The 120Mbps Tier
As a long time and very happy UPC customer (120Mb unlimited package) I was quite pleased with the service offered – to local speedtest server 10ms RTT, 118Mbps down, 10Mbps up, generous ‘fair-use’ limits and most importantly a public IP address.
Ideally, I’d like to use my own modem/router but instead I’m stuck with the Thompson TWG870, though to be fair it’s not the worst in the world. Not sure when, if ever, the firmware has ever been updated but all the important settings are at least accessible.
The 60Mbps Tier
With a new job I’m based in Limerick at least some of the time so made the decision to put in the basic package (60Mbps, 30Gb cap) and not bother with TV service. Installation was fine but no self-install so ended out having to sit at home for the scheduled installation window… 09:00 – 18:00 – they do make it easy for themselves.
Once installed and the tech out the door I had a poke at the new box. This one seems to be infamous as the Technicolor 7200 – clearly one of the cheapest cable modem/Wireless APs ever built. Prettier interface but fewer configuration options. Also issues with the WiFi connections to a Mac (not the only router to have this problem to be fair – I blame Apple).
Horizon WiFree
Interestingly the default internal IP range for the network is 192.168.1.0/24. When I tried to switch it to the more conventional 192.168.1.0/24 I was told that that address range is already in use. It seems that Horizon Wi-Free is configured to use the 192.168.1.0/24 subnet and that portion of the configuration is hidden away somewhere with the only options being to turn it on or off.
Public IPs
As I stated above something I love about the service I had was the public IP address. Making full use of the options that gives you I have a number of self-hosted ‘cloud’ services running on a Linux box I keep running – file store, VPN, Media Library, Document backup, etc. For the new gaff I have a RaspberryPi B+ that I use to run RASPBMC and a few other small services, but just by default had intended to make that internet accessible – sadly it was not to be.
It seems that the lowest tier of UPC has you running through a NAT system at some point. So while I have the port forwarding setup on the router, nothing reaches the Pi. It also seems to have some very aggressive ageing of flows running – had to set SSH keepalives to <60 seconds or the connections were constantly dropping. Poking at the IP address my connections seem to be originating from I see that there are two different pools in use (not unexpected in any case e.g. Dublin vs. rest of country).
Lowest Tier (60Mbps)
[colinmac@thor][~]=> dig +answer -x 188.141.a.b
; <<>> DiG 9.8.4-rpz2+rl005.12-P1 <<>> +answer -x 188.141.a.b
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, a.bid: 22797
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;115.82.141.188.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR
;; ANSWER SECTION:
115.82.141.188.in-addr.arpa. 86389 IN PTR 188-141-82-115.dynamic.upc.ie.
;; Query time: 15 msec
;; SERVER: 89.101.160.5#53(89.101.160.5)
;; WHEN: Tue Aug 26 09:04:24 2014
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 88
Notice the Pointer Record has the dynamic.upc.ie
Middle Tier (120Mbps)
[colinmac@thor][~]=> dig +answer -x 109.255.x.y
; <<>> DiG 9.8.4-rpz2+rl005.12-P1 <<>> +answer -x 109.255.x.y
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 54912
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;7.123.255.109.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
255.109.in-addr.arpa. 600 IN SOA ns1.upc.biz. hostmaster.chello.at. 2010071503 86400 7200 2592000 7200
;; Query time: 33 msec
;; SERVER: 89.101.160.5#53(89.101.160.5)
;; WHEN: Tue Aug 26 09:05:04 2014
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 111
Whereas for the higher tier we have the Start Of Authority record pointing back towards the older chello and our nameserver is sitting within a biz domain.
Will add more to this post later 🙂
