I had to share - I just couldn't believe it.

[Adillo303]

I have Optimum Cable for my phones / TV / and Internet. The phones wok well, the TV is great and they deliver 116 X 27 Internet. The bill, another story for another day.

So, I'm going along minding my own life and I see this e-Mail go by from them. They are changing the way I will configure my router. My support will be better. I don't have to do anything they will handle it. This is a good point to add that they provided the router.

My setup is probably not normal. 3 network printers, 4 PC's, one Linux Server and a couple tablets. The local server is doing DNS for the house. I get a call from the wife yesterday saying she can't get on the Internet and no e-Mail is coming and going.

I get home and attempt to log into my router using it's local IP. I get redirected to routerinfo.optimum.net. Strange, can't seem to get around it, so I call them. Great tech support, by the way. English speaking person, knowledgeable and polite, knew his trade. He tells em that they cooked up their own set of firmware for their routers. One can no longer log into the router and make settings. You have to go to the afore mentioned website log in with your optimum ID and make changes there, which will be downloaded to the router in the house. I explained that this would be hard since I cannot get on the Internet. After an hour of messing around with the router, he did stay with me and he did say the he saw my point, but, this is the "better way" because they can set users up from their end.

Final solution, I went out and bought my own router and set up as I needed it.

Sheesh

Andy

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

You should always have your own router in-between your ISP's router and your network.

Way more secure that way.

 

[Doc]

What a pain. I'm afraid that is a taste of things to come for many of us. Being that close to the big apple you are on the cutting edge.
Good job getting past their idiocy.

 

[muleman]

The "cloud" sure don't make it easier for most folks. In many ways I am glad my ISP is a 20 mile drive and they know if they don't resolve an issue I will be there in person! I am on a first name basis with most folks from the manager on down. They always get it figured out even if they have to run new wires all the way to my house from their mux box at the end of the hollow.

 

[Adillo303]

I really can understand their point. I am sure that they spend a lot of time on the phone with folks who live their life by the "how hard can it be?" philosophy. If you could see the router settings, ALL OF THEM you can sort it out pretty quickly. I just wish they had an "I'll take it from here and I know I'm on my own." Plan

I forgot to mention that all incoming ports except 80 and 25 are blocked in their equipment.

 

[Galvatron]

You should always have your own router in-between your ISP's router and your network.

Way more secure that way.

got me curious now,would this allow the isp one to do wifi still and the extended own one to do hard wired with not to much hassle involved??...got new isp coming this friday and a spanking new router doing naff all so would make sense to have a play with both.

 

[Adillo303]

What they did is to change the manufacturer's firmware in the router. When you try to access the router IE: http://192.168.1.1 the router intercepts that address and trys to access http://router.optimum.net. If that works, you will get to a website where you can log in with your credentials for the cable company and see and change your router settings. Yjrn the website will download the changes to your router. They also prevent you from making certain changes to your router.

It probably saves a lot of tech time when non tech users try to be techs. In my case, they could not get it working to give me any internet access.

Since the changes are loaded in the firmware, you cannot simply reload the factory firmware. You are locked in. Since they provided the router, it is theirs to do as they wish. If you get your own router, they do not have to offer any support.

This same ISP is also blocking all inbound ports except 80 and 25. The trade off is that I am getting 116 down and 30 up for a pretty good price and no contract.