The IT Nerd

Earlier this week a firmware update that was pushed to my HH4000 modem that powers my Bell Fibe Internet broke the ability for it to use the Advanced DMZ functionality that I have been using for almost a year now. That forced me to resort to a  double NAT setup which was not ideal. But it kept me from being killed by my wife.

At the time I figured that there was some sort of issue between that firmware, and an ASUS firmware update that came out in May that caused similar issues. Now I am not so sure about that. Instead my current theory is that Bell might have been doing something to how the Advanced DMZ functionality works that caused this setup to break. I say that because Bell doesn’t put out release notes for their firmware updates. And even if they did, there’s no way to block firmware updates from happening or roll them back if you don’t like what you read. So you’re kind of at the mercy of Bell. But to be fair, that’s true for Rogers as well as any other ISP.

In any case, back to my experience since this firmware update came out. I have things working now. And this is how I did it:

• Go to 192.168.2.1 using a browser and be prepared to type in your HH4000 password
• Click on “Advanced Tools and Settings”
• Click on “DMZ”

At this point I removed my router from the “Active Device” section as illustrated from the picture below by clicking the “x” to the right of the device:

Once I did that, I removed the checkmark next to “Advanced DMZ” and turned off “DMZ” and clicked save. Then I rebooted the HH4000. Once I did that, I then did the following, which by the way, will eventually become my new recommendation in terms of how to enable the Advanced DMZ functionality. Once I get around to rewriting the instructions:

• Go to 192.168.2.1 using a browser and be prepared to type in your HH4000 password
• Click on “Advanced Tools and Settings”
• Go to “DHCP” and ensure that your router has a 192.168.2.xxx IP address.
• Click “Cancel”
• Click on “DMZ”
• Turn on “DMZ”
• Put a checkmark next to “Advanced DMZ”
• Under the word “Device”, find the MAC (Media Access Control) address for your router. That address is usually looks something like this: 2C:54:91:88:C9:E3. And it is likely located on the back or bottom of your router. Once you find it, click the “>” so that there is not only a checkmark next to it (as is the case with the first item in the screen shot), but it also gets copied to the right as pictured in the screen shot under the words “Active Device”. Alternately, you can look for the IP address that you confirmed earlier to find it.
• Click save.

At this point, pull the power to the HH4000 and wait a minute or two before plugging it back in.

That’s what enabled me to get my setup working without issues. Again, that implies to me that Bell changed something in this firmware. But like I said earlier, I have no way of confirming this. Thus why this happened in the first place is still a bit of a mystery to me.

A request to Bell users who have the Advanced DMZ setup and who have an HH4000, did this firmware update break things for you? Or was it a non-issue? I’d love to know to see if I am an edge case, or if there’s something going on here. Please leave a comment share your experience.

This entry was posted on August 31, 2023 at 8:51 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Bell. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.