RAXE500 Constant Internet drops requiring reboots

If you do the dumb switch bypass you still need the Pace for those times that AT&T takes down their line (or someone cuts the fiber while digging) or if you have a power outage like you just did and don't have a UPS on the networking equipment.

Here are the steps to do this with just the router, you'll need to figure out how to do it with your firewall....

1) Make note of the AT&T Gateway's MAC address and then go into your third party router and change the MAC address of the WAN port of that router to be the same as on the AT&T gateway.

2) With everything from a fully off state, connect just fiber and the power cable to the ONT and power it on. Let it go for ~2 min to make the fiber connection.

3) Power on the dumb switch and connect ONT's Ethernet port to one port of the dumb switch.

4) Connect the WAN port of the AT&T Gateway to another port on the dumb switch and power the Gateway on.

5) Wait 1-2 minutes for the AT&T Gateway to connect. Use the LEDs to determine when it's done.

6) You can now power down the AT&T Gateway and disconnect it from the dumb switch.

7) Connect your router's WAN port to the dumb switch and power the router on.

8) Within a minute or two it should acquire the same IP, gateway and DNS as the gateway had.

Essentially what's happening is that the ONT needs authentication for your connection. When you hook the AT&T Gateway to it the authentication comes through and gets stored in the ONT. When you plug in your own router, because it has the same MAC address as the AT&T gateway, the ONT thinks your router is the AT&T Gateway

Some notes:

You will need to repeat these steps if the ONT or the dumb switch loses power, so many people employ a UPS for these devices. There is no problem if the router itself is power cycled, your connection will retain the authentication as long as the switch and ONT have stayed up. On rare occasions AT&T will do some sort of system maintenance or ONT firmware updates and power cycle the ONT, in which case you'll have to re-do the procedure.

You will not get IPV6 although for the majority of users, that's not really a problem and in fact, disabling that often makes for a faster, more stable connection. If it turns out that you do need IPV6 then there are more sophisticated ways to do it using more expensive equipment and requiring extensive networking knowledge.

Attached is a PDF that someone made to make it easier for non-techies to reconnect their Internet should things go down.