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An alternative to transparent bridging for folks with PPPoE

My internet connection is DSL by Centurylink - when I installed my eero pro 6 three pack, it was repeatedly suggested I configure my combo modem/router (Zytel PK5001Z) to use transparent bridging. Eero doesn’t support PPPoE and the more I read, the riskier this seemed. I’ve chosen an alternate approach that is far simpler and works for me. I just disabled the Wi-Fi radio for the combo box. 

12 replies

    • jason_cowie
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    While disabling your WiFi radio on the combo box prevents WiFi conflict - it does nothing to provide you the advanced / remote features that Eero has.

    I've called into Support to get either PPPoE to work (which they never told me it wasn't supported) and only received call your internet service provider (CEnturylink).  Wasted hours + days of time trying to take advantage of the advanced security features (why I spent 600.00 dollars) but couldn't do to DSL router. I then found an article setting your DSL router to use a DMZ Hosting - and BOOM, it worked great. I am blown away that Eero support was not helpful at all or even suggesting this.

      • BadWolfe
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      jason_cowie Jason, can I ask you a couple configuration questions on how you got the eero to work via DMZ?  I tried but it failed to work.  I'm sure I missed something simple.

    • ImpendingDoon
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    So I did what Prouty did, too. To avoid putting my eero into bridge mode, I have turned off the wireless radios on my CenturyLink combo modem/router. It still handles DHCP because I have it connected to a switch. I have my eero connected to the switch and let my wireless devices connect to it. The eero has an external IP address of 192.168.1.5 (which it gets from the router). The gateway eero IP address is 192.168.4.1 (with all wireless devices taking an address from this pool... 192.168.4.x on subnet 255.255.252.0). The devices connected to my switch all are in the 192.168.1.x pool on subnet 255.255.255.0.

    Unfortunately, now computers connected wirelessly do not see my NAS on the switch. How do I fix this? Port forwarding? Reservation? Where do I fix this? At the router? the switch? or the eero? DMZ hosting didn't seem to do anything for me that wasn't already working. I seem to have all the advanced features, too. So confused.

      • cmarinas
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      ImpendingDoon You can connect the eero directly to the router and use the other ethernet port on the eero to connect the switch (so the switch won't be connected to the router directly). Your NAS (and whatver else is on the switch) now gets the IP address now from eero rather than the router.

      • z1haze
      • 4 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      cmarinas This is what I do, but it still leaves me with an extra network (from the dsl modem/router that shouldn't need to be there if it werent for the lack of pppoe support on the eero preventing me from using bridged mode on the modem

       

      I basically have a single connection to my modem/router, at 192.168.0.2 (which is the master eero router). From that the eero outputs to the switch, which handles ethernet connections to devices on the network, and the eero wifi handles the wifi connections. Less than ideal, but it works. Would like to be able to just cut the isp lan out of the equation

    • thesinex
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I found the same, there is only one modem that would suit eero 6 pro in the UK , in most cases in the UK you would have to use it as a bridge to your existing modem, a complete waste of time, Google wifi/nest router does the pppoe so as you can input your isp details into the phone app, if the eero system is going to take off in the uk, it needs to add pppoe into the software, i returned my eero 6 pro and stuck with google wifi

    • BadWolfe
    • 3 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Seeking help:  

    I have a Linksys router and found out after purchasing eero pro 6 that it does not support DSL, so I need to keep the Linksys router.  

    Tech support had me set the eero in Bridge mode, and keep the Linksys doing my advanced networking, such as DHCP, DNS, Port forwarding.

    Reading this thread it sounds like I can utilize DMZ in my Linksys, then take the eero out of Bridge mode, thus enabling the eero advanced Networking functions.

    Is this correct?  I am hopeful this will solve this issue.

    If so, I am not sure what address to set the DMZ to.

    Appreciate any help here.

      • BadWolfe
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      BadWolfe I think I answered part of my question (what address to assign the DMZ to: It will be the eero ip address.

    • thesinex
    • 3 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    It does support DSL or VDSL, it’s pppoe I does not handle, if your on fibre it’s not an issue, the issue is that a fully authorised by isp signal has to go into eero to run it properly, unless you get hold of a Netgear DM200 modem, you would have to run it in bridge mode which defeats the object , 

      • BadWolfe
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      thesinex Thank you for your response and the clarification.

      Question:  From what I have been reading, my assumption is that I can use my Linksys router to connect to my DSL provider (PPPoe) and then set up the DMZ so that traffic goes directly to the eero.

      At that point, hang my switch off of the eero and then the eero will handle all of the DHCP, external DNS service connection, and VPN passthrough.

      Is that your understanding as well?  (I am hanging back until I get solid answers to my assumptions)

      • cmarinas
      • 3 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      BadWolfe I have a different ISP router (still PPPoE) but I didn't have to do anything special like setting up a DMZ host. Eero (I don't have Eero 6, so can't tell) forwards any UPnP requests from the clients on your network to the main router so PC games, XBox work normally. It was sufficient to enable UPnP on the router. I'm not sure it does that if you set up explicit port forwarding on the Eero though. I have a suspicion it doesn't, so in this case you either configure the DMZ host in your Linksys router to point to the Eero connected to it or set up explicit port forwarding on the router to Eero for the ports you need. In my cases, some devices that needed static port forwarding were connected directly to the ISP router (e.g. a Raspberry Pi acting as VPN server).

    • thesinex
    • 3 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    good luck with that one, most modem routers will not allow you to  bridge and pppoe, the only modem i ever got to work properly with eero was the netgear dm200, and goof luck trying to find one of those, vdsl speeds are just not worth the agro in my opinion,  get a draytek vigor 130  and a huawei ax3000 wifi 6, vdsl fttc mesh is a complete was of time, 

Content aside

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