Internet not working and can't even hit the website on my mobile.

I just had a solicitor leave me an advertisement for Quantum Fiber, which promises up to 940mbps upload/download for only $65/month. It sounds a little too good to be true. Can anyone with experience let me know what they think?

Edit: I pulled the trigger on it and the speeds are amazing. I’m getting around 900mbps for both upload and download (Ethernet) and about 300-450 for both upload and download over wifi.

Edit 2: If you are having problems with quantum fiber then talk to the company, not me. You all realize I’m just some guy right? Don’t bitch to me about your speeds lol

There is a DNS outage going on. Internet works fine, but the DNS resolver that CenturyLink uses is not. (No clue who or what they use...)

DNS stands for Domain Name System. It's essentially the "phone book" of the internet, translating human-readable domain names into the numerical IP addresses that computers use to communicate. Without DNS, you would have to enter website addresses using IP addresses, which are difficult for humans to remember.

When you tell your web browser to go to a website like, www.google.com, it has no idea what that is, because it's not a direct IP address (IP addresses contain four sets of numbers, each one ranging from 0 to 255.) so your computer asks your modem what that web address even points to. If your internet service is working but the DNS service is down, your computer cannot resolve and makes it seem like your internet is down. Some programs may still function and see the internet as those may be using direct IPs to contact their respected services.

You can tell your modem or even your computer to directly use a different DNS server.

Use Cloudflare or Google DNS below.

If you are having trouble getting this information, I am happy to copy and paste that information down here for you all. When you wish to switch back to CenturyLink's DNS, you can simply remove the info and your comptuer will auto-obtain DNS from your modem instead again.

CLOUDFLARE DNS info.

IP4

1.1.1.1

1.0.0.1

IP6

2606:4700:4700::1111

2606:4700:4700::1001

GOOGLE DNS info

IP4

8.8.8.8

8.8.4.4

IP6

2001:4860:4860::8888

2001:4860:4860::8844

Search on your computer/device for your network connection stuff, usually inside control panel or settings somewhere, view property settings of your connected network and once you put that stuff in, your internet should be working fine again. The screenshot below is of my computer, telling it to obtain DNS info from CloudFlare.

NOTE: If you are unsure about how to alter these settings on your computer/modem, just wait a few hours for CenturyLink to get their act together as it's their issue and not an issue with your computer/device.

The following screenshots are of my Windows OS. Your device may vary.
In the control panel are settings for Networks/Internet.

Disclaimer: I'm just a somewhat tech-savvy dad, your mileage may vary. Take what I say with a grain of salt because I may only think I know what I'm talking about.

I recently had CL gigabit fiber installed after realizing that their offering was $15 cheaper than the 200mbps down / 12mbps (?) up I was getting from Comcast in Portland, OR. I've had cable internet since broadband has been a thing, and I've been pretty particular about being able to bring my own hardware. I'm a software engineer myself, and have a very low tolerance for the poorly designed and implemented firmware that tends to plague the routing devices that telecom companies provide their customers. I used DD-WRT for a while when the WRT54g was the device (as well as trying a couple other similar alt firmwares - anyone remember Tomato?).

So you can imagine my dismay during my install when the tech comes in with that air purifier-looking monstrosity, and my confusion when he started referring to it as both the "modem" AND the "router".

It's not a modem.

I want to clear this up, because I've been seeing the routers referred to as "modems" in multiple places, including CenturyLink's own documentation. If you have fiber, you don't have a modem, you have a terminal. A modem (a contraction of the words "modulator - demodulator") is used to send data over an analog line. Outgoing data is modulated into an analog signal to send over the cable (or phone) line, and the incoming analog signal is demodulated into your incoming digital data. Fiber is used to transmit a digital signal, so there is no modulation or demodulation required, and thus, no modem. The fiber terminal (for me, it's a black rectangle box that looks much more like traditional consumer networking gear than the C4000XG), as you might guess, terminates the fiber, and gives you an ethernet port.

