How to get Bell Fibe in Quebec/Ontario (Internet and IPTV) working with pfSense
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@idscomm take a look at this post re: IGMP config https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r32420749-
@pjaneiro you should not bridge your WAN and LAN for IPTV to work. You should have VLAN 34 tagged on your WAN interface (if you're with Aliant, it's a different VLAN for Bell) and your routing should be setup per my post above so that IPTV multicast traffic is passed to your LAN port.
I do not have the issues you describe with my PVR.
You should make sure that any downstream switch in your network is capable of IGMP snooping otherwise you will likely flood your LAN with multicast traffic.
These cable boxes are designed to be in your local network on the same IP range as everything else, not bridged to Bell's IPTV network.
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@CrazyMitchy said in How to get Bell Fibe in Quebec/Ontario (Internet and IPTV) working with pfSense:
Would you guys know why for 5-10 minutes I can watch the TV, then the PVR says disconnected, then it comes back on its own? I've followed you guys instruction, and everything works (mainly)
Is it a IGMP issue?
IGMP is usually seconds, not minutes.
Do you have pfSense forwarding fibreop.ca and iptv.microsoft.ca to Aliant DNS servers? AFAIK if you don't have iptv.microsoft.ca forwarded the PVR will do weird things.
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@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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@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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@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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@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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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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@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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@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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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 -
@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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@autumnwalker Just to let you know I’m fully working and I’m in the Halifax area With fibreOp
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@rcmpayne What did you set for rules? Did you follow the guide @autumnwalker provided me?
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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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@idscomm are you trying to pause on a non-DVR STB or on the DVR itself?
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@autumnwalker That's the DVR itself
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@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.
