Verizon DSL → Re: [modem/router] Remote access to E90 Modem lost in bridging

There was some kind of MAC address cloning done in the Vonage router before (a couple of years ago), but I'm not sure what address was cloned. I'll have to try LogMeIn to get to the Vonage router and see what it has set up.

I think I had some sort of port forwarding set up in the Westell modem to forward to the Vonage router, but I can't remember what I did (darn, I wish I'd kept better records).

ok, open up a browser, then type in this address: 192.168.1.1
when asked to change the username and password for the modem configuration, the username is admin and the password is password. To make it easier to login the modem router, I can give you the site on how to setup the modem. Believe me it's a long process, but this would work.

»www.verizon.net/central/ ··· Id=17168

»members.verizon.net/~res ··· 6100.htm

if your modem has a new GUI, you may have to readjust, they may have a different walk through.

Do turn off the DHCP Client and NAT for your modem, as the router will be the Authentication Piece Equipment.

CA connections, as a rule are DHCP. Vonage normally needs no port forwards to work. It will at times require a power cycle to re-establish a connection, after a loss of power event. Most web cams, on the other hand, IIRC, do require port forwards to be accessible from the outside. Resetting the router to defaults would have wiped out the port forwards.

While am in California, the remote site with the Verizon DSL service is in Indiana. Nevertheless, it does appear to be DHCP based on what is set up in the modem.

The Vonage VOIP does work as is. I can tell because when I call that number it rings numerous times before going to voicemail. If it were unable to connect to the VOIP adapter-router it would go immediately to voicemail on the first ring. So the signal gets through the Westell modem into the Linksys router, but then doesn't get forwarded from the router to the computer nor to the HomeRemote Gateway that are downstream of the router. The router still has the same port forwarding setup in it as it did before I reset the modem (I reset only the modem, not the router), so it doesn't seem to be a problem with port forwarding in the router. It seems to be a conflict between the modem and the router.

Both of the two links show putting the modem into Bridge mode. That was exactly what I did when I completely lost the connection last time, so I am concerned about trying it again. My friend in Indiana is not going to be too happy about having to make another trip out there to reset the modem again if it doesn't work.

I'm unfortunately a bit hazy about how I had the modem set up before, but I don't think I had it in Bridge mode.

If the Westell wasn't in bridge mode, then your equipment and camera were downstream of two NAT routers, therefore any port forwarding would have to be dealt with in each of those routers, the Westell and the Vonage Linksys.
One solution may have been to set the DMZ in the Westell to point to the Vonage router, that would have opened all ports through the Westell to the Vonage router, but the Westell would still be handling the connection to the ISP.
The recommended way would be bridge the Westell, and turn off it's DHCP server, so it just bridges the DSL signal to the router, so you only need to configure one NAT router.
Any of that familiar?

Well, I managed to get things working again. I think I have it back the way it was originally. The odd thing though is that not only the modem lost its settings (because I stupidly did the remote reset that reset it to defaults) but also the router had lost its settings as well, which I can't explain.

What I did was to set up "services" in the modem (which are really port forwards) to forward each of the ports I use to the IP address of the router. Then I set up port forwarding in the router to forward those ports to where they need to go. This does seem less elegant than setting up the modem as a bridge, and perhaps if I were on site I could get the bridge mode working instead, but this works for me.

I did discover what I should have done in the first place, which is that both the router and the modem have backup/restore options that allow you to save all of the settings in a backup file. I wish I had done that before. It would have saved me a lot of time and headache. I'm going to learn my lesson and do it this time. I'm also going to print out copies of the settings as well.

Also, perhaps not so oddly, my daughter who lives in the same area has been having a lot of trouble with her Verizon DSL connection as well, with some of the same symptoms. I am tending to guess some sort of lightning storm.