Help bridging gateway

salennon07

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Aug 4, 2016
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So I'm definitely not an IT whiz by any means but I feel im normally tech savvy enough to accomplish this .. But totally stuck.

I just switched from mediacom TV to YouTube TV, so wanted to improve my network range to make sure all my tvs had good connection. I previously used a Motorola all in one gateway for modem and router. I want to bridge this as I bought a new nighthawk to expand the range. However no matter what I try I'm not having success. I can not get my new nighthawk router to say it has internet connection from the Motorola. Is there more to this than bridging the gateway and plug / play the new router?

Maybe bit off more than I can chew...
 
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CycloneDaddy

Well-Known Member
Sep 24, 2006
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Johnston
So I'm definitely not an IT whiz by any means but I feel im normally tech savvy enough to accomplish this .. But totally stuck.

I just switched from mediacom TV to YouTube TV, so wanted to improve my network range to make sure all my tvs had good connection. I previously used a Motorola all in one gateway for modem and router. I want to bridge this as I bought a new new nighthawk to expand the range. However no matter what I try I'm not having success. I can not get my new nighthawk router to say it has internet connection from the Motorola. Is there more to this than bridging the gateway and plug / play the new router?

Maybe bit off more than I can chew...
who is your internet provider? I couldnt get my Nighthawk to work with Century Link dual band DSL. Buddy gave me his Asus and works like a charm.
 

alarson

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Mar 15, 2006
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Return the Nighthawk, and attach your modem to a google wifi 3 pack and never look back

Mesh networking can certainly be a good option. I went with netgear's Obi system and its turned out great.
 

DuneFan

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Nov 7, 2015
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Consider Powerline Ethernet. I got tired of spotty WiFi, and picked up a pack of 4 of these from eBay, and the results are amazing. Look for good auctions, and check reviews. My Zyxel PLA5215's are easily as fast as 802.11ac. Depends a bit on your house's wiring. Ironically, an old house with fewer line conditioners might get faster speeds than a newer house.

I have no idea where you live, but I live in a medium-dense neighborhood with lots of neighbors running WiFi routers. In a lot of places, it is becoming an arms race of sorts as people get faster and faster routers, all running on the same frequency bands. For me, Powerline networking was a way to just say that I wasn't going to play the game any more and try something else, which works just as well.
 
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BoxsterCy

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Sep 14, 2009
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Consider Powerline Ethernet. I got tired of spotty WiFi, and picked up a pack of 4 of these from eBay, and the results are amazing. Look for good auctions, and check reviews. My Zyxel PLA5215's are easily as fast as 802.11ac. Depends a bit on your house's wiring. Ironically, an old house with fewer line conditioners might get faster speeds than a newer house.

I have no idea where you live, but I live in a medium-dense neighborhood with lots of neighbors running WiFi routers. In a lot of places, it is becoming an arms race of sorts as people get faster and faster routers, all running on the same frequency bands. For me, Powerline networking was a way to just say that I wasn't going to play the game any more and try something else, which works just as well.

Got me to check and I can scan four of my neighbors networks. Still love one of their networks name, "virusinstaller".
 

brianhos

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Jun 1, 2006
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Return the Nighthawk, and attach your modem to a google wifi 3 pack and never look back

You still need a router of some kind to serve DHCP. I use the crappy ASUS I had for years for this, just turned off the wifi.

So my setup is Motorola cable modem -> crappy asus router -> Ubiquiti pro wifi (this thing is awesome).
 
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MeowingCows

Well-Known Member
Jun 1, 2015
39,995
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Iowa
So I'm definitely not an IT whiz by any means but I feel im normally tech savvy enough to accomplish this .. But totally stuck.

I just switched from mediacom TV to YouTube TV, so wanted to improve my network range to make sure all my tvs had good connection. I previously used a Motorola all in one gateway for modem and router. I want to bridge this as I bought a new nighthawk to expand the range. However no matter what I try I'm not having success. I can not get my new nighthawk router to say it has internet connection from the Motorola. Is there more to this than bridging the gateway and plug / play the new router?

Maybe bit off more than I can chew...
If you don't intend to use the all-in-one box as a router anymore, you should be able to make some kind of change in that box's settings to set it to bridge-only mode, which will disable all routing properties and the box effectively becomes only a modem. Then, all you should have to do is connect your Nighthawk to the AIO via cable between one of the AIO's LAN ports (likely port 1) and the WAN port on the Nighthawk, then apply any necessary ISP settings (like a PPPoE account or something else of that sort) into the Nighthawk's config.

Other options may be setting the Nighthawk to just be an access point and run both at the same time (not sure if that would be possible here), or getting a different system, such as a mesh network. Most ASUS routers have integrated mesh networking capabilities, as well as others specifically designed for that (Netgear Orbi, Google Mesh, Ubiquiti UniFi, etc).
 

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