Draytek 2820 / BT Infinity / Support for Static IP Addresses

Hi,

at the moment I have a BT HH3 with Infinity and a block of static IP addresses. Due to limitations with PPPoE not working with Vodafone SureSignal (MTU size issue), I'm thinking of changing to a DrayTek 2820 as the PPPoE router.

Has anyone used the DrayTek 2820 with Infinity and static IP addresses? If so, was the config straight forward? With the HH3, I quite like having 1 x dynamic BT IP address and a block of static addresses too.

The second question relates to MTU size: Has anyone managed to change their Infinity MTU size from 1492 to 1500 by using a 3rd party router?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

ukw

Edited by deleted (Sun 17-Feb-13 13:57:34)

My suresignal works with MTU set to 1480 on the router (just tried it and confirmed via http://www.speedguide.net/analyzer.php that 1480 was the prevailing MTU.

So you may be chasing the wrong fox.

Openreach's docs say "2.1.2 Ethernet Frame Size
The maximum supported Ethernet frame size is 1530 bytes (excluding IFG and preamble and single/double tag � see 2.1.3)." so you should be able to set 1500 MTU if a router allows it (many will have limits on what you can put in the field, have seen that even trying to use 1500 on PPPoA) and I don't know if "the other end" will be set to 1492 anyway.

Hi Phil,

thanks for getting back to me.

Port forwarding and DMZ modes are not helping and now Vodafone specifically mention that PPPoE operation is a known problem due to MTU fragmentation on the initial packet exchange. "PPPoE operation is not guaranteed". Strangely some SureSignal users seem to be okay with Infinity and indeed, the installation worked here for a while but failed at the back end of last year. Maybe Vodafone or BT performed a network upgrade around that time...

Regressing to PPPoA is not an option, so I need to move forward and try another router.

Thanks again

ukw
PS. Thanks very much for the link to the SpeedGuide Analyser page, it's VERY useful.

Edited by deleted (Sun 17-Feb-13 15:17:51)

port forwarding isn't required, or a static IP or DMZ as the suresignal initiates the communication from within. As port forwarding punches a hole in the firewall it can solve the symptoms and the need for port forwarding has been absorbed into the mythology.

Try turning off the router firewall if that's possible and/or look at the firewall logs - solved it for me. I've seen this on a few Suresignal installations, undisclosed features in router firewalls prevent them from working. Some VPNs have the same issue and MTU is a common thing to blame but in my experience it hasn't been the actual problem

If you change the router of course you'll have a different firewall which may well behave differently. Good luck !

Thanks again Phil - the firewall has been disabled in the HH3...

It looks like it's time to grasp the nettle and try the DrayTek.

It would still be handy to know if anyone has static IP address experiences to share with Infinity and DrayTek routers.

ukw

Edited by deleted (Sun 17-Feb-13 15:55:26)

presumably you would have to dish out the static IP using DHCP as there's no GUI on the Suresignal ?

Have a look at http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Vodafone-Sure-Signal/... (Draytek router)

http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Vodafone-Sure-Signal/...

Thanks for the link, I'll have a look now.

As for the static IP address via DHCP - it's MUCH worse than that. Vodafone SureSignal can *only* work from a DHCP assigned private range (NAT) IP address. So if you are a corporate user, you have to allow Vodafone to operate a network node within your private network... or provide a second router to maintain corporate security standards.

ukw
PS. I agree with all your sentiments about not needing port forwarding when you setup a VPN. For some reason Vodafone SureSignal works in a different way to most other VPNs that I have encountered professionally.

No problem here with Suresignal on Infinity, however I'm not using the HH3.

Hi Batboy,

thanks, this sounds very encouraging, which router are you using?

ukw

Edited by deleted (Sun 17-Feb-13 17:00:00)

If you're a corporate user who is concerned about such things you put your suresignal in its own isolated network segment and firewall zone