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sm5w2
Premium Member
join:2004-10-13
St Thomas, ON

sm5w2

Premium Member

Strange issue with dsl modem - operating in bridge mode?

I'm helping a family member remotely with a dsl modem/router issue. They are a Bell Sympatico HSE customer.

The modem they're using is a TP Link TD-W8961ND. It's a DSL modem (supplied by me) with 4-port router with wifi. Nothing is directly connected to it other than a 16-port switch from which everything else is connected. It has been given the fixed lan IP address of 192.168.0.1, and all other connected devices use that IP as their TCP/IP gateway.

Some port-forwarding was set up in this router in the past, and this forwarding is still working. Today, they wanted to change some of the settings, but the unit was not responding to http access (IE, Firefox, and wget were tried, but the unit was not responding to any of them). Port-scanning software run on a computer on the lan against the unit showed that it did have port-80 open, and it was responding to pings. There was nothing else to indicate the unit was having any problems (it was otherwise performing all internet connectivity just fine).

So the unit was power-cycled and it re-established a connection to the internet, and it's http interface became operational.

So to recap:

- TP Link TD-W8961ND dsl modem/router
- seemingly working just fine
- http admin/config interface is discovered to be non-responsive
- power cycle brings back working http interface

So now that the unit's http interface can be accessed, various config screens were brought up to get to the unit's port-forwarding settings. Except no such config screen could be found. The modem's config page indicated that it was in Bridge mode (as opposed to Dynamic IP, Static IP, or PPPoe). In bridge mode, the "NAT" setting can't be enabled (or has no meaning) and because of that the port-forwarding menu is disabled.

The status page indicated 3 working (up) virtual circuits:

PVC0 VPI/VCI 1/32 Encapsulation: Bridge (IP Address, Subnet, Gateway, DNS all "N/A")
PVC1 VPI/VCI 0/33 Encapsulation: Bridge (IP Address, Subnet, Gateway, DNS all "N/A")
PVC2 VPI/VCI 0/35 Encapsulation: PPPoE (IP Address 64.228.x.x, Subnet 255, Gateway 64.230.200.x)

If I have a closer look at the VC list, it indicates that out of a possible 7 VC's that the unit has config data for, the above 3 are the only ones showing as Active, with their status as "Up".

The system log was blank (no entries !?)

Line State: "Showtime" (strange?)
Modulation: G.DMT
Annex Mode: Annex_A

SNR Margin (db): 17.5 down, 10.0 up
Line attenuation (db): 47.5 down, 30.0 up
Data rate (kbps): 4032 down, 800 up
Max rate (kbps): 6688 down, 1108 up
CRC: 0 down, 0 up

The unit seems to be operating in PPPoe mode, yet when I temporarily change the mode from Bridge to pppoe on the config page (which causes the pppoe username and password fields to appear) there is nothing in the username/password fields (no previously entered B1 number or password).

My next step is to force the unit back into pppoe mode in the config menu and enter the correct name/passwords, but for now I've just left it as-is. I'm wondering why I'm seeing 3 virtual circuits - and are the two that are bridges actually up and working (and necessary?). I'm also wondering if the line data is sufficiently bad to take up with Bell (presumably through the direct forum) and get the line conditions cleared up to achieve better download speed.

HiVolt
Premium Member
join:2000-12-28
Toronto, ON

HiVolt

Premium Member

The only VPI/VCI you need on Bell is 0/35. If you have others, delete them or disable them. This applies for routed (PPPoe) or bridge. You may have to set up another Virtual Circuit for bridge, but use VPI/VCI of 0/35 for that as well.
Hot Summer
join:2014-11-17
Canada

Hot Summer to sm5w2

Member

to sm5w2
" It has been given the fixed lan IP address of 192.168.0.1,"

Perhaps you should use a more common LAN address like

192.168.123.x with a mask of 255.255.255.0

Also enable DHCP and set all LAN devices for DHCP