UPC EPC3925 "Bridging" Guide

ED E

Here we go lads, lemme know what you think:

TCP/IP

Great guide thanks. What is the wireless range like on the WNDR3800

Thx

Doylers

So how are you accessing things behind the WNDR from outside the LAN. I have been using 192.168.0.1 for the UPC and 192.168.1.1 on for my devices with DMZ. Never have been able to access my NAS from outside the LAN.

ED E

Depends on your NAS. What you dont want to do is DMZ it, but allow it to be dialled on the ports it needs open. Thats a NAT/IP Passthrough issue.

With the WNDR you also have the option to mount a drive(or several) as NAS space and remotely connect to it with their Readyshare Cloud.

If its a NAS that can use an FTP client, find a good one, set it up, and then give it a port to use. For example if it was 6123 then you could ftp:83.200.300.40:6123 and it give you access (made up IP). As this is still "findable" to the outside, give it decent usernames/passwords.

ED E

TCP/IP wrote: »

Great guide thanks. What is the wireless range like on the WNDR3800

Thx

Cant be totally sure as due to where the drops were installed I ended up having to put both boxes in an alcove thing like below. The back corner has concrete around it as well as the brick, and there's a steel chimney on the left. Not idea, but such is bungalows. All that being true, it still covers the area it needs to, which is the main portion of the house. No one AP could ever cover the entire plot so we have two old routers covering the rest.

Tazzle

Great thread. I've done something similar myself. Personally as far as getting a decent router I recommend. (images are clickable)

The Asus RT-N16 (I use this at the moment, brilliant device)


or

The Linksys E4200 V1 (There's a newer V2 but you cannot use custom firmware on it)



Then I recommend this custom firmware:



Also see here for more info on the variants.
Also see here for discussions.

@Doylers, if you have a router that can run custom firmware, such as ^^ Tomato, you can quite easily setup a VPN and connect securely straight to your LAN from anywhere.

ED E

Tomato is one of the reasons why I bought the 3800 as its compatible, but as of yet I've not really needed to install it so I havent bothered.

testicle

Or you could just ring them and give them the MAC of your own router, ask them to set the Cisco to proper Bridged Mode and they will do it for you.

ED E

testicle wrote: »

Or you could just ring them and give them the MAC of your own router, ask them to set the Cisco to proper Bridged Mode and they will do it for you.

And kill the phone line....

Stone

Hi Ed,

Smashing guide .... wanted to do one myself, but you beat me to it

Just one thing that I - personally, and perhaps others may like to do as well - is in the case where you have a router already set up using 192.168.1.x as subnet subnet it is a lot easier to change the Cisco3925's LAN subnet instead of having to change your existing networks IP addresses (obviously if you have any static IP addresses maintained - which I have many off like e.g. NAS's, print server etc.) .....
This is obviously not an issue if you a) have no static IPs defined or b) if you do not already have a router/network set up.

Just my 2 cents worth .....

Cheers,
Stone

ED E

Yeah, thats true. As we were abandoning our own router in the process I didnt come at it that way, but yeah, makes sense. Set up the APs as statics but thats a two second jobbie.

Jonathan

testicle wrote: »

Or you could just ring them and give them the MAC of your own router, ask them to set the Cisco to proper Bridged Mode and they will do it for you.

Have you got any more information regarding this?

FreudianSlippers

It looks from your instructions that this has no impact on the UPC phone line if done correctly... just wanted to confirm before going ahead

Mister Gooey

FreudianSlippers wrote: »

It looks from your instructions that this has no impact on the UPC phone line if done correctly... just wanted to confirm before going ahead

Phone works after doing this!

ED E

FreudianSlippers wrote: »

It looks from your instructions that this has no impact on the UPC phone line if done correctly... just wanted to confirm before going ahead

Yep, phone(s) works fine.

Moriarty

testicle wrote: »

Or you could just ring them and give them the MAC of your own router, ask them to set the Cisco to proper Bridged Mode and they will do it for you.

