Bridged Mode And Opik TV - The Easy Way

In my previous post about switching the Actiontec v1000H into bridging mode I mentioned the need to turn on IGMP Proxy on the attached router to get Optik TV working properly. If this feature is not turned on your TV signal will drop every few seconds. This has to do with the way your router handles IGMP Multicasting. While this may work for some advanced users, not everyone will have this feature on their router, and there is a simpler solution.

You get two public IP addresses for every Telus account. You can switch the Actiontec into bridged mode, connect your router to one LAN port and connect your Optik TV box into another LAN port. This lets the Optik TV box bypass your routers LAN network and gives it direct access to the internet. In this configuration you don't need to worry about multicasting/IGMP Proxy settings.

Here's a pretty good explanation of IGMP Proxying. 

Downsides to this setup configuration is that you don't have control over the overall bandwidth used between your TV Box and router network. This may be an issue if your network is regularly congested (maxed-out bandwidth) on your router LAN and you're trying to watch TV at the same time. This is normally handled gracefully when the Telus TV Box is inside your LAN by Quality Of Service (QOS) settings on your router. These QOS settings are set by default on the Actiontec. While in theory this is a downside I haven't noticed any issues.

Actiontec v1000h Web Pages

FYI here is a list of all the pages accessible on the Actiontec v1000h. Some pages may be blocked from being accessed depending what account you're logged in as. 

