2WIRE modem not giving out IP to PFSense

awesomes8wc3 · November 21, 2014

I have this 2WIRE 2071-A modem that I use for my internet, it works great. I plug it into something, it gets an IP and it can get on the network. Except for my PFSense router.

No matter if i put it in bridge mode, change NICs, make the IP static, change cables, reboot, reboot, reboot, it just won't connect. If I use DHCP, in PFSense the WAN box is either blank or 0.0.0.0. If I reboot it hangs on startup.

Heres the thing though, if I plug it into a switch it gets an IP fine and I can access the internet as normal.

Kind of a pain because I don't really have any spare switches...

I have a shitty old Netcomm NB5 which works, but because of the TI backdoors and the buggy firmware (user+pass "isp" lets you in), the connection sucks (constant dropouts) and you can't access the internal network from the outside (it sends you to the modem admin page, which has been a known bug and was going to be "fixed" since 2005), I don't want to use it.

I'm fairly new to PFSense so i'm probably missing something.

Help appreciated.

The Crazed Child · November 21, 2014

I have no experience with PFSense, but I do know that 2Wire is an OEM brand, which possibly means that the modem is too locked down to perform a task like that.

awesomes8wc3 · November 21, 2014

I have no experience with PFSense, but I do know that 2Wire is an OEM brand, which possibly means that the modem is too locked down to perform a task like that.

Yeah, this is a BigPond/Telstra supplied modem but I don't really see how its "locked down", it has a full suite of settings like a regular off the shelf modem, especially if you type in "tech" in the url which goes into some sort of advanced mode.

I doubt they would (or could) lock the modem down to specifically not work with PFSense directly connected into the modem. Seems silly, and I doubt even the most evil of ISPs would do something as stupid as that.

The Crazed Child · November 22, 2014

Yeah, this is a BigPond/Telstra supplied modem but I don't really see how its "locked down", it has a full suite of settings like a regular off the shelf modem, especially if you type in "tech" in the url which goes into some sort of advanced mode.

I doubt they would (or could) lock the modem down to specifically not work with PFSense directly connected into the modem. Seems silly, and I doubt even the most evil of ISPs would do something as stupid as that.

Yeah probably, as I said before I'm not an expert so I wouldn't know.