Whenever I've rang upc support asking them to bridge the 3925 router they refuse, saying that the option isn't available. If you know of some way or person to talk to for enabling it, please let me know

I know it's technically possible just fine with the hardware, but the interface has it locked out and support just log in on the same interface so it obviously needs a different config pushed to the router.

Tango One

Nice guide say but I want to keep the 3925 as a wireless router and run 100m of CAT6 to another wireless router. Would I just setup the first router to use a set IP range then use the DMZ option for the other router and set that up for a different IP range? or just allow the 3925 to do all the routing

ED E

Tango One wrote: »

Nice guide say but I want to keep the 3925 as a wireless router and run 100m of CAT6 to another wireless router. Would I just setup the first router to use a set IP range then use the DMZ option for the other router and set that up for a different IP range? or just allow the 3925 to do all the routing

In that case you dont want to "bridge" at all. Just set the second router not to DHCP and to have a static IP(192.168.1.253 say) and then it'll act as a wireless extender. If you're doing intensive stuff then the EPC may still cause trouble.

Seaneh

When I "kill the DHCP" does that mean change connection mode form DHCP to static IP?

If so, what values do I set for the following fields?

Internet IP Address:
Subnet Mask:
Default Gateway:
Host Name:
Domain Name:
Primary DNS:
Secondary DNS:
MTU Size:

Cheers.

ED E

Seaneh wrote: »

When I "kill the DHCP" does that mean change connection mode form DHCP to static IP?

If so, what values do I set for the following fields?

Internet IP Address:
Subnet Mask:
Default Gateway:
Host Name:
Domain Name:
Primary DNS:
Secondary DNS:
MTU Size:

Cheers.

Eire Go Brach

Sorry lads but what exactly is bridging?

ED E

Modem+Router -> Modem and router separate.

Donald-Duck

This isn't working for me.

I've disabled the DHCP server under Setup-Lan Setup.

Added 192.168.1.27 to the DMZ and enabled it.

On my router(RT-N16) I have DHCP enabled.

On the router I have under WAN IP Settings:

IP: 192.168.1.27
Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.1

DNS Server1: 8.8.8.8
DNs Server2:8.8.4.4

All the traffic seems to die as soon as it hits the EPC, although when I assign my PC a static IP address while connected to the modem I can use the internet fine. Any ideas?

Edit: Resolved, had obviously changed a setting somewhere in the past that was interfering with it. Factory settings and started over and its good to go.

Eire Go Brach

ED E wrote: »

Modem+Router -> Modem and router separate.

Ok so I have turned of my wifi on my cisco and connected the internet into my own router? Thats bridging?

mang0

Hi, I wonder if you could tell me where I'm going wrong. I have the EPC and a Netgear WNDR 3700.

I can follow the instructions perfectly when it comes to the EPC. I have disabled wifi, set up the DMZ using .2 as the IP as per your instructions, and killed DHCP.

I reboot the EPC but what next? How do I configure the Netgear router? Do I need to attach it to the EPC already? If so, when I try to access the config at 192.168.1.2 nothing connects.

Should I connect the Netgear to my laptop and configure it via ethernet? Any help much appreciated because the EPC is doing my head in, it's such a piece of crap.

mang0

Hi, I wonder if you could tell me where I'm going wrong. I have the EPC and a Netgear WNDR 3700.

I can follow the instructions perfectly when it comes to the EPC. I have disabled wifi, set up the DMZ using .2 as the IP as per your instructions, and killed DHCP.

I reboot the EPC but what next? How do I configure the Netgear router? Do I need to attach it to the EPC already? If so, when I try to access the config at 192.168.1.2 nothing connects.

Should I connect the Netgear to my laptop and configure it via ethernet? Any help much appreciated because the EPC is doing my head in, it's such a piece of crap.

ED E

Yep, to clarify:

Configure both routers separately via cable. The last step is to connect the two.

mang0

Thanks. I'll give it a bash tomorrow.

And is the 192.168.2.1 IP address on the router in the image correct? It's supposed to be different from the 192.168.1.2 in the DMZ?

Rewired

ED E wrote: »

Yep, to clarify:

Configure both routers separately via cable. The last step is to connect the two.

