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Forum Discussion
Considerations for using either Router or Access Point mode
Hello, I'm tapping the technical expertise of the community. I've searched through a number of threads and many of them are very situational, and in fact even the genesis of this thread has a si...
What do you mean by "But I lose the DNS configurability."? If in AP mode, your DNS configurations would be at the main host router. So you can configure DNS here. Or you should be able to. Might depend on ISP modem feature support here as well.
DMZ or IP Pass-Thru helps in most cases if users what to run two routers on the same line.
Simplified operation in cases where ISP modems can't be bridged fully or DMZ or IP Pass thru doesn't work, then AP mode would be recommended.
Up to users and there skill level to figure out what works best for them.
FURRYe38 wrote:What do you mean by "But I lose the DNS configurability."? If in AP mode, your DNS configurations would be at the main host router. So you can configure DNS here. Or you should be able to. Might depend on ISP modem feature support here as well.
DMZ or IP Pass-Thru helps in most cases if users what to run two routers on the same line.
Simplified operation in cases where ISP modems can't be bridged fully or DMZ or IP Pass thru doesn't work, then AP mode would be recommended.
Up to users and there skill level to figure out what works best for them.
As I pointed out I think twice, there are cases, especially in a proprietary router given by an ISP, that DNS cannot be controlled. It's their product and their implementation and they choose what level of control they want to give to their customers.
Also, what constitutes the criteria in your second paragraph. I can certainly make the case that IP Passthrough works as it's intended. But it is not true bridge. I'm still subject to packet processing by the host gateway.
When you say it's up to the user, in fact that is the very basis of the thread, to help figure that out. Am I giving up anything more than DNS configurability by moving to AP mode that I haven't considered. If the answer is no, then indeed it's up to me and I can try out AP mode to see if how well it performs for the sorts of things we do here. There could be some thing I've overlooked, because taking the time to reconfigure the network is disruptive and before I do it I want to make sure I'm not wasting everyone's time.
Down the road, the implementation of internet access can change as the service itself changes. If am offered the ability to put my own router on the internet in the future, I'll likely do it precisely because of the ability to control how the connection works. But it appears there are cases where that is not possible as is the scenario I'm describing. I do have the ability to run the Orbi in either mode and I'm looking for all the reasons and facts out there so as to pick one versus the other.
Yes I agree, some ISPs and some of these ISP provided gateways don't offer alot in advanced user configurations. Some ISPs lock users out as well.
As mentioned, you have a gateway modem and you are using IP Pass Thru. This should be enough for you to continue using the Orbi in router mode thus giving you the controls you need to configure at this level if you want to run in router mode.Yes eventually one would find an ISP that provided modem configurations or support of modem only units thus giving users the ability to connect external routers and do there own configurations with them. If users have these available services in there home town.
FURRYe38 wrote:Yes I agree, some ISPs and some of these ISP provided gateways don't offer alot in advanced user configurations. Some ISPs lock users out as well.
As mentioned, you have a gateway modem and you are using IP Pass Thru. This should be enough for you to continue using the Orbi in router mode thus giving you the controls you need to configure at this level if you want to run in router mode.Yes eventually one would find an ISP that provided modem configurations or support of modem only units thus giving users the ability to connect external routers and do there own configurations with them. If users have these available services in there home town.
Unfortunately the freedom to configure is not the only consideration in which to choose an ISP. Cost is a big consideration as well. And as I've said, as long as I've had my Orbi it has been running exactly as you describe. But from a purely technical perspective, I'm still not totally clear on what else I'm giving up moving to AP mode. I'm getting there slowly though.