addEntryError.html

adv_left.html

adv_util_left.html

advance_left.html

advance_top.html

advancedsetup_admin.html

advancedsetup_advancedportforwarding.html

advancedsetup_applications.html

advancedsetup_broadbandsettings.html

advancedsetup_dhcpsettings.html

advancedsetup_dmzhosting.html

advancedsetup_downstream.html

advancedsetup_dslsettings.html

advancedsetup_dynamicrouting.html

advancedsetup_firewallsettings.html

advancedsetup_firewallsettings_blockstatic.html

advancedsetup_firewallsettings_custom.html

advancedsetup_firewallsettings_high.html

advancedsetup_firewallsettings_low.html

advancedsetup_firewallsettings_medium.html

advancedsetup_firewallsettings_popup.html

advancedsetup_hpna.html

advancedsetup_ipsec.html

advancedsetup_lanipaddress.html

advancedsetup_lanipaddress_hide.html

advancedsetup_lanipaddress_info.html

advancedsetup_lanipaddress_real.html

advancedsetup_lanipdhcpsettings.html

advancedsetup_lansubnets.html

advancedsetup_nat.html

advancedsetup_option60.html

advancedsetup_ptmsettings.html

advancedsetup_remotegui.html

advancedsetup_remotetelnet.html

advancedsetup_schedulerules.html

advancedsetup_schedulingaccess.html

advancedsetup_servicesblocking.html

advancedsetup_staticrouting.html

advancedsetup_upnp.html

advancedsetup_upstream.html

advancedsetup_vlan.html

advancedsetup_waneth.html

advancedsetup_wanip.html

advancedsetup_wanipaddress.html

advancedsetup_wanvlans.html

advancedsetup_websiteblocking.html

advancedutilities_dnscache.html

advancedutilities_hpnadiag.html

advancedutilities_igmp.html

advancedutilities_ipping.html

advancedutilities_oamping.html

advancedutilities_systemlog.html

advancedutilities_traceroute.html

advancedutilities_wanvlans.html

advancedutilities_wanvlans_atm.html

advancedutilities_wanvlans_eth.html

advancedutilities_wanvlans_eth_hide.html

advancedutilities_wanvlans_eth_real.html

advancedutilities_wanvlans_hpna.html

advancedutilities_wanvlans_hpna_hide.html

advancedutilities_wanvlans_hpna_real.html

advancedutilities_wanvlans_ptm.html

advancedutilities_wanvlans_ptm_real.html

autosetup.html

autosetup_congratulations.html

autosetup_detect.html

autosetup_detect_real.html

autosetup_failure.html

autosetup_hiden.html

autosetup_ipoe_hiden.html

autosetup_ppp.html

autosetup_ppp_detect.html

autosetup_ppp_hiden.html

autosetup_ppp_wait_hiden.html

autosetup_pppoa.html

autosetup_pppoa_detect.html

autosetup_pppoa_wait_hiden.html

autosetup_pppoe.html

autosetup_pppoe_detect.html

autosetup_pppoe_wait_hiden.html

autosetup_response.html

autosetup_status.html

autosetup_wait_hiden.html

autosetupx_detect.html

autosetupx_ppp.html

autosetupx_ptm.html

autosetupx_wait_hiden.html

autosetupx_wait_hiden1.html

autosetupx_wan.html

autosetupx_wan_hide.html

autosetupx_wan_real.html

cmdthankyou.html

cmdthankyou_hide.html

cmdthankyou_real.html

connect_left.html

customersetup.html

customersetup_isp.html

customersetup_ppp.html

customersetup_status.html

customersetup_wan.html

customersetup_wan_hide.html

customersetup_wan_real.html

fw_left.html

home_left.html

home_top.html

hurl.html

index.html

index_noauto.html

index_real.html

index_wizard.html

lockerror.html

logconfig.html

login.html

login_fail.html

login_suc.html

modemstatus_activeuserlist.html

modemstatus_firewallstatus.html

modemstatus_home.html

modemstatus_hpna.html

modemstatus_iptrafficqos.html

modemstatus_lanstatus.html

modemstatus_modemutilization.html

modemstatus_nattable.html

modemstatus_portmappingstatus.html

modemstatus_routingtable.html

modemstatus_wanethstatus.html

modemstatus_wanstatus.html

modemstatus_wirelessstatus.html

perm.txt

qs_top.html

quicksetup.html

quicksetup_2nd.html

quicksetup_left.html

rebootinfo.html

rebootinfo_hide.html

rebootinfo_real.html

reset_fail.html

reset_suc.html

restoreinfo.html

restoreinfo_hide.html

restoreinfo_real.html

restorewireless.html

restorewireless_hide.html

restorewireless_real.html

security_left.html

security_top.html

status_left.html

status_top.html

thankyou.html

todthankyou.html

top_btn_nav.html

top_btn_nav1.html

top_btn_nav2.html

top_btn_nav3.html

top_btn_nav4.html

top_btn_nav5.html

tr69.html

uploadinfo.html

uploadinfo_success.html

utilities_diagnostictest.html

utilities_left.html

utilities_reboot.html

utilities_restoredefaultsettings.html

utilities_timezone.html

utilities_updatesettings.html

utilities_upgradefirmware.html

utilities_upgradefirmware_hide.html

utilities_upgradefirmware_real.html

utilities_webactivitylog.html

wireless_left.html

wireless_top.html

wirelesssetup_80211bgmode.html

wirelesssetup_80211n.html

wirelesssetup_advanced.html

wirelesssetup_basic.html

wirelesssetup_basicsettings.html

wirelesssetup_channel.html

wirelesssetup_multiplessid.html

wirelesssetup_nomodule.html

wirelesssetup_refresh.html

wirelesssetup_ssidbroadcast.html

wirelesssetup_thankyou.html

wirelesssetup_web8021x.html

wirelesssetup_wep.html

wirelesssetup_wep8021x.html

wirelesssetup_wirelessmacauthentication.html

wirelesssetup_wmm.html

wirelesssetup_wpa.html

wirelesssetup_wps.html

wizard_wl.html

Incoming Ports That Telus Blocks

Telus blocks you from hosting several services on your home internet connection. This prevents you from hosting things like web sites, ftp servers, mail servers, on their native ports. You can get around this by hosting these services on non-standard ports or using a VPN connection that doesn't block the same incoming traffic. 

The rationale for blocking these services appears to be under the guise of protecting users and the Telus network from malware. Really it's just a way to prevent you from fully utilizing your home connection and to force you to buy a more expensive tier of service.

The only packages with no blocked ports at this time are the Server packages.

The blocked ports currently are:

TCP 21 (ftp)
FTP server

TCP 25 (smtp)
Email delivery server (MTA - Mail Transfer Agent)

TCP 80 (www)
Web server

TCP 110 (pop3)
POP3 email retrieval servers (MDA - Mail Delivery Agent)

TCP 6667 (ircd)
IRC servers (Internet Relay Chat)

TCP/UDP 135-139 (dcom and netbios)
135 Windows RPC
136 PROFILE Naming System (basically unused)
137-139 Windows NetBios

TCP/UDP 443 (ssl)
Secure web browsing - HTTPS

TCP/UDP 445 (ms-ds)
Microsoft Directory Services

TCP/UDP 1433-1434 (ms-sql)
Microsoft SQL Server

Using your own router in tandem with the Actiontec V1000H Router and Telus Optik TV

...I choose my networking hardware, not my ISP (Telus)!

