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dick white
Premium
join:2000-03-24
Annandale, VA
 ·Verizon FIOS
| Problem w/ bridged ActionTec and working VOD
A while ago there was a long thread on reconfiguring your ActionTec POS router to bridge so that VOD/Guide/Widgets still worked while handing off all the routing to your own more competent separate router; this is now incorporated in the VZ Fiber forum FAQ (though not here in the TV forum's FAQ...). I did that and am quite satisfied with the results except for a major hassle under certain circumstances that will be recurring more frequently in the coming summer months.
After a whopping thunderstorm and power goes out for several hours, the VOD/Guide/Widgets are gone when the power returns. (Short outages are not a problem, as I have all the network equipment on additional UPSs.) The internet is fully functional for all the PCs and all TV channels are functional, just the missing VOD/Guide/Widgets. Both times so far, I have had to connect my laptop directly to the AT, go into the configuration screens, reset the AT to factory defaults, then go through all the many steps to reconfigure the router to this particular bridge mode. Note that simply reloading a saved configuration file does not seem to work, the internet light on the AT stays orange.
I am suspecting that it may have something to do with losing the DHCP lease during such a long outage, but in this configuration with no WAN IP address of its own, there is no means to tell the AT router to release what it believes is the WAN DHCP lease (the release and renew buttons that used to be on that particular screen are no longer present after changing to "No IP Address"). Therefore, one must reset the router to factory default in order to get the Release button back. And then rebuild the revised configuration. Note that my router which is behind the AT does have a WAN IP release button in one of its setup screen, but this does not seem to be able to knock through the AT upline all the way to the VZ DHCP server, so after it apparently releases and reboots, the WAN IP is unchanged.
Does anyone with a bit more knowledge about all this have any suggestions? I suppose next time I could call VZ tech support and ask them to force a DHCP release from their end, but I'm not sure that alone will cause the AT router to clean up its act.
TIA
dw | |
fdgg34
@usf.edu
| What is your actual network setup?
i.e. :
ONT -> WRT54GL (DDWRT) >--- LAN to WAN ---> Actiontec --> QIP box
WRT default IP has been changed to 192.168.11.11 (random numbers other then 192.168.1.1 to prevent conflicts with AT) and Actiontec was forced into bridge mode with wireless, etc turned off.
After power goes out everything works. | |
dick white
Premium
join:2000-03-24
Annandale, VA
·Verizon FIOS
| fdgg, thanks for the quick reply. My setup is exactly as described here:
»/faq/15871
Note that faq is in the other Online FIOS forum, not this TV FIOS forum...
visually, it's:
ONT(coax)- - -> ActionTec WAN ---> LAN Buffalo router
with a 2nd link: ActionTec LAN ---> WAN Buffalo router
Although it appears redundant, the back and forth between the bridged ActionTec and the Buffalo allows the Buffalo to do all the heavy lifting (receive the VZ public IP and issue all the inside LAN IP addresses) while the ActionTec is set to DHCP relay to pass IP addresses back to the TV STBs for VOD, etc. through the MoCa interface.
The ActionTec retains its default 192.168.1.1 internal address and the Buffalo is set to 192.168.11.1.
Thanks again for your help
dw | |
Dnepr
join:2001-11-28
Tarpon Springs, FL | reply to dick white
Ah I see.
For some reason I thought you were on CAT5 initially.
Sorry cant help ya with coax =\ good luck though. | |
More Fiber
Premium
join:2005-09-26
West Chester, PA
 ·Bay Area Internet ..
edit:
June 19th, @01:55AM
| reply to dick white
Other users have also reporting losing the bridging configuration as the result of a power failure.
Normally, the Actiontec stores the configuration file in non-volatile RAM (NVRAM), but for some reason (buggy code?), the bridging information doesn't get stored correctly. This is also why the bridging information can't be restored from a saved config file.
You said, the internet light on the AT stays orange. It should, because the Actiontec should not have a WAN IP address. If you display the main status page in the Actiontec, for broadband status it should say "connecting". It should not display a WAN IP address (e.g. 72.x.x.x).
You also said, The internet is fully functional for all the PCs. From this, it would appear that MOCA WAN to LAN bridge is working. I'm assuming that your PC's are connected to your bridged router and are pulling LAN IP addresses from it. If you display the WAN status page in your router, it should show a WAN IP address (e.g. 72.x.x.x).
