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Converting a 642R or 645R to a Bridging Modem (642M)

Derek Chen-Becker <dwb2@po.cwru.edu>

$Id: modem-config-HOWTO.lyx,v 1.7 2002/11/26 20:20:21 dbecker Exp $

Introduction

Sprint FastAccess DSL has, historically, shipped the 642M DSL modem to their customers. The 642M is a relabeled bridging DSL modem from ZyXel1. Sprint originally changed their CPE to the 642R, a full-blown DSL router, and have recently changed to the 645R. The 645R appears to be very similar to the 642R except without a serial port, so for the purposes of this document, I will use 642R to mean either the 642 or 645 except where noted. The default configuration of the 642R is to act as a NAT gateway with a DHCP server on its local LAN interface. This makes it very simple for people to set up an office with one of these, but for those people who have their own firewall or who need to be directly connected to the Internet there isn't much documentation on how to make the 642R act as a bridge. After a little experimentation I was able to get the 642R acting the same way as a 642M, so I decided to share this useful information with anyone else who might be lucky enough to receive one of these routers.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the friendly people at Sprint tech support who originally helped us through some tough problems, as well as the following people who have e-mailed me with comments, questions and suggestions: Angelo ``Archie'' Amoruso, Steven (1busyman), and Maurizio Maffei.


The Simple Way

As with pretty much anything in life, there's an easy way and a hard way to do it. If you'd like to learn a lot about the way the 642R works, go to section [*] for the more complicated version.

The key to the Simple Way is that there should be a saved config file called sprint642r.conf in the same location as that you found this document. If it isn't there you're going to have to do things the Hard Way (section [*]). With the config file, setup is pretty easy. Most people will simply be able to upload this config and reboot their modem. Others may have to follow an additional step.


Prerequisites

First, you need to get set up to upload the configuration. You will need:

  1. The sprint642r.conf file
  2. The 642R or 645R Router and power supply
The following are needed if you want to use a serial connection (section [*]). Otherwise, you'll need to use FTP (section [*]).

  1. A straight-through serial cable with a 9-pin male end
  2. A terminal program with XMODEM protocol support, such as HyperTerm, TeraTerm2, or minicom
You will need to hook up your computer to the 642R via the serial cable and your terminal program. You terminal program should be set to 9600 8-N-1 with hardware flow control.

Uploading the Configuration

This is the simple part, uploading a pre-configured file to your router and going. Most of the values in these files are the default, and they are all set to use VPI/VCI 8/35. If these or other settings are not correct for you, you can always upload then edit them ``the hard way''. Please note that you will need to use different files depending on whether you are FTPing or using the serial port due to the way way both methods allocate space. The following files should be available at the same location as this HOWTO:

  1. sprint642r.conf
  2. sprint642r-ftp.conf
  3. sprint645r-ftp.conf


Serial/XModem

Once you have everything hooked up, turn on the 642R. You should see a post screen:


Bootbase Version: V2.07 | 3/15/2002 14:29:16
RAM: Size = 8192 Kbytes
DRAM POST: Testing:  8192K OK
FLASH: Intel 8M

ZyNOS Version: V2.50(AJ.7) | 4/3/2002 14:23:30

Press any key to enter debug mode within 3 seconds.
............................................................

And then a second post screen:


Copyright (c) 1994 - 2002 ZyXEL Communications Corp.
initialize ch =0, ethernet address: 00:a0:c5:47:4d:e6

HWSAR (FPGA) : testing ... done
Wan Channel init ........ done
Loading ADSL modem F/W
.................................................. done
Press ENTER to continue...

At this point you can hit enter and you will be prompted for a password. The default password for the 642R is ``1234''. When you have entered the password, you will be presented with a menu:


                    Copyright (c) 1994 - 2002 ZyXEL Communications Corp.

                              Prestige 642R Main Menu

     Getting Started                      Advanced Management
       1. General Setup                     21. Filter Set Configuration
       3. Ethernet Setup                    22. SNMP Configuration
       4. Internet Access Setup             23. System Password
                                            24. System Maintenance
                                            25. IP Routing Policy Setup
     Advanced Applications                  26. Schedule Setup
       11. Remote Node Setup
       12. Static Routing Setup
       15. SUA Server Setup                 99. Exit






                          Enter Menu Selection Number:

We want to upload the configuration, which is under the maintenance menu (item 24). Type ``24'' and hit enter. You should now see the maintenance menu:



                          Menu 24 - System Maintenance

                         1.  System Status
                         2.  System Information and Console Port Speed
                         3.  Log and Trace
                         4.  Diagnostic
                         5.  Backup Configuration
                         6.  Restore Configuration
                         7.  Upload Firmware
                         8.  Command Interpreter Mode
                         10. Time and Date Setting







                          Enter Menu Selection Number:

Choose option 6, ``Restore Configuration'', and you will see an upload prompt:


Ready to restore Configuration via Xmodem.
Do you want to continue (y/n):

Starting XMODEM upload (CRC mode)....
C

Inside your terminal program, initiate an XMODEM upload of the sprint642r.conf file, making sure to use XMODEM-CRC. When the upload is complete, you will see a screen prompting you to reboot:


Save to ROM
Hit any key to start system reboot.