In the ideal big-brother world of Telus they would have you only use their supplied hardware for networking - ie the Actiontec V1000H Router. For advanced users this is a serious pain, when your own router probably has a much richer feature set. For others you may just want complete control of your network and its hardware.

The solution? Log in as root, set the Actiontec to "bridged mode", essentially turning it into a standard modem. Now you can use your own router connected directly to the WAN. If you call Telus tech support, they won't have a clue what you're talking about when you mention bridging or just tell you it's not possible. I understand that it's more difficult for the Telus support people to read from their script when every customer could have a different router, but I, like many others, never call Telus tech support unless there is something broken on their side, like my service has dropped completely. You may be better off talking to brick wall for anything else.

If you don't enable bridging on the Actiontec and you use it with your router, you'll get a double NAT situation. While it may work, it will be a pain to configure and may result in some peculiar networking problems. This is exacerbated by the fact that you don't have access to fully configure the Actiontec router to work properly in this situation - like disabling DHCP. Check out this explanation of double NAT for more info.

The below instructions work flawlessly with my DDWRT54G v3 running Tomato Firmware v1.28.7633 .3-Toastman-VLAN-IPT-ND ND VPN

To start - knowing your logins:

There are a set of logins for the Actiontec - the one that you're given is a crippled account with limited access to settings.

default customer login is (can be changed after first login)
username: admin
password: telus

"poweruser" login - some options are still locked
username: tech
password: t3lu5tv

root login - all features are unlocked and configurable
(old firmware 31.30L.48)
username: root
password: m3di@r00m!

(new firmware 31.30L.55)
username: root
password: Thr33scr33n!

Bridged Mode - so you can use your third party router:

Before enabling bridged mode you may want to turn off wireless if you're going to use it on your own router. I've had some problems turning it off after enabling bridged mode. Also, you can unscrew the attached antennas, you don't need them if you've turned off wireless.

On your third party router change the default LAN subnet to something outside of the Actiontec's default subnet 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 - 10.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 should work fine.

To enable transparent bridging mode:

1. log in as root
2. go to "Advanced Setup"
3. WAN IP Addressing
4. 2. Select the ISP protocol below
5. select "RFC 1483 Transparent Bridging"

Plug your own router (WAN port) into the actiontec router (LAN port), now your own router should transparently pass through the actiontec getting a DHCP assigned IP address directly from Telus. Some additional config may be necessary on your router.

To connect to the Actiontec router while in bridging mode:

Directly connect a computer to the actiontec router and change the adapter address to a static IP in the actiontec's default IP range.

192.168.1.1 should work.
Then connect to the router as usual - http://192.168.1.254

With bridging enabled, some strange behaviour is exhibited when logging in - you'll see below the log in section that it says you're already logged in as admin although you won't be able to view any of the configuration pages. When you log in as root you won't see any confirmation of a log in, you'll just get bumped back to the home page. You should be able to go to config pages once logged in though.

Alternatively you can log in using telnet if you want to enable it:

1. Advanced Setup
2. Remote
3. Remote Telnet
4. 1. Set the remote telnet state below.
5. Local Telnet -> enable
6. Set the user name and password for login

Use putty or some other terminal client and login using the username and password you've set.
Once logged in, you have a crippled shell - like the command "ls" and "cd" won't work.
To get a slightly more functional shell type "sh" to get a busybox shell.

To get Optik TV working with a third party router, you must enable multicasting:

If you don't have multicasting enabled on your third party router, TV channels will work for a few seconds then drop out.

For the tomato firmware this option is:
Advanced -> Firewall -> Multicast
Enable IGMPproxy
Check off the LAN segment you want to enable multicasting on - default should be LAN

Troubleshooting:

If you find you've locked yourself out of the router, or want to reset all the settings back to the defaults - do a factory reset.

Take a pen and press the reset button down (the button is recessed in a hole marked with a red circle around it) for a few seconds until the power light turns red, then unplug the power and plug it back in. The router will take around 30 seconds to reboot with the default settings.

UPDATE - May 1, 2013

If you need to do a factory reset or want to do other types of fiddling after being in bridged mode for awhile, disconnect the phone cable. Many people are reporting that their firmware gets updated immediately after a factory reset with the phone cable plugged in (ie being connected to the Internet) and the root password has been changed (unconfirmed) on newer versions of the firmware.

UPDATE - July 20, 2013

People are reporting that on newer firmware versions doing a factory reset will allow the root login to work again.