I've several issues (as I sit here waiting for Fairpoint to even show up...)

I had basic DSL (2 MB) with a static IP in a bridge configuration for many years. Worked. We host three domains on one IP, both web and email. This has worked for years.

Recently I got pushed to upgrade our speed to either the 7 or 14 MB plan, and went with 7. Once this happened, things went downhill fast.

First they changed that bridged connection (that worked wonderfully) to a PPPoE connection. The PPPoE has been unreliable, requires multiple logon attempts before it can connect (apparently my end does not see the static IP confirmation). The connection gets dropped about 4 to 6 times daily. Performance is horrible.

To try to resolve the inability of PPPoE to connect Fairpoint basically forced me to use their Comtrend 5072 modem. I've done a lot of port forwarding configurations over the years and know what I'm doing, so I configured the Comtrend to forward web and email ports to the server. The server is receiving no traffic! It has been suggested to me that perhaps Fairpoint has modified the Comtrend to not forward ports.

I can post the logs from the Comtrend if anyone is interested.

Questions (sorry, this has been long):

1. Is there some way to get Fairpoint to restore this to the bridged connection I used to have? Whenever I talk to technical support, their response is either they don't understand or that it is already bridged.

2. Why doesn't the Comtrend's port forwarding work? Can anyone suggest a good DSL modem that will work with Fairpoint that works?

3. How can I get reasonable technical support from them?

I have my modem in bridge mode, I got a cheat sheet on how to do it as each modem swap they would put me into nat mode.

I have a Smart RG (i'm told they are not able to be in bridge...but here I am), I setup a company in town with static IP with a Smart RG modem as well..

Both Places I put a PfSense firewall in place to do PPoE connection..

I would not trust a firewall that I did not build for security for a company. You don't know what 'backdoors' and ISP has on their devices. I worked for an ISP, our logins were for the longest time (7+ years), admin/admin...The end user was given a different password, but that still worked.

Fairpoint tech called. Bad news, "It is wired with 26 AWG and we can't get it to work..." so they backed it to 3 MB and that's that. I will call their business office tomorrow but I suspect I'm going to cable Internet. (I do not at this time have cable TV, but they have good service in my neck of the woods.) I don't know how much of that is BS and that they don't want to spend the time figuring out what is really wrong, and how much is true.

Oh, well, it was a try. Used DSL from the first days it was available here, time to move on to newer and better technology. (No, fiber is not available here.)