ACT BB, Port forwarding problem

[Smokinjoe]

Hello ,

This is to inform you a concern I am facing by using the ACT Broadband. This needs to be forwarded to the Network Engineers who can understand the issue better.

I was completely satisfied with your service, hardly any disconnection nowadays, till last month. I have a CCTV system installed in my house since a year and it is connected to the broadband via my wifi router where ports are forwarded, so that I can monitor the house when I am away. I do not have a static IP, but that is not a problem, I have a computer running at my home which will update the dynamic IP address of the router and map it to a domain where I can access the CCTV.

Since last month, the IP which the computer at home updates is not the correct ip address which I can access from anywhere. It looks like my connection is behind a NAT or a different router and not accessible from Internet. I cannot 'tracert' to the IP address of my home network. When I searched the broadband forum, I came across a post by a person facing similar problem with port forwarding.

Here is the link to it: Problems with Port Forwarding due to NATing | India Broadband Forum

Can you please let me know what ACT have changed in the network and is there a way to bypass it? Static IP is a solution but I know you will charge more for that, which I do not prefer. I am just asking you to be like other broadband providers. I have a backup BSNL connection at home, when I connect the CCTV system to that, it is updating IP correctly and all is fine. So something has to do with ACT Broadband network or my Router. I have checked all the settings in my router, It is fine and it has not been changed since a year.

Any help would be appreciated.

ACT Account ID: 170700

 

[mS8^Y4prh8]

Yeah I've been having this issue as well. I'll be talking to CC in the morning, I'll let you know how it goes. If worst comes to worst I'll just spam all the e-mail ids they have till they change it.

 

[Smokinjoe]

Thank you

 

[mS8^Y4prh8]

CC is off till 9:30PM for some reason. Will try tomorrow, hopefully they'll let me speak to an engineer.

 

[gopichandpai]

I was told that, ACT has a meeting today from 5PM to announce "we are changing the way you experience internet" campaign.

 

[xyzzy]

I dealt with this issue a few weeks ago. The helpline was of no use, so I talked to the nodal officer and explained the issue to him. He insisted that logging in through the portal will get me a public IP like before, but it's not convenient logging in every 24 hours (ACT has a 24 hour session limit on both PPPoE and portal login). I persisted and he noted down a complaint.

Next day I received a call from a helpful engineer, who told me she will associate my MAC address to my account and I won't have to bother with PPPoE or login pages. Try requesting for the same thing, maybe you'll get a faster resolution.

 

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[mS8^Y4prh8]

So you get assigned an internet facing IP now? If so I'll ask them to do the same thing for me.

I called them today and got elevated to the nodal like you did, he told me that he would get the engineers to talk to me tomorrow. I'm in a router hopping stage ATM so fixing a mac would be counter-productive but it may be better in the long run.

 

[gopichandpai]

Apart from getting public IP, is there any advantage of using DHCP mode?

 

[mS8^Y4prh8]

Okay I talked to some senior engineers and they told me that even with the method xyzzy used I will not get a public facing IP address because my area's box has been set to tunnel to Vijayavada in AP. I confirmed both these by switching to DHCP and logging in manually (still 10.xxx) and by using geolocation. Looks like there's no other way other than to ask them to place their switches in bridge mode but that seems highly unlikely.

Looks like I'll have to drop ACT now.


*edit - Inquired about a static IP but the connection needs to be in a company name for that. What the hell? I had absolutely no problems with ACT before they decided to roll out these stupid plans.

 

[nik263]

Hello..

I have addressed a similar concern close to a month back now. ACT seems to be least bothered about same.

@mS8^Y4prh8, the above statement is not true. I assume those network eng. are too lazy to change the configuration now.

When i authenticate using web (portal.acttv.in), Port forwarding works fine.
When a PPPoE connection is established, I get another hop with a class A ip address (10.x.x.x).

the sad part of web authentication i someone would need to be in the location to authenticate every 24 hours. I would wish ACT sorts the PPPoe issue ASAP or provide an alternative authentication method that does not need manual login.