Which cable? The LAN cable or the slightly thinner one that goes in the DSL input?
Also, my 'bridge' router doesn't have any designated WAN input. There is a DSL input and 4 LAN inputs, all the same...

I tried a 'bridged' setup from the EPC3925 to my Vodafone HG556a, connecting the LAN1 port on the EPC to the DSL on the Vodafone router using the thinner than LAN cable, but no internet. The internet connection would default to the Vodafone router homepage when I tried to load a webpage.

Does it matter which LAN connection I use on the EPC, with regard to the settings in the tutorial?

smokiebeverage

Jonathan wrote: »

Have you got any more information regarding this?

Cant verify this for home but for all of my business connections all I do is ring them when I order and tell them I want it in bridge mode and during the install they give me two ciscos, one bridged for internet and one (or more) for the phone lines

Rewired

I tried with my BT-Vorager router as well, but no success.

Ed-E: shouldn't the IP address for your 2nd router be .1.2 not .2.1? It makes sense to me that it would match the DMZ addy. Also, could you add your administrator -> DCHP (static) settings for the EPC to the guide please? I think this is where I'm going wrong as I'm taking a guess on these.

ED E

Rewired wrote: »

Which cable? The LAN cable or the slightly thinner one that goes in the DSL input?
Also, my 'bridge' router doesn't have any designated WAN input. There is a DSL input and 4 LAN inputs, all the same...

I tried a 'bridged' setup from the EPC3925 to my Vodafone HG556a, connecting the LAN1 port on the EPC to the DSL on the Vodafone router using the thinner than LAN cable, but no internet. The internet connection would default to the Vodafone router homepage when I tried to load a webpage.

Does it matter which LAN connection I use on the EPC, with regard to the settings in the tutorial?

Eh, yeah, you're using a DSL Modem. Thats probably not going to work.

The idea is to buy and aftermarket router, not recycle your old one(if you really want to use it set it up as a "dumb" access point).

ED E

Rewired wrote: »

I tried with my BT-Vorager router as well, but no success.

Ed-E: shouldn't the IP address for your 2nd router be .1.2 not .2.1? It makes sense to me that it would match the DMZ addy. Also, could you add your administrator -> DCHP (static) settings for the EPC to the guide please? I think this is where I'm going wrong as I'm taking a guess on these.

Gonna grab a few screens and make an update post with notes now.

Rewired

ED E wrote: »

Eh, yeah, you're using a DSL Modem. Thats probably not going to work.

The idea is to buy and aftermarket router, not recycle your old one(if you really want to use it set it up as a "dumb" access point).

So I just have to change some more settings on the other DSL router's setup page?

ED E wrote: »

Gonna grab a few screens and make an update post with notes now.

Great.

ED E

Rewired wrote: »

So I just have to change some more settings on the other DSL router's setup page?

Nooo. You have to buy another router.

ED E

Drew a little picture, nothing new, but might help some people understand better.




Notes:

• The new router has to be an aftermarket one. An old DSL one wont work. Nor a cable one. Aftermarket routers are just that, routers, and have no modem component. Thus they have an RJ45 etherenet WAN port, which is what we need.
• As above, the new router "thinks" itself to be the only router, the old one is just a "dumb" modem.
• The EPC3925 doesnt DHCP, so when it sends stuff, it sends it to the router. As its only connected on one port, its only got one place to go. This means the token address of "192.168.1.2" is FINE.

@Mods: Add to OP?


Think thats everything unresolved for now.

RE proper bridging, if you're business they'll do anything you want, even provision your own cable router, but us residentials, they couldn't give a cr@p.

Rewired

ED E wrote: »

Nooo. You have to buy another router.

Looks like I finally have a use for the Peats gift voucher then.

ED E

Hooooold up. Gonna have to mock up V1.1 tonight.





You need to set a static External IP, I'd forgotten I'd done it, and was assuming the EPC was picking it up automatically as the only route. *facepalm*. Anyways, yeah, thats the bit I missed.

@Mango: this is your fix.

mang0

Don't know how to give thanks on the thread like FreudianSlippers so I'll just say thanks. Working perfectly.

