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    How to get Bell Fibe in Quebec/Ontario (Internet and IPTV) working with pfSense

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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      CrazyMitchy @autumnwalker
      last edited by

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        autumnwalker @CrazyMitchy
        last edited by

        @CrazyMitchy said in How to get Bell Fibe in Quebec/Ontario (Internet and IPTV) working with pfSense:

        @autumnwalker I've missed that requirement, what would those DNS be? Is it going to be different if I'm with Bell Fibe (in Quebec)

        As far as I know Quebec uses the "Bell" configuration, not the "Aliant" configuration. My instructions would not apply to you. I cannot comment on the Bell config unfortunately.

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          pjaneiro @autumnwalker
          last edited by

          @autumnwalker Hi, my pvr is connected to a separate NIC on the pfsense box directly, igmp is enabled on pfsense, but if i do not bridge wan iptv interface with the nic, the tv does not work, when rebooting the fibe pvr and for the green light takes a while to become solid...

          Just wondering why is it so complicated to get this going with pfsense, it took me less 10 min to get it all working with a ubiquity box, same setup too, one port for lan and one port for fibe receiver

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            autumnwalker
            last edited by

            @pjaneiro I cannot comment on the Ubiquiti stuff.

            pfSense is not a switch, it is a router. You can configure it to work like a switch with bridging LAN ports, but out of the box it doesn't work like a switch and it isn't intended to.

            Over simplifying - each port is intended to have one function (VLANs are a different discussion), but think of each port of being either in or out and each in / out is a different network location / segment. If you have WAN in from Bell on one port and LAN out on another port that routing is configured in pfSense automagically on initial setup. If you add your IPTV box to another port on pfSense it doesn't automatically know how to route the traffic. When you bridge it to WAN, it basically just puts your IPTV box in Bell's data centre - it isn't intended to function that way.

            The "right" way to do this is to have WAN in from bell with VLAN 34, 35 (for Aliant users only) and a LAN out (no VLAN required). Put a switch behind your LAN port on pfSense (make sure it does IGMP snooping), and plug your IPTV boxes and all your other network gear into that.

            Bell (internet) > (pfSsense WAN > pfSense LAN) > switch > your network gear

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              CrazyMitchy @autumnwalker
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              • idscommI
                idscomm @autumnwalker
                last edited by idscomm

                @autumnwalker
                Thanks for the link, very interesting post, helped me understand a bit better. That JamesMTL seems to be very knowledgeable!!

                I will have to tune my IGMP Proxy, DNS and Rules a bit. Do you have any IPV6 traffic going through or not?

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                  pjaneiro @idscomm
                  last edited by

                  @idscomm

                  in my case there is when the pvr is booting up, also in the case you ever need to replace the hard drive it’s also needed, i don’t believe it needs it while viewing live tv or recording

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                    autumnwalker @idscomm
                    last edited by

                    @idscomm said in How to get Bell Fibe in Quebec/Ontario (Internet and IPTV) working with pfSense:

                    @autumnwalker
                    Thanks for the link, very interesting post, helped me understand a bit better. That JamesMTL seems to be very knowledgeable!!

                    I will have to tune my IGMP Proxy, DNS and Rules a bit. Do you have any IPV6 traffic going through or not?

                    No, there does not appear to be any IPv6 going through for IPTV.

                    JamesMTL has helped me tune my config a lot. Very knowledgeable!

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                      autumnwalker @CrazyMitchy
                      last edited by

                      @CrazyMitchy said in How to get Bell Fibe in Quebec/Ontario (Internet and IPTV) working with pfSense:

                      @autumnwalker Everything else in your instructions work A1 though, I'm looking at my firewall and don't see my PVR trying to contact anything other than routes I created at the start. How did you go about finding those Aliant DNS?

                      Does Bell in Quebec use DHCP or PPPoE? In Atlantic Canada (Bell Aliant) we use DHCP and no PPPoE. The DNS servers are pulled down with the DHCP request that the GPON sends out to Aliant. Once I had them I swapped to my own DNS and setup the two URLs in my DNS Resolver to forward to the Aliant DNS servers.

                      I strongly suspect that Quebec is not the same as Aliant ...

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                        CrazyMitchy
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                          pjaneiro @CrazyMitchy
                          last edited by pjaneiro

                          these are the dns entries you need to rebind

                          207.164.234.129
                          207.164.234.193
                          10.2.127.228
                          10.2.127.196

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                            autumnwalker @CrazyMitchy
                            last edited by

                            @CrazyMitchy said in How to get Bell Fibe in Quebec/Ontario (Internet and IPTV) working with pfSense:

                            We use VLAN35 PPPOE for Internet, but VLAN 36 DHCP for the TV. So I'd have to find Bell's DNS for Quebec?

                            The other thing to consider is that fibreop.ca is something specific to Atlantic Canada / Aliant. You will need to follow different configuration instructions than I have provided.

                            There is no value in you forwarding fibreop.ca to the Bell DNS servers; however, from what I've read, you should forward iptv.microsoft.ca.

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                              rcmpayne @autumnwalker
                              last edited by

                              @autumnwalker Just to let you know I’m fully working and I’m in the Halifax area With fibreOp

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                              • idscommI
                                idscomm @rcmpayne
                                last edited by

                                @rcmpayne What did you set for rules? Did you follow the guide @autumnwalker provided me?

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                                • idscommI
                                  idscomm
                                  last edited by

                                  The TV is working but now that I have done more test I noticed that if I pause Live TV, it tells me that I lost connection and go back to live TV.... Any ideas?

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                                    autumnwalker @idscomm
                                    last edited by

                                    @idscomm are you trying to pause on a non-DVR STB or on the DVR itself?

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                                      idscomm @autumnwalker
                                      last edited by

                                      @autumnwalker That's the DVR itself

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                                        autumnwalker @idscomm
                                        last edited by

                                        @idscomm said in How to get Bell Fibe in Quebec/Ontario (Internet and IPTV) working with pfSense:

                                        @autumnwalker That's the DVR itself

                                        hmm - not sure where to point you on this one. I have seen that happen in my environment, but rare and cannot reproduce. It also happened before I ripped out the HH3K and happened with Bell's older equipment too (I'm OG FibreOP) so I chalked it up to their gear.

                                        I'm not sure why pausing would have any effect on the stream coming from Bell (IGMP, firewall rules, routing) versus the "live" stream. Someone who has more knowledge of how the streaming works on the Bell end will have to chime in.

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                                        • idscommI
                                          idscomm @autumnwalker
                                          last edited by idscomm

                                          @autumnwalker So, first I rebooted the PVR then I did 2 more packet capture using the live TV and pausing it... I noticed that other than the 10.2/16 and 10.237/16, my box was also reaching for 10.195/16 UPD, TCP and IGMP as source ... I added that route under the upstream and under Static Routes ... Seems like it's working fine now ... I'll do more test and let it run but so far so good!

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                                            CrazyMitchy
                                            last edited by

                                            @autumnwalker Well this is akward. It was an IGMP issue after all. I NEVER noticed you could choose the interface it was listening on in pfSense... I pointed it to my LAN and boom it works. I feel kinda dumb lol

                                            It works great now, thanks a bunch for your help!

                                            Only problem left is the apps, even with the DNS resolver rebinds, it just keeps loading and nothing comes up. Getting there!

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