AX55 Configuration Guide for Movistar IPTV Services

 

Introduction:  This guide is meant to assist you in configuring your Archer AX55 router for use with the Movistar IPTV services.  The AX55 provides many advanced features and better wireless coverage than the supplied Movistar routers.

 

Hardware:  Your hardware may differ from that used in this guide. The hardware used to prepare this guide is as follows:

1. Movistar HGU router, model GPT-2841GX4X5

2. Archer AX55 router with firmware version 1.2.3 Build 20230603 rel.46473(4555)

3. Movistar UHD IPTV decoder (wired) with vocal remote

 

Before you begin:  To better understand your AX55’s configuration, you should have a basic knowledge of how the Movistar services are provided.  Here is a brief overview:

The company’s router (called a Home Gateway Unit, or HGU) has a built-in ONT and the three services (internet, IPTV, and VOIP) are provided on three tagged vlans.  The HGU can be set to bridge mode (Monopuesto as Movistar calls it in Spanish), however the only vlan that is actually bridged is the internet service which is untagged in the process.  The IPTV and VOIP vlans remain in the HGU and are not passed through to the user’s router.  As a result, the AX55 (or any other router) does not have to deal with vlans or vlan tags at all.

 

Most users leave their IPTV decoder (and telephone) connected to the HGU and only configure their router (such as the AX55) for the internet, which is rather easy.  In the Monopuesto mode, the HGU’s LAN ports still work with the HGU’s own LAN (192.168.1.0/24) but there is no internet access. The Movistar decoder, when plugged into the HGU, will receive most of the IPTV services. Additional services such as Netflix, Disney, VOD, and “Timeshifting” of live channels require internet access and therefore no longer work.

 

There are two solutions. The first is to configure the HGU with a default route to the user’s router for internet. In many cases, depending on the HGU model, this is not always possible, such as in the latest HGU model.  Additionally, the user’s router must be configured to accept the traffic coming from the HGU which means opening the firewall.  The AX55 does not have a firewall rule capability and disabling the SPI firewall is unacceptable.

 

The second solution is to connect the decoder (and any SIP devices) to the AX55’s own network and route the IPTV (and VOIP) traffic back through the HGU.  This requires several advanced settings in the PPPoE internet connection, adding several static routes in the AX55, enabling IGMP snooping and proxy, and setting a static IP address in the IPTV decoder. This solution is the one presented in this guide.

 

Configuration:  To configure the AX55 for use with the Movistar IPTV services, you need to perform the following steps:

1. Ensure that the AX55 WAN port is connected to a LAN port of the HGU with a suitable ethernet cable.

2. Place the Movistar router in the Monopuesto mode and reboot the router.  To enter the HGU web interface, the username and password may be found on the label located on the underside of the unit.  The IP address of the HGU is 192.168.1.1 (and will be used later as the HGU gateway address).  In the web interface, click MENÚ, Multipuesto/Monopuesto, and select Monopuesto (Sin NAT).  Click Aplicar Cambios and reboot the HGU.  From now on, all configuration changes will be made in the AX55 and the HGU will not require any additional settings.

3. In the AX55 web interface, under Advanced, Internet, select PPPoE as the connection type and enter the username adslppp@telefonicanetpa and the password adslppp as follows:

Before clicking SAVE, select Advanced Settings.

Select Static IP for the secondary connection type and enter 192.168.1.2 for the IP address and 255.255.255.0 for the subnet mask as shown below.  This gives the AX55 an IP address within the HGU’s LAN in addition to the PPPoE address.  No other changes are necessary unless you do not want to use the default Movistar DNS servers.

Click SAVE to save the connection settings.  If after a few moments the connection is not established, click CONNECT.

4. Set the AX55 LAN IP address unless done previously.  It must be in a different subnet than the subnet of the HGU (192.168.1.0/24).  In the figure shown below, the AX55 is assigned the IP address of 192.168.2.1 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0.  Later settings in this guide will be based on this IP address.

5. Under Advanced, Network, IPTV/VLAN, the settings should be as follows:

6. The IPTV decoder will later be assigned a static IP address because the AX55 does not support additional or conditional DHCP pools.  As the Movistar HGU usually assigns an IP of 192.168.1.200 to the decoder, we will use 192.168.2.200 to closely match that of Movistar.  Therefore, we must set the AX55 DHCP upper range value to 192.168.2.199 to avoid any IP conflicts.

Under Advanced, Network, DHCP Server, the recommended settings are as follows:

Note** The above ranges are those used by Movistar and you may set the lower range value to anything between 192.168.2.2 and 192.168.2.198 depending on your requirements.

7. For IPTV services to work with the AX55, we need to assign several static routes so that IPTV traffic can be routed through the HGU.  These routes may be found in the HGU’s advanced settings section of the web interface.  You may copy them from the HGU exactly as shown or you may use a wider address range as shown below.  You must remember that these routes are dynamic, but experience has shown they usually do not change.  As most home networks do not use private IP addresses in the 10.x.x.x and the 172.x.x.x ranges, it is acceptable to route these address ranges through the HGU.  Here are the recommended routes:

8. Configure the IPTV decoder with a static IP address.  The steps may vary among decoders and remote controls.  The usual method is to turn off the decoder for at least 20 seconds.  Turn on the decoder and repeatedly press the designated button to bring up the decoder menu.

 

In the menu, change the IP assignment from DHCP to Static IP (IP estática), enter 192.168.2.200 for the IP address and enter 192.168.2.1 for the gateway (Puerta del enlace) address.  Without making any other changes, press Aceptar.

At this point, basic IPTV services should be working with the decoder connected to the AX55 network.

9. Some Movistar services, such as VOD and timeshifting, depend on the RTSP protocol and this protocol does not work well through NAT on some routers as is the case with the AX55.  The RTSP ALG setting under Advanced, Security, ALG does not help.

The workaround is to configure Port Triggering for RTSP to function correctly.  It is possible to place the IPTV decoder in the AX55’s DMZ or to port forward all ports to the decoder, but the most secure way is to use port triggering which only opens the needed ports while a session is active.  Here are the settings under Advanced, NAT Forwarding, Port Triggering that need to be configured:

 

At this point, the internet and all IPTV services should be working correctly.