Re: [gentoo-user] Frontier ADSL modem and IP address

[Mick]

On Tuesday, 31 December 2019 12:42:26 GMT Peter Humphrey wrote:
> On Tuesday, 31 December 2019 11:04:57 GMT Mick wrote:
> > On Tuesday, 31 December 2019 10:24:48 GMT Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > > I'm puzzled. Why should a DSL modem be tied to a particular ISP? The
> > > only
> > > thing I can think of is that one uses PPPoA and the other PPPoE. But the
> > > modem should sort that out for itself when it connects upstream.
> > 
> > ISPs looked into reducing their operating costs providing support to an
> > ever increasing population of technically clueless users and in
> > conjunction with router OEMs came up with a remote router provisioning
> > scheme.  This allows firmware updates and remote control of the CPE
> > without the customer even knowing what is happening.
> 
> I hadn't come across that before. I did wonder whether it was another
> example of control-freakery, but perhaps not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TR-069

In the UK I'm thinking of the 2Wire routers issued by BT to their business 
account users.  You could configure them for different ISPs, set them up in 
fully bridged mode, etc., but then you had to also poison the DNS addresses 
used for their provisioning servers to stop BT updating the firmware and 
crippling some of its functionality.

I can't recall the ritual you had to entertain when changing their settings 
from BT to another ISP, but it was not as simple as pressing the reset button.  
You had to navigate to some (hidden?) menu option and change settings from 
there.

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Frontier ADSL modem and IP address

[Peter Humphrey]

On Tuesday, 31 December 2019 11:04:57 GMT Mick wrote:
> On Tuesday, 31 December 2019 10:24:48 GMT Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > I'm puzzled. Why should a DSL modem be tied to a particular ISP? The only
> > thing I can think of is that one uses PPPoA and the other PPPoE. But the
> > modem should sort that out for itself when it connects upstream.
> 
> ISPs looked into reducing their operating costs providing support to an ever
> increasing population of technically clueless users and in conjunction with
> router OEMs came up with a remote router provisioning scheme.  This allows
> firmware updates and remote control of the CPE without the customer even
> knowing what is happening.

I hadn't come across that before. I did wonder whether it was another example 
of control-freakery, but perhaps not.

-- 
Regards,
Peter.

Re: [gentoo-user] Frontier ADSL modem and IP address

[Mick]

On Tuesday, 31 December 2019 11:03:10 GMT Dale wrote:

> Either way, it doesn't work.  Once I get the one labeled AT, I'll be
> able to know for sure.  I'm 99.99% sure I have the right password.  The
> one I have coming will verify that as well.  If it works, right
> login/password which pretty much leads me to believe the Frontier won't
> work with AT

Have you checked these instructions to see if you can get it going with AT?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=130=XISFrTZEJoI

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Frontier ADSL modem and IP address

[Mick]

On Tuesday, 31 December 2019 10:24:48 GMT Peter Humphrey wrote:

> I'm puzzled. Why should a DSL modem be tied to a particular ISP? The only
> thing I can think of is that one uses PPPoA and the other PPPoE. But the
> modem should sort that out for itself when it connects upstream.

ISPs looked into reducing their operating costs providing support to an ever 
increasing population of technically clueless users and in conjunction with 
router OEMs came up with a remote router provisioning scheme.  This allows 
firmware updates and remote control of the CPE without the customer even 
knowing what is happening.

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Frontier ADSL modem and IP address

[Dale]

Peter Humphrey wrote:
> On Tuesday, 31 December 2019 01:25:32 GMT Dale wrote:
>
>> I found out the name and such from the previous user.  I couldn't see the
>> password tho.  Anyway, it seems this is locked to Frontier ISP.  I put in
>> the right user name/password and it wouldn't connect.  It tried but no joy. 
>>
>> Before I bought this, it was claimed that this should work with AT but
>> unless I got something wrong, it doesn't.  Shame really, pretty nice
>> modem.  The screens give pretty nicely laid out info about things too. 
> I'm puzzled. Why should a DSL modem be tied to a particular ISP? The only 
> thing I can think of is that one uses PPPoA and the other PPPoE. But the 
> modem 
> should sort that out for itself when it connects upstream.
>


I dunno for sure.  I just know that some are Frontier and some are
AT  I didn't notice the Frontier part, never heard of that ISP
before, so I bought that version.  Thing is, looking at the pics on
ebay, the info on the bottom is a little different.  For one, the AT
versions have the IP address on it.  The Frontier versions don't.  I'm
not sure but it seems the models are just a little different as well. 
That makes me think there is a hardware difference.  Maybe they use a
different frequency or something?? 

Either way, it doesn't work.  Once I get the one labeled AT, I'll be
able to know for sure.  I'm 99.99% sure I have the right password.  The
one I have coming will verify that as well.  If it works, right
login/password which pretty much leads me to believe the Frontier won't
work with AT

I'm hoping to get the router that was discussed in another thread
shortly.  Maybe then I'll be IPv6 ready.  ;-)

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] NFS problem

[Peter Humphrey]

On Monday, 30 December 2019 19:18:47 GMT Daniel Frey wrote:
> On 2019-12-30 09:04, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > Is anyone feeling less clueless than me? I'm out of ideas now and hoping
> > for some help.
> 
> I set up a new NFS server in the last weeks or so and had this weird
> problem where I couldn't most an NFSv4 export on clients.
> 
> After a lot of head scratching, I discovered two things:
> 
> 1. On the NFS server, only NFS server 4.0 support was needed
> 2. On all NFS clients, including the NFS server which mounted other NFS
> mounts, all NFS client options had to be selected or the mount would
> fail. It didn't matter specifying nfsvers=4.0 as a mount option, it
> failed if there was no NFS client kernel support for 4.1/4.2.
> 
> I don't know why, I just figured that it was something to do with the
> new kernels (running 5.4.x.)

