Sagemcom Gateway F@ST 3864OP Bridge Mode

[CJShuffleX]

Hi there,

Just to clarify. If the 38640P is put into bridge mode, landline phone calls won't work?? I say this because since I've put it into bridge mode and setup my apple airport, everything works perfectly..but i think when the phone rings we get disconnected.

Thanks.

[take_the_shot]

Hi CJShuffleX, 

I don't care about the land line as I don't intend using it. Can you tell me how you managed to get this modem in to bridge mode? 

[nayyarv]

If you're not planning on using the landline, all you do is take the ethernet cable from the NBNco box to your existing router - you don't actually need the Optus Router (which is a locked down, crippled piece of garbage, as opposed to the open-ish hardware optus used to provide).

If you don't recieve calls on your landline - you can take the cable from your existing router and connect it to the Optus router as a WAN. Calls now still go out, but you can't recieve - which may be a problem.

The DNS service provided is only DynDNS which is a paid service! This is utter garbage as my asus router comes with a free included service, not to mention other free services which provide a single subdomain. 

The Sagemcom router has really raised my ire and I'm planning on writing a letter to head office until they uncripple the firmware and open up to allow customisation for advanced users.

[Blighty]

That is incorrect.

You certaintly can put the modem into bridge mode, however that setting, along with a bunch of other modem settings, and only accessable by the top level administrator user, which optus never mentions, nor provides the password for.

Essentially the owner of the device (the user) needs the _real_ administration password so that they can take advantage of the modems bridge feature.

[Jenan]

iiNet's BoB Lite Router will function the way you want.  I have a similar setup when I ported from iiNet to Optus and retained my existing router.  I'm guessing iiNet's current range of Budii routers will work or one of the Belkin routers that Optus support.

[GlynR]

Optus Sagemcom in Bridge Mode (almost) For (semi-technical) people who want to get around the limitations of the crippleware Optus Sagemcom modem ... The ideal would be to replace the modem with a much better modem/router and just put the Sagemcom modem into the cupboard. However, if you want to use the home phone facility, Optus makes it almost impossible to dispense with their crippleware modem. In any case you need to keep the Sagemcom for when you have an internet problem and then you can reconnect it (before you contact Optus) to decide whether the problem was with your "real" modem or the NBN network. I've heard people asking about using the Optus Optus modem in bridge mode and then adding their own modem/router of choice but Optus don't support bridging and the home phone service would probably stop working if you did put the modem in bridge mode. So ... There is an easy way to (almost) get the modem into bridge mode. Turn off the WIFI in the Optus Sagemcom modem Connect the WAN port of your "real" modem to one of the Sagemcom's Ethernet ports Identify the MAC address of the WAN port on your "real" modem and reserve an IP address for that MAC address in the Sagemcom modem (Advanced Setup / LAN then ENABLE DHCP SERVER and click on ADD ENTRIES) Often the MAC address of the WAN port is printed on a label on the bottom of the router but you should also be able to see it if you go into the Sagemcom modem and choose DEVICE INFO and then DHCP Note that in my own network I have the Sagemcom modem set to IP Address 192.168.47.1 and not 192.168.0.1 (so that I can setup VPNs to other networks with the IP sdubnet of 192.168.0.x). So if the IP address of the Sagemcom is 192.168.0.1 then reserve the IP address of 192.168.0.2 for your "real" modem's WAN port MAC address). Now when you plug your real modem into the Sagemcom it's WAN IP address will always be 192.168.0.2 (but if you plug it into a different network with a different sub-net it will still work OK - much better than setting a fixed IP address in the "real" modem) Set the DMZ address in the Sagemcom modem to be 192.168.0.2 (Advanced Setup / NAT / DMZ Host) Now (almost) all network traffic should automatically go through to your "real" modem with no firewall issues from the Sagemcom modem In my case my modem of choice is a Fritzbox because it has better quality WiFi, it is more open with many more options AND it has a built in DECT phone base station. So I also connect the home phone socket on the Sagemcom modem to the phone input socket on the Fritzbox modem. The end result of this is that almost all of the functionality of the Fritzbox modem is now available as if it was the only modem/router in my setup - including the VOIP phone line being accessible from my DECT phones. The disadvantages? I am running two modem/routers with extra cabling which add extra failure points to my system I am wasting power because I am running the Sagemcom modem when I don't really want to do so. I have to have an extra power point. I had to supply an extra short network cable and an extra short phone cable between the two devices.

[Botts]

Hey GlynR,
this sounds about spot on as to what I need to do however the only issue is I want/need to keep the Optus VoIP service functional.
Do you know if there is a way to do this? Would it be possible to add the VoIP ports (whatever they are) to the Virtual server list and point to itself?

[Spuddo51]

Thanks GlynR. Your instructions worked perfectly and my Optis Voip Phone still works when plugged in to the Sagecom modem

[wfjm]

Hi Hollie,

Can you please elaborate on your comment "I'd suggest contacting your IT technician" I am trying to find someone who knows how to activate ICMP on the Sagem F@ST gateway?

I have tried Optus no luck, Sagemcom doesn't return call, I have been able to pull out all the settings for the gateway, but there are no settings for ICMP.

Owing to the fact that OPTUS doesn't support IPV6 and I can only create a tunnel if my provider can ping my gateway

Thanks
Wayne

[Hollie]

Hey @wfjm - apologies if my statement was a little confusing, what I meant was - as changing settings in the Sagem modem is not supported by us, you'd be best to get someone who works in the IT industry to give you a hand with this. 

You are welcome to use your own modem router, it's just nothing something we'd be able to provide much support for and if you were having issues with your connection at some point, we would request you plug the Sagem back in so we could do some testing.

Hope this helps clarify things a bit 🙂