It's been 10 years since I had anything to do with configuring any kind of WAN technology. So my knowledge is limited to some degree but I feel I'm being fed some .umm, misinformation. I have done some reading but still would like another opinion.
Brief history. I was asked to install a wired network to several rooms to monitor the room's condition from a tablet in the room and the central monitoring computer. Also needed was remote access as the building is 3 hours away. No one was able to answer my questions as to what was there or how it was configured. So I talked with the manager of the facility and told him we needed an external static IP address. We contacted the ISP and they would set it up. What I got was a DSL modem that's supposed to have a static address. Except that it never works. I've been there 3 times after they said it was setup and tested. Their idea of testing is plugging in the modem and using the default DHCP settings to verify an Internet connection. They never test that the actual static address works. The modem is configured for bridge mode and goes into a Check Point 640 firewall. Errors are the firewall never connects, error message of PPPoE server not found or can't find gateway. Even tried a laptop configured with the static IP and no connection. Found out Friday this client has a Metro Ethernet circuit, supposedly 30 meg. The manager was complaining of the slow speeds they were getting over wireless when they were supposed to have this big pipe and great speed. Turns out the metro circuit is split between the internal camera/security system and a couple of Aruba wireless access points. I asked why we couldn't connect the firewall to the metro circuit instead of the wireless access points. I was told it would take 2 months to change the configuration. Shouldn't we be able to have part of that metro circuit go into the firewall and then connect the wireless devices to the firewall. I would think a couple of days to schedule and make the change would be enough. Their tech support hasn't been of any help. Spent 4 hours on the phone with them Friday and got nowhere.