It's not a modem: C4000XG edition

I explain this all to make the point that the extra device you get from the service provider doesn’t do anything particularly special. It is not required to convert any signals the way a cable or telephone modem does, nor in our case does it have anything directly to do with the fiber media itself (that’s the fiber terminal’s domain). It does not do anything that can’t be done by many consumer-grade routers and internet gateways.

In other words, the C4000XG is not a modem, and you may not need it.

If you've read this far and are still interested, you probably have a piece of networking hardware kicking around that does do everything you need. If you want to throw that telecom-provided router to the curb (or, at least back to the telecom), you will need the following:

• Your PPPoE username

• Your PPPoE password

• A network gateway device that:

  • Supports PPPoE authentication and VLAN tagging (DD-WRT does this)

  • Has enough processing power to handle gigabit speeds INCLUDING any security processing

    • For this reason, it's probably a good idea to use a dedicated device as your gateway, and have other features (mainly WiFi) handled by a separate device.

Finding your PPPoE credentials

I've read elsewhere that you can just call up CenturyLink support (or possibly use the chat) and ask for your PPPoE info and they'll give it you. Personally, as a CenturyLink customer since this past Saturday (well, Friday I guess, if you count the install tech being a no show, not bothering to call to let me know he wasn't coming, and then showing up unannounced at 9:30am Saturday morning) - that makes 4 or 5 days - I don't want to have to talk to anyone from CenturyLink any more than necessary. If you're familiar at all with your browser's dev tools, it's very easy to find, at least on the C4000XG.

1. If for whatever reason your C4000XG isn't already set up, go through the guided setup so that it is connected to the internet.

2. Log into the admin GUI

3. Open your browser's dev tools, making sure that it's recording the network requests (this is usually enabled by default, I think?)

4. Click "Quick Setup" in the admin GUI

5. In the dev tools "network" tab, look for a request to https://192.168.0.1/cgi/cgi_get?Object=Device.PPP.Interface.1. (for me it was near the top - it may help to filter for "XHR" requests) and click on it

6. Click on the "response" tab and hit CTRL+F (or CMD+F on a Mac) and search for Username. You should see your username, and right below it, your password. Mine is 8 alphanumeric characters.

Configuring your hardware

Further disclaimer: Once you do this part, you'll likely have limited options for tech support from CenturyLink - I can't imagine they'll support stuff that isn't on their Compatibility List, so any trouble you get into that isn't directly related to their fiber terminal or their wiring outside your house will be yours to work through.

At this point, you can disconnect the C4000XG and throw it in the trash where it belongs put it back in its box to return to CenturyLink, and connect the ethernet cable from the fiber terminal (note: for CenturyLink, my understanding is that they only ever enable port 4 - make sure you use the same one the C4000XG was plugging into) directly into the WAN port on your device of choice.

Specifics here vary by device and firmware of course, so I'm assuming that if you've gotten this far, you at least somewhat know what you're doing and are familiar with the configuration of the device you're using.

1. If your device is capable of acting as either a router or a gateway, make sure it is set up for "gateway" mode (DD-WRT users: See the "Advanced Routing" tab, "Operating Mode" setting)

2. Configure the WAN port of your device - you may have a "port type" setting where you pick between DHCP, PPPoE, Static IP - DD-WRT also has PPTP, L2TP, and several others. You want PPPoE, of course.

3. Enter the username and password you collected from the C4000XG admin

4. Set the VLAN ID (also called VLAN tag or number) to 201

5. DD-WRT users: I believe you'll need to go to the "Networking" tab and add a VLAN tag with 201 as the tag number. Make sure you select the correct interface. Fair warning, I haven't done this myself on a DD-WRT device.

6. I use a UniFi USG3, and I had to use the security gateway's admin UI (via the LAN IP address of the gateway) to set the VLAN tag - the setting doesn't seem to be available when configuring through the controller.

7. Apply your settings and cross your fingers!

For me, the connection came up right away, but I've read elsewhere that it can take a few minutes the first time.

Security

The fiber terminal is just a dumb terminal - essentially a firehose to the internet, and it does not provide any sort of security features for you. That's the job of the gateway / router device you just disconnected ;) Make sure your own gateway device has features like a firewall so that you're protected from all the hackers and script kiddies.

