Netgear R6300V2 Bridge Mode prevents Port Forwarding

[Saint Grimm]

I asked a similar question earlier tonight, but found what was causing the issue, so now I just need help FIXING the issue.

In my last question, I was told that Netgear r6300 router's don't have bridging (at least not 'real' bridging) so I'll try to explain this process the best I can to help explain what my router's are doing.

I have one router in the bedroom that is hooked up directly to the ethernet (I'll call this router R1) and a second router in my office (R2). R1 is wired to a PC in the bedroom. R2 is wired to my office PC and is in bridged mode to allow my PC to reach the full download speed of our internet, my crappy wireless card only downloads at 15mb/s, and with bridge mode turned on on the router, I download at 40 - 50 mb/s.

The bridge mode looks like this in my settings:

Following the manual, I changed R2's name to the same as R1's name, changed it's password to R1's password as well. R1's name was Netgear71, R2's name was Netgear50. Now they are both Netgear71, however, there are NOT doubles in my network center. There's only wireless 71 and wired 71. As you can see in the picture, being in bridged mode has also greyed out 90% of options, making it so I cannot configure port forwarding of any type on R2.

When I add port 32400 to R1's Port Forwarding list, my Plex Media Server just simply does not have remote access. However, when I bridged it in control panel by selecting the netgear50 ethernet and the netgear71 wireless, it DID work.

Alot of the guides I saw said if I have 2 routers, I'll need to forward the port from R2 to R1 before it'll work, but because of how the R6300 works, you can see that when it's in bridged mode the "port forwarding" section is greyed out and I cannot access it. In fact, the only things I can access on R2 when it is in Bridged mode is: Wireless settings (to take it out of bridged mode) USB settings (Because the router has a USB jack) and info about the router... I can't edit security options, any type of network, IP addresses or ANYTHING, all of that has to be done on R1.


So what do you guys and gals think is the best way to make port forwarding work through? Is there another way I can bridge the routers to get full speed on my office PC without having to run cable through a wall to R1 that WILL allow port forwarding? Or is there just something else I need to do for it to work while the router's bridge mode is active?

 

[bill001g]

When you set a router to bridge mode (better called AP mode) it becomes a dumb switch with wireless. If you were to disable the wireless radios it really is just a stupid switch.

A AP is what is called a layer 2 device. It has no concept of IP or port forwarding etc. When you set it to bridge mode it disabled the router chip mostly. In many routers you will lose even functions like NAS.

Not sure why it would not work. If you were to use a wired port it should be exactly the same as if you were wired to your main router. A switch is completely transparent.

Maybe a different option is not to use the bridge settings. You can make any router into a AP. What you do is first turn off the DHCP server in the secondary router. Next change the LAN ip address to something that does not conflict. Something like 192.168.1.250 would likely work for you. Then you cable the 2 routers together using the LAN ports leaving the WAN port disconnected on the second router.

 

[Saint Grimm]

That would require about a 20 foot cable and few walls to go through to wire the 2 routers together, not really an option at this point. thank you for the insight though!


It seems that bridging the wireless and ethernet connection in control panel just makes my PC a bridge to R2, so the port forwarding works when there's not a second router between my pc and R1... So that means even in bridged mode, R2 is giving me double NAT correct? Is there anyway to fix this while leaving R2 in bridged mode so I can keep my net speeds?

 

[bill001g]

So you want to use a router as a wireless adapter for your PC? I suspect your router does not have that feature. It is called client-bridge and is more a function of repeaters. You will generally see WDS client settings if it has the ability.

Even if you did it may not make any difference. The wireless speed is mostly based on the quality of your signal. It may not be any better than the wireless card.

 

[Saint Grimm]

I'm not sure what you're talking about.... With R2 bridged, I download at around 40 - 50MB/s, wirelessly connecting to R1 I download at a max of 15.5MB/s. But my speed is not the issue here, R1 not doing port forwarding as it;s supposed to is the problem.

I've also discovered it's not the bridged router that is causing the port to not forward, as canyouseeme.org and PFConfig say the port is unreachable even when R2 is turned off, however, Plex DOES connect to remote access when R2 is turned off. I need a way that it'll connect while R2 is turned ON.

 

[bill001g]

I really don't understand. Somehow your r2 is talking to r1 via wireless. This is a client-bridge function.

A bridge has no concept of port forwarding so I really don't know what you have set up