[final] ActionTEC 701wg

[karlp at ourldsfamily.com]

> Karl Pearson wrote:
>> On Thu, 4 Nov 2004, Rick Stevens wrote:
>>
>>
>>>karlp at ourldsfamily.com wrote:
>>>
>>>>I just upgraded the speed of our DSL link so our users can access our
>>>>servers much faster now (it's faster than the T1 at work!)
>>>>
>>>>However, one of the 'features' of this 701wg is that outbound to
>>>> inbound
>>>>http connections ALL go to the admin pages of the stupid beast. I've
>>>>contacted Actiontec and they haven't responded. I see the actiontec
>>>> runs
>>>>linux and there's a line:
>>>>
>>>>thttpd -d /usr/www -u root -p 80 -c /cgi-b... (line length cuts off
>>>> more)
>>>>
>>>>SO, we can't access any of the webpages on our server from inside the
>>>>network, only from the outside.
>>>>
>>>>Have any of you seen this and know if there's a way around it? I've
>>>>thought of using port 88, but then outside folks would have to know
>>>> that,
>>>>too, which is something I don't want to deal with or have to implement.
>>>>
>>>>Now for a peek inside my personality: I think it's d--- arrogant (or
>>>>stupid and short-sighted) of a company to do something like this to
>>>> their
>>>>users.
>>>
>>>I'm assuming (probably a bad idea) that the Actiontec is the 701wg and
>>>that it's your DSL modem or router.  If that's the case, and people on
>>>the LAN side can't see web pages hosted on a server that's also on the
>>>LAN side, then you've got a routing issue.  Either the default route
>>>being given to your DHCP clients is wrong or you've got the wrong
>>>netmask that makes your webserver look like it's on a different subnet
>>>than the DHCP clients.  That would force the traffic out to your modem
>>>or router.
>>
>>
>> Okay, I've been on the phone with Actiontec and Qwest and have found
>> that
>> Actiontec has known about the routing issue and have done nothing about
>> it. Since I'm an IT director and have installed 3 of these in client
>> sites
>> for connectivity to our site (so I don't have to mess with their
>> internal
>> firewall politics) AND since Qwest is Actiontec's largest customer, I
>> called Qwest to see if they would go to bat for me. They are pressing
>> Actiontec to fix this issue post-haste. I will be getting a call from a
>> Qwest manager tomorrow to verify this issue has been escalated.
>>
>> I spoke to 3 support folks at Actiontec, including a front-liner, his
>> manager and then a back-line advanced technical support engineer. The
>> manager assured me this would be available in the next flash upgrade.
>> Right. The 3rd guy finally admitted they've known for 2 years and
>> nothing
>> has been done. That's when I called Qwest.
>>
>> I'm on a wait-and-see and don't-hold-your-breath mode...
>>
>> Just thought you might like a follow-up. I'll send more if and when I
>> hear. I let them know that if I don't hear in a week, I'll be dropping
>> them as a vendor for our DSL needs.
>
> Thanks for the update, Karl.  So it is a routing issue in the firmware,
> eh?  And they've known for 2 years?  Sheesh!  That'd put them at the
> arse-end of my vendor list!

After calling Qwest, I now have a Cisco 678 DSL (DMT capable) router/modem
which Qwest sent UPS Next Day Air. And, it's FREE. Okay, the price of the
ActionTec ($60). It's refurbished.

Funny thing. After my phone call from Qwest with this solution, I got
another call from Qwest; different state senior support. This guy told me
how I could use the ActionTec anyway, with the use of the DMZ feature. Of
course, if you visit the setup page, it warns about doing that because of
major security risks. I have multiple ports open on my server, which is
safely behind my hardware firewall and has been safe for about 9 years
that way.

But, the 678 is doing fine and setup was a breeze because hey, I know Cisco.

Karl