You said, tell the AT router to release what it believes is the WAN DHCP lease. Before doing a hard reset on the Actiontec, does the main status show a WAN IP address, or does it show "connecting"? I'm a little confused about why the Actiontec would "believe" it has a WAN IP address. After the power fail (and before the hard reset), did the Actiontec show NO IP ADDRESS on the broadband coax settings, or did the outage reset it back to OBTAIN ADDRESS AUTOMATICALLY?
If this is accurate, then it would seem the problem is the "loopback" connection from your router's LAN port to the Actiontec WAN port. I'd suggest checking the following:
•Check that the ethernet WAN to coax LAN bridge is configured in the Actiontec.
•Check that the ethernet LAN and coax LAN are no longer bridged.
•Check the the coax LAN settings are set for DHCP RELAY.
•Reboot the STB's by removing A/C power
•Have you tried cloning the Actiontec coax WAN MAC address to the WAN port of your router to get your router to pull a WAN DHCP address. | |
dick white
Premium
join:2000-03-24
Annandale, VA
·Verizon FIOS
| Fiber, thanks for the thorough response. I'll try to interleave my answers your questions and hopefully the forum formatting will work...
said by More Fiber  :Other users have also reporting losing the bridging configuration as the result of a power failure. Normally, the Actiontec stores the configuration file in non-volatile RAM (NVRAM), but for some reason (buggy code?), the bridging information doesn't get stored correctly. This is also why the bridging information can't be restored from a saved config file. Yes, I saw the original thread come back up yesterday and I read through it again. Losing the custom configuration after a power outage seems to be a problem.
said by More Fiber :You said, the internet light on the AT stays orange. It should, because the Actiontec should not have a WAN IP address. If you display the main status page in the Actiontec, for broadband status it should say "connecting". It should not display a WAN IP address (e.g. 72.x.x.x). When the setup is working properly, the internet light on my ActionTec is off. That's my first clue that the setup has gone kablooie after a power outage - the internet light comes on orange and stays orange until the final reboot after re-entering all the bridging configuration when I bring everything back up.
said by More Fiber :You also said, The internet is fully functional for all the PCs. From this, it would appear that MOCA WAN to LAN bridge is working. I'm assuming that your PC's are connected to your bridged router and are pulling LAN IP addresses from it. If you display the WAN status page in your router, it should show a WAN IP address (e.g. 72.x.x.x). Yes, the bridged router (an old Buffalo) has an appropriate VZ public IP and manages all PCs (except when configuring the AT, for that I have left an ethernet cable just dangling from the AT and I take a laptop down and sit on the floor behind the furnace to rebuild the configuration - a PITA, which is why I would like to find a better way... thanks for your help here.) The bridged Buffalo continues to work correctly and the internet remains functional for the PCs even when the AT is whacked. The TVs receive video, but no IMG/VOD/widgets. And then the wife goes cranky... hence the importance of resolving this 
said by More Fiber :You said, tell the AT router to release what it believes is the WAN DHCP lease. Before doing a hard reset on the Actiontec, does the main status show a WAN IP address, or does it show "connecting"? I'm a little confused about why the Actiontec would "believe" it has a WAN IP address. After the power fail (and before the hard reset), did the Actiontec show NO IP ADDRESS on the broadband coax settings, or did the outage reset it back to OBTAIN ADDRESS AUTOMATICALLY? My earlier statement(s) may reflect my developing understanding of the whole issue. I had read in a number of other threads about the VZ DHCP lease being MAC-bound to the AT and the importance of releasing the DHCP lease from within the AT setup interface before doing anything else, so I thought that might be a part of this. When I get hunkered down there after the power comes back on and first drill into the AT setup page, the big status box says something about no connection, check your router, yada yada. When I am done, it says GO, yada yada. I'd have to go back and purposefully crash it now to see exactly what each of the indicators are.
said by More Fiber :If this is accurate, then it would seem the problem is the "loopback" connection from your router's LAN port to the Actiontec WAN port. I'd suggest checking the following: •Check that the ethernet WAN to coax LAN bridge is configured in the Actiontec. •Check that the ethernet LAN and coax LAN are no longer bridged. •Check the the coax LAN settings are set for DHCP RELAY. •Reboot the STB's by removing A/C power •Have you tried cloning the Actiontec coax WAN MAC address to the WAN port of your router to get your router to pull a WAN DHCP address. After reading some of the recent traffic in the other thread plus your comment above about the bridging settings not being stored correctly, that may be the source of the problem. If I need to check each of the settings individually, it may be just as easy to bomb it back to factory default and rebuild it item by item following the script in the faq. The one thing I did not try this time was rebooting all the STBs BEFORE rebuilding the AT setup. That may also be part of the issue - after a full power outage during a storm, it comes all back on when it does, and the various devices will immediately reboot with no control over which one comes back up first. However, this probably won't help if the correct bridging is not restored in the AT.
