UPC Cisco EPC3925: Enabling True Bridge Mode - A Simple How-to Guide

If you connect the laptop direct to the Cisco on a bridged VM Business connection with static IP, you'll probably be assigned a 10.x.x.x IP. The IP you'd set on the network interface would be the static IP they gave you.

When VM bridge the modem, you can't access 192.168.100.1 anymore. You can only access the modem on your default gateway IP.

zom

Karsini wrote: »

If you connect the laptop direct to the Cisco on a bridged VM Business connection with static IP, you'll probably be assigned a 10.x.x.x IP. The IP you'd set on the network interface would be the static IP they gave you.

When VM bridge the modem, you can't access 192.168.100.1 anymore. You can only access the modem on your default gateway IP.

I know that now, after 10 minutes with VM support guiding me every step with my local router. Point 7 from first page is confusing:

7. Your EPC3925 should then reboot automatically to effect the changes. When it comes back up, it'll be in Bridge mode. You can now navigate to the web configuration using http://192.168.100.1.

But there is something on IP 192.168.100.1 - after advanced scan I found device last restart time which is when I last restarted my Cisco and also operation system also match Cisco. I'm confused with MAC number but I presume this is fake generated by Virgin to allow static IP. I scanned TCP/UDP ports on that device and seems like GUI is not working while in Bridge mode and no point to chase for that too.

To be fair, the guide was put together with domestic users in mind. It works differently when VM bridge the modem on their side, and they only do so on business connections.

zom

I would say it's a question of software, not "sides". I managed today to swap between router/bridge mode all by myself while having coax cable disconnected. There are options, ports and services disabled by software - but I managed to get spare Cisco EPC2425 (older version) and will try to investigate more on that one.

xabi

If I do this will I need to re-add all my wireless devices to connect to the 2nd router? Or can I set the SSID on the new router to what it was on the Cisco? Between what ports on the routers do I connect the CAT cable to?

DECEiFER

xabi wrote: »

If I do this will I need to re-add all my wireless devices to connect to the 2nd router? Or can I set the SSID on the new router to what it was on the Cisco? Between what ports on the routers do I connect the CAT cable to?

If you use the same SSID, key type, and code, your devices will connect automatically to the cable router without needing to do anything else. You can even use a different channel.

The cable router should have a WAN port? If so, put the Ethernet cable into any of the Cisco's LAN ports and the other end into the cable router's WAN port.

DECEiFER

zom wrote: »

But there is something on IP 192.168.100.1 - after advanced scan I found device last restart time which is when I last restarted my Cisco and also operation system also match Cisco. I'm confused with MAC number but I presume this is fake generated by Virgin to allow static IP. I scanned TCP/UDP ports on that device and seems like GUI is not working while in Bridge mode and no point to chase for that too.

Hi zom,

Apologies for the late reply, so hopefully you're still subscribed to this topic.

As Karsini pointed out, this is guide only makes sense for people with a 3925 on a residential connection. Even while the option is now available to residential users who have the device from years ago, some points in this guide can still prove useful to any one of them bridging for the first time. However, it was written at a time when VM basically hid the bridging option. I had a hunch and it was a long-shot in my head at the time that getting the correct HTML code in with the correct POST var would essentially trick the device into setting bridge mode. I tried early in 2012 but had no luck and took another stab at it later on in September, and found the source code for a similar Cisco D/EPC device that had the bridge option intact and when it worked via HTML injection, my jaw dropped and I was salivating! For real. I didn't think they'd be as sloppy and since then on other residential devices, they have made it tougher and in some cases impossible to set bridge mode - bar the new Compel Hub, which offers it out of the box.

One more thing. If you're using the 3925 in your business and VM have bridged it for you, there is still GUI access but it must be via your public gateway IP and within the LAN. So let's say you have an IP and it's 89.101.200.151, for example. In that scenario your gateway IP would probably be 89.101.200.150 and within the LAN you can use that to get into the 3925. If your IP is static then VM probably took you through the steps on how to set it in your router, so the IP info would still be in there.

killswitx

hi, i just got a cisco epc replaced for that crappy technicolor modem (luckily enough).

but i have this problem with bridge mode. i can change it easily throug web but the thing is when it changes i can get the public ip. the thing is cannot get onto anything, i cannot ping anything outside wont open anything? i tried to clone mac to my own router but didnt do anything (maybe i made typo dont know). i should not need to change mac i believe thoug when i get straight ip. any device that connect directly to bridged modem gets public ip but nothing goes out...weird whats wrong? is it something to do with that DSLite or ipv6 addresses i think i have those...any clues? thanks

degsie

killswitx wrote: »

hi, i just got a cisco epc replaced for that crappy technicolor modem (luckily enough).

