[final] ActionTEC 701wg

[Rick Stevens]

karlp at ourldsfamily.com wrote:
>>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.

Glad to hear you got it sorted out.  Actiontec should be heavily
chastised for not fixing a known bug in 2 years.  They sure won't be
getting my business anytime soon.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-                 Dyslexics of the world: UNTIE!                     -
----------------------------------------------------------------------