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I am not seeing any issues that I am aware of, I am asking if my setup is ok because its different than what I am reading.
ATT U-verse Router setup:
The ATT router is connected to the WAN (fiberoptic connection). Port 1 is connected to Port 1 of the Orbi RBR850. Port 2 is connected to the ATT U-verse WAP. Port 3 is connected to the ATT U-verse DVR box. The wireless network is disabled.
Orbi RBR850 setup:
Port 1 connected to the ATT router. This router is routing, not in AP mode. All other devices in my house are connected to this router or one of the two satellites.
What I see -
On my ATT router, the ATT U-verse hardware has IP addresses in the 168.192.xxx.xxx range. I see all of the devices connected via the Orbi router in the device list but without IP addresses.
On my Orbi router, all my home devices have IP addresses in the 10.0.xxx.xxx range. Of course I do NOT see the ATT U-verse hardware in this device list as all of that hardware is connected only to the ATT router.
As far as I can tell, everything is working fine. If I turn my Orbi router to AP mode, I think it will pass on the connected devices for assignment by the ATT router and these devices will end up on the same network as the U-verse hardware, 168.192.xxx.xxx. The documentation says putting the Orbi router in AP mode disables the guest network feature, which I am also using and would like to use.
Having two routers in my system seems non-optimal and from everything I have read is hazardous to performance and stability but if the Orbi router is smart enough to use IP addresses on a completely different network than that ATT router, is there any reason for me to try AP mode and get everything on a single network? Are there side effects that I am not seeing or some aspects I am not considering?
I realize AP mode is reccomended. Does anyone know why it is preferred over the setup I am using? The reason I am asking is because I know it is reccomended and I don't understand why it is the preferred setup.
It's not optimal but in my opinion it is also not hazardous. Many home router customers don't know what "bridge mode" is nor know how to set it up on their cable modems, therefore many people are running just fine with Double NAT. Some games may not work because of the Double NAT, it is more difficult to setup port forwarding correctly (because there are 2 router to setup correctly), and it will very likely mean you can't get full 1Gb bandwidth due to the extra overhead of the second router. But it should still work correctly. Some Orbi customers may be experiencing wifi disconnects and other weird behaviors caused by Double NAT, but it's unclear if that's really the cause of their issues.
Yes, for your ISP modem/router, it would be recommended to use AP mode on the RBR, then all devices will be on the same network as the ISP modem/router.
I realize AP mode is reccomended. Does anyone know why it is preferred over the setup I am using? The reason I am asking is because I know it is reccomended and I don't understand why it is the preferred setup.
I realize AP mode is reccomended. Does anyone know why it is preferred over the setup I am using? The reason I am asking is because I know it is reccomended and I don't understand why it is the preferred setup.
It's not optimal but in my opinion it is also not hazardous. Many home router customers don't know what "bridge mode" is nor know how to set it up on their cable modems, therefore many people are running just fine with Double NAT. Some games may not work because of the Double NAT, it is more difficult to setup port forwarding correctly (because there are 2 router to setup correctly), and it will very likely mean you can't get full 1Gb bandwidth due to the extra overhead of the second router. But it should still work correctly. Some Orbi customers may be experiencing wifi disconnects and other weird behaviors caused by Double NAT, but it's unclear if that's really the cause of their issues.
The reason I am asking these questions is because the solution reccomended is not possible with the ATT router - it is not possible to put this router into Bridge mode, ATT does not allow that and hence the ATT router firmware prevents that. So I would need to put the Netgear router into WAP mode which has the undesired side effect of removing the guest network feature, and I am not sure if it also removes other functionality I might miss. So I want to understand which non-optimal situation I prefer to live with.
Yes, we understand that ATT modems don't support full bridge mode.
You can use the DMZ or IP pass thru for the RBR if you want to use the RBR in router mode. However this will still have different LAN IPs between the modem and RBR.
@FURRYe38The MAC address spoof looks like a really clever solution. Thanks! I try that when I have a widow of time available to bring my internet down for a while.
