Unable to Connect Archer AX6000 Router to Hitron Fiber Optics Modem

TidBITS Talk
1

Hello again everyone. This another VERY techy issue I am having. We met with success after two days with my previous SMTP server issue, so maybe we will be successful this time as well.

So here we go. This morning my ISP upgraded my Internet connection from a standard coaxial cable and Cisco modem to a fiber optic cable and Hitron modem Model Name NOVA-2004.

Despite multiple attempts, the Archer AX6000 v1.0 router is unable to connect to the modem. The blue light on top of the router spins around for a few minutes as it tries to negotiate a connection, and then fails and turns red.

With the coaxial cable and Cisco modem, I never had this problem.

I suspect that it may possibly be a configuration issue on my ISP’s end – but I am not sure – because even if I connect my 2019 5K iMac running Sonoma 14.0 to the modem directly, it cannot establish an Internet connection either.

I have been using a static IP address with my ISP for many years now. There has never been a problem with it.

In the Archer AX6000 router configuration web page, if I set it to auto-detect, for some reason, it selects dynamic IP instead. But then if I let the setup process continue, it eventually fails.

If I set it to Static IP instead, all of my proper data is already in there. It shows my MAC address, as well as the proper IP address which I have been assigned, default gateway, primary and secondary DNS, connection type, my Wi-Fi network name, etc. It is all correct. Likewise, my LAN info is correct as well.

Yet, despite all of this appearing to be correct, under my Bwanadik menu, it shows the correct NAT address for this particular iMac, but next to External IP it says “Unknown, Not Connected”.

Likewise on my other iMac which is also on my LAN, it shows the proper NAT address for that machine, but again it shows "Unknown, Not Connect for the External IP.

I honestly have no idea how to fix this. Rebooting the modem, the router and the iMac makes no difference. The router cannot connect to the Hitron modem, and neither of my machines can connect to the Internet directly via the modem.

What is funny is that I am the first person in my building to get a fiber optic connection, and it’s not even working.

Oh, one other point. The tech guy who did the installation, connected a laptop to the modem directly, and he got an asynchronous connection of 150 mb upstream and downstream.

So why won’t my 2019 5K iMac and the Archer AX6000 router connect to the Hitron modem?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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I recently set up a cable modem/Archer AX3000 router with the ISP at a new location. In the instructions from the cable company, I was required to call the tech support number and turn on the modem/router while on the phone.

From here on I am guessing…

They might have been validating my router’s MAC address?
Your installer’s laptop might have a special, already-validated MAC address. Or he might have validated his laptop but neglected to validate your equipment.

Try calling tech support.
(I usually try everything else for the fun of it before doing that!)

3

Hello kcjw. Thanks for your response. Well, I have made some progress … but not to my liking. My ISP was supposed to call me back, but they never did, and it is now 8:00 PM here.

So, I got back on my iMac and decided to have another go at it. I fished around my house and found the Quick Start guide that came with the Archer AX6000. I believe it was there that I may have read something about logging into my TP-Link user account. Even though I have had this router for a while now, I never even went to their website and set up a TP-Link account, until earlier today when I posted this same message in their support forum.

Anyway, I tried again to use the Auto-Detect feature in the web page setup for the router. Once again, it chose Dynamic IP, even though I have a Static IP. So, I went through the steps for Dynamic IP, and then I did something different this time.

I logged into my TP-Link account via the setup page, and then hit the Finish button, or whatever it is. Lo and behold. It said congratulations, you are connected. I was doubtful at first, because it has said that before, and I was NOT connected.

So I walked over to the router, and sure enough, it is now bright blue, indicating that I am indeed connected. In fact, on both of my iMacs, the Bwanadik app in my top menubar is showing the NAT address on each machine, as well as the external IP.

So, while I am glad to be connected, of course, I am still not happy, because it is assigning me a Dynamic IP, instead of my Static IP. Being as I run my own web server at home, and a few different websites, I need the Static IP for my domain name registrar, so web traffic can be redirected to my server.

I could mess with my A records, and put in the Dynamic IP, just to see if it will work or not, but I really don’t want to mess with them. As they say, if ain’t broken, don’t fix it.

