UPC Cisco EPC3925: Enabling True Bridge Mode - A Simple How-to Guide

gasman77 · 20-02-2013 6:09pm

Deanicus wrote: »

Make sure the netgear is set so that internet does not require a login and your Internet IP address should be set to "Get dynamically from ISP".

This way the Netgear assumes the responsibility of routing the internet connection. Also, just double check that your connected device does not have a static IP. If it does, make sure the Netgear is setup to assign addresses in the same range (I had 2 different ones before bridge mode was available)

Hi Deanicus, many thanks for your reply.

Yes I checked all that (I did have static ip's set up before the change but changed them to dynamic before bridging) everything else is set as you suggest but still the led is orange.
As I said in my original post, everything is working fine and better than before the change. its just why the orange led?

Deanicus · 20-02-2013 6:48pm

gasman77 wrote: »

Hi Deanicus, many thanks for your reply.

Yes I checked all that (I did have static ip's set up before the change but changed them to dynamic before bridging) everything else is set as you suggest but still the led is orange.
As I said in my original post, everything is working fine and better than before the change. its just why the orange led?

Oh so the internet is working then, just the colour is different?

Deanicus · 20-02-2013 6:52pm

gasman77 wrote: »

Hi Deanicus, many thanks for your reply.

Yes I checked all that (I did have static ip's set up before the change but changed them to dynamic before bridging) everything else is set as you suggest but still the led is orange.
As I said in my original post, everything is working fine and better than before the change. its just why the orange led?

Had a quick google and an amber light means the connection is at 10Mbps whilst green means 100Mbps.

Since you said it was green before, perhaps you changed the connection settings of your ethernet card by accident?

DECEiFER · 20-02-2013 6:57pm

I believe a green LAN port LED means the port is running at a Gigabit while orange is for 10/100 Megabits. The WGR614 only has 100Mbps ports, so unless you connect a Gigabit router or device up to the EPC, the LED will remain orange.

Deanicus · 20-02-2013 6:59pm

DECEiFER wrote: »

I believe a green LAN port LED means the port is running at a Gigabit while orange is for 10/100 Megabits. The WGR614 only has 100Mbps ports, so unless you connect a Gigabit router or device up to the EPC, the LED will remain orange.

I think for non-gigabit models its as I described but could be wrong

BTW thanks for this thread and all the help you gave me earlier in it

DECEiFER · 20-02-2013 7:06pm

No problem, man! I'm not sure about models limited 10/100 Megabits. Also, I don't have any 100Mbps devices/NICs so I can't test the EPC's LED colors but as you said, Google helped out and it makes sense because my WNDR3700 exhibits the same behavior. In-fact, it's typically orange for a Gigabit connection and green for 10/100 Megabits. According to DD-WRT, for example:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Netgear_WNDR3700 wrote:

Q: After flashing DD-WRT, the LAN LEDs are now green for 10/100M and orange 1000M?
A: This is an intentional change by the DD-WRT developers, Netgear had the colors backwards as gigabit is usually orange (check any other NIC!).

Gasman77, thanks for your comments above. Glad that the thread has been helpful to you. You're right about the option now being available, this did happen for some/a lot/most devices (including my own) about a month after I started this thread. I thought the thread would eventually die down due to it being irrelevant but there are some people who have reported that they don't see the option, which is odd since they should be downloading the same DOCSIS configuration file as the rest of us on the 3925s. I'm no DOCSIS expert so I can't even speculate as to why they wouldn't see the option. So bear it in mind, just in case the option one day disappears for you. This thread (even though it wasn't envisioned this way when I wrote the OP) is also a place for people to ask questions about setting up their cable routers, as you have done, and we're happy to provide assistance to anyone who's having trouble or for folks who just want advice on what router to purchase, etc.

Alun · 20-02-2013 7:30pm

On the EPC3925 it's very definitely green for 1000Mbit and orange for 10/100MBit.

gasman77 · 20-02-2013 7:46pm

Alun wrote: »

On the EPC3925 it's very definitely green for 1000Mbit and orange for 10/100MBit.

Ah so thats it, if only I had bothered to hover my mouse over the lan icon.:cool:

I now find that if I connect my main pc directly to the modem (the rest are all wireless ) that I am back to green whist the router connection remains orange. Does that mean that the router section of the cisco is still operational when in bridge mode? I would have thought it would only be a pure modem offering one input only. what am I missing?

BTW Alun I lived and worked in Bray for nearly 20 years, perhaps we have met

DECEiFER · 20-02-2013 7:48pm

It's green because your PC's NIC is most-likely a Gigabit one. You're connecting directly to the modem, the routing is still not active. You can have up to 3 DHCP assignments from UPC per connection (note that the assignment is locked to the MAC address of each device connected to whatever port of the modem/EPC).