Hmm. On my NFS server box, only version 4 was available in the server setup; 
no options for 4.x. I tried removing v4 client support, since I don't expect 
to use it, and separately I tried adding 4.1 and 4.2 support on the client. 
Neither of those helped: the client still insists that the exported 
directories don't exist, even though I can see them.

Thanks for the idea though.

-- 
Regards,
Peter.

Re: [gentoo-user] Frontier ADSL modem and IP address

[Mick]

I just saw this long thread ... missed all the fun!

On Tuesday, 31 December 2019 01:25:32 GMT Dale wrote:
> Adam Carter wrote:
> > On Tue, Dec 31, 2019 at 11:08 AM Dale  > 
> > > wrote:
> > Dale wrote:
> > > Grant Taylor wrote:
> > >> On 12/30/19 1:04 PM, Dale wrote:
> > >>> Is there a way to find the IP for this thing?
> > 
> > Its using 192.168.254.254. Since fireball is in 192.168.2.0/24
> > , its on a different subnet and therefore cant
> > arp it.
> > 
> > Try setting fireball to say 192.168.254.253/24
> >  then try pinging 192.168.254.254
> 
> I found the offending entry.  When you posted that, I was confused for a
> minute.  When I found the setting, it hit me.  My old modem is on
> 192.168.1.* and my router is on 192.168.2.*.  I commented those out so
> it could grab whatever IP it wanted.  It WORKED!!  I could access the
> modem.  

As was mentioned your PC has to be in the same subnet to be able to access the 
router.


> I found out the name and such from the previous user.  I
> couldn't see the password tho.  Anyway, it seems this is locked to
> Frontier ISP.  I put in the right user name/password and it wouldn't
> connect.  It tried but no joy. 

When you reset the firmware all settings are *supposed* to be wiped out.  
However, this is a router which is controlled by the ISP via a provisioning 
server.  Either certain settings have been hardcoded in the ISP released 
firmware, or more likely you have not reset it correctly/completely.  The 
power LED will blink red when you hold down the reset button during the boot 
stage of the router.  It's a good idea to hold the button pressed and keep it 
depressed for up to a minute, as you power cycle it.

More options here:

https://www.mobilereset99.com/reset-netgear-b90-755025-15-router/

NOTE: When you succeed in resetting the router, its subnet/IP will change and 
therefore you should check your PC's IP address matches the router's address 
space.


> Before I bought this, it was claimed that this should work with AT but
> unless I got something wrong, it doesn't.  Shame really, pretty nice
> modem.  The screens give pretty nicely laid out info about things too. 
> 
> Unless someone can figure out how to make this Frontier based modem work
> with AT, I guess this is a door stop. 

AT was issuing these routers to customers and was provisioning firmware 
updates via their control servers.  I don't know if they still do so.  
Contacting AT support may get you some info on their default username/passwd 
settings.  However, I would think if you reset the router successfully without 
it being connected to the Internet, you'll be able to login into it with 
username=admin and blank passwd.

If AT have decommissioned their provisioning servers they may be able to 
provide you with their latest firmware to flash it manually.

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Frontier ADSL modem and IP address

[Peter Humphrey]

On Tuesday, 31 December 2019 01:25:32 GMT Dale wrote:

> I found out the name and such from the previous user.  I couldn't see the
> password tho.  Anyway, it seems this is locked to Frontier ISP.  I put in
> the right user name/password and it wouldn't connect.  It tried but no joy. 
> 
> Before I bought this, it was claimed that this should work with AT but
> unless I got something wrong, it doesn't.  Shame really, pretty nice
> modem.  The screens give pretty nicely laid out info about things too. 

I'm puzzled. Why should a DSL modem be tied to a particular ISP? The only 
thing I can think of is that one uses PPPoA and the other PPPoE. But the modem 
should sort that out for itself when it connects upstream.

-- 
Regards,
Peter.

Re: [gentoo-user] Frontier ADSL modem and IP address

[Peter Humphrey]

On Monday, 30 December 2019 23:39:52 GMT Jack wrote:

> Bizarre new thought: have you tried putting the IPV6 address from
> ifconfig into the browser?

That's the address of eth1, not the modem-router. As the kernel has IPv6 
support built in, it automatically assigns an fe80 address to the initerface, 
constructed from the MAC address.

Dale could try 'ip neigh show'. It should give something like this:

192.168.1.2 dev eth0  FAILED
192.168.1.254 dev eth0 lladdr 60:03:47:2d:8e:ba REACHABLE
192.168.1.4 dev eth0 lladdr 1c:1b:0d:8b:da:17 REACHABLE
fe80::6203:47ff:fe2d:8eba dev eth0 lladdr 60:03:47:2d:8e:ba router STALE

That's from this box. The first address is my powerless server; the next is my 
modem-router and the third is my eth0. The last one is the automatically self-
assigned IPv6 address as I described above. (It consists of the MAC address 
with 'fffe' inserted in the middle and the 54th bit from the right set.)

I have IPv6 disabled in /etc/conf.d/net at the moment, or I'd have seen a 
couple more addresses from the ip command.

-- 
Regards,
Peter.