Help Me Understanding This Fiber Optic Gateway/Router

[flexy]

I am not unfamiliar with Routers such as the Linksys WRTs and the Fritzbox.

But a few days ago we got Fiber Internet and a Huawei HG8247. (http://huawei.com/en/products/fixed-access/fttx/ont/hg8247/index.htm)

A "optical network terminal (ONT), a high-end home gateway in Huawei FTTH solution"

Basically, it is like my old Fritzbox, it has two POTS to connect phones, you can setup VoIP, it also has a CATV output for IPTV.

I am trying to understand two BASIC concepts with that gateway/router which are not clear to me.

The one is setting the 4 LAN ports of this router to "Layer 3", which by default on this router all have the checkmark, which means they are set to "Layer 3" by default.

What is the purpose of this? Why and in which case would I set a LAN port not to Layer 3?

The other is the concept of setting up multiple WANs in this router.

By default you can see there is one WAN set up as Internet, then "another" WAN for the VoIP and a third for remote management.

I don't understand this concept of "multiple WANs"!

I also don't understand what it means to bind any of those WANs (Internet, VoIP, IPTV etc.) to a LAN Port (as in "Binding Options"). As it looks it's not even bound to any LAN port right now but everything is working fine.

Hope someone can enlighten me there.

Thanks!

 

[John Connor]

Usually multiple WAN ports is for load balancing. But in this case the VOIP is separate from the Internet you browse from. I know some VOIP service providers need their equipment before the router as they can't use NAT.

Not sure about the LAN port binding.

 

[azazel1024]

On the WAN and binding thing.

Multiple WANs is so that each service listed above can have its own seperate external IP address. You wouldn't necessarily need it, but you can have it. As for binding, it is so that the LAN port can be on its own subnet (likely also why the L3 option is there for the LAN ports). So for instance if you had a VOIP provider, you can have the VOIP WAN port active, and then bind it to LAN3 and 4 if you wanted and had a pair of VOIP phones to plug directly in to those ports. Alternately you could bind one LAN port to VOIP, and then connect a switch to it and go from there.

No issues with figuring out which gateway each device need to talk to.