SSH with Optic fiber

[PowerGod]

My adsl connection is becoming slower at every year, and technicians just keeps me telling that the cables of the infrastructure are becoming old and they can't do much for it...

so I'm being pushed to get a fibre optic line... but I have some concerns about how it works (NAT), cause I found out that my ip address will not be visible anymore, but I will be able to see only a generic address that doesn't point to my router...

I have an SSH server, and I connect to it using my ip address (even if it's dynamic), but how will this work under an optic fibre connection ?

Do I'll need to actually "buy" a static ip for that line to work ?

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Better ask your provider.
You will probably have access to some NAT settings.

 

[PowerGod]

The last time I asked they didn't even know what a port-forwarding was....

 

[Binky]

Whereabouts in the world are you?

In the UK, we're blessed with a law saying BT must offer line rental independently of internet service.
Some of the smaller ISPs (Zen, A&A, etc) provide absolutely outstanding customer service, and fixed IP addresses.

 

[ThinkPad]

@PowerGod

In your case,
It does not matter if your ISP uses Fiber Optic (i.e. xPON) or copper voice cables (i.e SL) for the last mile.


So If your home router is configured in NAT this means that all devices behind it, will have private IP addresses like 192.168.x.x (all LAN Interfaces of your router, or WiFi)
but all of them will access the Internet via the same Public IP address (WAN interface of your router)


If your Public IP adress is static, you have several options to access the machine in your private network, from the Internet:

Option 1: (more secure) if you have fancy router which can be configured as VPN Server,
you can use a VPN connection from your phone or laptop in order to access your private network from anywhere.

Option 2: (less secure) simple port forwarding of port 22 (ssh) on your router to the private IP adress of the machine that you want to access.


If your Public IP adress is dynamic, you need to change your ISP immediately, but if this is not an option, you need to use service like DynDNS


BR,

 

[PowerGod]

It does not matter if your ISP uses Fiber Optic (i.e. xPON) or copper voice cables (i.e SL) for the last mile.

Actually seems to matter, because they say my modem will not work anymore and there's the need of another different one

So If your home router is configured in NAT this means that all devices behind it, will have private IP addresses like 192.168.x.x (all LAN Interfaces of your router, or WiFi)
but all of them will access the Internet via the same Public IP address (WAN interface of your router)

My router is configured as NAT, and I have a dynamic public address (and yeah, I also use a dyndns), but when I contact it, I speak directly to my router at my home that will forward services requests to the right device in my house, but the NAT that comes with optic fiber seems to cover an entire area... so the public IP will be the same for many contracts/houses... that's why I'm unsure as to how it will be possible to direct things to my home...

Anyway I'm still asking to the customer service if I can have a contact with someone who has some knowledge about the argument, and seems like I'm near to get answers...

I'll keep updated this thread

 

[ThinkPad]

The media is not important, Its layer 1 and your issue is on Layer 3.


OMFG change your ISP immediately to some with enough IPv4 address space and less criminal practices.

WTF!

 

[PowerGod]

I had a talk with different ISPs, and seems like the situation is similar for all of them... in most contracts you must use their hardware for the connection...

You indeed have the ability to forward ports through their portal, but after reading many forums I found out that those modems are somewhat crippled... like you can't change DNS or many ports are filtered by default, or for some devices you just have a predefined range of ports to use...

also, almost all of them (at least for basic contracts) needs to be restarted for every change of configuration, and turns off connection if nothing is sent/received for some time (not changeable)... also them require at least a minute to connects again...

Anyway in the meantime my operator sent some technicians to have a look at my ADSL cables, and they found out that are becoming very old, so that's why the connection was slowing down by the time... but after some hours away they seems to have fixed something there and I'm almost at 4Mb now, so I can now surf with a decent speed again, and the optic fiber will wait a lot before entering my home...

 

[Grench]

In my albeit limited experience, one of the best ways to tackle this is to NOT get a wireless router/hub/modem from the provider. Instead, get a single ethernet port WIRED ONLY simple modem. Then you can test the connection with a direct-connect computer to ensure it is viable.

After you have a viable connection, then use your own wired/wireless/hub/router to manage that connection within the home/business. It gives you a lot more control over how it is managed. Advanced routers allow you to set up multiple dyndns directly at the router level.

 

[PowerGod]

In my albeit limited experience, one of the best ways to tackle this is to NOT get a wireless router/hub/modem from the provider.

