WAN IP in the DMZ is a private IP

[vincentdemers]

I've been using my own router since I've been with Virgin Plus for the Internet.

It was a not easy setting up my "vincent" modem at first so that I could use my own router, but I figured it out. In the advanced settings, under DMZ, I turned the DMZ "on" and assigned my router's MAC address as the active device, and voilà! my router would get a legitimate WAN IP (an IP that is in the 142.0.0.0/24 or 69.0.0.0/24 IP subnets). 

Since this morning, my "vincent" modem has been assigning a private IP in the 10.0.0.0/24 subnet to my router. This is a private IP, not a WAN IP. 
DMZ in the Advanced Settings

Is anyone else running into this issue? This is a big issue for me, as it prevents me from doing my work as I normally do.

Thanks

[VirginPlusDRock · Accepted solution]

Hey Community,

Apologies on the delayed response, but wanted to ensure we provide a complete answer for everyone here who took the time to share and post on this topic.

Virgin Plus Internet services now operate behind CGNAT (Carrier Grade NAT). This means Virgin Plus Internet subscriptions receive a private IPv4 address on the WAN, which is translated to a shared public IPv4 address for outbound internet traffic.

With this transition, IPv4 features that require inbound connections—such as port forwarding, DMZ and hosting services like Plex servers—will no longer function.

We understand this change may impact some Members’ existing network setups. We want to reassure all Virgin Plus Internet Members that standard internet connectivity and typical home usage will continue to work as expected with the default configuration.

@VirginPlusDRock - Community Manager

[rockcloud]

I am suprised to see the "appology to no solution" became the solution. 

Yes, with the ISP modem router, there may be no good solution. I have the Vincent router, which provides limited options. So I don't have a solution if you are limited to that router only.

However, if you have another router that is capable of doing IPv6, or an old computer to use pfSense,  OPNsense, or Openwrt, you can overcome this IPv4 CGNAT limitation. Here is how:

1. Obtain the PPPoE credentials for your internet connection by contacing the customer service. 

2. Connect directly from your own router using the above redentifals, and setup the IPv6. This is going to be in addition to the existing IPv4. So Double stacked. Your IPv4 would still work fine for these old devices do not support IPv6. Essentially you have two internet connections.  

3. Use ddns to update the IPv6 address for each device that is providing service. Fortunatley and unfortunately, your IPv6 addresses are all public IPs for each of your devices.  

4. Setup the router firewall rule to allow the port for each service.

Well, that is the simplified procedure how I restored my self-hosted services. However, IPv6 is quite different from IPv4, you are likely need to learn a bit of new knowledge first. 

[Philippe Carphin]

Thank you for a clear answer.  Are there any plans that offer a public IP?

[Philippe Carphin]

If I understand correctly, you are saying that I could buy an IPv6 enabled router, contact customer service for PPPoE credentials (after learning what that is), learn some more stuff, and not have to switch to another provider?

[rockcloud]

That is correct. However, there are quite a few things to sort out. I was not familar with IPv6, so in addition to learn some basics about IPv6, I also asked for Gemini's help here and there along the way. Keep in mind, AI solutions may not always be the best choice for your specific situation.

[Andrei Zhytkevich]

I spoke to technical support, and they confirmed that all clients now have private IP addresses, and port forwarding is dead.

They apologized. Obviously, they are not going to do anything to change that.

[3nz0]

This situation is beyond frustrating.

Rolling out CGNAT without any prior notice is not just an inconvenience — it’s a fundamental change to the service many of us signed up for. We pay for internet access that includes a publicly routable IPv4 address. That has been the baseline expectation for years. Quietly moving customers to private WAN IPs behind carrier-grade NAT without warning is not acceptable.

What makes this worse is the complete communication failure. There was no email. No advance notice. No banner in the customer portal. Nothing. Many of us wasted hours — some of us days — troubleshooting our own networks, replacing hardware, reconfiguring firewalls, contacting support, assuming something was broken on our end. That’s time and energy we don’t get back.

When reaching top-tier support at Bell Canada, even they didn’t know this change had been implemented. They were visibly frustrated that they had not been informed internally and had to learn about it from this very forum. That speaks volumes about how poorly this was handled.

Let’s also address the claim that hosting services like security camera access, Plex servers, remote work applications, VPN endpoints, home labs, and other inbound services are “non-standard use cases.” That statement is frankly ridiculous. These are completely normal, mainstream uses in 2026. Remote access and self-hosted services are part of modern home networking. Calling them edge cases feels dismissive and out of touch.

