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Forum Discussion
Double NAT configuration
I'm having trouble configuring my RBE971 as a router behind my modem/router, which is itself configured as a router. I want to retain some of the router functions of my modem/router, but also benefi...
NAT Filter can't be turned OFF or disabled of course, just changed
Lots of routers (including L3/L4 managed switches) don't have NAT, so there is no technical reason why it can't be disabled. Of course it normally shouldn't be disabled when it is an edge router on a home network. But it is a way to avoid double-NAT.
It would not be easy to make openVPN and DDNS available in AP mode.
Both services can be deployed on a PC behind a NAT router (as long as the openVPN ports are forwarded to that PC). So they can work in AP mode (again as long as the TAP and TUN ports are forwarded).
Granted these are advanced and niche features, but these are very expensive routers in the prosumer price range. So IMO more advanced configs should be supported.
You’re right that OpenVPN and DDNS can run on a PC behind a NAT router as long as the upstream router handles all the port-forwarding—but imho that’s exactly the reason Netgear disables them in AP mode. In AP mode the router stops being a gateway and becomes just a layer-2 bridge, so it has no WAN interface, no firewall, and no ability to automatically open or manage the ports that OpenVPN or DDNS depend on. Netgear could technically allow those services to run, but they would only work if the user manually configured the upstream router to forward all the required TUN/TAP ports to the AP’s LAN IP, and even then the AP would still be advertising a DDNS hostname for a WAN IP it doesn’t control.
Along the lines of the upstream router needing to be configured, another big issue is that even if Netgear allowed OpenVPN and DDNS to run in AP mode, supporting it would be extremely difficult because the upstream router—where all the port-forwarding must occur—could be made by literally any manufacturer, each with different interfaces, capabilities, and terminology. Some routers bury or limit port-forwarding options, some don’t expose the needed settings at all, and others behave inconsistently depending on firmware or ISP restrictions. So Netgear would be responsible for troubleshooting OpenVPN setups that depend entirely on hardware they don’t control. That’s a support nightmare; they’d have to diagnose problems on every imaginable brand of gateway just to make a feature work that the AP isn’t really designed to host in the first place.
These are big reasons why vendors disable these features in AP mode, even though they’re technically possible.