Alun · 20-02-2013 8:16pm

Yes, when the router is in bridge mode, you can connect up to 3 devices to it, BUT, and it's a big BUT, you have no NAT, no firewall, and each device will have a public IP address, not a private one, exposing them directly to the internet and therefore depending wholly on any software firewall installed on that device for protection.

gasman77 · 20-02-2013 8:41pm

Alun wrote: »

Yes, when the router is in bridge mode, you can connect up to 3 devices to it, BUT, and it's a big BUT, you have no NAT, no firewall, and each device will have a public IP address, not a private one, exposing them directly to the internet and therefore depending wholly on any software firewall installed on that device for protection.

Yup I gathered that but since Mcafee is on my pc I have always found it to be a pain passing permissions through to the router firewall etc.
Incidentally it is because of mcafee that I prefer to set static ip's . mcafee's network manager/map always warns me when a new device connects to my network and gives me the opportunity to block them. hence assigned and therefore known IP's are easily recognised. anything else gets kicked out

This forum/thread is so fast and useful. I got answers immediately. Once again many thanks to Decifer and all involved.
Any advice on choice of router? for if I get nagged enough to upgrade

Alun · 20-02-2013 9:11pm

gasman77 wrote: »

Any advice on choice of router? for if I get nagged enough to upgrade

What speed UPC connection do you have? If it's 100Mbit/s or less then there's no reason at all to upgrade it. Only if you're on 150Mbit/s will the connection your Netgear router and the bridged UPC router form a bottleneck.

onlyahobo · 20-02-2013 10:01pm

Alun wrote: »

What speed UPC connection do you have? If it's 100Mbit/s or less then there's no reason at all to upgrade it.

That's true there's no need for a gigabit router unless the connection is over 100 Mb/s if you consider the WAN port only. However a gigabit switch would make a difference if you send big files over your LAN. So there is some sense to upgrade the router.

DECEIFER, I've checked and I don't get more than one DHCP assigment from UPC here in Poland. That's a schame that it's not like in Ireland where you get 3 public addresses. Anyway, I bought a Netgear WNR3500L v2 and flashed Tomato on it and it's doing very well along with the EPC3925 in Bridge mode.

DECEiFER · 20-02-2013 10:04pm

onlyahobo wrote: »

DECEIFER, I've checked and I don't get more than one DHCP assigment from UPC here in Poland. That's a schame that it's not like in Ireland where you get 3 public addresses. Anyway, I bought a Netgear WNR3500L v2 and flashed Tomato on it and it's doing very well along with the EPC3925 in Bridge mode.

Ah, good to know in case anyone else from Poland stumbles across the thread. Glad you're all set up and that everything's working out!

onlyahobo · 20-02-2013 10:18pm

It's working perfectly, thanks! By the way, I can confirm that the amber light thing. I've just upgraded from a Fast Ethernet router to a Gigabit one and the light has changed from amber to green.

spireland32 · 20-02-2013 10:23pm

Had to get a tp link 450 dual band router as the wifi on the cisco is brutal. The cd with tp link made it easy to install. I disabled wifi on the cisco. Wireless is now great.

Im confused now do I need to bridge? My internet works through the tp link router and phone through the upc cisco router. I game and browse online nothing heavy. Whats the advantages of bridging? Would the tp link cd have automatically bridged the router.

gasman77 · 20-02-2013 10:50pm

onlyahobo

did yo realise that Lubin Poland is an anagram for Dublin Nopal (Dublin Prickly pear):D
Just my weird sense of humour, no offence intended and glad this thread helped you out as it did me

Alun · 20-02-2013 11:33pm

spireland32 wrote: »

Im confused now do I need to bridge? My internet works through the tp link router and phone through the upc cisco router. I game and browse online nothing heavy. Whats the advantages of bridging? Would the tp link cd have automatically bridged the router.

If you haven't bridged the Cisco, then you're "double NAT'ing", which can cause problems. Google it ...

The TP-Link CD certainly won't have set your Cisco into bridge mode either by the way.

gasman77 · 20-02-2013 11:41pm

Alun wrote: »

What speed UPC connection do you have? If it's 100Mbit/s or less then there's no reason at all to upgrade it. Only if you're on 150Mbit/s will the connection your Netgear router and the bridged UPC router form a bottleneck.

Yes and I agree with the theory but my upc connection is only 30Mb (shame on eircom) which is in itself strange since upc offer a minimum of 50 yet say it is not available in my area.
So therefore no need to upgrade the router?
The proof is in the pudding
If I connect direct to the modem and run speedtest I will get a consistant 32M/3M
If I connect via the router (wireless or lan) I will get 20/2.9.
so ergo it is circa 30% lower via the router than it is direct.
Would love to borrow a fast router to test it out

onlyahobo · 21-02-2013 7:18am

gasman77 wrote: »

onlyahobo
did yo realise that Lubin Poland is an anagram for Dublin Nopal (Dublin Prickly pear):D

Yeh, I got once a package from Ireland addressed "Dublin, Poland".

onlyahobo · 21-02-2013 7:43am

Does anybody know if EPC3925 supports the connection of 120 Mb/s? I'm thinking of upgrading my connection from 60 to 120 Mb/s and I'm not sure what my options are as far as the type of router is concerned. I'd rather they left my EPC3925 as I like it in Bridge mode and I certainly don't want to get a Thompson or the like. Do you know what the options are in Ireland for 120 Mb/s?

