Airport Extreme Base station as wirless access point?

[mfacey]

I have recently opted to up my Internet connection speed from 30mbps to 100mbps. Unfortunately my current cable modem provided by my ISP is not up to the job dealing with the increased bandwidth.
My ISP, in all their wisdom, have decided to move from a "stupid" bridge only modem to a modem and wifi router in one from Cisco.
This in itself is not the end of the world but i've read on various fora that the wireless range on the Cisco is subpar. I would like to connect my AEBS to one of the lan ports and use it as a wireless access point. Unfortunately the ISP has removed the bridge mode option from the Cisco's firmware...
Is this even possible? Any other suggestions??


My AEBS is not the latest model but the single band 802.11N model. Some 4 years old...

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[steve knight]

unless you have settings other then default you should be able to run from the computer out to lan in on the extreme. Or just buy your own modem if you are not renting. best 60.00 investment I have made.

 

[mfacey]

Buying my own modem isn't an option unfortunately. My ISP has custom firmware on their modems that is required for connection to their network. I would spend €/$ 60 in a heartbeat, trust me...

Not sure i understand your answer though... will the AEBS autodetect that it is connected to a router and switch to an access point?

 

[FlatlinerG]

Is there not setting for the modem to act only as a modem and not double as a router? That way, you could just connect the AEBS straight to it and issue resolved.


I have a feeling there is more to it though..

 

[mfacey]

Is there not setting for the modem to act only as a modem and not double as a router? That way, you could just connect the AEBS straight to it and issue resolved.


I have a feeling there is more to it though..

No, unfortunately. The bridge mode has been disbled by the ISP in their custom firmware....

 

[ftaok]

No, unfortunately. The bridge mode has been disbled by the ISP in their custom firmware....

The AEBS should be able to act as a bridge to the Cisco modem/router. The Cisco will handle all of the DHCP stuff, and the AEBS will broadcast the wifi signal.

I have Verizon FiOS (USA) and we have to do something similar.

When you plug the AEBS into the Cisco, do you get a yellow light on the AEBS and a warning about a "double NAT" or something? That's what we get on FiOS, until you use the Airport Utility to switch the AEBS to bridge mode. I just followed the prompts and it works fine.

The only downside is that I have to log into the FiOS modem/router to see which devices are connected to the network. It no longer shows that in Airport Utility.

Also, you might want to turn off the wifi on the Cisco.

 

[Brian33]

Yes, what ftaok said. Set bridge mode on the AEBS, not the Cisco router. I also have FIOS and have a setup like ftaok (except that I have a 4 year old Time Capsule) and it does work well. The Apple device manages the wireless features, and the Cisco (in your case) will manage DHCP services.

One other minor inconvenience: any port forwarding rules will have to be set up on your Cisco router, not on the AEBS. So basically you'll have to learn two router management interfaces, Airport Utility and whatever Cisco provides.

 

[mfacey]

Well I spent a few hours last night messing about but decided that for now the wireless reception on the cisco modem/router is good enough. On the plus side it also has an extra ethernet port which is useful (why on earth does Apple only provide 3?!?!). So for now the AEBS is retired. Admittedly, it does hurt as this has been by far and away the most reliable router I have ever had.
We'll see how the Cisco works out in the longer run...

I will keep the advice regarding the bridge mode in mind as well.