R.I.P. AT&T 2wire - adding additional VOIP

AndyInNYC

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I'm finally at my boss' house looking at her system to understand her problem (VOIP phones connected to RentPBX randomly ring/won't make calls).

I just found out that they are actually using the AT&T 2Wire to provide the home and current office voip lines (i.e. they don't have copper, unlike what they told me).

So, looking at the config I see two current VOIP lines in the 2Wire setup. This means I can't just set the 2Wire into bridged mode and use the new router I had them buy.

So, now the question is:

Is it possible to configure a RentPBX/flowroute/PIAF system to co-habitate with the 2Wire VOIP setup?

Presently, my attempts have failed, and others have suggested (the now impossible) lobotomizing the 2Wire and putting into bridge mode.

Help?

Andrew
 

phonebuff

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Andrew,

Three years ago I spent two weeks of my life, that I will never get back, trying to connect my Asterisk box to a provider and remote ATA's over the AT&T uVerse 2Wire product...

Had to give up and take another tack --

You can find lots of "It does not work" hits in Google, not sure you will find any "I got it working".

But good luck..
 

wardmundy

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Do you mean to say one of the Bell Sisters doesn't like VoIP? I'm shocked. :eek:
 

rjaiswal

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The only thing I can think of, that could work is a phone with a VPN client. That way all traffic for the extension will travel over its own tunnel, so that it won't interfere with the existing service. Yealink phones have a built in openvpn client that is very stable.
 

geopeterwc

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Is it possible to configure a RentPBX/flowroute/PIAF system to co-habitate with the 2Wire VOIP setup? Presently, my attempts have failed, and others have suggested (the now impossible) lobotomizing the 2Wire and putting into bridge mode. Help?
AndyInNYC ... Miracles do happen!

If you're using the 2-Wire modem, model 3801HGV or 3800HGV, you can configure it to accommodate a "router-behind-router" configuration. It wasn't easy to get the AT&T installer or tech support to understand that I expected a bridged connection for my at home network. Ultimately success was achieved with the assistance of AT&T's ConnectTech department (an extra-charge service that was fortunately waived - thanks AT&T). The user interface of the 3801HGV is not at all intuitive.

Following the procedure below, I now having a pfSense router with a real Public IP address behind the UVerse modem. All IP ports are passed to my pfSense router, the UVerse VOIP phone works as intended, supporting my fax machine, and my PIAF is happy on my Gigabit LAN behind a pfSense router.
  1. Connect your "alternate" (preferred) router to one of the 3801HGV router ports before you start configuring the modem. Set your router in DHCP mode to get an IP address from the modem. This is necessary so that the router can be detected by the UVerse modem. The router can be left in DHCP mode, or configured for a fixed IP address (the public IP address that the modem uses internally) later. A fixed IP address is preferred.
  2. Configuration of the UVerse modem requires access of the modem management services with a computer connected to one of the four router ports on the modem. Launch your favorite browser to 192.168.1.254.
  3. From the Home page of the modem, select "Settings". Click the "Broadband" tab and write down the "Current Internet Connection" information: Public IP Address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, Primary and Secondary DNS. You'll need this information later in your preferred router.
  4. Click the "System Info" tab, then select the "Event Notifications" link. Be sure that the "Router-Behind-Router Detection" box is checked so that detection of the router is enabled. Click "Save" - you'll be prompted for the modem password, which should be on a label on the modem. Confirm the change.
  5. Click on the "LAN" tab on the page, and confirm that your secondary, prefered router is in the list of connected devices. This may appear as only the MAC address of the router.
  6. Click on the "Firewall" tab ... and click the "Applications, Pinholes and DMZ" link. In the "1) Select a computer" section, choose the computer (your router) that will host applications through the firewall. (Essentially, you're creating a DMZ that will be exclusively for your router.) At the bottom of this page, select the "Allow all applications, (DMZPlus mode)" button. Click "Save" and confirm with the modem password.
  7. Now, power-cycle the router. When it has restarted, it should have picked up the Public IP address that you observed in step 3; and the DHCP service in the UVerse modem should have supplied the Subnet Mask, Default Gateway and DNS1 and DNS2 values for the WAN side of your router. If the computer that you used to configure the modem is still connected, you may see a "Router-Behind-Router detected" message.
If you intend to use wireless services from your own router, you may want to turn off the 2-Wire 3801HGV modem's wireless service. Do this from the "Home" page of the modem, and select the "Wireless" link to select "Disabled".

