[sllug-members]: DHCP & DNS Issues

[Alain Bertrand]

On Tuesday 20 June 2006 4:12 am, Alain Bertrand wrote:
> > I hard coded my name servers of choice as Lonnie described and the
> > Actiontec _still_ hands out 192.168.0.1 as the first name server.
> > Have they fixed that in a more recent firmware?
> >
> > Jake
>
> I don't know, but I will test it next time I get the chance.  I will also
> try to make a list of new features I notice.  The only one I remember right
> off is some QoS (quality of service) settings so you can give priority to
> VoIP data.
>
>
> Alain

Ok, so as promised I tested the DHCP server in the newest Acitontec firmware.  
There is a place to specify what DNS servers to assign, but whatever I put in 
there was ignored.  It always gave the modem's local IP as the first, and the 
ISP's first DNS as the second DNS.  Even rebooting the modem didn't change 
this.  So while it seems that they fixed the DNS server in the modem to work 
better, they didn't fix the DHCP server at all.  

I don't know what I was looking at that made me think there was a section for 
QoS, but I wasn't able to find anything QoS related.  Here are some new 
features that I don't remember the old firmware having (not all the new 
features, just the ones I noticed, and thought were interesting).  
*In the DHCP server settings you can now change the lease length, and the 
domain name assigned.  
*There are many pre-defined port forwarding rules that can be easily turned on 
and off (a bunch of games, PPTP, netmeeting, netbios, etc.).  
*When defining custom port forwarding rules, you give the rule a name.  This 
makes it a lot easier to manage complicated port forwarding arrangements.  
*There is a section for a DMZ address.  I think this forwards all ports not 
already forwarded by other rules to one specific machine for those situations 
where normal port forwarding isn't good enough.  
*There is a section where you can turn UPnP on or off.  I don't know what this 
does exactly, but I have been told that it is more secure off.  
*You can now tell the modem the local timezone.  I think this is only used for 
the syslog
*Remote syslog.  Apparently you can have the modem's log output go to one of 
your computers' syslogd.  




Alain