ED E

NP. Its the thumb on the far right at the bottom btw(not thank whoring Just info).

mang0

I don't have a thumb up. Maybe I don't have enough posts?

Anyway, just to reiterate, anyone using that piece of Cisco crap with UPC really ought to follow the instructions in this because my wifi is about 5000000 times better than it was.

billyfromdublin

hi guys this is my setup the only thing i have done is trun off wifi on the cisco and no more can i please ask what you think dose all look ok and what you think about the upgrade ????


cheers

ED E

billyfromdublin wrote: »

hi guys this is my setup the only thing i have done is trun off wifi on the cisco and no more can i please ask what you think dose all look ok and what you think about the upgrade ????


cheers

Looks fine, but its not what this thread is really about.

billyfromdublin

ED E wrote: »

Looks fine, but its not what this thread is really about.

hi ED E sorry for that was just trying to see what's the difference between the 2 setups

PeWu79

Great guide.
Something I was looking for since the real bridging on my 2425 stopped working.

Red Crow

So if I do this I lose my UPC phone?

Mister Gooey

Eli Manning wrote: »

So if I do this I lose my UPC phone?

No.

Eire Go Brach

billyfromdublin wrote: »

hi ED E sorry for that was just trying to see what's the difference between the 2 setups

I am thinking the same. What exactly is the difference? I turned the wifi off and just attached an N router. It works fine for me.

ED E

billyfromdublin wrote: »

hi ED E sorry for that was just trying to see what's the difference between the 2 setups

Eire Go Brach wrote: »

I am thinking the same. What exactly is the difference? I turned the wifi off and just attached an N router. It works fine for me.

You're fixing the wireless issue, giving you full speed wifi, but all the management roles are left to the EPC, which is shocking at doing its job. For light users who just facebook and email this is fine, but for gamers or households with several users this isnt great, as packets and requests get held up, and large traffic can cause it to freak. Also you dont get the extra features of a good router like proper port management, good firewall, continual updates(Netgear are great for this), traffic management, etc.

Its a case by case thing, but if you are capable of doing it and have ten minutes its worth doing properly.

Grawns

Going to buy a new router and try and get my network working and stable. I have had some success with a range extender and the epc3925 but due to the rubbish port management it crashes regularily. I never could get WDS functioning although it's supposed to be supported by the EPC3925.

My main issue is range ( Georgian house) followed by port managment and my questions are.
1. How is the range on the WNDR3800?
2. Is this a good price for the WNDR3800? €114.95
3. Is this Linksys E3200 a possible alternative at €69.95?


I haven't heard much good about netgear products and have been used to linksys cisco interfaces but I can learn - I've had to:)

Many thanks for this guide and I hope to order the new router and get this sorted out once and for all.

ED E

Grawns wrote: »

My main issue is range ( Georgian house) followed by port managment and my questions are.
1. How is the range on the WNDR3800?
2. Is this a good price for the WNDR3800? €114.95
3. Is this Linksys E3200 a possible alternative at €69.95?


I haven't heard much good about netgear products and have been used to linksys cisco interfaces but I can learn - I've had to:)

Many thanks for this guide and I hope to order the new router and get this sorted out once and for all.

First off, if its a Georgian house like the ones I'm used to and has three/four floors then one AP wont really work, you're gonna want two.

1. I cant be sure as mine is placed in an alcove with two layers of red brick and beside a metal chute for the chimney, pretty much the worst possible place. But thats where there was space for the gear. We have two other APs in the house so its not a big problem for us.

2. Ours was about the same from Amazon.

3. Yeah, it would be alright. Doesnt have the NAS features(only used mine once so far) and may miss a few other trinkets, but its not bad at all.
NB: €115 is excessive for most users, as a geek who spends far too much time online in a house with others who do same, it was apt for us, but most of you only need to spend 60-80€

UPDATE: Thanks to a PM from one of the users watching this thread I've had a look into the 3200, its actually a quite lower spec as it has a slower processor and half the RAM, but this will only affect the heavier users, so analyse your own usage before purchasing.