[GTALUG] of routers and access points

Lennart Sorensen lsorense at csclub.uwaterloo.ca
Thu Apr 25 10:57:48 EDT 2019


On Wed, Apr 24, 2019 at 11:30:22PM -0400, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk wrote:
> I'm confused about the network topology you are describing.
> 
> Which router is "the" router?  Bell's modem/router or your (non-Bell) 
> router?
> 
> Which router is "it"?
> 
> ==== Context ====
> 
> Almost all homes need NAT for IPv4, an abomination.  So all home
> routers do NAT by default.  The Bell Router will do the whole job
> (NAT, DHCP, WiFi).
> 
> For a variety of reasons, some of us want to use out own routers.
> In most cases it makes sense to set the ISP's modem/router to just act
> as a modem -- bridge mode.
> 
> ==== End of context ====
> 
> If you put your Bell modem/router in bridge mode, how can the WiFi on
> Bell's modem/router be useful?  Only your own router should be
> connected to the Bell modem.
> 
> If you actually use the Bell router functions, what do you use your
> own router for?
> 
> - an AP + a switch?
> 
> - double-NATting (seems like a bad idea)?

Agreed.  I run my VDSL2 modem in bridged mode with it's wifi turned off
(don't need more interference in the area), and then have a WRT1900ACv2
running openwrt doing all the real work.  And since it is running openwrt
I can install whatever service on it that I need.  I used to route through
a linux box 15 years ago, but whyever would I do such a thing today?
One box does AP, switching, routing, PPPoE, DNS, DHCP, etc and nothing
on the network is confused.  Nice and simple.

-- 
Len Sorensen


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