attaching other wifi (Eero, Google Wifi Nest) to BGW210 LAN ports (dhcp)

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by tomjennings » Tue Mar 31, 2020 11:56 am
I need more wifi coverage than the BGW210 provides, looking to buy Google Wifi Nest, Eero, or similar. My experience is that they all insist on static IP on their own "WAN" ports. The BGW210 is of course DHCP. I'm reasonably experienced with IP hardware and config.

Searching reveals much convoluted discussion about configuring pass-through etc in the BGW210, with many instances of AT&T re-setting the BGW210 to their idea of normal, undoing manual config etc. These discussions are dated 2018, 2019, .... has everyone given up? Or is there another solution?


(I don't understand why wifi APs can't just accept DHCP for their own "WAN" port, then choose a different RFC1918 or whatever subnet for their own DHCP. 10.x, 192.168.111.x, etc, and eliminate a huge class of customer hassle. But that's not pointful here, I'm just whining).
by parker_day » Tue Mar 31, 2020 12:00 pm
Google Wifi and Eero do just fine with a dynamic WAN IP. Put Google Wifi/Eero in DMZ Plus on the BGW210 and it'll work. I have my parents configured this way with Google Wifi and Sonic-sold AT&T 1000Mbps fiber.

FWIW Google Wifi defaults to 192.168.86.x for the LAN, so even if you were to double NAT it'd not have any IP conflicts with the default BGW210 configuration, but double NAT has it's own set of problems. DMZ Plus is reliable so I wouldn't bother.
by tomjennings » Tue Mar 31, 2020 1:53 pm
parker_day wrote:Google Wifi and Eero do just fine with a dynamic WAN IP. Put Google Wifi/Eero in DMZ Plus on the BGW210 and it'll work.
OK, that's promising.

So I configure DMZPlus in the "Firewall" section of the BGW210, restart, the GoogleNest/Eero will do it's DHCP request, get the WAN IP, and off we go?

(I found this suspiciously-simple config from AT&T: https://www.att.com/support/smallbusine ... /KM1188700)

Does it retain "web" access on it's default 192.168.1.254? Or is this one of those set-right-first-time-else-factory-reset things like bridging?
by parker_day » Tue Mar 31, 2020 2:22 pm
tomjennings wrote: So I configure DMZPlus in the "Firewall" section of the BGW210, restart, the GoogleNest/Eero will do it's DHCP request, get the WAN IP, and off we go?
That is correct. The Pace 5268 is buggy with DMZ Plus (in my experience) but the BGW210 has been bug free for me with this configuration. That AT&T support document is all you need to do. I also turned off the BGW210 wifi and use a third party DNS to avoid using AT&T's DNS servers (either OpenDNS or Cloudflare DNS).
tomjennings wrote: Does it retain "web" access on it's default 192.168.1.254? Or is this one of those set-right-first-time-else-factory-reset things like bridging?
That's a good question. I don't think the BGW210 web config is available through the Google Wifi/Eero network. I can check on this later. If nothing else, you can connect a computer to one of the other LAN ports directly on the BGW210 and access the AT&T web config there for when you need it.
by tomjennings » Tue Mar 31, 2020 2:43 pm
OK cool, thanks for the succinct information!
parker_day wrote:. If nothing else, you can connect a computer to one of the other LAN ports directly on the BGW210 and access the AT&T web config there for when you need it.
The only computer in this fairly tech-savvy household with an ethernet jack is the 27" iMac.

I blame Apple. Why not?

Seriously, thanks for all your help.

tom
by tomjennings » Sat Apr 04, 2020 4:55 pm
dot dot dot DONE.

I put the BGW210-700 into IP Passthrough, DHCPS-Dynamic. Power-cycled everything. Attached Google Nest router and it's two points, ran the (most)annoying Home app, and it came right up.

I forgot to turn off the radio, I'll have to back and do that, to minimize my contribution to RF clutter, and so forgotten devices won't connect to dead air. One less SSID out there.

BTW the Google Nest boxen work great. Wifi is no longer the bottleneck. 125 feet away I get same throughput I do 3 feet from the main router. The two pods each are much further than recommended spacing (not much I can do about it, we have a long narrow house, and my lab is on the adjacent lot, 30 feet from the end-most point. At the end of the point string in my lab is my iMac 27", it's getting better upload than my phone does 3 feet, so the faster CPU probable helps. 35 MB down/7MB up.

Now I gotta contact Sonic about those numbers... lol.

Thanks so much for your succinct posts parker_day.
by parker_day » Sun Apr 05, 2020 11:39 am
tomjennings wrote:dot dot dot DONE
Thanks for the update! I'm glad it was as easy as I made it out to be (when does THAT happen). Hopefully wifi isn't something you'll have to think about for years to come.
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