but i have this problem with bridge mode. i can change it easily throug web but the thing is when it changes i can get the public ip. the thing is cannot get onto anything, i cannot ping anything outside wont open anything? i tried to clone mac to my own router but didnt do anything (maybe i made typo dont know). i should not need to change mac i believe thoug when i get straight ip. any device that connect directly to bridged modem gets public ip but nothing goes out...weird whats wrong? is it something to do with that DSLite or ipv6 addresses i think i have those...any clues? thanks

Try running http://test-ipv6.com and see if u have an ipv6 address.

zom

I am trying establish PPTP tunnelling on Technicolor 7200 on some private home connection, and it seems impossible. Is there any point to request Cisco 3925 or it is blocked on UPC/Virgin line and can't be open on home router (TPC 1723 and GRE 47 ports) ?

Cuddlesworth

zom wrote: »

I am trying establish PPTP tunnelling on Technicolor 7200 on some private home connection, and it seems impossible. Is there any point to request Cisco 3925 or it is blocked on UPC/Virgin line and can't be open on home router (TPC 1723 and GRE 47 ports) ?

Do the above post and check your IPv6 status.

killswitx

degsie wrote: »

Try running http://test-ipv6.com and see if u have an ipv6 address.

hi, i did the test but its telling in the results:

Your IPv4 address on the public Internet appears to be 37.228.240.xx

Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) appears to be LGI-UPC formerly known as UPC Broadband Holding B.V., AT

No IPv6 address detected [more info]

Good news! Your current configuration will continue to work as web sites enable IPv6.

You appear to be able to browse the IPv4 Internet only. You will not be able to reach IPv6-only sites.

Your DNS server (possibly run by your ISP) appears to have no access to the IPv6 Internet, or is not configured to use it. This may in the future restrict your ability to reach IPv6-only sites. [more info]


so why that bridge isnt working?

degsie

killswitx wrote: »

hi, i did the test but its telling in the results:

Your IPv4 address on the public Internet appears to be 37.228.240.xx

Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) appears to be LGI-UPC formerly known as UPC Broadband Holding B.V., AT

No IPv6 address detected [more info]

Good news! Your current configuration will continue to work as web sites enable IPv6.

You appear to be able to browse the IPv4 Internet only. You will not be able to reach IPv6-only sites.

Your DNS server (possibly run by your ISP) appears to have no access to the IPv6 Internet, or is not configured to use it. This may in the future restrict your ability to reach IPv6-only sites. [more info]


so why that bridge isnt working?

I suspect your dns on the device you are connecting is screwed up.

killswitx

so you mean my dd-wrt on r7000 is screwed up? or something could be wrong in the settings? or on cisco router?

degsie

killswitx wrote: »

so you mean my dd-wrt on r7000 is screwed up? or something could be wrong in the settings? or on cisco router?

Directly connect a windows device to the cisco router and check that you get a public ip address. Now open a cmd box and type 'ping 208.67.222.222' and see if you get a response. If it works then it's most likely you have a DNS problem.

killswitx

yeah thats what i did, but instead windows i had mac and pinged 8.8.8.8 nothing got out...i tried on phone aswell

degsie

killswitx wrote: »

yeah thats what i did, but instead windows i had mac and pinged 8.8.8.8 nothing got out...i tried on phone aswell

If you revert back to router mode on the EPC, does it work ok?

killswitx

yeah i am double natting all the time...everyone is going tru r7000 ok but the effing cisco you have to reboot it like every week it freezes...aah...its completely weird. i guess i dont need to clone mac ? tried that aswell...no luck

ED E

Add a fan to the cisco. Even bridging it needs cooling.

killswitx

bridging is a lot more simpler process..than routing. just demoduling moduling signal...and it wont resolve the issue why it is not connecting outside

ED E

Thats my point, the onboard SoC falls over when doing no work never mind actually directing packets and doing FWing.

BTW in bridge mode it still routes private SIP and management traffic so it does a bit more than say a dumb modem.