As Roseanna Danna (the late Gilda Radner) used to say on SNL, "It's always something." Thanks for your help and insight.
dw | |
Hooper
Premium
join:2001-10-22
Villanova, PA | When the AT loses power, it does not automatically enable the Ethernet connection (when bridged) for whatever reason. You need to go into the router and select enable on that interface. I spotted this very early on after Sidney posted his video. | |
More Fiber
Premium
join:2005-09-26
West Chester, PA
·Bay Area Internet ..
| reply to dick white
said by dick white :I saw the original thread come back up yesterday and I read through it again. Losing the custom configuration after a power outage seems to be a problem.
As Hooper pointed out, the primary setting in the configuration that seems to get whacked is the ethernet WAN bridge setting. I'm not currently running a MOCA WAN , so I can't verify if anything else is getting whacked, but his comment is consistent with other postings I've seen.
said by dick white :When the setup is working properly, the internet light on my Actiontec is off. That's my first clue that the setup has gone kablooie after a power outage - the internet light comes on orange and stays orange until the final reboot after re-entering all the bridging configuration when I bring everything back up. In DaDragon 's original thread on bridging, he made the statement that the internet light would stay orange and the router continue to show connecting or not connected. That was before yubin 's thread that introduced the "loopback" cable and the bridge on the ethernet WAN port. With yubin s' connection from the other router LAN to the Actiontec ethernet WAN, the Actiontec pulls what it thinks is a WAN IP address address from the other router, so it thinks it has a good connection to the internet and the internet light goes green. Sorry. That was my mix-up on on which thread you were following.
said by dick white :When I get hunkered down there after the power comes back on and first drill into the AT setup page, the big status box says something about no connection, check your router, yada yada. When I am done, it says GO, yada yada. I'd have to go back and purposefully crash it now to see exactly what each of the indicators are. When the Actiontec comes back up and has lost the ethernet WAN bridge, it won't pull a WAN IP address from the Buffalo. Also recall that DHCP is disabled on the coax broadband, so no connection will be made from the Actiontec to the VZ DHCP server to get an IP address. This fact did get saved in the configuration  . Re-enabling the ethernet WAN bridge should cause the Actiontec it to pull an IP address from the Buffalo.
said by dick white :The one thing I did not try this time was rebooting all the STBs BEFORE rebuilding the AT setup. That may also be part of the issue - after a full power outage during a storm, it comes all back on when it does, and the various devices will immediately reboot with no control over which one comes back up first. However, this probably won't help if the correct bridging is not restored in the AT. I don't see any advantage to rebooting the STBs until the ethernet WAN bridge has been restored. Until that happens, the STBs don't have a path to get a LAN DHCP address. | |
dick white
Premium
join:2000-03-24
Annandale, VA
·Verizon FIOS
| reply to dick white
Many thanks to both Hooper and MoreFiber!! Hooper's suggestion that I simply go in an re-enable the broadband ethernet bridge worked during a quick test I did this morning (turned the AT off for a few moments, widgets stopped working, re-enabled just the one thing, widgets started working again). MoreFiber, your insight and detailed posts have helped me immensely in understanding this beast. It's still a PITA that it doesn't restart in the same configuration that was set before it lost power, but now I know how to fix it quickly.
dw | |
FriedSpam
join:2008-06-24
Rowlett, TX
| I don't have a problem with losing the bridge when the power goes out. I can unplug the Actiontec for several hours and still no issue. However, (and it has been a while since I set up the bridge in the Actiontec) I can no longer access the settings in the Actiontec firmware via 192.168.1.1. I remember having issues initially and having to reset the Actiontec to default to again start the process all over but now I have had it working for several months. Any thoughts as to why I can't access the Actiontec anymore though? | |
JohnA
Premium
join:2003-09-16
Pittsburgh, PA |
If it's DHCP is off, it cannot give the PC an IP. Put a static IP on your PC, and you should have no trouble with access. | |
bcrigler
join:2008-07-01
Centreville, VA | Yes I was having this same problem! So I guess I just need to set my computer to a static IP to reaccess the 192.168.1.1 gateway on the AT. | |
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