The thing is, being as I have my Static IP in my A records, and NOT the Dynamic IP my machines are currently using, when I try to connect to the websites on my server, Firefox throws up a security warning. Well, that is what was happening a few minutes ago. Now I can’t even connect to my web server.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention. After I successfully got the Dynamic IP to work, I tried going back and using my Static IP address again. But once again, it continues to fail to connect, and the router light turns red again, instead of blue. So, until I get this fixed, my websites are offline.

What I am wondering is if being as I switched from a coaxial cable connection with a Cisco modem, to a fiber optics cable with a Hitron modem, they may possibly need to issue me a new Static IP address.

This doesn’t make sense to me, because when I choose Static IP in the router’s web page setup, as I said in my original post, all of my data is still there.

I don’t anticipate getting this fixed tonight – frustrating – because all of their telephone support people are seriously lacking in knowledge. I am not joking. I know more than they do. The other day, one of them didn’t even know what a blog is, or what WordPress is. Half the time, they are typing and looking stuff up, or asking someone else as I talk to the on the phone. :frowning:

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This is just UNBELIEVABLE! After going back and forth with tech support at my ISP for several hours this evening, one of the higher tier technicians informed the regular support staff, that they do NOT currently offer Static IP addresses with their fiber optic service. THAT is why my Archer AX6000 router kept choosing Dynamic IP address each time I let it auto-detect my connection. It is also why each time I would set the router to Static IP, the connection would fail.

This is a major fail on their part, because BEFORE I committed to upgrading to fiber optic from my coaxial cable setup, I specifically asked them if my router would work with their modem, and if there would be a problem with using my Static IP address. They repeatedly assured me over the phone that there would not be a problem and that it would be simple plug and play. In short, their tech support gave me BAD INFORMATION, and based on that bad information, I committed to switching to fiber optic and a new modem.

Now my websites are dead in the water, because my A records at my registrar are set to my Static IP address. I doubt that registrars even accept Dynamic IP addresses, because they are constantly changing and are unreliable when one runs a web server and websites.

So I am stuck! I am NOT a happy camper.

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I agree - this is hard to believe, and it definitely seems like their sales people lied to you. Maybe you should insist on switching back to cable-modem service. The 150Mbps you’re getting is well within the capabilities of any modern cable modem system.

If they want to charge you to switch back, I would insist that they don’t. And if they refuse, see if you can get a lawyer friend to send them your request - that is often enough, even if you never file an actual lawsuit.

All that having been said, some more general information that may or may not be useful to you:

  • It’s my understanding that residential network systems always want you to set your modem/router to use dynamic addresses. If you have static address service, they will configure their DHCP server to always give you your static address, but it will still use the infrastructure of dynamic addresses.

  • You can use dynamic addresses with DNS. Yes, the address may change a lot, but in practice, it usually won’t change very often.

    • If your DNS provider will let you quickly change your A records without getting staff involved (and charging you for the changes), you might be able to write a simple script that periodically checks your address (maybe hourly) and updates the A records when it changes.

    • There is something called Dynamic DNS which is a formal way of doing the above - where your public A records get dynamically updated as your address changes.

Here’s an article about Dynamic DNS:

It describes the protocol pretty well and discusses a few popular DDNS service providers:

There are, of course, others. When doing a web search, I found two more:

  • Cloudflare. Not a DDNS provider as such, but DDNS is included with their other products.
  • Oracle Dyn.com. Dyn used to be very popular and free, but not so much today, after Oracle took it over.

WRT how you push your address updates to the DDNS provider, the article mentions:

  • Manual. You do it by hand. Not ideal, but may be OK if your address rarely changes.
  • Built-in to your router.
  • An app running on your LAN (could be Windows, macOS, Linux).
    • If you’ve got other services running on a computer on your LAN (e.g. my LAN has a Raspberry Pi providing local DNS and DHCP), you may want to just run it there.
  • An app on your phone or tablet
  • An app running on something else on your LAN (the article mentions NAS devices)
2 Likes
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@wordweaver777 I have a pseudo-static IP with my ISP, as mentioned by @Shamino above, this is provided like a dynamic IP, but it’s reliably always the same. Can you get one of these?

