Magnet Broadband Tomfoolery

pinksoir

So I have just gotten off the phone no better off than I was yesterday, after wasting hours talking to level one magnet fools and one manager.

Here is the deal;
Magnet broadband do not allow you to access the router to change any settings whatsoever. This is common knowledge as there are many posts already about it. However, when I called them to ask them to open ports I was told that they were not obliged to do this as I am only a residential user. This is ridiculous. Any other isp would allow you to open ports. It's pretty basic. Apparently they get loads of requests a week asking for this 'privilege', and are in the process of 'asking the CEO for permission to open certain ports'.

I am outraged about this. Especially because when I spoke to their salesperson before I even signed up, he assured me that I would be able to a) set up a static ip address, and b) open ports. It was on this premise that i agreed to purchase their package. I mean, I made doubly sure that this was going to be available to me. But it isn't, so I basically have a six month contract for broadband that is fairly useless.

Another thing is that I am still renting Eircom's line while Magnet are getting their 'full suite' ready for my area. Until the full suite is available I am paying Magnet's €29 base package price and Eircom's €26 line rental. Apparently as soon as the full suite is ready I will be eligible for much better deals. However, I have no idea how long this will take. Also, I have afeeling that I will have to wait until my 6 month contract is up before I can go on to avail from these 'deals', as the salesman sort of slipped this in without me noticing on my second or third call.

The point of all this waffle is to warn people about Magnet and also to try and find out any information I can as to how I can get around my router to turn off the firewall and open all ports.

The reason I went with Magnet is because Smart isn't yet available in my area. However, seeings as I am getting an inferior package for the same price as Eircom's, it seems that i should have just gone with Eircom until Smart was available in my area. My area being Harold's Cross, D6w. Man I hate Magnet.

So does anyone know how I can get through my firewall to open ports, or indeed the password for the routers?

skywalker

I suppose if you signed up based on incorrect information from one of their sales people you could tell them you want out of the contract as its not what you signed up for, and go the whole hog and tell them you will be stopping direct debits etc. It might make them change their tune about obliging you with the password. There again it might not.

Foxwood

pinksoir wrote:

when I spoke to their salesperson before I even signed up, he assured me that I would be able to a) set up a static ip address, and b) open ports. It was on this premise that i agreed to purchase their package. I mean, I made doubly sure that this was going to be available to me.

By "doubly sure" you mean that you got this in writing from the salesperson, right?

pinksoir

Ah. Not in writing, but rather stating it to the salesman quite a few times. I know what you mean; a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's printed on...

But seeing as nothing about opening ports etc. is mentioned in the contract, I would assume that they would be in the same predicament as me. A manager told me on the phone that opening ports is not possible for me. But it states this nowhere in the contract.

I understand that they may not want me fiddling around with the router, this is understandable as I may (if I were a complete technotard) change some vital settings and it IS their router after all, but to out and out refuse to open ports for me themselves seems a bit unreasonable.

Grayarea

pinksoir wrote:

So does anyone know how I can get through my firewall to open ports, or indeed the password for the routers?

If you have a unbundeled service then the 2wire modem does not have the firewall enabled and no ports are blocked locally.

What ports do you think are blocked? I have yet to find any blocked ports either by the local modem or by magnet externally.

Later,

Grayarea

pinksoir

I cuurently don't have the bundled service, as it's not yet available in my area. But their salesman assured me that it would be in a couple of months. But then it was the very same salesman who assured me that I would be able to have a static ip and to open ports...

The firewall on the router is on and it is password protected. Also, one of the managers told me that they were looking into making port forwarding available for home users. Plus Azureus tells me that the listening port I am using is firewalled: I have a NAT/Tcp reachability problem. So this leads me to believe that all ports are blocked at the moment.

Dagzilla

pinksoir wrote:

I cuurently don't have the bundled service, as it's not yet available in my area. But their salesman assured me that it would be in a couple of months. But then it was the very same salesman who assured me that I would be able to have a static ip and to open ports...

The firewall on the router is on and it is password protected. Also, one of the managers told me that they were looking into making port forwarding available for home users. Plus Azureus tells me that the listening port I am using is firewalled: I have a NAT/Tcp reachability problem. So this leads me to believe that all ports are blocked at the moment.

hey im on magnet too and its true they are very unhelful when it comes to giving out te password. but you could try asking 2wire directly, they have a direct number for this its an international call but mind u it may work. its a USA no (877) 347-8680 you have to call them as the password they give you only lasts 15mins and must be entered as you talk to them over the phone.

Sponge Bob

ask them how to do a factory reset on the modem which will get you access all areas why dontcha