Giga Hub DHCP

[MichaelR]

Recently the DHCP functions of the modem stopped functioning. Try to change the DHCP range and it pops up as "saved" but ends up staying the same. Try to reserve an IP Address for a device and it, no matter what IP, fails as the IP is "already assigned".  Spent a long time on a chat and then a call only to be told over and over that Bell does not support DHCP only dynamic (and, as my internet is working they cannot do anything about this).  I have read others having issues with DHCP but is Bell really stating that DHCP is only supported as dynamic so all those other settings are now just for show?  I can't even turn off DHCP so that I could set up another device to act as a DHCP server without conflicts.

[MichaelR]

Short follow-up post - I would appreciate it if someone could validate on their hub if DHCP changes work or not.  Even just change the DHCP range and let me know if it sticks”.  What support was telling me implied that this and other functions (reserved IPs) is not supported.  This would mean that a software or firmware change has been made at some point.  I’m stuck with some reserved IPs, a fixed DHCP range and no way to adjust.  I’m hoping it is a corrupt table in the hub. Thanks. 

[Vanadiel]

To my knowledge nothing has changed with the DHCP configuration.

Try power cycling the modem.

[MichaelR]

No change.  I have power cycled, rebooted etc.  Support has power cycled and updated firmware - still no ability to use DHCP (change range, reserve IPs for devices etc).  Can't even turn DHCP off.  I'll need to contact sup[port again and try to get someone who can respond with more than "we only do dynamic"

[Vanadiel]

I am assuming you are logged in with the Administrator account, and are connected by other means than the guest WiFi network?

[MichaelR]

Not that it matters but actually connected through ethernet.  And using Admin account.  This has worked just fine in the past and I do have some devices still showing up as reserved IPs.  I can actually convert them to dynamic then back to reserved (same IP).  I just can't do anything with any other devices nor adjust the DHCP range.  For the range it pops up "change saved" but you can see under the pop up that the range has reverted to the original.  Trying to set any devices to reserved brings up the error that the IP address selected is already reserved - basically .5 - .200 is already reserved.  I'm actually on hold to get to support again and hope I can talk to someone who understands or can state that DHCP reserved functions have been removed (along with setting ther range or turning off.

[MichaelR]

Wow - talking in circles with support "you can't be sure if you make DHCP changes that this will not corrupt the modem".  Did not state the functionality was removed (which would be really serious and stupid) but will replace the modem!.  Hopefully that will fix things.

[MichaelR · Accepted solution]

To close this out, just finished a modem swap out and the replacement is working as it should. Now, according to technical support I need to worry that using the modem the way it should be used may break it!!!

[Metuzals]

I’m in the same situation. I’d like to disable DHCP so I can use my own server, but the setting don’t stick

[MichaelR]

It was a battle every phone call talking to people who didn’t actually know what DHCP on an internal LAN was. I’m not sure through this all if they ever tried a factory full reset but in the end it was someone who just got frustrated and said ‘do you want a modem exchange”  which has all the DHCP functions, including Turing off, working. All I can say is keep pushing.  

[dks]

Bell customer support does not generally have deep technical knowledge. Bell does not support customer hardware beyond the modem, either. The forum exists to respond to some questions. But we are not all knowledgeable. Glad you got it resolved. 

[MichaelR]

Just to be clear I am talking about phone support and the frustrating part was where the claims that they knew what DHCP was taken had idea what it was, called it THCP or could not understand that it was not an external static ip issue. The only support the modem argument is BS as the modem and router is combined and the DHCP function was broken regardless of my internal lan. Broken such as I had NO work around since I could not even set up a separate DHGP server since I could not turn off the function in the router. Can’t really state ( I don’t think) that you can say “ I know half of the device we provid is broken but not our issue”. It took 3 days of calls before a grudgingly office of a swap was made. I’d be happy to have a modem only and provide my own router (and I do use a separate router as an AP) but it is not trivial to bypass the provided one - so it should work as expected.  That is my opinion anyway.  I don’t expect footsteps line support to be technical but I could not get to second line at all and kept getting that same argument you made that the router was not their problem,  

[dks]

You can use any Bell modem and your own router. Bell modems use PPPoE passthrough to connect directly with your device. Bell has never supported user connected devices beyond the modem, which is likely why you received the answer you did. I also note that directions on using DHCP in the Giga Hub can be found here. See the posts with green checkmarks and helpful replies. 

[MichaelR]

Probably not worth spending much more time here.  The issue of whether the gig hub (combined modem router) is a modem or router seems to come up, however, at no point was i asking for help with user connected devices as i am using the supplied giga hub as the sole interface into my LAN. When having the issues with my Giga Hub, the link you provided for setting up DHCP on a Giga Hub (which I'm fully aware of how to do this) is a bit ironic given statements from you and support since my Giga Hub did not work as per the link at all regarding DHCP.  No changes to DHCP settings would hold and it was not even possible to turn off DHCP in the Giga Hub to allow using a separate DHCP server.  You can see in this thread (and others) people having the same issue.  At no time was i dealing with a separate user device! This was a constant problem and excuse from support despite  stating over and over again that the problem was the Giga Hub, regardless of whether you call it a modem, router or combined. Was this impacting my own network?  Certainly, I had devices set as reserved that could not be changed, DHCP range that could not be adjusted and not DHCP configurations that could be modified - in the single, supplied Giga Hub, not any user device.  I hope this clarifies things.