[SOLVED] Modem/router configured as just a modem....

[Wildduk]

I have a Motorola Modem/router model MG7540. I want to add a mesh system to my house instead of the current setup with the various AP's around the home.
Is it possible to configure this modem to act just as a modem, and not a router? Basically just having one of the Cat5 ports acting as a feed from the modem to another router?

I don't think that the mesh system can be hooked up to a router, it need to start at just the modem....

I'm trying to avoid buying a new modem....

Thanks

 

[bill001g]

What exact feature do you think mesh is going to give you....or is it everyone else is buying it so you will too.
Mesh is mostly a wifi repeater system you should not use any form of repeaters unless you have no other options. It will greatly impact your performance. If you are actually going to run the remote units as AP...ie connected via cable..then save some money and just use simple routers in the remote rooms running as AP rather than spend money for things you are not going to use. Running remote AP has been done since the beginning of wifi it is not some new thing that "mesh" does.

In any case you should be able to put your modem/router into bridge mode. BUT it will actually work fine just plugging a second router into the modem/router. If you have game console or are doing port forwarding it will make things harder but if not then it make little difference if you have 2 routers in the path.

I would just use cheap routers/ap in the remote room and keep your current router as is. Be very careful about too much wifi. MORE is actually less because all the radios stomp on each other unless you very carefully adjust the power and channels usage.

 

[SamirD]

I believe you have a straight modem mode that you can use:
https://motorolamentor.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115007129847

But I concur with bill001g's advise against a mesh system. These are more marketing than performance and properly set up access points will be cheaper and offer better performance.

 

[Wildduk]

Ok I will take your advice and look into keeping current system with AP’s. And bill001, wrong, I’m not looking into the mesh system because everyone else is doing it. We need something that that is easier to set up parental controls, and that seems like a good route.
Anyway, with the current set up with multiple AP’s, should the WiFi names be the same or different??

Thx

 

[bill001g]

Mesh just irritates me a lot because a lot of it is being sold as designer room decoration rather than on a technical need.

If you make the SSID the same or different is mostly a personal preference. If they are different it generally takes more effort on the end user part. The trade off is you the human are much smarter than any software in picking the best radio source. Making the same make it somewhat simpler since the devices will switch to the other source......well most the time but they tend to be very stupid some times. The so called mesh pretends they can get seamless roaming but this is only partially true since the end device not the mesh system is in control.
Generally people do not constantly move from room to room and attempt to play games or watch video while they actually are walking. I just can't wait until one of these router companies get a lawsuit because a idiot fell down their stairs because the advertising shows someone doing this.

Parental control are close to worthless other than maybe time of day restrictions. Like firewall they use term like "deep packet inspection". This is a very old concept since the government got caught doing "deep packet inspection" and we now have everything encrypted via HTTPS. The last hole of DNS snooping was plugged by cloudflare and google dns and browsers. So as long as you use dns 1.1.1.1 or sometimes 8.8.8.8 both chrome and firefox will encrypt the dns lookup. This means you can not actually see what is being done. Maybe you could try to block via IP address but since many sites are using hosting services...ie cloudflare..you can never be 100% sure what site a IP address maps back to.

 

[Wildduk]

Ok. That all makes sense.
I will probably just add another AP to home. Making it 2 total....
That said, should I just get another router and configure as an AP or buy a dedicated AP?
Or does it really not matter.

 

[SamirD]

Yeah, I too get irritate by products that tout 'pretty' versus 'functional' as a major feature.

Bill001g nailed it on the ssid, and personally I do like to keep different names because I am smarter and know better which ap is working the best for me in a particular location. I tried one ssid before and I wasn't happy with it. The only time a single ssid was a dream was on the old Meraki truly mesh system using their od2 outdoor APs--literally a single ping dropped between APs. Too bad they sold it to cisco and got rid of the older systems that worked without licenses. I still have the od2's but with a max bandwidth of 5Mbs they're very limited today even though they still work and their roaming is second to none imo.

As far as parental controls, etc, you basically need enterprise level systems to have control, and the only things I've read about that even have a good chance of working are pfsense with untangle, and firewalla:
https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/360008214094

But this would require you to change your router--of course if you do, then you can use your old one as the other access point you need.