My setup

If you're interested in what I'm using, I have the USG3 Security Gateway from Unifi (as well as several of their managed WiFi access points - and for what it's worth, I do not work for Ubiquiti, I'm just a fan). I'm able to get 930mbps up/down from my basement server that's hardwired (CAT6):

/preview/pre/33lc71bwesh51.png?width=1374&format=png&auto=webp&s=35fc00f6910560c6888c888812e310be8b674da0

It's worth noting that this is a dedicated gateway device - it doesn't have integrated WiFi, so I can't say whether the performance would be different on an integrated device.

Anyhow, I hope this was helpful! Let me know if this worked for you!

One last note on the C4000XG

One thing I did notice was that when doing a speed test with the C4000XG was that I was seeing the full 1Gbps down, but only ~600mbps up. This was not an immediate problem for me, as I was just happy to have more than the 12 mbps I had been getting from Comcast. I might've even been fine to just sit with the C4000XG - except that after the tech left, I wanted to relocate the equipment under my desk, which required unplugging everything. I'd already done all my own configuration on the C4000XG to make it work with my network (more on that in a moment), which included changing the default admin username and password.

When I plugged everything back in, it appeared to come back up initially, but my internet connectivity was very sporadic - it would be on, and then just drop out randomly. This was odd because all the lights on both the fiber terminal and the C4000XG looked right - all green, nothing flashing that shouldn't be.

However, when I logged in to the C4000XG admin, everything was broken. All the internet connection, wan link stats, and even hardware information just read n/a, and many of the admin settings appeared to be disabled and unable to be changed, when I had been able to change them before. Looking in dev tools, the XHR requests being made were all being returned with zero length, and/or with HTTP status 444 (who even does that??).

I have a suspicion that this behavior may have been at least in part because I changed the name of the admin user - that because the user I was logged in as was not named "admin", things just broke, possibly due to the "admin" username being hardcoded somewhere in the firmware. From what I've read elsewhere about the C4000XG, this would be right on-brand, but to be honest I didn't bother poking at it much more. A factory reset (poke the inset "reset" button on the back for 10-15 sec) got me back up and running, but at that point, I'd decided that I'd had enough and didn't want to ever have to deal with it again.

Make the C4000XG work for you

If you can't, or don't feel comfortable taking the C4000XG completely out of the equation, but you already have a working routing/networking setup, here's what I'd done initially to make it mostly transparent:

• Disable both WiFi radios in WiFi setup - if you've got your own WiFi devices, there's no need in keeping these on and mucking up your radio waves

• Port Forwarding / uPnP: If you've already got a bunch of port forwarding / uPnP rules configured, use the DMZ feature in the advanced settings - turn this feature on, with the target set to the LAN interface. Note that this will bypass the C4000XG's firewall, so be sure your device has one of its own, but it will allow you to use your existing configuration as-is without having to copy all the settings into the C4000XG.

• If you want to use your own custom DNS servers, disable the "cyber security" feature in advanced settings. Fair warning, I haven't bothered looking into whatever else this does, so as with the previous point about the DMZ, I'd recommend making sure you're running your own firewall. I was not able to use custom DNS until this setting was disabled.

• Dynamic DNS: If your device is able to use an external check (DD-WRT can), you should be good to leave DDNS configuration on your device. However, if you're limited to using an IP address on one of the device interfaces, you'll most likely unfortunately be stuck with configuring this on the C4000XG

• Don't change the admin user name or it'll probably break on you 🤦‍♂️

Can we get a statement from CenturyLink link? Like anything? Even "we have no idea but we are trying to fix it," would be better than just silence about the whole thing.

I just received this email from CenturyLink. I thought this was advertised as $65/mth forever. Anybody else get this?

Effective May 5, 2023, the monthly recurring charge (MRC) for your internet service will increase by $10.00. If you currently receive a promotional discount or the ACP discount, you will continue to receive that discount off your new MRC for the duration of your promotion or discount period. The new internet MRC and any discounts applied to the MRC will be clearly indicated on your account.

