{"id":1025,"date":"2010-05-13T17:33:43","date_gmt":"2010-05-13T09:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2010\/05\/13\/beware-apple-routers-running-on-pldt-dsl\/"},"modified":"2010-05-13T17:33:43","modified_gmt":"2010-05-13T09:33:43","slug":"beware-apple-routers-running-on-pldt-dsl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2010\/05\/13\/beware-apple-routers-running-on-pldt-dsl","title":{"rendered":"Beware Apple routers running on PLDT DSL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Did that get your attention? Sorry to make it sound urgent, but the fact is, I&#8217;m not sure if it is urgent. But in case it applies to you, then I&#8217;ve just done you a big favor.<\/p>\n<p>The thesis of this post is that there is a possibility that the PLDT DSL service, literally <em>damages<\/em> Apple devices that have gateway (i.e. routing) capabilities.<\/p>\n<h1>Background<\/h1>\n<p>A few years ago, I threw away my Time Capsule (TC). <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_1025_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1025_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_1025_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1025_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_1025_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">1 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1025_1_1\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Of course, after cannibalizing the 1TB drive and assimilating it into the Drobo<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1025_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1025_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> The reason for which was because its gateway\/routing capablities died without any warning. It would always throw an error of not being able to authenticate with PLDT&#8217;s PPPoE server. When I try connecting the computer(s) directly to the modem, it\/they would work. Hence I was convinced it was the TC&#8217;s problem.<\/p>\n<p>That was <em>then<\/em> &#8211; <strong>now,<\/strong> I&#8217;m not so sure.<!--more--><!-- \/\/ --><\/p>\n<h1>Recently<\/h1>\n<p>I eventually bought an Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS) to replace the TC. The reason I specifically want Apple hardware is because it has support for reserved DHCP mapping via MAC address. In short, you can have it assign a specific IP to a registered machine even if you&#8217;re on DHCP.<\/p>\n<p>Granted, there <em>might<\/em> be 3rd party firmware for the famous LinkSys WRT54G series routers that can do the same, but my particular WRT54G is a WRT54G2 &#8211; and the firmware compatible with that is limited, and the one I had installed doesn&#8217;t have that particular feature I want. <\/p>\n<p>Also, I like using the Drobo as a NAS <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_1025_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1025_1_2');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_1025_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1025_1_2');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_1025_1_2\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">2 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1025_1_2\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Network Attached Storage<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1025_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1025_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> device. The TC and the AEBS have a USB port where I can plug my Drobo in and have it accessible to any computer in the network. And again, the LinkSys model I have doesn&#8217;t have such USB support. Then there&#8217;s the whole issue of access via Samba <em>and<\/em> AFP (since I&#8217;m on a multi-OS environment) Accessing the Drobo via Windows requires Samba, while OSX can use both, AFP tends to be more reliable.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever the case may be, lets just say that I prefer using the Apple hardware for my gateway needs. <em>Period.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Going back to the story&#8230; just a few days ago, the <em>exact same thing<\/em> that had happened to the TC happened to the AEBS! That was too much of a coincidence if you ask me. So I started researching about it &#8211; and smacked my head to have found <a href=\"http:\/\/www.philmug.ph\/forum\/archive\/index.php\/t-45827.html\">this thread<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Turns out it <strong>wasn&#8217;t<\/strong> my TC that had a problem&#8230; well at least not <em>entirely.<\/em><\/p>\n<h1>Not Entirely?<\/h1>\n<p>When I try to put two and two together; I&#8217;m led to believe that the problem is <strong>both<\/strong> the hardware <em>and<\/em> the DSL service. But the latter <em>causes<\/em> the former.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that the TC&#8217;s gateway never worked again, but plugging a <strong>new<\/strong> gateway (AEBS) <em>did,<\/em> clearly indicates faulty hardware. <\/p>\n<p>However, that the new hardware would eventually act up now suggests that while it may be a hardware issue, <em>something<\/em> is triggering it&#8230; which can only be the DSL service itself. Furthermore, it&#8217;s specific to Apple devices because I always have my LinkSys router handy as a spare &#8211; and it <em>always worked.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Then of course we have that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.philmug.ph\/forum\/archive\/index.php\/t-45827.html\">whole thread<\/a> of similar issues all related to Apple specific hardware &#8211; which automatically means my issue is <strong>not<\/strong> an &#8220;isolated&#8221; case.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s my belief that connections via PPPoE may have some data packets that can corrupt the ROM of Apple gateways in particular &#8211; and the corruption apparently is beyond a hard reset. Meaning once it hits you, it toasts your Apple-branded device&#8217;s ability to authenticate via PPPoE.<\/p>\n<h1>Tricky business<\/h1>\n<p>Now you can see the implications of having this issue resolved. Because it&#8217;s specific to Apple hardware, calling in tech support would always, as I&#8217;ve confirmed myself, result to them claiming that you have to buy another router, that their system is working just fine.