Hit any key and the 642R will reboot. Your modem is now configured for bridging. You may have additional configuration depending on how your DSL line is provisioned. The sprint642r.conf file is configured for a VPI/VCI of 8/35. You can confirm this by calling Sprint suppurt and asking what your VPI/VCI are supposed to be. If they aren't 8 and 35, you will have to go to sections [*] and [*] to configure the correct VPI/VCI pair.


FTP

If you don't have serial access to the router you can usually access it via the default IP address of 192.168.1.1. In this case, you will need to FTP to transfer the file. Login with the username ``root'' and the same password as your console access (``1234'' by default). Once inside, you will need to do a ``ls'' command to see what the filename is for your config:


220 Sprint FTP version 1.0 ready at Sat Jan  1 06:27:50 2000
Name (192.168.1.1:dbecker): root
331 Enter PASS command
Password:
230 Logged in
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> passive off
Passive mode off.
ftp> ls
200 Port command okay
150 Opening data connection for LIST 
--w--w--w-   1 owner    group         1011092 Jul 01 12:00 ras
-rw-rw-rw-   1 owner    group           16384 Jul 01 12:00 rom-0
226 File sent OK
ftp> 

Note that you need to disable passive mode on your FTP client. The smaller file is the config. You will need to copy your config file up to the router, matching the existing config name on the router (``rom-0'' in our case):


ftp> put sprint645r-ftp.conf rom-0
local: sprint645r-ftp.conf remote: rom-0
200 Port command okay
150 Opening data connection for STOR rom-0
226 File received OK
16384 bytes sent in 0.0232 secs (6.9e+02 Kbytes/sec)
ftp> ls
421 Service not available, remote server has closed connection
ftp> bye

Once the file is transferred the router will reboot and you should be working. You can telnet to the same IP address to confirm settings.


The Hard Way

Well, not really that hard, just more complicated. In this set of instructions we'll go to each menu and configure it by hand instead of uploading the config. If you really want to know more about how to configure the 642R I suggest you visit ZyXel's website3 and get the user's manual for the Prestige 642R (the real name of the router).

First, you need the same equipment/software as described in section [*]. Once you have everything set up, turn on the 642R and if you're using a serial connection, press enter at the end of the POST. The default password is ``1234''. Once you've entered the password you should see the main menu:


                    Copyright (c) 1994 - 2002 ZyXEL Communications Corp.

                              Prestige 642R Main Menu

     Getting Started                      Advanced Management
       1. General Setup                     21. Filter Set Configuration
       3. Ethernet Setup                    22. SNMP Configuration
       4. Internet Access Setup             23. System Password
                                            24. System Maintenance
                                            25. IP Routing Policy Setup
     Advanced Applications                  26. Schedule Setup
       11. Remote Node Setup
       12. Static Routing Setup
       15. SUA Server Setup                 99. Exit






                          Enter Menu Selection Number:

We will be making changes to items 1, 3, 4, and 11.

General Setup

First, go to General Setup (menu 1). The following screen shows what the menu should look like. Change your settings to match:



                             Menu 1 - General Setup

                    System Name= Sprint
                    Location= ?
                    Contact Person's Name= ?


                    Route IP= No
                    Route IPX= No
                    Bridge= Yes








                    Press ENTER to Confirm or ESC to Cancel:

Basically, we're turning off routing for IP (the default) and turning on Bridging. This is half of what turns the 642R into a 642M. The other part comes later. When you're done, hit Enter and you will return to the main menu.

Ethernet Setup

Next, go to Ethernet Setup (menu 3). There are four submenus. We're really only interested in menu 2 (TCP/IP and DHCP). Go to menu 2 and change your settings to match the following screen:



                    Menu 3.2 - TCP/IP and DHCP Ethernet Setup

                    DHCP Setup
                      DHCP= None
                      Client IP Pool Starting Address= N/A
                      Size of Client IP Pool= N/A
                      Primary DNS Server= N/A
                      Secondary DNS Server= N/A
                      Remote DHCP Server= N/A
                    TCP/IP Setup:
                      IP Address= 192.168.1.1
                      IP Subnet Mask= 255.255.255.0
                      RIP Direction= None
                        Version= N/A
                      Multicast= None
                      IP Policies=
                      Edit IP Alias= No

                    Press ENTER to Confirm or ESC to Cancel:

Here we disable DHCP. If you have a bridge, it should not be acting as a DHCP server. We also have to choose an IP, even though it is a bridge. If someone figures out how to disable this completely, please let me know. When you're done, hit Enter and you will return to Ethernet menu. Hit escape and you will be back at the main menu.


