New AT&T fiber service with bare metal opnsense

Started by Tismofied, November 30, 2023, 06:27:07 PM

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November 30, 2023, 06:27:07 PM Last Edit: November 30, 2023, 07:38:26 PM by Tismofied
I am currently on the latest opnsense firmware 23.7.9 using spectrum cable internet with their modem in bridged mode. Also using a couple of tp-link switches for devices and such. Sg-108e and sg-2008p. >>>tp-link eap613 mounted on ceiling in the middle of the house for multiple vlans. All working as it should Finally lol. Took me a while to get everything working as it should because I am not network savvy but I am learning everyday. Most of the things I set was due to YouTube guides.
Now, I wanted to try fiber and see if I can get symmetrical connection and maybe lowest ping I can get. My kids and I play Xbox and pc games and would love a healthy with lowest latency for some of the competitive games.
I also set up tunneling following a guide here on this very forum for bufferbloat and I managed to get A+ test multiple times.
Knowing all this and the fact that AT&T fiber modems/routers don't allow bridged modes, would ip pass through work for me fine or do I have to research more about opnatt.sh script ? I heard the latter method doesn't work with certain fiber connections.
The main thing I want to do is bypass their gateway. I want to keep using opnsense to handle everything in my network otherwise I'll be double natted and that's not the goal.
Please advise!


If you check out their website https://www.att.com/support/article/u-verse-high-speed-internet/KM1011652 they state that the interface is Ethernet/RJ45

So you'll just need a regular network cable to connect to your firewall.

I don't want to use their modem as a gateway also. I just want it to get me a public ip and hand it over to opnsense where I handle all my firewall rules and vlans.


Think of the ONT as a media converter providing you with the same type of physical interface that you would have had for DSL.

Your OPNsense box will do the authentication and routing.

Thank you for the explanation. I got a tech coming next Saturday. Hopefully everything goes smooth.

@MoonbeamFrame: I doubt that it will be that easy. While it is true that the AT&T fiber modems/routers terminate with RJ45, this is not a simple GPON ONT brdige that can be used with DHCP or PPPoE.

All AT&T normally offers is "IP Passthrough", with certain disadvantages. There is a tricky solution for pfSense, where the background is explained in great detail.

The mentioned script seems to work for OpnSense as well, but it sure looks complicated.
Intel N100, 4 x I226-V, 16 GByte, 256 GByte NVME, ZTE F6005

1100 down / 440 up, Bufferbloat A+

@meyergru

Noted. Thanks. That's a good write-up.