nanog mailing list archives

Re: AT&T U-Verse Data Setup Convention


From: "Ricky Beam" <jfbeam () gmail com>
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2015 18:31:29 -0400

On Thu, 30 Jul 2015 12:02:06 -0400, Keith Stokes <keiths () neilltech com> wrote:
1. Is it really accurate that the customer’s address is tied to the modem/router?

To the 802.1x identity of the device, yes. That's the unit serial number, which (partial) contains the MAC.

2. For my curiosity, is this done through a DHCP reservation or is there a hard coded entry somewhere?

No. It's just "plain" DHCP. Until the pool is depleted, addresses don't get recycled. So, even if your address were released, it would take days before it would be assigned to someone else. (which DOES happen, btw)

Addresses are *NOT* hard coded. You can order (and pay for) a static subnet that is routed to whatever dynamic link address you get. That's the only "static" they offer.

3. Do all U-Verse modem/routers behave the same way? This particular unit was a Motorola but the friends I’ve seen with U-Verse use a Cisco unit.

Yes. This is a fundamental part of the network. If you *do* manage to side-step their PoS hardware, your own router will experience the same addressing scheme.


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