The Telstra Next G 3G internet service is fast, works well in a lot of areas around Australia and can be sorted out fairly cheaply these days.
One big downside to the service however is that by default you receive an IP address that is behind a firewall that performs NAT. Generally this isn’t an issue however for some more specific tasks it either makes life more difficult than necessary and makes some other things downright impossible.
One manifestation of this issue is the inability to connect to some corporate VPNs. The reason for this is that the Next G service gives you an IP address on the 10.0.0.0/8 subnet and a lot of corporate networks also use this range.
Fortunately a solution is at hand – telstra.extranet or GPTEXB3.
Unfortunately, you need to call Telstra to get this activated and a lot of the people you speak to won’t know about it and will transfer you to the wrong department.
If you call Telstra on 125111 (this is their Mobile Billing department) they are the people who can activate this, but they will transfer you to a number of other people first before you get a resolution.
What you need to do is explain to them that you’re using the telstra.internet APN and can’t connect to your VPN at work. You need a public IP address and this can be provided via the telstra.extranet APN. In order for you to be able to use the telstra.extranet APN, you need to have the option GPTEXB3 applied to your account.
Sounds easy? It only took me 35 minutes and being transferred around in circles, but was eventually able to speak to someone in billing. This person was going to transfer me somewhere else and I requested that they don’t perform a blind transfer and instead ask the other person about this option. The other person was able to add the option to the account without needing to speak to me. 5 minutes later I could connect using the new APN and was getting 123.209.12.nnn IP address (however interestingly enough, I was still seeing a /8 subnet on it and 10.64.64.64 as the default gateway)
i have a Apple iphone4 and am not able to connect to the 3G Telstra Network. I have the 3G symbol come up under the Telstra service provider to say that i am in a 3G Network and have it all activated on my phone, Telstra tell me there’s no problem with the service yet it wont work, got to get my SIM in another phone – change the SIM to get it again – is there a gateway blocker or some other technical glitch that i am missing?
I don’t think it’s related to this issue. I assume your phone is unlocked, or at least able to work on the Telstra network for voice calls.
Maybe you need to check the APN – or plug it into iTunes and see if there’s a Carrier Settings Update.
I need IP addess for sennheiser easy control
this really worked. Thanks so much Kai!
Can you please advise if it is possible to have a Static Ip Address on the NextG network?
Yes, it is possible, but it’s a bit difficult getting through to the right person who can add the code to your account. That’s what this article is all about.
It is absolutely not possible to have a static IP on the Telstra.Extranet APN.
Static IP on NextG, I don’t know about, but I wouldn’t expect you could.
Real-world, routable, non-NAT IP address – yes.
The default though is a 10.0.0.0/8 IP address that is behind a NAT router, so you can send data out, but you can’t have incoming connections.
Thank you for your article. It was exactly what we needed. Just to expand a little –
Telstra Mobile customers can call 125111 and say “WIRELESS DATA HELPDESK” – If you get Bigpond – hang up and try again.
The GPTEXB3 code is added by the Operator using a system called HELPDESK. The code is added to the MOBILE SERVICE.
If an iPhone can not get access to the web with Telstra –
The following codes are required:
GPTCOMB3
GPWAPB3
3GACTIVE
GPDWLES3 – This code is now removed at support level but can be added via level 3.
+MAKE SURE THERE IS NO DATA BARRING ON THE SERVICE+
A data pack is recommended – Pay as you go rates are astronomical.
🙂
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I have been pulling my hair out for the last 3 day while speaking a lot of broken english to people that have no idea what “removing port restriction” is.
Glen
Wow. I have just spent over two hours being transferred all over Telstra AFTER HAVING READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS. I explained to them I wanted to have the GPTEXB3 code applied to my account and they still couldn’t work it out. “That would be billing you need to talk to”. “Oh, you can’t plug more than one computer into the dongle”, “The service won’t allow you to do that” etc. I’d tear my hair out if I had any. Even when I asked “Do you have access to the Helpdesk system?”, “Could you please apply the code GPTEXB3 to my account?”
Eventually I found someone who asked her supervisor and I was eventually told that the code can only be applied to enterprise or business accounts. Whether that’s true or not I couldn’t be bothered confirming after such an ordeal. So no remote access for me.
Thank you, your article is spot on. After two phone calls and over1 hour on the phone someone at Telstra was able to make the change. I now have a public IP address
having gone through this process quite a few times at a couple of different businesses i feel your pain. i think at one point i got transferred to like 7 departments just to end up back at the start or get transferred and then get disconnected rather conveniently.
the problem stems from the fact it’s not in telstra’s internal knowledge base so when the gimps in the overseas call center go looking for it, they find nothing, and you end up in this world of hurt.
try this, use the “live help” on the telstra website, i’ve used this with much quicker success a few times now.
the magic incantation goes something like ‘Hello, I have a Telstra NextG dongle I am trying to use for a business to business related applicaton and it requires a real world IP address. I have been asked to use the APN “telstra.extranet” but need to get Telstra to apply the “GPTEXB3” code to the account to use that APN first.’
Thanks a lot for writing this up. It solved an issue when attempting to access EC2 instances that were only open to specific IP addresses. The NAT address reported by the system, google, whatismyip.com (HTTP) etc was different to the IP address used by ssh, making it difficult to define what IP’s should be permitted access. Luckily the first person I spoke to at Telstra was able to add the specific code (despite them not knowing what it was).
Matt Carter above is correct the Telstra livehelp system is the way to go. I wanted to confirm that we could still get a public IP before we buy a 4G dongle. So I prepared a slightly modified version of his question and pasted it into the chat window when my chat request was answered. An answer came straight back saying that yes, the GPTEXB3 code was available for 4G services once the service had been activated.
Does anyone know if this can be activated for a Home network service?
If you’re on Next G, then I believe it can.
Seems to only be available for business accounts. This means all prepaid services (until they offer prepaid business services) don’t qualify. You will need a post paid business mobile broadband account to enable this.
So if you have a prepaid mobile broadband you’re not able to get a static and public IP.
Further info from Telstra today:
“This code can only be applied for Large account which has Telstra account representative”
Hi,
I was able to get this done recently.
It is only for business accounts on post-paid/plan. I just said the truth – I need it for remote access / VPN client. I also said my administrator said to ask telstra to provide access to the ‘extranet’ APN. I think the Telstra techs assume ‘static ip’ and not ‘public IP’. I’ve been told the ‘faults’ department handle it and sometime ‘tech support’. It wasn’t an easy process (on the phone for ages) but I got it done and it’s still active month later. It doesn’t cost but I’d be happy to pay for the service… Silly Telstra. Best network in Australia but ran by dickheads. Small – medium business powers Australia. Why make it hard for them?
Kind regards,
Morgan
I want to play x box games for android
I reset my 760s bigpond 4g. i try to start but my router shown SIM MEP locked. i try to unlock but it need Unlock Code. please help me to solve this …
Thank you!!!!
I have a static IP on several telstra 4g services with extranet services (for years) and it works fine.
The problem is finding someone in telstra who actually knows what they are doing.
Yea, and being Telstra, finding someone who knows what they’re doing is easier said than done!