Almond+ and Charter internet - dont like each other! but got it working

[Alphafox78]

So I was psyched after 1 year of waiting for my almond+ to finally get it today! I hooked it up expecting a 3 minute setup and was instead faced with a 2 hour setup including a 1 hour support phone call with my ISP as well as SecureFi. Basically what would happen is that the router wouldnt get an IP address... I would reset the modem to clear the mac address, wait a bit, notice that suddenly the router would have a strange IP of 192.168.100.10 for about 10 second and then nothing - no amount of rebooting would fix it. I flashed the firmware and still ran into the same wall.
I had hooked up my old router just to make sure that everything was still working from my ISP and noticed when I was looking at my netgears status screen that it was doing the same thing - it grabbed the 192.168.100.10 address; I refreshed the page and it had a public IP about 10 seconds later - weird.
I was on the phone with securefi for a while and the tech was looking into something after we tried everything and poked around in the OpenWRT area. I went under network --> interfaces and then clicked the edit button to the right of the wan interface. under there I went to the advanced settings tab and noticed a curious check box - "Use broadcast flag - Required for certain ISPs, e.g. Charter with DOCSIS 3" thats funny, thats exactly what I have - charter with a DOCSIS 3 cable modem. I checked that and BOOM, I grabbed an IP and everything works!! the securefi tech didnt believe it because he had never heard of that before and said that there was nothing in their training on that. I guess im the first person to use a almond+ on charter with a DOCSIS 3 cable modem, lol!!
So if anyone else is struggling with this issue I hope my solution helps someone!
Secureif, train your techs on this! Case # 261654

[sorphin]

I have charter, but my A+'s haven't made it to my connection yet full time, because i have to telecommute. the 192.168.100.x address is assigned by the cablemodem itself. You weren't getting a DHCP address from the headend. Charter's setup is a bit touchy, because it not only watch your cable modem's MAC address, but whatever is on the 'lan' side of the cablemodem to pull the 'live IP'. If you had something else on the line before the almond+, it expects that back. I don't know about the broadcast bit ,i'll have to look at that, but generally if I have issues with it being able to pull an IP from charter, i'll disconnect the modem, for a few minutes, to force the headend to refresh me. (or you can call them and they can force a refresh on their end). I'll report back anything I find too when I dig.

[LGNilsson]

Thanks for the heads up on this.
I've informed our support managers about this and I've also asked the software team to add this option to NutsOS, as it's clearly something that should be there.

[Alphafox78]

Sorphin, I figured it would remember the last device. I called them and the tier 1 tech was a dufus as usual and he just had me reboot the modem. either way I unplugged it and waited 5 minutes so that it would clear and I could add a new device, it just wouldn't work till I checked that box.
Glad to hear the support team will be notified on this, im sure I wont be the only one with this issue.

[chevyman142000]

I am also on Charter and worked with Support on this same issue..or at least very similar (I would lose my wan ip after making any sort of config change). I'm 99% sure I do not have that box checked though I do remember seeing it. Basically working with some of the senior techs they made some changes in the latest firmware that have pretty much completely resolved the issue for me. If I run into this issue again I will be sure to try and check that box and see if it resolves it. Thanks for the helpful and informative post. This is why forums are a great resource!

[Alphafox78]

What senior techs did you work with, at Securifi or charter? and which firmware are you referring to, R065? I am on the latest firmware and it didnt help. do you have a docsis 3 modem?

[chevyman142000]

Senior tech at Securifi. I believe his name was Jon and sent me a few different firmwares to test before they released the new version last week. Yes, I have a Docsis 3 modem (Motorola SB6121).

[Alphafox78]

I think that's the same modem I have. Well there's something going on, im sure it will get straightened out at some point but if not try that check box.

[LGNilsson]

Joe is the "senior tech" who's actually a member of our software team and apparently the tick box doesn't do anything in the version of OpenWRT we're using.
What fixed the issue was the reboot according to Joe, but we're working on a better solution for this problem.

[chevyman142000]

Sounds good Lars. If he needs any further testing or help he can reach out to me again if he likes.

[Alphafox78]

I restarted it about 30X and the only thing that mad a difference is that check box, glad to know you think im crazy though.

[sorphin]

I know by default my TP-Link router uses broadcast for DHCP. You have to actually select Unicast.

[JesseD]

So it looks like we are just waiting on a fix but I am also with Charter and I just hooked up the Almond+ tonight.  It took me awhile because Charter just wouldn't play nice with the A+.  After some experimenting, I got it to connect to the internet but found that as soon as I made any change, BOOM, I would lose connection and could not get it back.,  Finally I figured out a way to get the internet back 100% of the time ( or at least the 20 times I tested it)  Its not the best solution but it worked everytime.
SO after you make a change remove the power from the modem and A+ and also the Ethernet cable from the A+.  Wait 1 minute and power up your modem.  Each modem is different but wait until you see you have an internet connection ( usually 1 minute works).  Once your modem is completely rebooted, power up the A+.  Wait for it to fully complete the boot up.  Now connect the Ethernet cable to the A+.  Got me internet everytime

[Alphafox78]

I have been having off an on issues with charter, STILL. every few weeks my router simply will not get an IP address and it will state its linked to the modem but no internet. I have to call charter and they have to delete the cable modem from their system and reinsert it, not simply reprovision it. this had been fixing the issues, today I restarted my cable modem since I heard 60MB service was active. after it rebooted, again I could not get online. after calling charter and advising them of what happened in the past the tech deleted the modem and reactivated it. after doing this I was online! and then offline. and then online! it would just go on and offline for no reason; the link wasnt going down (replaced the cable even) to the cable modem it would say connected but not online in the status screen on the router. after screwing around with it for a while I replaced it with an old netgear I have and everything works perfectly. !!!! what the heck, this thing is so buggy, is everyone else still rocking on charter or is it only me with the issues?!

[chevyman142000]

I have similar issues with mine, on Charter. I even had them come out and replace the modem with a different model and still have weird issues. I hate the new modem I have, they locked it down so I can't login to check signal levels or the log...how lame is that?! I have been thinking about reaching out to them to get one of the newer Ubee modems.