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How to bridge 2wire router

I just don't get it. Why don't you have your 2wire exchange for a thomson modem ? Why go through all the trouble ?

reply to Ternerito
you'll need the password for the mdc, and unless it's an older modem, I don't you'll have much success in getting the password for the mdc.

River_ratbc, I have mdc access. Symtex, call it a chance to learn something. I didn't think that bridging the 2wire would be a lot of trouble. The checkbox to do that is even there on the user side, though it doesn't seem to do much...

reply to Ternerito
Easiest and best method to do what you want to do is to put the 2wire into DMZPlus mode. You don't need access to the MDC to do this. That will pass the IP assigned to it onto the router behind it and all the needed information, as well as open all ports to flow to the router behind it.

However, if you feel the need to screw with the 2wire's MDC and have access to it. You can do as you've stated. I'm not sure why you would need to disable ATM PVC search. It will work without doing that. Direct IP is set by default as connection type.

The "Access the Advanced -> Configure Services and uncheck enable routing. Click Save and your 2Wire is now a dumb modem, sans routing" is all you should really need to do.

This will make it so you CANNOT access the 2wire via the gateway 192.168.1.254 because it's no longer going to be the gateway.

To figure out how to get an IP address for your PC through the gateway after you do this, read up on it here in a userguide for the 2700 (the MDC stuff is the same in this userguide even though a lot of it won't apply to the Telus firmware set):
»www.2wire.com/pages/pdfs/5100-00···ev.A.pdf

Skip down to pages 112 or so and you'll be able to read how to do it.

I will add that ONLY try this if you know what you're doing and are versed in network configurations, DO NOT do this otherwise. If you screw the router up, doing a factory reset will likely revert the settings, but I can't verify that. You could be down for some time until you can figure out how to revert your settings back or get a replacement for your mistake, which may cost you.

Again, if you're an average user, use DMZPlus via the standard user GUI to essentially do the same thing as bridging it. As it clearly states in the user guide, bridging should only be done for testing purposes and by people knowledgeable in networking.

Have fun.. don't call us if you mess it up.

psydfx, I appreciate your warnings. I looked at the DMZ+ thing, but in the end I decided to go ahead and setup the 2wire as a modem only. I deeply disliked the routing part of the 2wire anyway.

With DMZplus, I would have been still stuck with DHCP, firewall & C. being provided by the 2wire, which was redundant. My RV042 is now happily taking care of all that.

The reason I asked about accessing the 2wire at the 192.168.1.254 IP address is because the mdc / advanced / configure services page says just so:
Warning: When you disable routing, the gateway's local IP address gets set to 192.168.1.254/255.255.255.0.

This is in contrast with the 2wire manual:
Note: When routing is disabled the gateway's local IP address is set to 172.16.0.1/16.

I guess that this is probably one of the changes specific to the Telus firmware. I can confirm that the 2wire unit can still access at the 'old' address (192.168.1.254) while in bridge mode.

So far no ill effects. Upload speed is actually 50-60 kbs faster than usual, though probably this is just random. Thanks for helping!

Sorry to reply to my own message, but I did found a drawback after all.

It looks like the 2wire does *not* disable the firewall even when in bridged mode. This sucks big time, because this means that the firewall just cannot be disabled, at least in any way that I know.

I think I'm ready to give up, and ask Telus for a simple 'dumb' modem to replace the 2wire. I guess a Thomson Speedtouch would be it? Do I just ask for it, or do I need to use a specific wording?

reply to Ternerito
What are you trying to attempt?

My 2wire I have set for wireless or hardwire,.. I have a laptop, Nintendo WII on wireless,.. the odd other pc on the hardwire LAN. I have this pc on hardwire through the 2wire but I am pulling my own ip from TELUS directly and not being assign DHCP through the 2wire router portion, my ip is 205.206.xxx.xxx,.. the others are 192.168.xxx.xxx.
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When I first got married we started out with nothing,... and to this day we still have most of it.

reply to Ternerito
My friend got one because the 2wire and siemens would not work with his VPN device that he needed to use to connect to work with.

This my current configuration:

ADSL 3.0 (ADSL2+) -> 2wire 2700HG-E in bridged mode, radio is disabled -> Linksys RV042 (1.3.9)

Bridging the 2wire disables DHCP, NAT and (supposedly) the SPI firewall. The RV042 is getting a routable IP (205.x.x.x) on the WAN1 interface, and is providing 10.x.x.x addresses to the LAN.

I think that upload / download speed are fine for a 3.0 plan: 2633 kb/s download, 754 kb/s upload.

The problem seems to be with the firewall. If I create a rule to open a port on the RV042, and then test my IP with an online port scanner (for instance grc.com), that port is still recognized as 'stealth'.

This makes no sense, unless the firewall on the 2wire is still active...

I found a thread on the subject on the 2wire forum:
»tinyurl.com/2ybslw

reply to Ternerito
Oh I do have the 2wire MDC password and you would be suprised of what I can teach you but this is not the point.

I just do not like the 2wire period.

I officially gave up on the 2700 and called telus. The rep agreed to swap my 2wire for a Speedtouch, though she sounded a little surprised at my request.

She warned me that the Speedtouch is usually sent to DSL lite customers...? I asked if this was the 516v6 model but she wasn't sure.

Will I need any 'special' kind of access (like the mdc for the 2wire) to bridge this?

Yes, the speedtouch is the same one as normally sent to lite customers - but this isn't because it's an inferior modem that can't hit the high plan speeds or anything. It's simply because the built-in wireless and routing is seen as a "bonus" feature, so is included in all the higher end plans by default (while the lites get only a modem).

In truth, the speedtouch is also sent out to all business customers by default, across any speed plans. Anybody who has their own router is probably better off using the speedtouch.

About bridging mode - since the unit is designed as a pure modem, it will already come in transparent bridged mode, ready to go. You just hook it up between your router and phone line and you'll get a public IP straight to your router no problem.

reply to psydfx

To my knowledge, DMZplus mode does assign a proper public IP to your own router and forwards all ports, but does not fully disable the 2wire's firewalling capabilities. As such, some things may still not work as you'd expect - but without MDC access there's no way to put the unit into purely bridged mode. In most cases however, DMZplus will work perfectly fine for you.

Thanks siberx4.