DECEiFER

Hi all,

I thought I should post a message here given that it could be an end of an era. What some of you might be aware of already, and some will soon be aware of, Virgin Media are keeping up with their annual tradition of offering us loyal customers a fantastic deal of Sh1t-Fúck-All for the low-low price (increase) of €2.50 per month (for Broadband only customers, and €4 if you have TV and Broadband). Emails are being rolled out to customers on a phased basis, depending on when your billing date is. I got mine in today. In the email, if you have 240Mb and haven't already upgraded to the new Hub, they are offering you the opportunity to get it without penalty (apart from the price increase, that is). The reason I said "Sh1t-Fúck-All" before was it doesn't matter whether you had the Hub or not before the email came in and for reasons I'll explain below, it might not be a good idea to take the plunge.

I finally said goodbye to my EPC3925 earlier this week, coincedentally enough, and got the Hub in Modem (Bridge) mode before I knew of any price increase. I rang them up to see if I was eligible to get it, and the (Irish) lady on the phone was very quick to tell me I was (she was a breath of fresh air compared to dealing with the Filipinos; she knew exactly what she was talking about). So I ordered the Hub at 4:30pm on Monday evening and it was delivered by Nightline the following morning with a redirect to my work address. Fantastic, right? Debatable, because I'm not 100% happy with it. It's slow as all hell to boot up. It doesn't seem to allow IP changes based on your third-party router's / PC MAC address, so it probably uses the internal switch's one regardless of whether it's in Router or Modem mode. Those are little niggles, for sure, but the modem also shows more stats in relation to the channels and I'm getting a fúck of a lot of Pre RS Errors (the 3925 never showed any RS error stats, as you know). It's worrying, even though those are corrected errors, because it could be a symptom of a bigger problem - which may be completely unrelated to the modem and just in the area. To highlight, I get about a million per channel after only a few minutes uptime and it rapidly climbs from there. A friend in another part of the city is on the Hub as well and he's getting lots of Pre and Post RS Errors. Another issue is that pinging Google.ie ends up being closer to 20ms rather than 10ms for both of us with a notable amount of spikes to over 100ms per 100 pings done. Could it be related? I couldn't tell you. The lack of stats in the 3925 could merely have been masking a problem, but I cannot ignore the increase of latency to Google with the odd spikes. I wish I could test my 3925 alongside it - it was fine when I last checked a week or more ago - but naturally they deactivated it (and did so before I'd even connected my Hub, long before I got home). The 3925 I use in the office still pings Google at the normal 9-12ms. They're in different areas of the city but only 5-6km by road (not as the crow flies) apart. All said, though, speeds seemed fine when I last checked on the night of installation, and I'm not getting any disconnections (so far) and I did a few hours of GTA Online last night as well without incident.

I doubt there's any going back even though I still have the 3925. Besides, I think the 3925 was misbehaving a bit as it would often throw the LAN port down to 100Mbps (Orange LED) which required a plug out and back in to restore it to 1Gbps (Green LED), so I decided it was time for a change based on that. In the office this has never happened, so I figured it might be fault with my own - which on Saturday last kicked me out of two Heist setups in GTA Online (and for anyone who knows how tedious it is due to the snail's pace at which one (re)connects to the game, will feel the pain). Could it be my router? I got an ASUS RT-AC68U earlier this year and it did happen the odd time when my WNDR3700 was plugged into it as well (though not as frequently as in the last few weeks). Either way, I decided to get the Hub figuring that it would be for the best. I'm on the fence still, and wanted you all to hear of my experiences before making the choice yourselves. It's an enticing offer because they don't impose a charge or change to your contract for taking them up on it, so just be aware of it.

Oh, the setup process is absolutely bollixed. The amount of times I had to reboot the thing (and as noted earlier, it takes fairly long to do so) because it wouldn't accept the initial password change (which is mandatory) but instead flipped you back to the login and made you do it again and again until you finally reboot and try again - and this was a cross-browser issue. I'm sure the software is buggy but since it's no longer a brand-new device, you'd have expected these things to be sorted by now. Maybe it was just me? Again, I don't know. It happened when I set it up at work and after I factory reset it at home. It's worth noting, though.

DECEiFER

Did a reboot nearly 20 minutes ago where there was 6 billion+ Pre RS Errors per channel. Less than 20 minutes in, there is 32 million+. Post RS Errors before the reboot were in the tens of thousands on some channels but not all. I forgot to take a screenshot but the ones you see in the below screenshot are from the boot process and have been steady since.

DECEiFER

Did a reboot nearly 20 minutes ago where there was 6 billion+ Pre RS Errors per channel. Less than 20 minutes in, there is 32 million+. Post RS Errors before the reboot were in the tens of thousands on some channels but not all. I forgot to take a screenshot but the ones you see in the below screenshot are from the boot process and have been steady since.

