VMB static WAN IP

[adpich]

Hi everyone,

I understand that this is a VM residential forum, but I'm getting nowhere with business support.

The short version:
I have VMB with a static IP, Hitron router is in modem mode so I can use my pfSense router, static IP i was provided with is nowhere to be seen. Tech support reckons "that's not how it works", despite that being exactly how it works with every other ISP I've had, generally read off a script so wasn't able to get into any details. Any ideas?

The long version:

For clarity, my setup is: WWW > Hitron router (residential gateway disabled) > pfSense router > LAN

I signed up for VMB back in January and made sure they knew I needed a static IP, they insisted that despite the line on the order saying dynamic, it would indeed be static. Cut to a few weeks ago my IP changes and I call them up to make sure I definitely have a static IP. They said I didn't, but that they'd sort it out then and there. They gave me the expected static IP over the phone and said I just need to restart my router for it to take effect.

I spent an hour powering off the router, re-enabling residential gateway mode, etc. Still no static IP.

I called them again and they said this was unusual and that it should have taken effect by now, but forwarded me through to tech support who hung up before saying hello. I called them back and they put me through to tech support again. This time the guy explained that each machine on the network would need to be plugged directly into the Hitron router or they would have a different WAN IP............ What?? I asked why the single static IP isn't assigned at the gateway and he said "that's not how it works" and was evasive when I asked why, because that's how every other ISP I've had does it. He didn't have an answer so we just left it there. It's also profoundly impractical for a business to plug all of their machines into a 4 port router.

I did some googling and found out that VMB use GRE tunnelling to assign their static IPs and that they're so unstable that the customer ends up settling for a dynamic IP with a paid third party l2tp service.

My questions are:

What will it take for the static IP to be applied?

Once the static IP is applied, will I experience degraded service?

Thanks

[Number-6 · Accepted solution]

Can I take it that you purchased a single static IP address from VM and not a block of 5 or 13?

If so then “that’s not how it works’ is technically correct, albeit a slightly clumsy answer to your question. Basically you can’t do it with a single address plus your own router - it’s well, 'not the way it works’.

You will probably find that if you put the Hitron back into gateway mode, and not your the pfsense router, then the hub will pick up a single static IP address. You could use your own router as well, although you would then need to contend with double-nat issues. 

What you need to do is purchase a block of five static addresses from VM, and the setup is somewhat different to the way that other ISPs provide it.

Imagine that you do this, and you are allocated, a.b.c.d - a.b.c.h and this will be a /29 subnet. Put the Hitron into non gateway mode, and connect your pfsense box to it. Configure the pfsense’s WAN port to have a static address of a.b.c.e/29 with a gateway address of a.b.c.d - ie the Hitron picks up the first address in the block, you can use any of the others as your pfsense’s WAN address and it uses the Hitron’s address as it’s gateway.

If you want to use any of the other three available public addresses, then you add them as secondary addresses to the pfsense’s WAN port.

Yes you are right, VM business provide static addresses via a GRE tunnel to one of their data centres, so in a way, the public address you get is not really at your premise, but at their’s and they tunnel it across to you.

As for degraded service, I’m afraid your milage may vary - as this is forum is primarily aimed at domestic users, we don't see too may posts from people doing what you want on here to be so we have little evidence either way.

[adpich]

Ok, so it's a few hours later and your advice worked.

It's worth pointing out to other folks trying this that when they give you the block of 5 IPs and the router authenticates with GRE, the router settings interface is no longer available and it will not work as a standard router with DHCP (which is perfectly fine and even preferable in my case). The WAN IP and gateway must be manually set in pfsense/ your router of choice. The hisense router does not eat into your 5 IP block, which is pretty nice.

Thanks for the helpful answer.

As for the reliability of the tunnel, that remains to be seen.

Thanks again.