WAN port issues for AT&T Pace 5268AC gateway

[diehardbattery]

Have AT&T Fiber as my ISP.  Coming from a Netgear Orbi router, my previous configuration was Orbi WAN > Port 1 on Pace (configured for IP Passthrough). My new router is one of the newer off brand 2.5gb "pfsense" routers that have 4 ports (eth0-eth3). OPNsense installation went fine.  Configured igc0 (eth0 on actual hardware) with dhcp and no dhcp6 as WAN > Port 1 on Pace, igc1 as LAN, which connects to a 24 port switch.  For the life of me I absolutely cannot get a connection from igc0 to Port 1 on the Pace.  It does not show up and the link lights are off.  What I've tried so far:

Fresh re-install of OPNsense

Factory reset Pace 5268AC

Tried ports 2-4 on Pace

Tried different known working ethernet cables

Connecting other devices to eth0 (the link lights light up, so the port is functioning)

What am I missing?  I dont understand this at all. Please help. Thanks!

[diehardbattery]

Anybody?

[Vesalius]

Have you tried using igc2 or igc3 as wan in opnsense? What type/version is the nic?

[diehardbattery]

Yes, I've tried all other ports to no avail.  The appliance is a HUNSN RS34g equipped with the latest intel I-225 V chips.

Link to appliance: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09PHJSFP1?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

[Vesalius]

A quick search pulls up many reports of connectivity ssues between the newer i225 nics and the quite old AT&T pace gateway. I would suspect that is the issue for you. 

Would it be possible to have att switch out your gateway to more current bgw-210 gateway? 

[diehardbattery]

Hmmm. That's one thing that I didnt think to check.  I was hyper focused on the HUNSN device itself.  Getting a different gateway would be a crapshoot at best.  I could specifically ask for one and could get verbal confirmation but ultimately it does not mean anything as there is no actual way to control what would be shipped.

[Vesalius]

It depends on your locality, but I would expect few if any old pace gateways to be in circulation for new/updated installs. the bgw 210 is getting dated and is actively being retired/replaced in most ATT areas with the 320 (this is the only non-commercial unit I am aware of they offer compatible with the newer 2-5gb fiber tiers.

[diehardbattery]

Yes I was looking at that as well.  The 320 seems to only be issued for new customers/installations.  I think I might have a workaround by placing a second switch between the appliance and gateway.

[diehardbattery]

I have a partial workaround using a second switch between the Pace gateway and the HUNSN appliance.  This gets me up and going and can get a public IP from AT&T.  But, in my previous setup, I needed to clone the MAC address of the AT&T gateway in order to get out to the internet.

But with the HUNSN and OPNsense, when I put the MAC address into the WAN interface settings it just constantly goes up and down in an endless loop.  Not sure what else I need to at this point?

[Vesalius]

Hmm, I suspect the Pace should not need any special MAC address, as long as it was rebooted since last working connection and I assume you have rebooted.

Just guessing but did you have to input a mac address into the setting on the pace to get IP passthrough up and running? I seem to remember something like that from my bgw-210. Since the first thing the pace is connected to is a switch now, you might have to use the mac address of that switch port, in the pace and/or the opnsense Wan mac clone.

[diehardbattery]

On the Pace, the device is detected automatically and gives you a list of devices to choose from (if more than one is connected to the gateway.  I'll give the switch mac a shot.

UPDATE:

Providing the switch MAC for the Pace to use, things seem fine at first.  It reports back with my public IP.  If I leave out the switch MAC on the WAN interface, it picks up an internal IP from the Pace but on a different subnet (Pace default is 172.16.0.x, WAN interface gets 172.16.1.x address).  If I provide the switch MAC to WAN, I am back at square one with the interface bouncing up and down 8 times, ending with down.  This is slightly different than if I were to set everything to the Pace MAC.  In that case it bounces up and down forever.  If I choose OPNSense in Pace, but leave the switch MAC on WAN interface, nothing happens.

To make things even more strange, the option to use the switch for IP passthrough has mysteriously disappeared, leaving only the OPNsense to choose from (aside from my desktop PC, which I need to connect to that switch to make changes on the Pace).