Verizon 5G Home Internet - Router: ASK-NCQ1338FA - Passthrough Broken

[isaacblum]

Link to Verizon router: https://www.verizon.com/support/verizon-internet-gateway-ask-ncq1338fa/

Router: OPNsense 23.1.7_3-amd64

I've been using Verizon 5G Home Internet for the past 4 months without any major issues. The only issue I faced initially was when I had to set up the WAN port in OPNSense to MTU 1428. This was not a big problem and once I had done that, everything worked flawlessly.

However, two weeks ago, I noticed that websites like Verizon, LinkedIn, and some Microsoft URLs wouldn't load or only partially loaded. I did some troubleshooting and tried rebooting both OPNSense and the Verizon router, but that didn't help. I then tried different MTU settings on both the router and in OPNSense, but the behavior was still the same. After rebooting multiple times, I even upgraded to the latest version of OPNSense (23.1.7_3-amd64), but that didn't help either.

Finally, after exhausting all my options, I decided to do a factory reset of the Verizon router and set up passthrough again by going to RouterIP -> Login -> Advanced -> Network Settings -> Network Connections -> Click Network (Home/Office) -> Settings -> and hitting the checkbox "IP Passthrough". This was the first time I noticed that the web interface of the router had changed since the last time I set it up.

I started testing the connection again with, but I realized that the same issues persisted. I tried all different MTU settings on both the Verizon router and in OPNSense, rebooting each time, but still had no luck. Finally, I did one more factory reset of the Verizon router and started from scratch.

This time, I set up a static DHCP for my WAN interface on OPNSense device within the Verizon web GUI and then set up the IP as DMZ. I then reset the OPNSense interfaces settings back to defaults, so I was no longer setting a forced MTU. After testing everything again, I was happy to see that everything was running perfectly. However, I do have a double NAT now, but since this is my secondary internet line, reliability was more important than anything else. Pings are a couple of extra ms now that I'm adding a hop, but for most people in the house, they cannot tell the difference.

I believe Verizon may have broken something with their passthrough feature, as the light on the router box used to be white when it was up, but now it's green, indicating that there may have been updates made since I first got the device. Hopefully, this post will help someone else experiencing similar issues, and I would recommend setting up DMZ if passthrough isn't working for you.

[AreYouScared]

Edit: I have the ARC-XCI55AX, I think is the newest unit. You should be able to call and get it switched out.

I'm currently using the ARC-XCI55AX that same unit and never had to change MTU or anything in the unit or OPNSense for it to work.


The LED was always supposed to be Green when in passthrough mode, it was just broken until the latest update.