Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash Walken
I imagine you'll correct me if I'm wrong, but I've been told by two separate people that the modems show is giving out have shaw-specific firmware, and that things like the lack of support for DLNA.
|
I can't correct anyone on their experiences, since I've been in bridged mode since day 1. The TL;DR version of this post is that you are right - bridged mode is the way to go. For other reasons as well (who knows what back doors or other exploitable management interfaces sit on the modem interface side of the Shaw gear)
I've heard of lots of similar problems though with Bonjour, DLNA, UPnP, etc, from both Shaw and Telus equipped co-workers, and I don't understand what is going on inside these combo devices (router/AP/switch/broadband modem) that causes it.
I don't think its a case of these device not supporting specific protocols like DLNA though - DLNA, UPnP, Bonjour, etc, are all, at their heart, built on simple multicast UDP protocols that any layer-2 network device should be able to handle - there's not even any routing involved, since you aren't crossing a network boundary (you can prove this first by confirming all your devices are on the same subnet, and second by tracerouting to devices on your network - if there is no intermediate hop between the devices, there is no routing taking place)
I think it's far more likely that these devices have firmware bugs and don't implement simple things like layer-2 switching correctly/fully. Which doesn't help anyone of course, since we can't fix it ourselves (other than to use bridged mode and a router with better software), but I don't think it's a case of Shaw being malicious and not supporting these protocols.