For ADSL I always used my own router, but for fiber, as far as they told me, if you don't use their modem you can't connect... I don't know if this is true, but I don't know anyone who tried to use a different one (especially because their is free)...

 

[Grench]

For ADSL I always used my own router, but for fiber, as far as they told me, if you don't use their modem you can't connect... I don't know if this is true, but I don't know anyone who tried to use a different one (especially because their is free)...

The modem supplies an IP to the first device wired to it. If it has its own router and wireless, turn off the wireless on it if you can, remove it's antenna an ignore it if you cannot. A standard ethernet router/firewall/wireless/DHCP will take that one IP and flow your home traffic through it such that you regain control over your side of the network. A router running WRT is a step better if you are adventurous.

Modem & router can still be separate devices even if your provider saddles you with a hydra modem/router/wireless all in one.

 

[PowerGod]

The modem supplies an IP to the first device wired to it. If it has its own router and wireless, turn off the wireless on it if you can, remove it's antenna an ignore it if you cannot. A standard ethernet router/firewall/wireless/DHCP will take that one IP and flow your home traffic through it such that you regain control over your side of the network. A router running WRT is a step better if you are adventurous.

Modem & router can still be separate devices even if your provider saddles you with a hydra modem/router/wireless all in one.

ok, thanks, I'll keep this in mind

 

[levi]

For ADSL I always used my own router, but for fiber, as far as they told me, if you don't use their modem you can't connect... I don't know if this is true, but I don't know anyone who tried to use a different one (especially because their is free)...

Ah when you say optical fibre you mean cable services over optical, using a cable router supplied by the ISP. It's perfectly possible to run optical fiber to the cabinet or to the property and run ADSL over it, and not replace your router, so I assumed that's what you were looking at to begin with.

 

[benoitb]

It's strange that they would give you a public IP on DSL and a private IP on fiber.

Do you live in China or Iran ? I haven't heard of WAN private IPV4 outside of these countries or at mobile operators.

Static/dynamic IP is not a problem, what you want to clear up is public/private.

 

[PowerGod]

I'm in italy, but the more I get informations about the argument, the less I understand how it works (at least how those contracts works)...

seems like, that some ISPs gives you a public IP by default after signing the contract for the fibre, but not to everyone (seems like a random thing)...

mostly with every ISP you can request the activation of the public IP as a free service, but I see many people who complained that they had to use Twitter or Facebook to finally get that activation done, and anyway they waited months... also some people reports "instability" of those free IPs

So, in the end seems like there's a light at the end of the tunnel... I'll just wait a bit, they are pushing harder every year to make this fiber transaction

@levi : I don't understand very much what you told, and maybe I can't describe in the right way the situation too, let's say, that with the actual ADSL I can connect a normal phone to the line, and it works, while if they activate fibre, a normal phone will not work anymore, only VoIP devices will work (at least that's what they kept telling me)

 

[benoitb]

Maybe the operators in Italy are running out of IPv4s, even for the fixed market :/
It could be that the M2M (machine 2 machine) clients are requesting public IPV4s and deploying a lot of devices as well.
There is an urgent need to move to IPv6.

Anyway if that is the way it is, I would recommend you to move to fiber. You will eventually manage to get your public IP. I don't know the actual numbers but I would guess that only 5% of the customers actively require a public IP and the vast majority just doesn't care to have a private one as they just want to browse the web.

Try to choose an operator that guaranties you a public IPv4 address and supports IPv6.

 

[levi]

@levi : I don't understand very much what you told, and maybe I can't describe in the right way the situation too, let's say, that with the actual ADSL I can connect a normal phone to the line, and it works, while if they activate fibre, a normal phone will not work anymore, only VoIP devices will work (at least that's what they kept telling me)

Yes, that would align with packet based cable services. It's in no sense a phone line which also happens to run ADSL on the side.

You can run fibre optics under either scenario, either as a phone line or as a network cable, but if they're saying you need an IP phone it sounds like your getting a network cable. In this country, everyone gives you a phone line with ADSL (be it made out of fibre optics or copper cables) apart from Virgin Internet who bought out all of the other cable services in the 1990s.

Note despite being a basic network cable, it may have a unusual plug on the end, requiring a non-standard router.

Regading public/private addresses, I have come to believe I'm on a private address. It doesn't seem to be addressable from germany, which I've tested, and locally I can only see three devices one hop away from my router. I guess I'm behind a NAT router owned and run by my ISP.