The other thought that jumps to my mind is this, please don’t take offence: Is the universe maybe telling you that you should rather host your websites with a suitable ISP, and not on your own hardware?

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I used to use DynDNS. It worked well and didn’t cost much. The various routers I had over the years all had a dynamic DNS setting, which I assume communicated with DynDNS whenever the IP address changed.

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Hello @Shamino and @mHm. Thank you for your feed back. I appreciate it. First, yes, I am quite familiar with Dynamic IP services. In fact. while getting the bad news from the ISP support lady yesterday evening, I in fact mentioned that possibility to her, as much as I don’t even like considering it.

I did google while I spoke with her and discovered that dyndns.com and noip.com are still in business after all these years. However there are a number of reasons why I cannot, and should not, consider using one of them.

To begin with, I have used billkochman.com for around ten years now. It has been populated far and wide on over FIFTEEN social networks. I have also created over 5,000 graphics with my www. billkochman.com URL on them, which have been dispersed all across the Internet for years as well.

The major search engines have spidered my site using that domain name for many years as well. So I have built up a web presence with that domain name and URL over many years.

Collectively speaking, I have spent thousands of dollars over the years to pay for domain name registration renewals, mail forwarding services, etc.

I’m sure you can see where I am going with this. It has been a major investment of my time, energy and money for many years to build up and maintain my web presence.

I won’t even get into all the money spent on new equipment, software registrations and annual renewals, hours and hours of frustration and troubleshooting, learning new technologies from scratch, etc.

All of this has been centered around the domain billkochman.com.

BUT, the minute I switch to a Dynamic IP service, all of that is basically lost, because I would no longer be able to use billkochman.com as is by itself, because as you probably know, Dynamic IP services like the aforementioned append their own domain to the URL. People would have to use a different URL to reach my site. Oh, and did I mention that the registration for my domain is paid for up through 2030 with my current registrar?

Another point: While there are some free dynamic IP services, they are not as reliable, so it is better to get the Pro version of said services for better reliability and stability, and additional features. I did a quick look yesterday evening, and Pro services seem to range from $40-$80 annually.

I am old, retired and living on a tight fixed income. Why should I be forced to spend even more money on an already stretched thin budget, due to a mistake which was made by my ISP? I am referring to the wrong information they gave me?

Another drawback is that when you change IP addresses in your A records, it is NOT an instantaneous thing. It can take up to 48-72 hours for the new IP address to be propagated to all the DNS servers around the world. During that time, my website would not be accessible to a lot of people.

This problem is on my ISP, due to their employees giving me wrong info, which directly affected my decision to upgrade to a fiber optic cable. So they owe it to me to provide a solution where I can continue to use billkochman.com with a static IP address, which is the most reliable and proper way to do it, with the least amount of hassle. Any other solution would be troublesome and less reliable.

Later today — it is currently 4:54 AM here — they are supposed to call me after doing some brainstorming. Quite frankly, the only quick remedy I see is to restore my previous setup with coaxial cable and the Cisco modem.

That in itself is crazy, because they already removed the coaxial cable from my apartment, and from running through the entire apartment building to reach into my home. They had to drill a new hole in my living room wall to install the fibre optic cable, along with pounding a new set of plastic fasteners to both my living room and bedroom walls.

So to restore the previous setup, they would have to undo all of that, and feed a new coaxial cable through my building again. On top of that, yesterday morning, I had to move 68 18.5-pound boxes of cat litter from one side of my living room to the other, so they could feed the fiber optic cable into my apartment. I am 70 years old.

Yeah, I know I just said a lot; but I bet now you are getting the picture of why I am so irked by all of this. Meanwhile, all my websites are dead in the water until this is resolved, and my website’s placement on Google SERPs is dropping like a rock. :roll_eyes::grimacing::astonished::flushed::open_mouth:

Small note: Please don’t take offense, but being as I am a Christian, it really irks me when people say the universe this and the universe that. I believe that God rules over our lives and affects them. I view saying “universe” as a cop-out, because people are embarrassed, ashamed or afraid to say “God”.

