How to configure Nighthawk M1 as 4G Modem only

[Andy2010]

Hi,

I need some help please in configuring the Nighthawk to be a 4G Modem only (no router or wireless).

Current Set Up:

- Billion BiPAC 700 4G/ADSL Router

  + All current equipment is connected to this so I wish to keep it as the main DHCP

  + I have a telstra 4G Netgear Aircard 320U already attached via USB providing 4G internet
  + the router IP is 192.168.1.254 and is the current gateway and subnet is 255.255.255.0

What settings do I need to apply to the M1 so I can replace the 320U with the Nighthawk M1 via USB or Eathernet?

- from reading blogs there is no IP pass through as yet.

- Do I turn off wireless and DCHP? I have tried that but it didn't work - so probably requires additional settings.

Thanks

Andy

[DarrenM]

hello Andy2010

You can disable the wireless and tether but no bridge setting.

DarrenM

[Drvik]

Hi DarrenM,

This is a commonly asked question, and it seems there is high demand for using this 4G device as a modem to supply internet to already established or high end network.

Could you please elaborate on your answer?

Are you saying that the M1 is physically incapable of being put into bridge mode, even by a Netgear engineer or is this simply knowing which settings to manually override to achieve this result?

For example:

Switching DMZ on or off?

Switching DHCP on or off?

Shutting down wifi?

Changing the USB tethering options (charging/tether)?

Forwarding all ports?

VPN/UPNP/DLNA pass through?

What software features does the M1 require in order to become "just a 4G modem"?  DHCP pass through so something else?

What OS does the M1 run and is there a shell/terminal that is accessible for advanced router configuration?

Is the software team working on a bridge mode option and if so, when will it be available?  If not, where can customers go to request this feature for a future upgrade?

Drvik

[stevesw]

There is currently no way to put the device into bridge mode with current software release.

Bridge mode over the USB interface will be added in the initial maintenance release.

We do not have an exact release date at this point but likely in second half of May.

Steve

[Drvik]

Thanks Steve,

Is there an ETA on the Ethernet bridging mode?

drvik

[stevesw]

Ethernet bridging mode is planned for a future release but no ETA at this point.

Steve

[Andy2010]

HI Netgear Guru

Any further update on this?  Do we know when the release might be available?

Thanks

Andy

[MicW]

Are you sure you want passthrough? Why not just disable DHCP on the nighthawk and plug the ethernet into your nighthawk.You will have to set the ip of the nighthawk as your gateway in DHCP of your router. But it should work fine as internet access for your lan that way.

[jr2004]

Hi MicW

Please can you provide a few more specifics on the settings, as I am not too knowledgeable.

I have the nighthawk m1 connected to a ASUS router. The ASUS has set up a separate sub-network 192.168.2.1-192.168.2.255, while the m1 has a network 192.168.1.1-192.168.1.255. If I disable DHCP in the m1, what other settings do I change?  I am assuming I turn on DMZ in the m1, but to what address do I send it? Do I change any other settings in the ASUS, presumbaly I have to tell it to communicate with the m1 but how do I know what address to tell it? Thanks.

[MicW]

Hi Jr2004

sorry for the delay in replying, I just noticed your question. What else you need to change is to make sure the gateway address is set an address within your routers subnet (eg: 192.168.2.1 as long as nothing else has that address!). And configure the DHCP of your router to point to it as the gateway for your network so you still have internet access. You won't need DMZ

[MicW]

Also make sure you only have the one DHCP running, very important

[Aaronjp]

Can we please get an update on bridge mode firmware release. Usb will do for now but Ethernet would be far better...

This is holding up a bulk purchase and rollout of these devices.

[grokit]

MicW's solution doesn't appear to work. Some kind of bridge mode is badly needed, especially since the M1 is missing basic functionality like mapping MACs to static IP addresses.

[MicW]

Hi grokit

The latest firmware has IP passthrough active now.I've tried it and it works. I had my M1 connected to a switch and it passed the ISP ip through to my  PC all via ethernet.Wifi is disabled when in this mode.But you are correct the router options of the M1 are very minimalist

[grokit]

Hi MicW,

I have tried IP passthrough with a TP-Link Archer D7 in router mode and it doesn't work.

On the M1 I set IP Passthrough to "On" and connected the M1 to the D7's WAN/LAN4 port, set the D7 to "Router mode" and it's WAN connection to "Dynamic IP", but it is not able receive the WAN IP address from the M1.

The M1 does have a bad habit of turning off the ethernet port and not waking it without a reboot, but I tested that it was still up by connecting to a PC. I don't know why it will connect to a PC but not the D7.

Something else odd I noticed is that when you connect the M1 to a PC (or PCs via a dumb switch), the clients receive a constant stream of data from the M1 between 80 and 160 kbps. I hope that's just LAN data although it would explain the unexpectedly high bandwidth usage I am seeing. Something strange is going on with the ethernet port on the M1. I hope Netgear fixes it ASAP.

