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BT Infinity Business Static IP Assignment

keithrogers88
Member

Hello,

 

I've recently had BT Infinity Business (Option 2) installed with 13 Static IP's. I have quite a complex home setup but essentially I want to be able to assign IP's from my /28 range to individual PC's statically on the PC itself. This doesn't seem possible unless you use the 'Static IP' functionality in the Business Hub which relies on finding the machine first using DHCP and then assigning the IP in that manner.

 

What I'm trying to achieve is as follows:

 

Openreach Modem --> Switch --> PC 1 (207.x.x.145)

Openreach Modem --> Switch --> PC 2 (207.x.x.146)

Openreach Modem --> Switch --> PC 3 (207.x.x.147) etc. etc.

 

Obviously the PPPoE authentication needs to be performed on a router or firewall device, but I've noticed once this is done you can't assign IP's statically on random devices residing on the switch.

 

Is what I want to acheive possible? Or am I tied down to either using the Static IP functionality of the Business Hub and presenting the IP directly to the device I wish to assign the Static IP to, or will I have to use something like a Draytek router to bridge the IP's to each respective PC?

 

Essentially, that is what I'm wanting to achieve, an external static IP out of my /28 assigned statically on PC's as and how I please. It's worth mentioning I plugged the Openreach modem directly into my PFsense firewall, performed the PPPoE authentication there and received a DHCP IP but couldn't assign my static's as IP aliases.

 

I would appreciate any help as forum trawling and internet searches have proved fruitless. I work as a Systems Engineer so I'm very familiar with Networks & Routing. Please feel free to give me a complex reply if you have one!!

 

Many thanks,

 

Keith.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

keithrogers88
Member

Hello everyone!

 

I've managed to resolve this. I thought that the BT Router address mentioned was actually an IP address assigned to one of their network routers. The reality is this address needs to be assigned on my side.

 

Typically, I'd expect the router address that they provide e.g. x.x.x.158 to be an address out of my static range assigned to one of their network routers, but in this case it's the address that must be assigned to mine. I'm familiar with working with leased lines and so used this understanding to try setup my business connection but later realised BT do this differently on their Infinity Business connections.

 

For those who are interested, I've got this all to work by doing the following:

 

Openreach Modem ---> Debian Linux Box

 

On the Debian Linux Box I'm running a PPPoE client to connect to the business broadband which creates an interface named 'ppp0' and has a standard DHCP address from BT. I've then added another network interface to the system which has one of my static IP's assigned to it. All other machines I wish to have connected using a static IP address are then connected to this interface by virtue of a switch and configured so that each respective machine has it's own static IP address and uses the Debian box as it's default gateway.

 

To help make this more clear:

 

Debian box

ppp0 = DHCP Address from BT

eth1 = Router address assigned to this (one of my static IP's from my /28)

 

Other PC's

eth0 = Static IP from my /28 with the default gateway of the IP assigned to eth1 on the Debian box

 

I hope this helps!

 

Thanks,

 

Keith.

 

 

View solution in original post

3 REPLIES 3

sajaxs
Member

Hello...

I'm intending to achieve something similar next weeks, having been advised that our BT Infinity service is to be installed then...

I know this may not be very helpful to anyone at present, but the initial post above implies that the Business Hub 3 does NOT actually support a true (old-fashioned style) BRIDGE mode...

 

In our case there is a hardware firewall/VPN device connected to the router (LAN side) which obviously has a fixed IP address. We simply want to ensure all the static IP adresses are passed through the router...we have no use for the router's firewalling/dhcp/dns/wifi or other fancy functions, this is all dealt with internally upstream from the firewall appliance. (The firewall is managed by an external contractor with filters/proxies etc. and thus we have no local access to the firewall setup.)

 

BT have assured us that the fixed IP addresses will remain as is, so that there should be no configuration required on the firewall. However, if the BTBusiness Hub 3 router is incapable of true Bridge mode, then a problem will arise and we will have to consider using an alternative cable modem such as a Vigor to sort this out....

 

Anyone have more experience with this that may be of some help?

 

 

keithrogers88
Member

Hello everyone!

 

I've managed to resolve this. I thought that the BT Router address mentioned was actually an IP address assigned to one of their network routers. The reality is this address needs to be assigned on my side.

 

Typically, I'd expect the router address that they provide e.g. x.x.x.158 to be an address out of my static range assigned to one of their network routers, but in this case it's the address that must be assigned to mine. I'm familiar with working with leased lines and so used this understanding to try setup my business connection but later realised BT do this differently on their Infinity Business connections.

 

For those who are interested, I've got this all to work by doing the following:

 

Openreach Modem ---> Debian Linux Box

 

On the Debian Linux Box I'm running a PPPoE client to connect to the business broadband which creates an interface named 'ppp0' and has a standard DHCP address from BT. I've then added another network interface to the system which has one of my static IP's assigned to it. All other machines I wish to have connected using a static IP address are then connected to this interface by virtue of a switch and configured so that each respective machine has it's own static IP address and uses the Debian box as it's default gateway.

 

To help make this more clear:

 

Debian box

ppp0 = DHCP Address from BT

eth1 = Router address assigned to this (one of my static IP's from my /28)

 

Other PC's

eth0 = Static IP from my /28 with the default gateway of the IP assigned to eth1 on the Debian box

 

I hope this helps!

 

Thanks,

 

Keith.

 

 

sajaxs
Member

Hello everyone again...

 

Thanks for the info keithrogers88, and although I had thought of doing something similar, it's not really a solution for the smallish branch office of a large global corporation... i.e. building a separate linux box (debian) as a router with all the attendant support issues will not be countenanced by the corporate IT services group.

 

I'm hoping that the setup that worked with the existing BT broadband will be able to be implemented, where there is the configuration facility to pass the static addresses through the router as an "additional private network". Thus all the addresses (except that assigned to the router) will hit the hardware firewall appliance which then deals with their onward transmission according to its rules, i.e. the static addresses are simply bridged through the existing router...

 

I'll get back about the success/failure in the next couple of days...

 

Regards to all...Sajax