India Broadband Forum

cruisecontrol

Hi Folks,

I am one more unfortunate customer of Reliance Wimax.

Back ground (Skip if you want):

I was using Airtel for 3 years without a single issue. A couple of months ago I shifted my residence where Airtel does not provide service and BSNL said I should have applied when I was born so that they could give a connection by the time my kids grow up (I don't have kids yet ;-)

Problem:

I took Reliance Wimax connection in Bangalore a couple of months ago. I was using a Wifi router (3Com OfficeConnect) and it was working fine for 2 months (approx).

However, for the past 1 week Reliance DHCP server stopped giving an IP address to the router. But If I connect my laptop to the Wimax Modem I get the IP address. If I clone the Laptop MAC address on the Router, it gives an IP address to the router immediately but after a few mins, that IP address stops working.

Summary - PC/Laptop gets IP address and the Router Does not get IP address. I tested the Router with other DHCP servers and my Neighbours BSNL connection and there is no problem with router.

My Questions:
1) Is anyone experiencing this issue?
2) Does anyone know if Reliance is intentionally denying IP addresses to routers (Based on the MAC address and ARP packets one can identify if the request is from a router)?
3) When I called the support they said they won't allow sharing a connection. Is this a new rule?
4) Does anyone know tips/tricks (including paying hafta) of getting a BSNL connection from KR Puram exchange in Bangalore?

calvinbhai

I am having the same problem of late. I used to share the reliance connection through a router and it was working fine. Now it just doesn't!! Did you get any help??

omkar

HI,

Many ppl. including me have faced this problem with the Reliance CPE not dynamically allocating the IP address to the router. I have found a temporary workaround for this problem. First configure the WiFi settings of your router, then instead of connecting the white LAN cable coming from the Reliance CPE to the WAN port of ur router, connect it to one of the LAN ports.

This might just solve the problem, although this is just a workaround.

Pls. let me know if this helps.

Regards,
Omkar

calvinbhai

Just tried it .... did not work.

I am sure it is something that they have done or has changed from their end cos I used to share the connection through the WAN port for about 2 months

Thanks anyway

omkar

Did u disable the DHCP of ur router?

calvinbhai

no i did not .... i use the router DHCP to provide IPs to all the PCs in our office LAN

atanuray11

For any wireless SOHO Router, the basic configuration includes Connection Types on the Router Setup page.

Reliance Wimax will be Dynamic (DHCP)

Step 1 :

Connect the Wimax wire from the wall outlet (power adapter provided by Reliance) to the computer directly. The computer must be in DHCP mode.
Check the IP Address of the Computer. It should be a public IP Address.

Step 2 :

Open a web browser. If you try to open any page, it will take you directly to the Reliance Broadnet Login page. Login with your Reliance User ID and Password. Then Log out.
Close the web browser.

Step 3 :

Now, connect the wimax wire to the WAN Port on the Router and the computer to any LAN port. You can open the Router Setup Page. Do MAC Cloning. Then, save changes. Run DHCP on the Router.
Also you can configure wireless network, by changing the SSID and security.

Step 4 :

On the wired computer, open web browser, go to Reliance Broadnet login page and login and start enjoying the service.

One problem, you might face is when the Router is turned off in between. You may have to repeat the Steps 1,2 & 3 to get the connection back.


Reliance wimax connection functions very well on Linksys WRT54G Router.

I would love to get feedback on the troubleshooting at

atanu_ray1@rediffmail.com

atanuray11

Paying hafta will not solve your problem. But a close look will.

calvinbhai

hi

had tried MAC cloning earlier. did not work

cruisecontrol

I mentioned in one my previous posts elsewhere in this board:

"Even before reaching the login stage, the router needs to get an IP address.. This is where Reliance stops if the IP address request comes from a router..

They appear to be using DHCP Option 60 (Vendor Class Identifier) to reject IP address to the router clients."

Pl. look at these RFCs to understand Option 60 better: RFC 1533, RFC 2132

This is one reason, MAC cloning doesn't work always.

I did try this with a tweaked DHCP client on a Linux box and it works and that is my proof..

Believe me.. or to test this you just need to run Ethereal or some such tool and watch the packets.. including DHCP handshake

cruisecontrol

And if Linksys WRT54G works fine.. that's good news indeed (which also means that they have good holes in their DHCP rules)!

I tried DLink and 3Com so far.

Will try testing Linksys this weekend with my connection.

pk_rulz

Hi cruise

Can u please giv me details of how u tweaked the linux box ... U can PM me if u wish

cruisecontrol

'Tweak' was a wrong word I used.. All I did was to reconfigure a DHCP Client.

To do it yourself:

Pl. visit : http://tldp.org/HOWTO/DHCP/x74.html#AEN355 and read section 3.11

ISC DHCP client may already be there on your linux distribution. If it is not there, you need to download it from ISC site.

In the file /etc/dhclient.conf you will have to add an additional line:

send vendor-class-identifier "MSFT 5.0";

For some more info pl. visit : dhclient(8) - Linux man page

Pl. read your local dhclient.conf man page for your dhclient's options..

cruisecontrol

Even dhcpcd too may have -i option on your Linux distribution.. Pl. check the man page for the same..

pk_rulz

I m not sure but dhcpcd with -i option did not serve the purpose ... I will check that again mean while I was not able to understand Y my dhclient did not have a -V option .... which version are u using .... I downloaded the latest 1 from ISC site ... are u using Fedora or some .rpm kind of thing coz i think i found 1 on RHL site with such option.


Did it start working for U after u used the -V option

cruisecontrol

1) Sorry for not mentioning earlier.. -V option is a Redhat extenstion and I thought similar extensions would be available on other platforms.
2) I didn't use -V option instead I configured through the conf file i.e. dhclient.conf and it did work (in Dec last week when I had time to experiment).. I run ethereal to watch the handshake.. BTW: My man page shows -V option
3) I remember using some minor under version 3 and I need to check the same.

Hope this helps..

pk_rulz

Thanks

Actually its not availble in the version I downloaded from ISC ...

Using the -V option is exactly the same as using the config file as per the docs so fine...

But the -i option of dhcpcd failed the test and could not connect to Reliance ...

i can download the rpm and then use alien to make .deb out of it n install it but i m afraid i may not goof up something

Lets c if i can test ....

pk_rulz

Hi Cruise

Need some help ...
I was using Linksys WRT54G v3. I flashed it with dd-wrt ( dats an open source Linux based embedded OS for the router)

Now I can use the dhcpcd option from my router as if its a Linux box ...

I also compiled in curl support so I dont need a PC connected. My router is capable of maintaing the the login ...

But still dhcpcd with -i set to "MSFT 5.0" is not able to get an IP from Reliance

How can I see the handshaking in Windows so that I can get dhcpcd working with Reliance

cruisecontrol

Did you do MAC cloning from your PC?

There are 2 requirements 1) MAC should belong to a NIC card used in PCs (Based on MAC address, we can easily find if it is a NIC or a Router) 2) Setting Vendor Class ID.

Now, if you want to monitor handshake:

1) Download ethereal and set it up on your PC.
2) Start monitoring for all packets on the LAN card
3) Now release the IP address and try to reacquire it.
4) During 4th step, the exchange will be logged.
5) Once you see some DHCP traffic, stop logging and analyze the packets exchanged.

Will send further details tomorrow.

pk_rulz

I did the typical
login using Windows to reliance --- log out -- connect the CPE cable to router(with MAc cloned) --- and connect machine to LAN port of router and login again to Reliance

This works fine both for Routers n Linux boxes ...

Will let u kno abt my expts with ethereal