[MicW]

hi grokit

Did you turn DHCP off  in the settings of the M1?Personally I think the M1 should auto turn the DHCP server off when you use passthrough but it doesn't

[grokit]

It's working! It turns out the D7 needed to be set to clone a PC's MAC address to trick the M1 into using it.

btw - I tried both DHCP settings, but neither worked. Very strange that it would interfere - a bug I presume.

Now my only concern is the constant stream of data being pushed to devices connected to the M1 via ethernet.

[agdodge4x4]

How did you make this work? What settings did you change in the m1? How did you configure your main existing wifi router? I've been trying to do this for a week and no one seems to know how to make it work or what to do.

[digitalnomad]

Netgear Nighthawk M1 to Apple Airport Extreme

I searched a lot and didn't really find the answers I needed all in one place so here is my setup in case it can help someone.

Previous setup: Cox cable modem with outgoing ethernet cable into the WAN port of an Apple Airport Extreme (set to DHCP and NAT mode, using 2 Cox nameservers for DNS)

Goal: To simply put the AT&T Nighthawk M1 in place of the Cox cable modem. WiFi on the M1 would ideally be OFF so it's just supplying internet through the ethernet cable to the WAN port of my Apple Airport Extreme, same as it was getting from the Cox cable modem. Since the M1 only supports 20 WiFi device connections, my preference was to just use the M1 as a modem and have my Airport, which allows 50 connections, handle WiFi and DHCP.

First Consideration: DNS. Before I ever disconnected the Cox cable modem, I signed up for a free personal account with OpenDNS so I wouldn't have to worry about using Cox or AT&T's nameservers for the remainder of my setup. This was something I had always wanted to do anyway and had just never gotten around to it so it seemed like the perfect time to do it.  On my MacBook Pro, I entered the 2 OpenDNS nameservers into my Airport settings using Airport Utility (located in Applications > Utilities):

M1 Settings: 

1) Since I knew my goal was to turn off the M1's WiFi, I connected the USB cable's Type A end to my MacBook Pro and the Type C end to the M1. Type 192.168.1.1 into your browser to connect to the M1 and login. 

2) Click Settings > Setup > Mobile Router Setup

3) Under IP Passthrough, select "ON Disables Wi-Fi on the device". I recommend downloading the M1's manual (MR1100_UM_EN.pdf) and reading about IP Passthrough.

4) Under DHCP, uncheck "Use mobile router as DHCP server"

5) Some M1 restarts may be necessary when changing the settings above. After all restarts are finished, login into the M1 again and go to: Settings > AT&T Wi-Fi Status > Network and record the IPV4 settings, your IP address will differ from mine.

6) Log out of the M1 from your browser and disconnect the USB cable from your computer

7) Connect an ethernet cable from the ethernet port of the M1 to the WAN port of your Airport

Airport Settings:

1) On my MacBook Pro, I launched Airport Utility and kept Router Mode as "DHCP and NAT", the same as in my previous Cox cable modem setup.

2) Note the DHCP Range. The M1 uses 192.168.x.x for its local IP addresses so you DON'T want to use that range on your Airport. Click the Network Options button:

3) I recommend using 10.0 and 172.16 as above so neither range conflicts with the 192.168 range the M1 is using.

4) My Airport didn't "recognize" the IP address of the M1 the way it did with the cable modem so I had to change Connect Using to Static and enter in the IP address and mask from the M1 (see above: M1 Settings > Step 5) in here. Note that the Router Address should be the same as the IPv4 Address, but instead ends with 1.

5) The weakness in this is that if the M1 restarts it will get assigned a new IP address by AT&T. Then I'd have to log into the M1, get the new IP address, and re-enter it in Airport Utility as both the IPv4 Address and the Router Address.

6) At this point it was all finally working as desired! M1 had WiFi turned OFF and was acting as a modem, supplying internet through the ethernet cable to the WAN port of the Airport. The Airport was the DHCP server and had WiFi and guest WiFi both working, giving me 50 device connections.

7) The Airport Utility gave me a yellow warning light by the Status, showing "Double NAT". I just clicked on the Status and selected "Ignore". Again, no expert here, but what I've read told me others have lived just fine with this warning ignored for years. Since the M1 uses local addresses in the 192.168 range and I set my Airport to assign 10.0 on the main WiFi and 172.16 on the guest WiFi, there won't ever be an address conflict. If anyone has networking experience and could comment more on this, I'd like to learn your thoughts.

 

[dam_ged]

Looking at the M1 + a classic router (e.g. R7000) in replacement of R7100LG.

Is the Passthrough mode available now?

[JasonN]

Hi dam_ged,

Yes, the M1 does support IP Passthrough mode. 

Please use the link below as reference, :]

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Mobile-Routers-Hotspots-Modems/IP-Passthrough-or-Bridge-Mode/td-p/1...

- Jason N

[UK-based]

@JasonN- your link leads to this answer, which contains an incorrectly formed URL, comprising 2 contiguous URLs. Was your link intended to redirect to this URL, which is the second half of the bad URL?

[JasonN]

Hi UK-based,

That is weird. Yes, I was going for the first link but both links will work also. :]

It was just to confirm that the feature was available after that firmware version.

Thanks for clearing that up!  

- Jason N