Alun · 21-02-2013 9:44am

onlyahobo wrote: »

Does anybody know if EPC3925 supports the connection of 120 Mb/s? I'm thinking of upgrading my connection from 60 to 120 Mb/s and I'm not sure what my options are as far as the type of router is concerned. I'd rather they left my EPC3925 as I like it in Bridge mode and I certainly don't want to get a Thompson or the like. Do you know what the options are in Ireland for 120 Mb/s?

The EPC3925 is certainly capable of 120Mbit/s and a whole lot more.

Alun · 21-02-2013 9:46am

gasman77 wrote: »

If I connect direct to the modem and run speedtest I will get a consistant 32M/3M
If I connect via the router (wireless or lan) I will get 20/2.9.
so ergo it is circa 30% lower via the router than it is direct.

That's odd. You do have the EPC3925 in bridged mode, yes?

What router model do you have exactly, and have you updated it to it's latest firmware?

gasman77 · 21-02-2013 12:24pm

Alun wrote: »

That's odd. You do have the EPC3925 in bridged mode, yes?

What router model do you have exactly, and have you updated it to it's latest firmware?

Yes yes the EPC 3925 is in bridge mode with wireless off.
The router is a netgear WGR14 v9 using the latest software

Alun · 21-02-2013 6:09pm

gasman77 wrote: »

Yes yes the EPC 3925 is in bridge mode with wireless off.
The router is a netgear WGR14 v9 using the latest software

Seems to be a problem with that router, seemingly just not up to the job processing power wise, nothing to do with the link speed ...

http://forum1.netgear.com/showthread.php?t=78280

http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Up-to-120Mb-Setup-Equipment/Using-a-Netgear-WGR614-v9/td-p/1001353

So, time for a new router then, sorry for doubting you

Leiva · 27-02-2013 11:40pm

Am I correct in saying that the EPC3925 now gets delivered with the option to bridge, so no need to edit the code ?

Or does UPC now use a different modem/router all together ?

DECEiFER · 28-02-2013 12:11am

Leiva wrote: »

Am I correct in saying that the EPC3925 now gets delivered with the option to bridge, so no need to edit the code ?

Or does UPC now use a different modem/router all together ?

UPC are still issuing 3925s and bridging should work out of the box.

Leiva · 28-02-2013 12:17am

DECEiFER wrote: »

UPC are still issuing 3925s and bridging should work out of the box.

Cheers Deceifer...you are to be congratulated with the assistance you give on this thread 10/10

1 more question.. (actually 2)...

1.)If you were to go out and buy a router to suit this modem what would it be? I'm not loaded but don't worry about price.

2.) a family member has the epc2425 - has bridging become available do you know on this model?

spireland32 · 28-02-2013 7:28pm

DECEiFER wrote: »

UPC are still issuing 3925s and bridging should work out of the box.

I have attached a tp link router to epc3925. Got epc in November. Awful wifi so I got tp link 450mpps router. Disabled epc wireless. Now have great wifi. Has putting epc in bridge mode changed from your 1st post... ie a button press?

DECEiFER · 01-03-2013 2:13am

Leiva wrote: »

Cheers Deceifer...you are to be congratulated with the assistance you give on this thread 10/10

1 more question.. (actually 2)...

1.)If you were to go out and buy a router to suit this modem what would it be? I'm not loaded but don't worry about price.

2.) a family member has the epc2425 - has bridging become available do you know on this model?

Hi Leiva,

1) I like Netgears a lot. My own router is a WNDR3700v1 (there's newer v2, v3, and v4 revisions also). Though maybe a WNDR3800 would be better? When you spend money on a good mid-to-high-end consumer router, from any manufacturer, you'll likely see a pretty decent improvement over what the EPC3925 can do. If you use eBay, you could get one of the models above for around €100-120.

2) I'm not sure about the EPC2425. It was my understanding that it can be done but the interface is different, I believe, so my HTML code may not work. Also, putting it into Bridge mode will break the phone service on that model (not permanently, just while it's in Bridge mode).

Hope that helps. Someone else who's more knowledgeable about the EPC2425 may chime in, but there's plenty of threads about it on Boards that you could ask on (so long as you're not reviving an inactive thread).

UPC Cisco EPC3925: Enabling True Bridge Mode - A Simple How-to Guide

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