Enabling additional ethernet ports in my home - ATT Router

[A Smith]

1000Mbs ATT Service


THE SETUP:

(outside) Cloud -> Optical Modem -> (inside) ATT 4 Port Wireless Router (in House)

This works, but this only makes one Ethernet Port in the House ‘Live’ ( the one connected to the router)

The house has 4 other ethernet ports.

Ethernet port in home office is available, but not ‘Live’

Ethernet port in Den is available but not ‘Live’



SO I DID:

(outside) Cloud -> Optical Modem -> Netgear 8 port Unmanaged Switch -> (indside) ATT 4Port Wireless Router (in House)

This works like above, but in addition:

Outside I plugged in the Den/Office ethernet cables into the Netgear 8 port switch & line tested the signals inside for the Den/Office – The line test passes and looks good


I took an older router and turned off wireless & dchp, and gave it a static IP address. I plugged this older router physically into one of the LAN ports on the ATT 4Port Wireless router, and plugged my laptop into the older router, and I was able to access the internet, as well as the routers admin setup with no issue. I covered the WAN port of the older router, since it will not be used.


So this works, and I can access the internet:

(outside) Cloud -> Optical Modem -> Netgear 8 port Unmanaged Switch -> (indside) ATT 4Port Wireless Router -> plug in older router -> Plug in Laptop into older router



THIS DOES NOT WORK:

(outside) Cloud -> Optical Modem -> Netgear 8 port Unmanaged Switch -> (indside) Office ethernet port -> plug in older router -> Plug in Laptop into older router



I assumed that since the switch was now outside, that I could now access the office ethernet connection by plugging in the older router to the ethernet port in the office, and then plugging in the laptop into the older router, but this did not work, I cant access the internet, or any of the router admin pages. I know that the signal can be passed successfully through the switch because of my line testing. But unless the older router is directly connected to the ATT 4Port, I am unable to get to the internet.


It looks like there is some setting that I need to include in the 4Port Wireless ATT BGW210 700 router? All devices are on the same switch, how do I get the 4Port Wireless to acknowlege a device that is not directly connected to its lan ports?

 

[mnewsham]

Your ISP only assigns you a SINGLE WAN IP address

You need to put any ethernet switch AFTER your router, you can't split the connection from the ONT (what you're calling an optical modem).

You're basically asking for another WAN IP address, which your ISP wont give you, what you need to do is be connecting to the main router to request a LAN IP address, and route WAN traffic through that router back to the ONT.

So it would look like this


Cloud -> ONT (optical modem) -> ATT router -> 8 port unmanaged switch -> whatever else


you MUST go through the router, you CANNOT split this connection BEFORE the router.

 

[A Smith]

Ok. Thanks for the information. The problem I am trying to resolve is that there are valid Ethernet ports available in multiple rooms in the home, but unless I can get get data to those ports, I am stuck with wireless throughout the home from the single ATT wireless router that sits inside the home.


So there is no device that can fit in [SLOT A] (below) that will allow me to make the other ethernet ports in the home ‘Live’. I want to piggyback off of the WAN IP address that I currently have. I imagined that I would be able to let the ATT Router handle the dchp duties, but ‘trick’ ( I don’t know if that is the correct terminology) the router to recognizing devices plugged into the valid ethernet ports in other rooms. The 8-port switch on the inside of the home does not get me ‘Live’ ethernet to the other rooms. I imagine that all of the other ethernet cables ( from the other rooms) would fit into [SLOT A].


Cloud -> ONT (optical modem) -> [SLOT A] (outside the home) -> ATT router ( inside the home)


Hmm.. so how does ATT ( or any installer ) make the additional ethernet ports active in home install?

 

[mnewsham]

Ok. Thanks for the information. The problem I am trying to resolve is that there are valid Ethernet ports available in multiple rooms in the home, but unless I can get get data to those ports, I am stuck with wireless throughout the home from the single ATT wireless router that sits inside the home.


So there is no device that can fit in [SLOT A] (below) that will allow me to make the other ethernet ports in the home ‘Live’. I want to piggyback off of the WAN IP address that I currently have. I imagined that I would be able to let the ATT Router handle the dchp duties, but ‘trick’ ( I don’t know if that is the correct terminology) the router to recognizing devices plugged into the valid ethernet ports in other rooms. The 8-port switch on the inside of the home does not get me ‘Live’ ethernet to the other rooms. I imagine that all of the other ethernet cables ( from the other rooms) would fit into [SLOT A].


Cloud -> ONT (optical modem) -> [SLOT A] (outside the home) -> ATT router ( inside the home)


Hmm.. so how does ATT ( or any installer ) make the additional ethernet ports active in home install?

Yeah, put your ATT router in "slot A", problem solved.


Anything that comes after the ATT router will be assigned a local IP address and use it's WAN IP.


Just run ethernet LAN from the router to where ever you need it. Add a switch if you need more ethernet LAN ports.


At the end of the day, you just need to make sure the final link before the ONT is a router, you can't split it before this.

 

[mxnerd]

Your router is like a company PBX system. You have ONE WAN IP, like a company only have one public phone number. All of your devices/computers share one WAN IP address.

PBX system: one public phone number --- many extensions.

Consumer Router (a NAT (Network Address Translation) router): one public WAN IP address -- many private IP addresses.

Follow @mnewsham 's setup instruction.

==

If you want to use the old router, configure it as AP mode and uplink one of its LAN port to the 8-port switch.