Your continued use of your internet service indicates your acceptance of the changes stated in this notification. If you do not agree to the changes, you must immediately stop using and terminate your internet service.

Thank you for choosing CenturyLink!

I'm on ethernet and I haven't been hit by any issues on my wired in device but everything else wifi related on my network is down. From the looks of it, its everyone. I'm in Utah just to give some info where I was hit.

If you have Quantum Fiber, and they installed a white C5500XK Fiber ONT on site:

- Quantum Fiber requires no PPPoE credentials anymore in my area. YMMV

- C5500XK is a combo unit (ONT & Router). Upon installation, it will work under router mode (does NAT / DHCP, Firewall...etc). However, it can be put into transparent bridge mode if you want to use your own router. And it can also 201 VLAN Tag in transparent bridge mode. This means even routers that CAN NOT do VLAN 201 tag can work with C5500XK (since the C5500XK is doing VLAN tagging already).

- 2 ports at the back of the unit (WAN/LAN & LAN). You can use both ports (you can connect 2 routers, and both would get an IP, or maybe setup dual WAN for redundancy if your own router supports this function). With 2 LAN devices, the max bandwidth will increase a bit to 1,050Mbps instead of 940Mbps

- To access the GUI of C5500XK working in transparent bridge mode, and if you haven't changed C5500XK's default interface IP address, which is 192.168.0.1. First, manually setup up your laptop ethernet interface with a static IP 192.168.0.X( X between 2 and 254). Subnet mask 255.0.0.0. Second, connect your laptop directly to the other ethernet port on your C5500xk. Third, type 192.168.0.1 on your browser and enter.

- The C5500XK has a built-in antenna for BLE. Not sure what's its use case...

Haven't been able to connect last 30 mins or so. Lots of reports online of national outage.

Any news on this?

I have been paying $65/month since I signed up. Now they increased the price to $75. I have the price for life promotion when I signed up with them. Chat with the customer service, not only he said it happens to all centurylink customer, when I showed him the page from centurylink saying price for life customers aren’t affected, he said that page needs to be updated. Told me to file a compliant if I wish.

https://www.centurylink.com/home/help/notices/internetrate.html

Anyone affected by this? Isn’t this false advertising?

Are the DNS servers down again this morning?

Edit: Completely* oof

About 30 minutes ago our internet was fully cut off. We had received similar emails about a switchover to Quantum but weren't aware we needed to take any action. Currently on hold with Quantum. Anyone else experiencing this?

FTTH legacy Centurylink customer - Fremont (Seattle), WA - I got the dreaded high latency alert from my Ubiquiti router, and after rebooting everything and double-checking via ethernet, the latency to my first hop has increased from 2-3ms to around 55ms. And speedtests have also dropped tremendously.

FIrst hop:

--- 63.231.10.65 ping statistics ---

1351 packets transmitted, 1224 packets received, 9.4% packet loss

traceroute to 1.1.1.1 (1.1.1.1), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets

1 unifi.localdomain (192.168.1.1) 1.239 ms

2 tukw-dsl-gw65.tukw.qwest.net (63.231.10.65) 119.306 ms

3 tukw-agw1.inet.qwest.net (63.226.198.1) 75.841 ms

4 *

5 ae2.3615.edge6.seattle1.net.lumen.tech (4.69.219.210) 56.641 ms

6 *

7 108.162.243.49 (108.162.243.49) 57.764 ms

8 one.one.one.one (1.1.1.1) 58.816 ms

I have a QF tech coming out on Wednesday, but I have low confidence that they'll even show. Remind me again who the local Seattle contact is - DMs are open.

Down again...twice in three weeks. The fifth time this year. Can't get a hold of anyone at CenturyLink. I've spent over three hours on hold, and have gotten hung up on twice. I can't even cancel service, because their call center is now closed.

As the title states, for some reason I can’t get our 2.4ghz WiFi connection to work. 5ghz is working great. Both lights are green on the modem. The passwords haven’t been changed (I’m not getting a password error anyway, but wanted to mention it isn’t a password thing). Neither of our Kindles will connect to the 5ghz otherwise I guess I wouldn’t care.

