said by jfeise :

Interestingly, they seem to have a rather generous grace period. I had the machine offline for 1/2 day or so for maintenance, and got the same IP address when I went back online.

said by wayjac :

With the public ip you would want a short lease time because the public ip is subject to change at any time. Once a dhcp client gets a lease on a ip it going to use it until its "time" to change even if the isp changes the ip address

You could be commenting on the public or the private ip address?

said by jfeise :

That comment was about the public IP. The machine, when starting back up, picked up the same public IP as before, even though the 10 minute lease was long up, because the machine was down for 1/2 day. Now I know that with DHCP, the client can ask for the same IP, although it is no guarantee. Maybe that's what happened.

said by wayjac :

If you set a long lease time on the public ip and your normally "months" long lease is short the client could hang on to the old lease for half of its time