2

I was given a VDSL gateway (ZyXel) by my ISP (online.nl) whose performance is low, and therefore I bought a router (ASUS RT-AC66U) to improve the LAN/WLAN/home networking performance.

Therefore I want to have something similar to this: enter image description here

I want my NAS to be connected to the Internet and therefore only one routing with NAT is enough and thus I bridged mode the gateway. I know how to bridge mode the gateway, but every time I do it, I lose internet connection.

  • Do I need to do something special in the router when I setup the gateway to bridge mode? Which exact WAN configurations?

  • Can the router work directly as a VDSL gateway, removing then the gateway provided by the ISP?

João Pimentel Ferreira
  • 392
  • 4
  • 7
  • 23

2 Answers2

2

I would just like you to note that exposing a NAS to the Internet may be a big security hole. NAS devices are not well protected, and when infected can easily infect every other device on the local network.

Thus warned, here are some answers.

Do I need to do something special in the router when I setup the gateway to bridge mode? Which exact WAN configurations?

You have set up a double-NAT situation by connecting the ZyXel to the WAN port of the ASUS router. Connecting the ZyXel LANx to an Asus LANx port will make the network into single-NAT.

For more information see :

Can the router work directly as a VDSL gateway, removing then the gateway provided by the ISP?

The AC66U does not support VDSL, so you can't get rid of the modem.

harrymc
  • 498,455
2

Just to let the readers know the solution I found for my issue (now, it's working like a charm):

Cabling

Connect the LAN port (LAN1 to be sure) of the gateway (gateway=modem+router, in my case a ZyXel) to the WAN port of the router (in my case ASUS RT-AC66U)

Something similar to this (hardware brands are just exemplary):

enter image description here

enter image description here

Gateway

On the gateway GUI/portal:

  1. go to "broadband" section or similar, set it to bridge mode
  2. go to "home networking" section or similar, disable DHCP
  3. go to "security" section or similar, disable firewall

Router

On the router GUI or portal, got to WAN section:

  1. clone MAC address (your ISP may block any device except the one with the MAC address of the known gateway). My router has that option:

enter image description here

  1. set to automatic IP or DHCP (if your ISP does not give you a static IP, like it is normal)

  2. in my ASUS I still set DHCP query frequency to "normal" instead of "agressive"

Conclusion

Now I really have a nice bridged network between both routers, that is the 1st router (embedded in the gateway) and the 2nd router, being my 2nd router the main only true router (routing data with firewall, NAT, etc.) and not being merely a repeater or an access point.

I did this because the 1st router provided by my ISP has much poorer performance than the 2nd router which I bought separately.

Community
  • 1
João Pimentel Ferreira
  • 392
  • 4
  • 7
  • 23