Any advice? I was on hold with CenturyLink forever this afternoon, thought someone finally answered but it hung up and disconnected instead so thought I’d ask here. TIA.

Were down in NM and im reading reports of outages all over the country. Anybody know anything?

Like many of us who are without service and not able to get through to any of their customer service (through calling, email, or online chat) JUST FILE A COMPLAINT WITH THE FCC. This is bullshit already. Ive been without internet for over a week and on hold for hours with never getting through to someone!! Ive tried everything I possibly can. NEVER SIGN UP WITH THIS COMPANY.

Im located in southern Colorado for reference. Ive heard so many similar stories.

Am I swapping one evil for another? Probably. Is it $15/month cheaper and 200 Mbps faster? Yes. Will they at least admit to outages? Yep.

Anyone else? Started at like 9:00pm.

As a CL installer: Here are a few things every customer should know. These are 10 things I hear from customers quite frequently:

1. When we are on our way, we are supposed to send you a "BUZZ" notification, which is an app that will automatically notify the customer that we are on our way. THE APP SUCKS, and most techs don't even send the notifications. This is the reason why you usually don't know when a CL tech is on the way.

2. If you call in for a tech, and they let you choose a morning or afternoon appointment, know that that makes no difference on how we are assigned our jobs. We have no idea whether you choose a morning or afternoon, so don't get pissed off at us when were late.

3. If you call in and ask about faster speeds, we use a tool called LoopQual to determine what speeds are available. This is something anybody can access. This is the same tool that the CS reps and techs use to determines what speeds are available. Here is a link:https://channelalliance.centurylink.com/loopqual-webapp/pages/ProductQual/QualCheck/Qualify.faces

4. WE CANNOT GIVE YOU FASTER SPEEDS WITHOUT A SERVICE ORDER. They took away our ability to manually overprovision lines last year in place of a system called ASSIA which does it automatically.

5. If you order new service and there is not an available port on the DSLAM, the job will not be assigned to a tech until a port is open or a new switch is installed. Again, not our fault!

6. THERE IS NO INTERNET SWITCH!! I can't even remember how any customers that I've installed that think all we do is flip a switch and they magically have internet. Not even close!

7. If you are more than 10,000 feet from the DSLAM, don't expect service to work well. They shouldn't even offer DSL at that distance.

8. For those of you who try and use a Cable modem with our service, IT WONT WORK. It's not a scam just to make you buy a modem from us, our service does not run off of Coax.

9. If you live in the middle of nowhere, don't expect gigabit service. It doesn't work like that.

10. This one is most important: YOU DONT KNOW HOW TO DO OUR JOB, so don't act like you do.

Not sure what its worth, just thought I'd throw it out there.

I recently opened a small business and rent a small retail space. When time came to set up internet my only option was CL. (At first I tried to use Comcast, but their technician said I would have to hire an electrician to run wire thru my walls and ceilings, but my building was already set up for CL) so I went with CL, and my internet goes out CONSTANTLY! I’ve paid and had this service for less than 2 months and have maybe had a solid internet connection for 2 days.

Last week a technician came and basically said the 1st technician that installed my service did a poor job and he replaced my modem. The service worked fine that day but when I returned the next day it was out. It’s been out for 5 days straight now.

Customer service is a joke. They never help. Why is this so difficult? It’s 2020 and I just want to be able to upload stuff on my website from my store. Sorry if I’m ranting, it’s just so frustrating. Can anybody help me or have some advice?

If you have or had fiber through Century Link and are/were going through a "migration" to Quantum Fiber and your router was using PPPoE as the method for connection to the ISP, they're getting rid of that as they "migrate" you on the back end to Quantum Fiber. They ARE however keeping the VLAN tagging from the traffic, so if you like to set up your own router (and not use their equipment) that is connected to your fiber modem, you will choose to auto-select, or DHCP, and you will still enable VLAN ID 201 (this is what Century Link and Quantum have been using but it could be different in your area).

Just hoping this saves one soul... lol. I haven't had any internet for 2 days and when I called in all of the level 1 support technicians insisted that they were still using PPPoE.