Netgate 6100 and CenturyLink $49/month service

jlpoole

I recently acquired a Netgate 6100.

I have some sort of Internet service, see infra, from CenturyLink where I pay $49/month. I live in Salem, Oregon.

CenturyLink uses AT&T's lines to the pole. The CenturyLink installer had to run a line from the pole to this box on the side of my house. The box is an AdTran Total Access 352, 1287702GI, which I have deteremined is a "352 GPON SFU ONT w/ OptiTap Housing". I have concluded it is a converter from an optical network providing telephone and Internet.

From the box, I have a CAT5-type cable running to the "modem" as CenturyLink calls it, which I purchased and is a CenturyLink C4000XG designed in Denmark and "California" [new country?] and made in Taiwan.
Here's a photo of its base with unique information such as passwords and identifiers redacted.

Here are photos of the C4000XG:

I followed the steps outlined in the https://forum.netgate.com/topic/83139/pppoe-on-wan-link-for-centurylink-gigabit-service/18?_=1647374742449
as follows:

 #
 # 3/15/2022 jlpoole added this new file and 3 lines below
 # per https://forum.netgate.com/topic/83139/pppoe-on-wan-link-for-centurylink-gigabit-service/18?_=1647374742449
 #
 #net.isr.dispatch=deferred
 #net.inet.tcp.tso=0
#hw.igb.fc_setting=0
 #
 # try ix3 = WAN network interface
 #
 #hw.ix3.fc_setting=0

Now, there was no file /boot/loader.conf.local, so I created one with the above settings. When that did not work, I tried creating a file under /boot/conf.d/jlpoole_local.conf on the theory that any *.conf file in the directory /boot/conf.d would be read. Since I have a different and newer model, I do not know if those settings apply to my model or are needed.

I performed a "find /boot -type f |xargs grep fc_setting" in the command line and my two files showed up along with some keneral modules (in binary). I also tried "find /boot -type f |xargs grep 'isr.dispatch'" to see if any of Netgate's files had such settings. I did find a global file that set an envrionmental variable, but I did not touch that.

I contacted CenturyLink on 3/15/2022 and received an email acknowledging about 9 hours later from Stephanie Polk "We are sending a case manager your way to address them as quickly as possible." I also had to visit their web site and provide several bits of data, e.g. last four digits of my social security, date of installation, &etc. I did not hear anything so I forwarded Stephanie's email twice with return receipt requests, on 3/17 and 3/18. i did not receive an acknowledgment nor response. Finally, I spent an hour on the phone, 1-800 244-1111, and was disconnected the first time after reaching an operator, and then routed to Conrad who was very eager to help. (Beware, you have to spend 5 minutes traversing their robot call router just to get the opportunity to speak with a live person.) Conrad went offline several times to ask various people and to search their knowledge base and finally provide me the following information:

I'm on PPoe
multiplexing LLC
Connection: PPoe
VCI: [2 digit sequence redacted]
VPI: [1 digit redacted]

VCI = Virtual Connection Identifier 16 bit field to identify path between 
VPI = Virtual Path Identifier 8-12 bits fields
VLAN consists of VCI and VPI, but not sure how they interrelate

At my request, he sent me an email containing this information:

CASE Number: [8 digits redacted] VPI=[1 digit redacted] VCI=[2 digits redacted] Connection Type=PPPoE Multiplexing=LLC

Conrad provided excellent service as best he could.

With the information provided above, I went back and entered in the VCI for the VLAN fields.

I was able to get to the point where the Netgate 6100 was connected to the WAN, but the logs should there were repeated attempts to connect and failures, e.g. 36 attempts with a 4 second interval between attempts. I re-entered my username and credentials which I had from the initial installation of the service.

So, I come this forum wondering:

are boot time configuration setting necessary for the 6100?
If so, are the setting the same as above, with modification being the specification of the hardware description, e.g. "ix3"?
Has anyone else with a 6100 successfully connected it to a CenturyLink account for DSL service? If so, what were you steps in configuring?

I'm sorry, I do not know what the technical name of the service I have is. Given that I think that an optical cable was run to my house from the phone pole, I think I have some sort of reduced optical service that mimics ADSL??

I want to be able to use my Negate 6000 as my router facing the Internet Service Providers connection so I can use dynamic IP hosting. (I used to have fixed IPs from Comcast paying dearly for the privilege, e.g. $150/month!)

SteveITS

Just to be clear did you have the # character in front of all lines in the file you created? That comments the line out.

I'm sorry though I have no insight into CenturyLink.

jlpoole

@steveits said in Netgate 6100 and CenturyLink $49/month service:

Just to be clear did you have the # character in front of all lines in the file you created? That comments the line out.

I'm sorry though I have no insight into CenturyLink.

I removed the hash character "#" for lines when I wanted activated. I left the lines in the file, with hash tags, when I was experimenting on rebooting so they would not take effect; in other words, going back to the standard setup.

I should have clarified that, good catch.

jlpoole

@jlpoole Thanks to this posting: PPPoE on WAN link for Centurylink gigabit service, I learned that the VLAN tag is actually displayed in the Modem Status section -- you just have to look around. I found mine in the "WAN Status section" of the interface:

So, my VLAN is 201, not the numbers in the "VCI" and/or "VPI" provided by the support person earlier. I'll have to try again.

The blind leading the blind. <sigh> I'll retry the steps and setting with the "201" number and report back here in the next 24 hours.

jlpoole

It worked!! I followed the steps of the reply of billmcg in this forum's topic: PPPoE on WAN link for Centurylink gigabit service using a VLAN of 201 and the
/boot/loader.conf.local script.

I will re-iterate the documentation on what to do with screen shots so the next person who owns a Netgate 6100 and wants to sign up for CenturyLink's $49/month plan will have an easy time of it. I'll do so with in the next 7 days.

But... this is a case where support for CenturyLink, well intentioned as it may be, led me down the wrong path.

rcoleman-netgate

@jlpoole At least it's not VLAN0 tagged like it is on that AT&T connections (IIRC).

Glad you were able to get your connection up!