U.S. Congress actually managed to do something meaningful last year (even if FCC bollixed it for 6 months):
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But hey, AT&T Fiber customers, not to worry. You canât supply your own modem whether you want to or not! And itâs legal because itâs not a âcableâ modem, or somesuch.
I saw this recently and have a challenge with it. My current router is fed via RG6 from the fiber node outside of my house. I do know that there is a way to get ethernet directly out of it, but as I donât have an attic, the cost of getting Category cable strung from the outside to my centralized access point isnât going to be inexpensive. Probably worth it in the long run, but a pain that many will have to deal with nonetheless.
The Residential Gateway as itâs often referred to is often welded into the service provisioning, unfortunately. Without it, phone and video service often wonât work.
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Even worse. It is the only service available at my apartment. I could also choose the significantly slower service but what was the price? Exactly the same.
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Exactly this. The RG validates your account to the AT&T servers. You can plug an Ethernet cable into the ONT but AT&T wonât serve you any data without a gateway thatâs tied to an account.
Also fun fact, AT&T Fiber is apparently such a kludge of hardware/software that you canât get a new IP address - even if you get a new gateway. Fun unintended consequence: if anyone was wanting a static IP address, AT&T Fiber is pretty much that, until/unless they upgrade their platform.
From a provider perspective, RGs allow delegation of some functions to the premise - i.e. demuxing data/VoIP/video - as well as performing some service functions such as the VoIP stack, caller ID on TV, pre-auth for OTT IPTV, etc. Of course in the case of PON gear the ONT itself is generally capable of a number of these functions already.
From a consumer perspective, theyâre rented out at about their actual cost monthly, insecure, potentially intrusive (providers can gather all kinds of information from them), and often fail to provide adequate features/performance.
This could be a designed function of how AT&Tâs GWRs work.
VZ>>FTR DSL/FIOS subscribers in this area are accustomed to the traditional static model where the subinterface config is built once with the minimal information needed to make it function - i.e. speed profile, interface/layer 2 location, data/VoIP/IPTV flags. Authentication pretty much isnât a thing with this model - request comes in from matching int / layer 2 assignments, DHCP lease is granted, and Bobâs Your Uncle.
AT&T is likely using a dynamic model where the subscriber authorization is initially provisioned which generally includes the router interface / layer 2 assignments, speeds/services authorized, and might also include the RG MAC address. Upon initial DHCP request - verified by matching interface/layer 2 assignments/MAC address - or approval by a separate RADIUS server, the subinterface is then built. DHCP lease times with this method tend to be quite long and lapsed assignments tend to be âstickyâ.
Other fun fact⌠once the RG has authenticated the subscriberâs ONT on the system, if you clone the RGâs MAC you can actually unplug the RG from the ONT and swap in the router of your choosing with that MAC cloned⌠I know this cause I had their service at an old condo and the RG sucked and had no DMZ/ true pass-thru mode.
Con: everytime the power goes down you have to plug the RG back in again to re-auth the ONT.
At least thatâs what was possible in 2016-2018. They may have cut that out now.
EDIT: Iâm talking AT&T fiber here. Iâve never looked into Verizon. The info on DHCP lease time is correct. Your address is static for all practical purposes.
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Post-RADIUS auth ARP table hack. Smart. And if youâre not subscribing to their VoIP or IPTV service youâll never really miss their crappy snoopy RG.
Iâd be surprised if they changed it since thatâs development/testing time and - probably - new RGs for a lot of subscribers for negligible benefit to the router rental business with additional support burdens.
Since >99% of the customer base couldnât be arsed to figure out how to clone a MAC address it would be kind of pointless.
Verizonâs (now Frontier locally) GWRâs DGAF what router you use. The main issue with swapping is that you want to make sure you affirmatively release the IP on the old router before swapping in the new since it caches the ARP entry for longer than you will care to wait out the expiry.
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best success with unplugging said ethernet cable within 0.2 seconds after clicking the release button. its takes practice.
Frontier just raised their prices $10 anyway smh⌠oh well
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