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Forum Discussion
Should I change to AP mode or Bridge?
Today I got new Centurylink Fiber set up at a new home and they installed their own Actiontek C3000 router. I had read up on the topic and was all ready to have to set up the Orbi in AP mode or to tr...
Tempo36 wrote:You may use your Orbi as a router" and then the network just...works.
Something I'm missing? Something I should check? Some horrible performance problem that's going to happen that I just haven't noticed yet?
The answer is, "It depends." I ran my Orbi as a router behind a Spectrum router for over a year. No problems. Then, I went to set up OpenVPN to reach my Orbi from outside. FAIL. Turns out there are a host of situations where a "double NAT" (Google it) messes things up. When I got a Sprectrum upgrade, I said, "bring me a plain modem." Now, I have OpenVPN humming along.
As FURRYe38 said, there are two 'nice' ways to eliminate a "double NAT"
- Make the ISP device a "modem only" by putting it into bridge or passthrough mode
- Put the Orbi into access point (AP) mode, which means giving up any "cool features" that you wanted from the Orbi, like Disney Circle, Armor, OpenVPN, external management, etc. (I do not use Disney Circle or Armor.)
- There is a third option which is a "last resort" sort of thing.
So, "It all depends"
- Thanks folks!
I chickened out on Bridge because the idea of having to deal with Centurylink by phone while potentially screwing up my internet entirely seemed just too awful.
I moved the Orbi to AP mode and it's working fabulously with transfer speeds up to 400-600mbps throughout the house. No parental controls...but the kid is only 5 so I have a few years before I have to worry much about that one.