<\/p>\n<p>And they would be a bit justified in claiming that, it&#8217;s impossible to prove to them that there&#8217;s <em>something<\/em> in their system that&#8217;s wrong because it works on every other gateway device or machine &#8211; even on Apple hardware for the most part.<\/p>\n<h1>Solutions<\/h1>\n<p>Luckly, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.philmug.ph\/forum\/archive\/index.php\/t-45827.html\">thread<\/a> did mention a workaround&#8230; which is to have the DSL modem <em>itself<\/em> authenticate with the PPPoE server instead of the router (or the machines) and act as a DHCP server itself. <\/p>\n<p>This would mean that anything connected to the modem would only need to be set to get a connection via DHCP &#8211; which is a good thing as it literally makes your whole network topology &#8220;plug and play&#8221; in a sense. In cases like mine, it would mean we wouldn&#8217;t have to use our AEBS&#8217; <em>now-broken<\/em> PPPoE feature to authenticate. All we need to do is set it to act as a bridge and we&#8217;re done.<\/p>\n<p>The only &#8220;gotcha&#8221; according to the thread is that the solution only works for users that have a specific model modem: the Zyxel P-600. Other DSL modems are literally <em>just modems<\/em> &#8211; this particular modem is a modem with routing capabilities &#8211; but PLDT sets it up as just a modem by default.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, most new subscribers are given this particular modem. Unfortunately for <em>me,<\/em> I&#8217;m an early adopter &#8211; so the modem I have was the prehistoric Nokia one from the days when the DSL was still new.<\/p>\n<p>Anyways, to cut a long story short, I filed a request to have the modem replaced. That has been done just this afternoon, then I appled the &#8220;fix&#8221; <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_1025_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1025_1_3');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_1025_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1025_1_3');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_1025_1_3\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">3 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1025_1_3\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Which is really a workaround, since I&#8217;m pretty sure PPPoE access on the AEBS is damaged beyond repair<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1025_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1025_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> as dictated by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.philmug.ph\/forum\/archive\/index.php\/t-45827.html\">thread<\/a> and <em>viola!<\/em> I&#8217;ve now got my network online again through the AEBS via DHCP instead of PPPoE.<\/p>\n<h1>Conclusion<\/h1>\n<p>If you experience the same problems as I did with your Apple branded base station, then try setting your modem as a router &#8211; and if you don&#8217;t have it, put in a request for modem replacement like I did.<\/p><div class=\"speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container\"> <div class=\"footnote_container_prepare\"><p><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_label pointer\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_1025_1();\">Notes<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_1025_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_1025_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_1025_1\" style=\"\"><table class=\"footnotes_table footnote-reference-container\"><caption class=\"accessibility\">Notes<\/caption> <tbody> \r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_1025_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_1025_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_1025_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Of course, after cannibalizing the 1TB drive and assimilating it into the Drobo<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_1025_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_1025_1_2');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_1025_1_2\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>2<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Network Attached Storage<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_1025_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_1025_1_3');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_1025_1_3\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>3<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Which is really a workaround, since I&#8217;m pretty sure PPPoE access on the AEBS is damaged beyond repair<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_1025_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_1025_1').show(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_1025_1').text('\u2212'); } function footnote_collapse_reference_container_1025_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_1025_1').hide(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_1025_1').text('+'); } function footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_1025_1() { if (jQuery('#footnote_references_container_1025_1').is(':hidden')) { footnote_expand_reference_container_1025_1(); } else { footnote_collapse_reference_container_1025_1(); } } function footnote_moveToReference_1025_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_1025_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } } function footnote_moveToAnchor_1025_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_1025_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } }<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Did that get your attention? Sorry to make it sound urgent, but the fact is, I&#8217;m not sure if it is urgent. But in case it applies to you, then I&#8217;ve just done you a big favor. The thesis of this post is that there is a possibility that the PLDT DSL service, literally damages &hellip; <p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2010\/05\/13\/beware-apple-routers-running-on-pldt-dsl\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Beware Apple routers running on PLDT DSL&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}