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Jeremy, thank you for that tidbit of information. Considering how much my Tp-Link Archer AX6000 Wi-Fi 6 router cost — around $340 on Amazon, plus shipping to Guam — I would think that it would include that feature. I will look in the settings later today. Yet still, even if the setting is there, I already explained all the reasons in my previous post why I am not inclined to go that route.

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Not all of them. You should definitely read the article I linked to.

Some will support your domain. I don’t think they’ll do it on the free tier, but the ones mentioned in the article don’t seem too expensive, so it may be worth looking into.

Really? Wow. I’m surprised. Yeah, that makes it a lot uglier.

Usually I see cable companies abandon cables in-place. They’ll disconnect it from wherever it leaves the building, but won’t do much more than that. So reverting is usually no more difficult than reconnecting that end and telling the central office to activate your account for it.

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David, I will read the article, but I will tell you this. I did look at my router’s settings, and there is an option to select a dynamic IP service. However, they only offer the two I mentioned previously: noip.com and dyndns.com. If you visit their website, you will see that both services append their host and domain name to the end of the URL. So, as I said, my standalone URL of www.billkochman.com would not be possible.

Oh, one reason why they probably removed the coaxial cable is probably because both coaxial cable and fiber optic cable cannot fit through the tube that runs through the apartment building. I assume each apartment has their own tube, or whatever it is.

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… at the free tier.

No-IP lets you use your own domain for their “Pro” tier - $10/mo. I do realize that $120/yr is expensive - you said so in your previous message. I just wanted to point out that it’s not a matter of “impossible” but one of “too expensive”, which is a different kind of problem.

Dyn is the Oracle service, and yes, they don’t seem to allow you to bring in your own domain.

But that having been said, you don’t need to use a service built-in to your router. You can also run an app on something else on your LAN (maybe on your web server) to keep other DDNS services up to date. But, as with No-IP, I would expect that any other service will also require a paid-up account in order to use your existing domain.

But here’s another interesting possibility. Can you use a free subdomain-type DDNS host and add a CNAME to your normal DNS hosting that can make your existing hostname an alias to the DDNS hostname?

I’ve noticed that big companies do this for content distribution, so why not your site?

$ host www.apple.com

www.apple.com is an alias for www.apple.com.edgekey.net.
www.apple.com.edgekey.net is an alias for www.apple.com.edgekey.net.globalredir.akadns.net.
www.apple.com.edgekey.net.globalredir.akadns.net is an alias for e6858.dscx.akamaiedge.net.
e6858.dscx.akamaiedge.net has address 23.55.200.211
e6858.dscx.akamaiedge.net has IPv6 address 2600:1408:c400:1889::1aca
e6858.dscx.akamaiedge.net has IPv6 address 2600:1408:c400:188d::1aca
e6858.dscx.akamaiedge.net has IPv6 address 2600:1408:c400:1882::1aca
e6858.dscx.akamaiedge.net has IPv6 address 2600:1408:c400:1888::1aca

That makes sense. Of course, if there is a conduit, then they could run coax through that space to put it back. But I agree, that is going to be aggravating if you need to move heavy objects to expose the wall jack again.

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Hello again David. Yes, sadly, it comes down to money in the end. And the truth is that my ministry is a one-man operation. I don’t accept monetary donations. So except for one faithful friend who helps to provide equipment when necessary, it all comes out of my pocket, and I am already stretched.

Just to give you an idea, I currently pay $225 for my cellular and Internet. If I decide to keep the asynchronous 150 mb fiber optic connection, it will go up to about $250 for both, according to what the tech installer told me. I hope he’s right.

If it is more than than, then I will have to remain with my current 75 mb line. From what I heard, they give us three months free to try out the 150 mb asynchronous fiber optic line.

Then there is the annual domain registrations, software renewal fees, power bill, etc. So to add on $120 for noip.com will break the bank.

But I’ll tell you, asynchronous 150 mb for only $25 more is VERY tempting. I’ve never had asynchronous before. Over here, they are liberal with the downstream, but super tight with the upstream. So the 150 mb asynchronous connection would really speed things up with pushing out data from my server.

