Let me describe my situation: I am living with roommates who don’t like to mess with technology often, they prefer “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Unfortunately it IS broken, but they just don’t see it.
They signed up for Spectrum (Comcast derivative) and got a carrier-assigned Wi-Fi enabled combo router/modem. Upstairs Wi-Fi is complete garbage so I hardwired my 802.11ac router as a dumb access point upstairs, however routing is still garbage because of the carrier router. DNS resolutions are slow as fuck, I will frequently lose connection to my local server for no reason. The router combo has a bridged mode to allow an external router to be the main DHCP server and routing unit, however I would like to keep the carrier router at least functioning as an access point downstairs. If I put it into bridged mode but leave the wireless function turned on, will it continue to work? I’ve never attempted a half-ass solution like this.
So basically I want my router upstairs to function as the main router with Wi-Fi, and the dumb AP to just be a modem which also has wireless capabilities and get DHCP stuff from the main router.
No, as I said it’s just a shitty carrier Arris router. My personal router runs LEDE with everything routing turned off, it’s just functioning as a dumb AP off of the LAN ports on the carrier router.
Adam Butler
It’s not the fact that they’re on it, it’s just a shitty router/modem. I would switch it out with a dedicated modem and just make my router the gateway with an access point downstairs but they don’t want to do that. They want to stick with “what’s best” aka what the carrier gave them. It’s a nightmare with how long websites take to resolve sometimes.
Gavin Taylor
I've often wondered about this myself, I have a FiOS Quantum gateway and ive wondered if putting it in bridge mode and getting a dedicated router/WAP was a better idea
Wyatt Green
That’s the issue though. Its not just simply setting it to bridged mode and using my router as the WAP. We still need coverage downstairs for Wi-Fi as the throughput drops pretty hard when you go upstairs. So I need to find out if setting it to bridge mode and making my router upstairs function as the routing unit and DHCP server will still allow the carrier modem’s Wi-Fi to work.
I believe setting it up this way will cause the modem’s wireless routing to fail to work properly, because it won’t understand it needs to send traffic back and forth between itself and the main router, and then back out through the coax port. Am I making sense?
Cooper Morris
What about using a repeater?
Lincoln Bell
It would cut my bandwidth in half. The main goal here is to make my router, running LEDE, the unit that does routing. The carrier modem is a coax modem and wireless router in one, and its garbage at routing. I have nonstop latencies and issues with DNS resolving. What I want to find out is if it’s possible to put it in bridge mode and make my LEDE unit the router + WAP but make the wireless functions of the modem into a dumb AP that just routes through my router. Which is why I’m skeptical because I’m not sure if that is possible with the way routing works.
Michael Gutierrez
Just disable the DHCP server on the modem, set the "LAN IP" to an unused address in your subnet, then don't use the WAN port from now on, just use the LAN port to interconnect into your main router's LAN port. By setting the IP address, you can access the web configuration.
Jayden Clark
This is the correct way to turn a wireless router into a L2 switch + AP
Ryan Davis
Just go buy a DOCSIS 3.1 modem and a decent router. Throw the carrier box in the trash and call it a day.
Camden Baker
That’s how I have it right now to work as a dumb AP and have the modem do DHCP, but I’ll give that a try.
That’s the issue user, I would but the roommates have the account under their name and refuse to use anything else but what the carrier gave because they believe it’s what’s best, despite the performance being absolute ass.
Camden Morris
>The router combo has a bridged mode to allow an external router to be the main DHCP server and routing unit, however I would like to keep the carrier router at least functioning as an access point If it's in bridge mode, only one device can connect to it and the device is whatever connect to it first. Make sure only your router no other device than your router has credentials to login to bridge. Get 3rd router to create access point. Connect that 3rd router in AP mode to your router.
Aiden Kelly
I just re-read your OP. So you want to have the carrier modem acting as both a bridged modem, and an access point? Am I understanding this right? Because that will not work. Once you disable the gateway/NAT functionality, you're also shutting off the wireless card. Unless you flash the firmware, you can't really change that. Your best option is to put the modem into bridge mode and buy a decent wireless router, then run your dumb AP off that. Do NOT use wireless repeaters. They are pure dog shit.
Nicholas White
I guess I should add will this not cause issues with NAT or anything? The main router is attached to the modem’s LAN ports to serve as a dumb AP for upstairs coverage, but I want to flip their roles, where the modem serves the main coaxial to Ethernet conversion, but then DHCP and DNS etc is served by the upstairs router, and the modem’s wireless card just functions as a dumb AP instead. So the modem will be serving an IP from the coax port to my main router but then also be serving as a dumb AP. Is this what can be done with that kind of configuration? Just double checking that everyone understands.
Lincoln Perry
That’s basically what I was thinking. I love my Archer C7 because it’s fast as fuck, so I think what I’m going to have to do is just get a secondhand dual band router to serve as upstairs and then just put the archer downstairs next to the modem, put modem in bridge mode so it gets cut out entirely.
Sucks ass because I have to spend money, but oh well. Roommates won’t know anything different if I do it that way, so I guess it’s probably the best option.
Jackson King
>If I put it into bridged mode but leave the wireless function turned on, will it continue to work? tl;dr: No.
In more detail: If you enable bridge mode but leave the wifi enabled, what will almost certainly happen is that your external router, and people connecting to the ISP modem via wifi, will compete for the same single external IP address. Which means one of them will get it and the other will not, meaning the other will not work.
There are SOME modem/router/access point combos for which this can work, which allow you to put the wifi access point on a vlan, which you can then plug into the lan side of the real router. But this is rare and almost certainly not supported by your ISP routermodemaccesspoint.
The best setup you can enable given these constraints is to put the ISP thing into bridge mode, and disable the wifi part entirely; and then right next to it, add your own router/access point to handle both the routing part and the wifi part. And then put a second dump AP upstairs, just to improve your reception there, plugged into your own router.
John Cooper
And actually, in this case, you'll need a second ethernet run back down to that dumb AP, since you likely only have one allowed device connected via bridged mode.
Thomas Stewart
This is the correct and final answer
Charles Martin
Thanks for confirming, just figured I’d try to penny pinch if possible but I’m sure I can get a secondhand dual band linksys or some shit off eBay.
Oliver Morris
I won’t if I just get a second AP, as I’ll just put the Archer downstairs next to the modem and use the ebay’d AP upstairs as an extension so I can continue to use LEDE.
