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G34 - After a power failure, why is it necessary to change the MAC filtering back to "Allow All" to get reconnected - G34

  • 13 November 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 71 views
J
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Our area has random power failures (2 per month). Whenever we experience a power failure, we are unable to connect to the internet when using MAC filtering set to “ALLOW”. We have to change the setting back to “ALLOW ALL” then login, then logout and change the filtering back to “ALLOW” which permits us to login with no issues. This is a major PITA. Can someone explain why this is necessary? ISP is Xfinity.

4 replies

S
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Hello @JerryLG,

 

Sorry to hear about your situation.  I’d like to look into why the MAC Filtering is not behaving as it should.  Please provide the firmware of your G36 unit.  Do you recall how long the power was down for and was this an issue in the past power outages?

 

SURFboard Support Team
J
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The power was out for just a few seconds, and long enough for the router to do a reboot. 

 

The firmware level is 01.05.020.04.01.NCS

The software level is AR01.05.020.04.01_083123_735.NCS.20

 

I would certainly like to understand why the gateway is acting the way it is each time there is a power glitch. Having to connect to the gateway and change the MAC filtering to "ALLOW ALL" then login, and then have to reset the filtering back to "ALLOW" doesn't make much sense to me. 

 

Any insight you can provide, will be greatly appreciated. 

 

PS - I understand that others who own their gateway and have Xfinity as their ISP are having issues with Xfinity providing firmware/software updates. Why?

S
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Userlevel 3
Badge +13

Hi @JerryLG,

 

I’m not able to replicate the issue.  I’m going to run additional test.  Did you setup Allow for both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz SSIDs?  Which SSID did you change the MAC Filtering to “Allow all” and then back to “Allow”?  

 

You’re the first to report MAC Filtering behavior on the new firmware.  We’re still identifying the cause of issues others reported.  

SURFboard Support Team
J
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Support, on initial setup I was able to add 16 MAC devices to the 2.4 and able to save them. However, when I tried adding any MAC device to the 5.0, it would not allow a save. This while “allow All” was set. It was impossible to save any 5.0 devices no matter what MAC setting I chose. 

 

Another problem was that using the application after logging into it Online, I tried to enable advanced security settings and it would not activate. I open a case with support and they supposedly even had engineering trying to do it, and it would not work. A tech came to my home to take a look at my issues, and it was over his head, and he was on the phone with additional support personnel and they could not figure out what was wrong. They said they would get back to me early the following week and I have never heard back. 

 

I am not the only person who has mentioned the MAC filtering issue as there are several people in other areas of the country who were fighting the same issues with the X1 Gateway/Router. I bought my own Arris G34 and was able to set up all MAC filtering devices for 2.4 and 5.0 with no problems. 

 

Again, my concern now is why I have to change MAC filtering back to ALLOW ALL after a power failure. Once I set it to ALLOW ALL, I can then login all of my devices, and then I change it back to ALLOW and all works as expected, until the next power glitch. 

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