A publicly routable IPv4 address is not some exotic luxury feature. It has been standard for residential internet service for decades. If that standard is changing, customers deserve transparency and the opportunity to make informed decisions — including moving to another provider before the change is forced upon them.

By implementing this without notice, Virgin Plus effectively removed functionality that many of us rely on for work, security, and everyday life. For some of us, this service is now simply unusable.

Trust matters. Communication matters. Right now, both are lacking.

If this is the direction Virgin is taking — reducing capabilities without transparency — then it’s hard to see how the company can still claim to be a top-tier provider in Canada.

[oaiwfhyiaw]

I can only agree that changing the product without telling the customer is definitely unhelpful to your reputation.

On the technical side, I've also been operating this FTTH setup from Virgin plus with my own modem and made use of the public IPv4 address for several services. So thanks for braking this. But IPv6 seems to work fine now (after deploying it 10 years late). So if you are in this situation like, I suggest to just transition to IPv6.

However, and that's why I'm writing this I see that the IPv6 CGNAT connection is not nearly performing the same as the one without CGNAT. Specifically I've quite some problems reaching various websites over IPv4 after this change. Now, because I'm running this connection with my own router it could be that I'm missing something.

For the record I'm seeing this on the access concentrator (AC) 

MLTNON2526W.

I cannot ping or query:
* googles nameservers 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4

* cloudflares nameserver 1.1.1.1

Which makes this CGNAT IPv4 seem not working so well. If anybody could let me know if they see this too, I would be grateful.

[Ercic]

I completely agree. This is unacceptable.

Rolling out CGNAT without any notice is a major downgrade to the service we pay for. A publicly routable IPv4 address has always been standard. Removing it without transparency shows a clear lack of respect for customers.

Remote access, VPN, and self-hosted services are normal use cases in 2026. Calling them “non-standard” is simply out of touch.

[stonerose]

I have the Valerie router. Since switching to Virgin Plus from my previous provider I've had problem connecting to both Plex and Jellyfin inside my local network. Both my Roku TV and laptop acting as the media server are connected through wi-fi. The TV finds the server sometimes. Or sometimes when it does, it thinks its on an external network instead. Everything is on the same network.

When I connect that laptop to an ethernet cable, the TV is able to stream from the laptop. So I feel like wi-fi to wi-fi connections on the same network aren't working properly. Can anyone confirm this or is there a fix in the router's settings for this? 

my issue is having problems from connecting inside my network from a wi-fi device to another wi-fi device. I am not using my own router, nothing out of the ordinary with my setup. If I am missing something, please feel free to hop in and share.

I can ping my television from another device connected by an ethernet cable, but not when I try with another device from the wi-fi. And both devices are connected to the 5GHz radio 1. I guess its a failure of how the router negotiates the connection. My hopeful workaround (sadly, throwing money at it) is to attempt to connect the Plex server via a powerline adapter, to give it a "wired" connection, as the connection does not fail when the server is connected via ethernet.

Since Virgin Plus is no longer taking new business for internet or television services, I doubt I will see any fix for this, as I imagine the service will be on life support until Bell decides to discontinue it and fold it into their own offerings eventually.

Thank you.

[Jerry H]

Hello everyone, 

I did not receive any public ip from my router around two weeks ago. Does anyone have these same issues? 

[mahagala]

I guess this change is to prevent customer from hosting server at home right? Thinking of changing ISP now, hmmm

[eugene]

I’m in the same situation. My home‑based VPN servers stopped working because DDNS can no longer resolve to the correct public IP address. I managed to work around the issue by enabling IPv6 support on my router’s VPN services and firewall. However, for various reasons, I still prefer to use IPv4.
With that in mind, it would be great if VP offered static IPs or public IP options to their clients — even though only a small number of users actually need them. As it stands, I’m likely going to start looking for a new Internet provider unless VP offer an acceptable solutions.

[Andia]

I’ve been dealing with troubleshooting for more than two weeks now and have already replaced two modems. The frustrating part is that the technicians who handled it don’t seem to fully understand basic ISP concepts. This has been a very disappointing experience, and I’m seriously considering switching to a different provider.

[eugene]

Basically, with Virgin Plus and Bell implementing CGNAT, they're no longer friendly to a lot of users — especially gamers and power users who need inbound access to their home network from the internet.
Gamers won't be able to get Open NAT anymore, leading to Strict/Moderate NAT issues, worse matchmaking, lag in lobbies, and problems hosting games. Pro/power users lose easy access to home cloud setups, self-hosted VPN servers, remote desktop, security cameras, port forwarding, and similar services — at least not without complicated workarounds like tunnels or third-party relays.

I am curious if Bell did this to Bell's customers too or just to their partners?