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                  Configuring my own fiberglass modem/router part 1   
                  By Michiel van der Vlist, 2:280/5555   
      
   It has been well over a year now that I have fiber glass installed in   
   my house. There is a lot of competition at the moment. Several parties   
   are trying to get a foothold in the market. As a result priority lies   
   on getting as many flags planted in as many households in The   
   Netherlands as soon as possible. Quality of the provided service comes   
   later. So I was a bit reluctant in canceling my subscription with the   
   cable company when the fibre connection was delivered. I thought let's   
   keep them both for the moment just to be sure. And while I had two   
   connections I figured I might as well get the most of it by providing   
   dual homing for my Fidonet connection. So I installed an extra network   
   card on my Fidonet PC. It took some tuning and I found it worked best   
   when I configured the same DNS servers for both connections. No idea   
   why, but that was my experience. It turned out keeping the cable   
   connection for a while was a good decision. The modem/router (Nokia   
   XS-2426G-B) from the fiber company has problems with port forwarding   
   and IPv6 pinholing. I reported these issues but after well over a year   
   it still has not been fixed. It does not seem to have priority. So I   
   decided it was time to take action. My first step was to change   
   providers. The company that installed and exploits the fiber is not   
   the same company that provides the connection. In fact there are   
   several companies that offer connection on the fibre network. One of   
   those had an interesting offer for internet only. So I changed.   
   Unfortunatley that did not solve my problem. They gave me the same   
   Nokia XS-2426G-B with the very same firmware version. And of course   
   the same problems with port forwarding and IPv6 pinholing.   
      
   Fortunately internet providers here are by law required to facilitate   
   customers that want to use their own modems and routers. So I decided   
   to go for the adventure and forget about buggy stuff from the provider   
   and get my own modem and router. And I have to give it to them, that   
   contrary to the cable company that fought legal battles for many years   
   to block it, the fiber internet provider, Delta, loyally cooperates to   
   facilitate the use of customer owned modems and routers.   
      
   There are a few snags though. For starters any change to the   
   admininstrative parameters in the connection can only be made with   
   the original modem/router connected. Think about upgrade to a higher   
   speed or... changing from CGNAT to having a public IPv4 address.   
   Apparently the new fiber companies have problems getting IPv4 addresse   
   for the fast growing number of their new customers. So about a year ag   
   they stopped issuing public IPv4 adresses to their customers. They   
   offer a CGNAT address in the range 100.64.0.0/10. That is OK for most   
   customers but not for those that run their own servers. Fortunately   
   they still have enough IPv4 to accommodate costomers thats need a   
   public routable IPv4 address. Just ask for it by subscribing to the   
   service "dynamic IP". Oddly enough they use the term "fixed address"   
   for a CGNAT address in the 192.168.100.0/10 range. That CGNAT address   
   is indeed fixed. Once issued it does not change any more. Whatever...   
   For now this service is free of charge. That may change in the future.   
   Anyway, I got a public IPv4 address in a few hours.   
      
   Next step is to have your own "modem" registered. They publish a list   
   of equipment that is compatible with their network. The list is quit   
   long but most of what is on the list is not available on the market.   
   Only a handfull remain. But if your "modem" is on the list all you hav   
   to do is connect it, call them and give then the PON-id. That is it.   
   My choice fell on the easy available Nokia XS-010X-Q which from now on   
   I shall refer to as the ONT. ( Optical Network Terminator )   
      
   Shortly after The ONT was connected the power led started flashing for   
   a couple of minutes indicating that a firmware upgrade is in progress.   
   That was one of the reasons for choosing the Nokia. It is the only one   
   of the available alternatives that automatically gets firmware upgrade   
   from Delta.   
      
   When the power and PON led are steady green it is time for the next   
   step. Connect something to the ONT and get data flowing. The ONT is   
   just a bridge, it has no router functions. But it has a user interface   
   accesable on 192.168.100.1. No DHCP server so to access it I configure   
   the laptop that I use for my point 1 and other experiments to have a   
   fixed address of 192.168.100.2. Then I could acces the ONT's web   
   interface. There is very little that one can do but I could check that   
   the latest firmware was installed and that the optical signal level wa   
   OK.   
      
   I reconfigured my laptop to get its address via DHCP and I configured   
   VLAN 100. The latter is required for an internet connection over the   
   fiber, They use VLANs to seperate the various services. Fortunately   
   this is easy in Windows with many network card drivers. Delta uses   
   VLAN 100 for consumer internet. VLAN 102 for TV and 105 for a bussines   
   connection. Other providers on the fiber use different VLAN numbers.   
      
   When I did that I got an IP address (4 and 6) and I had an inernet   
   connection. I made an outgoing binkp connection from my point 1. Then   
   I knew that the ONT and all beyond was OK.   
      
   Well, actually this is not exactly the order of things that happened   
   but for the sake of this article it will do. I will save the trial and   
   error steps that led to this result for the follow up article that   
   will be about the rest of my adventure. The part of connecting and   
   configuring a router.   
      
   So... To be continued...   
      
      
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