Randomized MACs on TV Box

RouterOS General
1

Hello everyone! I think I have a very nice puzzle in my hands and I’m hoping you could provide some input.

My TV box is currently provided by my ISP, and in order for it to work, my ISP said it needs to be connected directly to their modem. The thing is, I need to move the box every now and then in the back yard. (Still sunny over here :D)

From what I noticed the TV Box generates random MAC addresses (range provided on the label of TV box). When I connect the TV box to my CAPsMAN setup, ether3 registers 2 IPs (for 2 MACs).

The other thing I noticed when I connect the TV box directly to the modem, the ISP modem provides a different LAN for the TV box. IP 10.20.119.14 & Gateway 10.20.119.254. Normal IP range is 192.168.10…

Any thoughts how I could tackle this one? Really appreciate all the help!!!

2

Your ISP is probably providing TV services on a separate VLAN, hence insisting that it must be connected to their device

3

Another possibility is that ISP actually uses same VLAN but is handing out IP addresses based on device’s MAC address. Or even sets VLAN on their CPE according to the MAC address of client device connected to it.

Either way it is possible to make your IPTV box work in back yard, but special setup has to be done and it depends on how your ISP handles the IPTV service.

4

Thanks for the replies guys! So, any specific pointers how I should approach this?

From what I understand so far, the MAC on the box seems to be the critical factor + the VLAN assigned by the CPE (probably based on MAC)

And my CAPsMAN is in the middle of all this. Still don’t see clear enough what kind of implementation I need to make this work.

5

mkx, ISP uses different VLAN. This is what I found out in my initial discovery. And this is probably decided based on MAC. What kind of special setup did you have in mind?

6

So what you need in your LAN (composed of a few MT boxes if I understand it correctly) is transparency between IPTV box and ISP CPE. What exactly has to be done largely depends on layout of your LAN:

  1. how do you connect TV box to network, is it wired (to some other LAN gadget) or is it wireless?
  2. How exactly does the LAN device chain between ISP CPE and TV box looks like? Is it like CPE ->(wire)-> MT router ->(wire)-> MT AP ->(wifi)-> TV box or are there more devices in the path?
  3. etc.

If there are more than one MT gadget between CPE and TV box, then you’ll probably have to add VLANs to your LAN, one VLAN will offer the required transparency between TV box and ISP. Particular configuration needed for said VLAN depends on the layout you have …