I don't even know where to start but I am this close to just cancelling Verizon and switching to cable internet. If you want to skip the rant, jump down a paragraph.
I recently moved from a house a few miles away in which I had a solid DSL connection with a Westell 7500 in routed bridge mode that worked just fine with my Asus RT-N56U that I use for browsing, streaming, and online gaming. When I moved, the technician insisted I take the newer Actiontec GT784WNV. Needless to say, Verizon support was unsuccessful in getting it set up in bridge mode. After about 4 hours of unsuccessful troubleshooting, I suggested swapping it back out with my 7500 which worked fine just 4 days prior in my old house. Surprise! It miraculously started working just as it had previously. As I began to use it more, I noticed the connection was unstable. I would get dropped from Xbox Live and lose connection temporarily on my iPad. I ran the Verizon speed test and it would drop to about 0 and spike back up 3 or 4 times during the download test (don't think this is normal but could be). Every day I would talk to Verizon who escalated it to a supervisor about 4 times. They would then close the ticket without calling me. When i would follow up, I was told the supervisor talked to me and I verified the connection was good. Lying makes me livid and there is no accountability whatsoever at Verizon and it happened more than once. It appears to be a way for them to pass the problem on to someone else. I can go on and on about being put on hold for 40 minutes before disconnected, the 20+ hours I have spent re-telling my account info and story to every Tier 1 technician on their payroll for the past week, or the lack of competent customer service supervisors. This weekend, I finally got a call from someone local who said my line had some faults on it and that the problem was somewhere between my jack and the central office and they would send someone out today. Well....today the tech showed up and said "your problem is this old modem" and plugged in the Actiontec that I started with a week ago. I asked if he tested my line or the jack as the lady on the phone told me, and he said no. The problem is the modem. I said, I don't want a modem/router, I just want a regular modem and he said he had one, but it would cost me. How on earth is a plain modem going to cost me when they just installed an 802.11n router/modem combo for free? Absolutely terrible. I told him I want it in bridge mode because I don't want to use the wireless or the routing capabilities of the Actiontec. He said I have to do that and people normally just call Best Buy to have the Geek Squad come out. This really **bleep** me off as I used to run a network shop and configure Cisco routers and switches for a living. Once again, I have spent the past 6 hours tonight on the phone with Verizon only to end up back where I started.
At this point, I need to make this Actiontec GT784WNV a dummy (bridge) and let my Asus Rt-N56U do the work on my network. My Asus has all the port forwarding in place that I need for Xbox Live, etc. I have tried releasing the IP, changing the modem to RFC 1483 Transparent Bridging, disabling DHCP, changing the LAN IP to 192.168.99.1, etc. and it just will NOT get an internet connection. My router is configured correctly, unless there is something different between the Westell and the Actiontec that would require a setting change. Verizon is stumped, Asus hasn't called me back yet, and I am ready to just switch to Cable unless someone can help with a solution. I've been at this for a week. I have spent WAYY too much time fighting with a company that has no desire to deliver or to follow through and with absolutely zero accountability or business sense. Westell 7500 + Asus RT-N56U in old house worked fine. Move houses, change modem, doesn't work, switch back to old modem, works but unstable, tech claims old modem is my problem, plugs in new modem, doesn't work. I just want to use my router. How hard can that be? Can anyone please help?
#1 If you want to use the Westell and your own RJ-45 WAN port router, I point you to http://www.dslreports.com/faq/13600
#2 Since you are on Routed Bridge - DHCP Enabled:
a) You will need to spoof/clone the WAN MAC Address of the Westell if you put the Westell into Bridge - Bridge Mode - per the FAQ in your RJ-45 WAN port router.
b) If you want to use the newer DSL modem not configured to handle the public IP, I would think you will need to spoof/clone the WAN MAC Address of the Westell - in your RJ-45 WAN port router.
Unfortunately that didn't work. I ended up putting my router in the DMZ as a workaround but it still had it's share of issues. After another week of trying to get Verizon to fix my connection (constant dropped connections forcing reboots of modem and router multiple times daily) I had Cable Internet installed today. Went from an unstable 6Mb/s to a stable 30Mb/s with Cable. I should have done this weeks ago. I wasted over 50 hours of my time with Verizon bouncing my issue around to others hoping someone else would be willing to fix it. Still no accountability with everyone tinkering with my setup taking a stab in the dark. The last person I spoke with set up a technician to come to my house later this week...AGAIN because he said there is something wrong on the line. I've known that for weeks but the tech that refused to fix my issue when he was in my house last week instead tried blaming it on something completely irrelevant because he had no clue what to do. One would think someone from Verizon would have reached out to me from this thread but they did not. In fact, the last tech's supervisor called me when i wasn't home, said "hello, this is XXX from Verizon......hello?" and hung up. Never a follow up as I was left once again to solve the problem myself. Well...I did. The incompetence of Verizon, it's poor training, and awful follow up procedures has cost them a customer. I am truly disappointed.
Did you ever get the GT784WNV to work in bridge mode with your ASUS router? I am about to attempt this
with a Asus N900 router. Any advice and detailed instructions would be appreciated.
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