Hopefully you find this information helpful. It required several hours on the phone with AT&T to finally get to a point where all of my gear, including the AT&T UVerse modem and the VOIP phone line it provides and my PIAF are happy! TechConnect I can confirm that Port 25 was also enabled at my request for SMTP service ... aahhh, another project!

/Pete./
 

wardmundy

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Not the first provider to "play dumb" on setting up their device in bridged mode. Pretty standard network terminology once you get to somebody that actually understands networks... no small feat.
 

AndyInNYC

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Pete,

Thanks for your reply. I knew I could put the router in bridge mode - I had found alternate info previously.

My issue, though, is that I can't 'kill' the 2Wire. If I turn it into a dumb device, I fear that I will lose the VOIP service it currently supports. Since I can't stop access to the existing lines for testing purposes (as originally set up, the 'new' VOIP phones/service causes the phones to ring/misbehave randomly).

Does your solution allow the AT&T provisioned VOIP to coexist when the 2Wire is set in bridge mode?

Andrew
 

wardmundy

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AndyInNYC: Just curious. Why do you need AT&T VoIP service?? You can do it better and cheaper yourself. They're doing exactly what your PIAF server already does, and they're using the identical network connection.
 

geopeterwc

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Pete,

Thanks for your reply. I knew I could put the router in bridge mode - I had found alternate info previously.

My issue, though, is that I can't 'kill' the 2Wire. If I turn it into a dumb device, I fear that I will lose the VOIP service it currently supports. Since I can't stop access to the existing lines for testing purposes (as originally set up, the 'new' VOIP phones/service causes the phones to ring/misbehave randomly). Does your solution allow the AT&T provisioned VOIP to coexist when the 2Wire is set in bridge mode?

Andrew

YES. My VOIP phone line from AT&T is working just fine "ahead" of my pfSense router and my PIAF. I also found the "dumb-it-down" scheme, but chose instead to have AT&T help to establish the configuration that I had ordered from them. So ... you should expect the AT&T VOIP phone line(s) to function quite normally, without any effect on their performance/function.

The UVerse wireless continues to function (if you want, 192.168.1.0/24 (default) as well as the UVerse router on the same subnet). You'd probably want to be certain that you're not duplicating that subnet in your preferred router - choose something different, ie., 192.168.0.0/24. My home network is on the latter, so there's no issues.

/Pete./
 

geopeterwc

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Not the first provider to "play dumb" on setting up their device in bridged mode. Pretty standard network terminology once you get to somebody that actually understands networks... no small feat.

Ward, you are so right ... for a configuration option that should have been simple to implement, it took about four hours on the phone with tech support and with the installer still on hand to get things working as I had intended. And then, they wanted to charge me for the 4 hours of "support."

The procedure I outlined should work for both the 2-Wire/Pace 3800 and 3801 VDSL modems. It was also led to understanding during the 4-hour ordeal, that there's a Motorola VDSL (don't know the model) that has a "bridged mode option" that's plain-as-day in the configuration settings. But, that's a modem that AT&T chooses to install for 'business clients' and not residential services, unless it's demanded.

The "trick" was ultimately to allow the VDSL modem to recognize the router connection, then to configure the router to use the public IP address, and then power cycle the router with the "pubic IP address" information.

/Pete./
 

geopeterwc

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AndyInNYC: Just curious. Why do you need AT&T VoIP service?? You can do it better and cheaper yourself. They're doing exactly what your PIAF server already does, and they're using the identical network connection.

In my case, I "had" to keep the phone number for FAX in order to get the special pricing ... but getting that to work was another story, entirely! It's my intention to port the number to a VOIP service that supports FAX services. That's a project for another day, though.

/Pete./
 

AndyInNYC

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Ward (and all),

Eventually they will cancel the VOIP lines from AT&T. I don't control that, however, So I needed to try to get all the lines working at the same time. Unfortunately, Pete's great post came after I left. I will have to get back up there again.

Thanks for the help. Right now the flowroute lines are working and the ringer is turned off - it's effectively an outgoing line only and we can use the extensions.

Andrew
 

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