Turn DSL-2730B Modem/Router into Modem Only

[prodgers87]

Hi Community,
I currently have a D'Link DSL-2730B ADSL modem/router with Costa Rica's internet company Ice. I would like to disable the router function on the device, and use a PfSense router to act as my gateway. When looking at the router's web page; however, I cannot figure out how to disable this function. Is it possible to use this router as a modem only? Thanks for your help!

 

[bill001g]

You should be able to put it into bridge mode. It varies a bit from router to router but the manuals normally tell how to configure bridge mode.

You will likely have to run pppoe on your firewall.

Unless you really need the external ip on your firewall I would just use the DMZ option to map the real external address to the firewall external and use 2 different private subnets for the wan and lan. DSL stuff is a pain to get to work as a bridge sometimes.

 

[prodgers87]

You should be able to put it into bridge mode. It varies a bit from router to router but the manuals normally tell how to configure bridge mode.

You will likely have to run pppoe on your firewall.

Unless you really need the external ip on your firewall I would just use the DMZ option to map the real external address to the firewall external and use 2 different private subnets for the wan and lan. DSL stuff is a pain to get to work as a bridge sometimes.

Thanks for your help on trying to figure out a possible solution, bill001g. I am a little confused on the process of mapping the real external address to the firewall external. Would this mean that I would place the pfsense in the D-Link's DMZ and connect all of my computers behind the pfsense's external firewall? Would this solution cause problems with remote access to ftp server using DDNS?

 

[bill001g]

Say the firewall got 192.168.1.10 from the dsl router lan port. There is a screen that lets you set the dmz ip just key 192.168.1.10. Any sessions coming to the routers outside ip will be sent to 192.168.1.10. Then lets say you had your ftp server connected to the pfsense and it had a IP of 192.168.2.50. You would set the port mapping in the pfsense box to send the traffic to 192.168.2.50.

DDNS can be a little tricky if you ip changes a lot. The program to change it generally can run 2 ways it will set the dns to whatever ip you happen to be using or it will let the end device specify it. I would always just use the option to let it auto set it.

There are 2 things that have issues. Game consoles uses UPNP and sometime they do not like the double nat but it should work since you are using DMZ rather than double port mapping. The other is IPSEC VPN will not work in the most strict mode from your pfsense box since the ip is being modified by nat. You just have to turn on the option that allows ipsec session to run over nat.

 

[prodgers87]

Say the firewall got 192.168.1.10 from the dsl router lan port. There is a screen that lets you set the dmz ip just key 192.168.1.10. Any sessions coming to the routers outside ip will be sent to 192.168.1.10. Then lets say you had your ftp server connected to the pfsense and it had a IP of 192.168.2.50. You would set the port mapping in the pfsense box to send the traffic to 192.168.2.50.

DDNS can be a little tricky if you ip changes a lot. The program to change it generally can run 2 ways it will set the dns to whatever ip you happen to be using or it will let the end device specify it. I would always just use the option to let it auto set it.

There are 2 things that have issues. Game consoles uses UPNP and sometime they do not like the double nat but it should work since you are using DMZ rather than double port mapping. The other is IPSEC VPN will not work in the most strict mode from your pfsense box since the ip is being modified by nat. You just have to turn on the option that allows ipsec session to run over nat.

Awesome! Thanks for your help and I really appreciate you taking the time to explain it more in detail. I believe I'm going to try this route instead of having to deal with my ISP and changing the D-link to bridge mode.