[PLUG] Actiontek PK5000 dsl modem

Denis Heidtmann denis.heidtmann at gmail.com
Wed Dec 23 23:32:43 UTC 2009


Well, the old dsl modem was getting flaky, so Qwest replaced it with a
PK5000 (rental).  The new one is wireless, so that is good.  But an
issue showed up.  I have a work-around, but I am curious if anyone
here has ideas as to why Qwest programmed it as they apparently did.

The issue:
I set up the DHCP server parameters to use static dns addresses of
69.64.224.66 and 69.64.224.67.
Sent a DHCP request, the modem responds with its own IP (192.168.0.1)
as the primary DNS and what I had entered as the secondary.  A DNS
request to  192.168.0.1 fails.  A DNS request sent to 69.64.224.67 or
69.64.224.66  works fine.

I have had many email exchanges with Actiontec about this.  Trying to
get them to say why this made sense did not get very far.  Their very
first response seems to be the most clear:

"Honestly not sure why its programmed this way.
The DNS is resolved by the WAN connection with Qwest so the primary
DNS is 205.171.3.65 and secondary is 205.171.2.65  The PK5000 holds
these settings in memory and relays them by using its Gateway IP as
the primary.  Same is true if you set static DNS servers in memory.
The PK5000 and in fact all Qwest DSL Gateways, show the gateway IP as
the primary DNS."

Yet later response from Actiontek said:

"The PK5000 itself is NOT a DNS server or redirection device. There is
no programming in fact to do a DNS redirection internally. It cannot
do that at all.
It simply takes the DNS servers configured statically in the DHCP
server settings, or takes the DNS servers provided by the ISP and
broadcasts them as part of its DHCP server services."

The best guess I can come up with is that it works when Qwest is the
ISP.  I am not using Qwest.

Finally a email from Qwest support said:

"Qwest Broadband Technical Support was unable to create an email
ticket based on the information you provided on our web site."

I suspect this is because I was forced to say that my OS was "other".
They do not want to talk to me.

Comments?

-Denis



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