BTW, I’ve been in communication with someone from noip.com. I am still waiting for a clear answer regarding whether or not I can use just my domain WITHOUT appending noip.com to it. He gave me an answer but it wasn’t clear. But he says I would need the Managed Plus account for $34.95/year if no domain name registration or transfer is required. I am currently with register.com. Have been for many years.

Regarding your last question concerning the CNAME, I am not sure. I might possibly be able to add that to my CNAME records with register.com. I’d have to look into it further.

Kind regards,

Bill Kochman / Administrator
Bill’s Bible Basics

https://www.billkochman.com

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David, upon further reflection, I don’t think the CNAME idea would work. In fact, the whole reason why my websites are currently dead in the water is because I currently have a static IP in my records on register.com which points to my domains.

BUT, as of yesterday, that static IP in my records is no longer valid, because unbeknownst to me — because they didn’t tell me — a dynamic IP was thrust upon me the minute I switched to the fiber optic cable.

So, register.com can’t forward any traffic to my websites.

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I understand, but you should be able to remove your A record (since you no longer have a static address) and create a CNAME that makes your domain an alias for your ddns subdomain, which will in turn map to your dynamic address.

The DNS system itself should have no problem with this, but I don’t know what register.com will let you configure on their servers.

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David, I don’t have a lot of experience with editing records. I mean, I do it when I have to, but if it gets a bit complicated like what you are describing, I am lost. I donj’t know how to do what you are describing, so I would need some help.

But on the other hand, noip.com is looking more like a possible option. The fellow there just gave me a clear answer with this:

“You should be able to create www.billkochman.com and billkochman.com as DDNS hosts if you are hosting your site at a network location that has a Dynamic DNS.”

I just asked him if I can do that in that section in my router settings where it lets me choose a Dynamic DNS provider. In that same section, there is a place to add domain names. I wanted to post an image here, but I don’t see how to do that.

This other fellow is talking about using noip.com, and transferring my domain over to them from register.com. So it looks like it might be $34.99/year, plus the cost of the transfer from register.com.

But, before I do any of this, I am going to wait and see if my ISP offers any solutions to this problem, which they created for me. As I already said, I shouldn’t to pay more money elsewhere to fix their oversight.

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It’s just a common saying over here, but let me rephrase: Is hosting with a hosting provider possibly a much cheaper and easier option?

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I run a small DNS server in my home (not public - just for my LAN). A CNAME record basically maps one host/domain name to another. DNS clients, when resolving a hostname, will see the CNAME alias and then do another lookup on it, repeating as necessary until getting an A (or AAAA, for IPv6) record.

I configure mine by manually editing the configuration/database files used by the Bind DNS server (running on a Raspberry Pi).

Here’s an excerpt from the file for my LAN (all private addresses), where I have many devices and some CNAMES:

hl3270   IN A        192.168.1.14
         IN TXT      "Brother HL-L3270CDW laser printer"
printer  IN CNAME    hl3270
balrog   IN A        192.168.1.17
         IN TXT      "Mac mini 2018"
www      IN CNAME    balrog

In the above records:

  • hl3270 is my printer.
    • Its A record is its static IP address
    • Its TXT record is descriptive text - so DNS can query a friendly name for it.
  • printer is an alias
    • The CNAME record is a reference to its canonical name, hl3270
    • In the future, if I get a new printer, I will probably give it a new hostname, but I will change the CNAME to point to its new hostname. This way apps configured for printer.mydomain... will not need reconfiguration.
  • balrog is my Mac mini, which is also a local web server
    • Its A record is its static IP address
    • Its TXT record is a description
  • www is an alias for Balrog
    • Like the printer, this will let me just change the CNAME if I decide to move my web server to another computer in the future.

Because all of these names are part of my domain’s config database file, and they don’t end with a ., Bind automatically append the domain name to them. So the record for balrog is actually balrog.davidsdomain.com (not my actual domain name).