Good SND (RxMER) and the power levels are no higher than 5db per channel down to 0dB. So it all looks well, therefore, with so many errors it is difficult to comprehend why.

killswitx

i think the ping issue has to do with network as such not with the modem...the lines are getting upgraded to 240mb as base and that just a too much and gets the pings up but even though the dl speeds are still ok...thats happenning regularly.

well i was googling a bit and i could find that the pre RS error is not of big deal, while post error should we be worried at. i have this hub and have netgear behind it and it works ok....even though i dont play games and other latency very sensitive things so i cant tell much

DECEiFER

killswitx wrote: »

i think the ping issue has to do with network as such not with the modem...the lines are getting upgraded to 240mb as base and that just a too much and gets the pings up but even though the dl speeds are still ok...thats happenning regularly.

well i was googling a bit and i could find that the pre RS error is not of big deal, while post error should we be worried at. i have this hub and have netgear behind it and it works ok....even though i dont play games and other latency very sensitive things so i cant tell much

You could be right and the timing of this could be off. I just never had an issue before this week. Pity about not being able to test both modems on rotation!

I read the same about Pre RS Errors as well but when you see a ton of them compared to what others are getting around the world one can't help but be a bit worried about it. Funnily enough, when I ping hosts from other countries I'm not seeing as much of an increase. It's not just Google.ie at home. Even Boards.ie is slightly higher than the usual. I'm willing to see if it gets corrected in the next while before bringing it to VM's attention.

I figured I best make a post about it all the same. My recommendation is to keep the 3925 unless it's giving you hassle. Someone PM'd me last night and said the LAN port is constantly orange for him, so he's effectively capped at 100Mbps as a result. If it's because of a fault in the 3925, then you should absolutely replace it with the Hub. So if there are no issues with your 3925s, I'd hang onto them for as long as it's feasible (so long as you're on packages of less than 300Mb, where the modem would top out).

cruhoortwunk

Any reason why it would keep switching back to routing mode? I set it to bridge, apply and when I go back to check it has reverted.

DECEiFER

cruhoortwunk wrote: »

Any reason why it would keep switching back to routing mode? I set it to bridge, apply and when I go back to check it has reverted.

Unless the modem just needs a kick in the hole (a factory reset) then it sounds as though the DOCSIS config file is making it do so, which is in the hands of Virgin Media. They made an "error" over a year ago that made all our 3925 modems revert but soon after "fixed" it with an apology given and we were back in business.

You have two options. You can post over in the Virgin Media Talk To forum and see if they can help you there (don't bother with phone support - they possibly won't have a clue what you're on about), or you can opt to take on the new Hub. I believe they'll give you it for free with no contract extensions. I took advantage of it at the end of 2016 and it's working out good. My concerns noted above aren't really concerns. I've had good stability and in "Modem Mode" I still get to use my router as intended. I got one for my folks as well to replace that awful Horizon box modem/router and it's working out great for them, too. If you're really set on keeping the 3925 then go to the Virgin Media Talk To forum or PM Virgin Media: Reps and ask about the issue you're having directly.

Tinder Surprise

DECEiFER wrote: »

Unless the modem just needs a kick in the hole (a factory reset) then it sounds as though the DOCSIS config file is making it do so, which is in the hands of Virgin Media. They made an "error" over a year ago that made all our 3925 modems revert but soon after "fixed" it with an apology given and we were back in business.

You have two options. You can post over in the Virgin Media Talk To forum and see if they can help you there (don't bother with phone support - they possibly won't have a clue what you're on about), or you can opt to take on the new Hub. I believe they'll give you it for free with no contract extensions. I took advantage of it at the end of 2016 and it's working out good. My concerns noted above aren't really concerns. I've had good stability and in "Modem Mode" I still get to use my router as intended. I got one for my folks as well to replace that awful Horizon box modem/router and it's working out great for them, too. If you're really set on keeping the 3925 then go to the Virgin Media Talk To forum or PM Virgin Media: Reps and ask about the issue you're having directly.

Selfish I know ...but I'm delighted you've moved over to the new hub.

I've still got my 3925 running and you where a great help with me setting it up way back when - least now i know if/when the inevitable occurs and i need to change over then you've trail blazed for all us mere numpties.:pac:

degsie

Still have my trusty 3925 running in bridged mode @ 120Mb/s. Would this be able to handle 240Mb if I were to upgrade?