Internet Access Setup

Next, go to Internet Access Setup (menu 4). Here you will see a menu that allows you to change the encapsulation and VPI/VCI of your DSL connection. Usually the defaults shipped with your modem are correct (as of this writing, vpi 8 , vci 35 for Sprint). If you need to change it I suggest you write down the original values somewhere. Change your values to match this screen:



                         Menu 4 - Internet Access Setup

                    ISP's Name= ELN
                    Encapsulation= RFC 1483
                    Multiplexing= LLC-based
                    VPI #= <your VPI>
                    VCI #= <your VCI>
                    Service Name= N/A
                    My Login= N/A
                    My Password= N/A
                    Single User Account= No
                    IP Address Assignment= N/A
                      IP Address= N/A
                    ENET ENCAP Gateway= N/A




                    Press ENTER to Confirm or ESC to Cancel:

When you are done hit ``Enter''.


Remote Node Setup

Here we come to one of the more complex menus. The Remote Node Setup configures how your 642R interacts with the DSLAM at your provider. The most important part of this is configuring which VPI/VCI pair is used, and how the router pulls frames from the DSL. When you enter the Remote Node menu, you'll see a list of entries. By default, only the first entry exists. Choose 1 and you will edit the default entry. Now you will see a menu with a lot of options:



                         Menu 11.1 - Remote Node Profile

     Rem Node Name= ELN                   Route= None
     Active= Yes                          Bridge= Yes

     Encapsulation= RFC 1483              Edit PPP Options= N/A
     Multiplexing= LLC-based              Rem IP Addr= N/A
     Incoming:                            Edit IP/IPX/Bridge= No
       Rem Login= N/A
       Rem Password= N/A
     Outgoing:                            Session Options:
       My Login= N/A                        Edit Filter Sets= No
       My Password= N/A                     PPPoE Idle Timeout(sec)= N/A
       Authen= N/A                          PPPoE Service Name= N/A
                                            Schedule Sets= N/A



                    Press ENTER to Confirm or ESC to Cancel:

Make changes to match this screen. When you are done, go to the ``Edit IP/IPX/Bridge'' item and change it to ``Yes''. You will then enter a menu that allows you to change bridging options:



                  Menu 11.3 - Remote Node Network Layer Options

     VPI/VCI (LLC-mux or PPP/PPPoE Encap):IPX Options:
         VPI #= 0                           Rem LAN Net #= N/A
         VCI #= 35                          My WAN Net #= N/A
     IP Options:                            Hop Count= N/A
       Rem IP Addr: N/A                     Tick Count= N/A
       Rem Subnet Mask= N/A                 W/D Spoofing(min)= N/A
       My WAN Addr= N/A                     SAP/RIP Timeout(min)= N/A
       Single User Account= N/A             Dial-On-Query= N/A
       Metric= N/A
       Private= N/A
       RIP Direction= N/A
         Version= N/A                     Bridge Options:
       Multicast= N/A                       Dial-On-Broadcast= N/A
       IP Policies= N/A                     Ethernet Addr Timeout(min)= 0


                     Enter here to CONFIRM or ESC to CANCEL:

There are only two items you can change here, VPI and VCI. These should match whatever you put in for Internet Access Setup (section [*]). When you are done, hit ``Enter'' then escape to return to the main menu.

Wrapup

Now that you are finished configuring everything, get back to the main menu and use option 99 to exit. The router should save your configuration and may prompt you for a reboot. Now you're done! If you find any mistakes or you have any comments on this document, please e-mail me and let me know.

Other configurations

This is a section for other helpful configs and tips. I would welcome adding any submissions anyone has.

Configuring a 642M to be a router

Several people have e-mailed me about this. I don't have access to a 642M to try this on, so if anyone has some info I can put here, I would appreciate it.

About this document ...

Converting a 642R or 645R to a Bridging Modem (642M)

This document was generated using the LaTeX2HTML translator Version 2K.1beta (1.47)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, Nikos Drakos, Computer Based Learning Unit, University of Leeds.
Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, Ross Moore, Mathematics Department, Macquarie University, Sydney.

The command line arguments were:
latex2html -split 0 -local_icons modem-config-HOWTO.tex

The translation was initiated by Derek Chen-Becker on 2002-11-26


Footnotes

... ZyXel1
http://www.zyxel.com
... TeraTerm2
http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA002416/teraterm.html
... website3
http://www.zyxel.com

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Derek Chen-Becker 2002-11-26