Anyway, all this being said, somewhere in register.com’s database is going to be a server configured with the same kind of records. Maybe not the same file, if they’re not running Bind, but with the same data. You almost certainly have (in addition to other records):

  • An SOA (statement of authority) record naming your domain’s primary name server, a contact e-mail address, and information about the intervals at which clients should cache/expire the data
  • One or more NS records, defining the name servers responsible for your domain. There should be at least two of them for anything Internet-facing.
  • An A record associating billkochman.com with your IP address
  • A CNAME record associating www.billkochman.com with billkochman.com (assuming both resolve to the same address)

So, if you were to use a free DDNS service, giving you billkochman.jimmysdns.net, register.com would need to:

  • Delete the A record
  • Add a CNAME record mapping billkochman.com to billkochman.jimmysdns.net

So a user requesting the address for billkochman.com or www.billkochman.com will get the address associated with billkochman.jimmysdns.net. All within the normal address resolution process - invisible to anybody who’s not snooping the raw DNS traffic.

The only real question with this is how you would configure your register.com account to make these changes. Since I don’t use their service, I don’t know how/if they would let you do it.

That sounds better. So you could remove register.com from the equation. You might even end up saving a bit of money, not counting the one-trime transfer fee.

Absolutely. If they can be convinced to just give you a static IP (or at least a dynamic one that changes infrequently enough to effectively be static), then that would be the easiest solution for everybody.

1 Like
19

Michael, not on Guam. Being as we are a small island out in the middle of nowhere, most things are much more expensive than in the US mainland, because they must be imported. The shipping companies certainly take advantage of the situation. Everything from food to gasoline is expensive.

The thing about hosting a site at an ISP is that they give you 5 or 10 GB of storage, and that’s about it. If you run a small website, 5 or 10 GB might be fine. However, if you have a very large website — as I do — paying for that extra storage on your ISP’s server can quickly become prohibitive. And that doesn’t include the cost of other services you might need from them.

I’ve been running my web server at home for over twenty years now. It has had its challenges at times when I have felt frustrated over technical problems which have been hard to resolve. But overall, having it right here in my home, completely under my control, is well worth it. It is very convenient, and very hands-on.

Kind regards,

Bill Kochman / Administrator
Bill’s Bible Basics

https://www.billkochman.com

20

Well, looks like you’re on the road. A few notes scribbled on my phone off the top of my head …

Certainly keep the fibre connection IMHO. Future-proof, notwithstanding the problems you have with your ISP, but most important for your purposes, symmetrical. You can work around the lack of static IP, ultimately, if worst comes to worst. And having just moved to FTTP from cable myself, I’d never go back, albeit my connection is somewhat faster; the symmetry is worth it, alone.

Nobody mentioned it, but your description of your router setup makes it very clear that you’re actually using PPPoE for your connection. If you were to tell your Mac to talk to your modem using PPPoE, probably you’d find that worked. Because PPPoE negotiates the address, choosing static would probably not have worked anyway; your ISP should simply hand you your static IP via PPP.

The CNAME trick could very well work, but there’s an important limitation: if you comply with Internet standards, you can’t have a CNAME at the root domain name, because the specs for DNS say that CNAME must be the exclusive record, even with SOA and NS. So your registrar needs to offer a specific hack, called by various names including CNAME Flattening or Virtual CNAME or Alias, which works in effect by making the DNS host perform a lookup on the target of the CNAME and then substitute the resulting address for the query. Certainly if this feature is available to you, then the option of using a free DDNS option is available. But, honestly, I advise against it—far better to have your domain’s authoritative DNS service support it directly. CloudFlare, known best for its web performance and protection, also offers a free DNS service with this feature.

Speaking of CloudFlare, if you sign up for their service on your domain, there is another possibility, that of CloudFlare Tunnel. You can install agent software on your server that’ll connect outward to the CloudFlare network. Then, instead of web requests being forwarded to your web server’s IP address, it is forwarded over the tunnel. The practical upshot: no matter how dynamic your address, or indeed, even if you don’t have a public IP address of your own, you can still run a website behind CloudFlare, without port forwarding or any need to update DNS as the virtual endpoint representing your tunnel is always up-to-date with CloudFlare’s agent constantly maintaining that connection. You can set up email notifications to be told when/if this connection fails and reconnects, and you can use the connection to gain remote access to your network for other purposes, in effect using it like a VPN, with the aid of the CloudFlare Warp client. It’s all very slick, if you’re willing to go down the path of using CloudFlare’s services.

I think that’ll do, for now.