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Options for connecting ISP supplied GW to wrt54GL

Hello, this is the problem. The ISP supplied DSL modem/router supplied to me is the Actiontec gt704. I connected one wired pc and one wireless.

2 issues - when ever the network is busy, be it thru using bit torrent,copying files between the 2 pc's, online computer games, etc. The device will often slow to a crawl and then reboot itself. Secondly, wireless coverage is mediocre.

My proposed solution is to try and run the gt704 as close as possible to pure modem mode as I can get it, and use it with a third party wireless router.

I'm not sure what is possible with the gt704 mainly because I'm a network novice and the doc included is very poor. So far, I have setup DMZ in the device and used a static IP in the wired PC to make sure it works. It does.

The second thing I did was to get my old Netgear rt314 to connect to the DMZ IP and plug the wired pc into that. After running the rt314 easy setup, that to seems to work fine.

I'm now set to go out and purchase a Linksys wrt54gl retire the Netgear for a second time and connect it as I did the netgear, and use the superior wireless and router capabilities of the new device.

Is this a typical setup, or are there other methods I should be looking at? Any thoughts appreciated.

Dave

Reply to
dave xnet
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On Wed, 31 Jan 2007 20:54:26 GMT, dave xnet wrote in :

File sharing like Bittorrent opens a great many connections that can cause many low end devices to fall over and die. Try greatly limiting the number of connections.

If so, use DD-WRT firmware with connections cranked up to 4,096.

Reply to
John Navas

Thanks John. I'll look into that firmware. I'm assuming because you didn't say anything to the contrary, that the DMZ mechanism is an acceptible way to accomplish what I'm trying to do.

regards, Dave

Reply to
dave xnet

On Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:40:10 GMT, dave xnet wrote in :

So-called "DMZ" is a _huge_ security hole, not a real DMZ, and won't help on any connection problem. In general, I strongly advise against using the "DMZ" feature. Do minimal port forwarding instead, opening and closing them as needed (e.g., with UPnP).

Reply to
John Navas

John, I'm not exposing a PC to the DMZ IP - instead, the Linksys wrt54gl router will be connected there.

I'm setting DMZ on the Actiontec as a method of connecting it to the Linksys. Nothing else will be connected to the Actiontec and wireless will be turned off there too.

The wrt54gl WAN port will be connected to the DMZ IP on the Actiontec LAN port via a CAT5 cable. Within the Linksys router will be NAT and SPI to handle the security.

As I mentioned in my first post I really want the Actiontec to be just a DSL modem and to disregard all it's other capabilities. Perhaps there is some other method of setting up the Actiontec modem to accomplish this, but I'm not aware of it.

Here is what it will look like: DSL connection >DSL phone cable> Actiontec dsl/gateway (DMZ) >CAT5>

Linksys >CAT5> pc1 Linksys> wireless> pc2

Why am I doing this? I agree the use of the wrt54gl seems redundant because the actiontec does it all. The reason is, the actiontec is a poor piece of kit. This is why I am attempting to offload the NAT/router/wireless functions to the new device and use the Actiontec purely (or as close as I can get) as the modem.

Hope this is clear - Dave

Reply to
dave xnet

On Thu, 01 Feb 2007 03:09:02 GMT, dave xnet wrote in :

I doubt that will remove any real load from the Actiontec, since it's still going through NAT (and now you'll have double NAT). See if there's a way to configure the Actiontec as a bridge, rather than as a router.

Reply to
John Navas

Thanks for responding again. Now we're getting down to it. DMZ worked, but your suggestion is better, and yes, the Actiontec did work as a bridge using the retail firmware. Thanks again. Dave

Reply to
dave xnet

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