Recommendation for Internet Bonding Router

[RaddyKewl]

I currently have Comcast/XFinity. I have a high end modem/router combo that I purchased. Recently, Comcast pushed a firmware update that makes my modem/router constantly lose connection and reboot itself. This always happens when I'm in the middle of work, or just trying to watch TV. This happens on a daily basis, sometimes multiple times a day. I’ve called Comcast and they can’t even detect that there’s an issue.

 

Today, my power blinked, and that killed the whole Comcast backbone in our area, and my internet has been down for 2 hours, and has an ETA of another 3 hours. This is ridiculous.

 

The only other viable provider in my area is AT&T DSL. When I had DSL in the past it was extremely reliable. My internet never went down in the several years I had it. But the speed comes nowhere close to Comcast.

 

I work from home, and all of my entertainment is streamed from the internet. This is extremely frustrating that my internet goes down at all, let alone constantly and for long periods of time.

 

My whole house is hardwired for ethernet, and I already have a switch that handles that. There’s currently about 30 devices on my network. About 10 of those are wireless devices. All provisioned with reserved IP addresses. I’ll likely be adding more devices for home automation. I also use a Pi-Hole DNS server network wide.

 

TLDR: Looking for a recommendation for a router that can bond internet connections from two modems: a cable and DSL modem.

[Alex Atkin UK]

23 minutes ago, RaddyKewl said:

Looking for a recommendation for a router that can bond internet connections from two modems: a cable and DSL modem.

You probably don't want to bond, that's very involved and generally unreliable unless both connections are exactly the same speed.  What you need is failover, so if the main broadband goes down it switches over to the backup.

 

I can't really offer suggestions on that as I always use custom firmware (OpenWRT) and pfSense (running on a PC) for that sort of thing.  I don't know what consumer routers are capable of it, they tend to prefer things like 4G failover rather than a second fixed broadband connection.

[Donut417]

30 minutes ago, RaddyKewl said:

Looking for a recommendation for a router that can bond internet connections from two modems: a cable and DSL modem.

Your looking for a router that supports fail over. Also you dont want to hook a router to a router. That will create double NAT. So your current gear with Comcast will need to be replaced or put in to bridge mode. AT&T last I heard required you to use their gateway, they dont support bridge mode, but it should support pass thru mode which should work. 

 

I know for a fact that Synology RT2600AC can do both fail over and load balancing. The only downside is you loose a LAN port as its used as the second WAN port. The other downside is its only WIFi 5, but the router has some nice features, such as the ability to keep an eye on what devices are using all the bandwidth, which is nice considering Crapcast has data caps. It also allows you to limit or guarantee bandwidth on a per device level. Another thing is this router supports 4G via a USB dongle. 

 

38 minutes ago, RaddyKewl said:

my modem/router constantly lose connection and reboot itself. This always happens when I'm in the middle of work, or just trying to watch TV.

Sounds like you have a signal issue. If your TV service is going down as well, then its bad. Cable modems need the best possible signal, but the TV boxes can settle for a bit less. It continue to call them and if they do nothing, contact the FCC and file a complaint. Comcast will turn its shit around really quick and in a hurry. You can file a complaint here: https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us

[RaddyKewl]

Cool, thank you for the recommendation. The Synology system looks perfect.

 

My current modem/router was working fine until they pushed a firmware update a few months ago. I’ve read it’s a common issue with my router and that particular firmware. I’m on a Netgear C7800. Firmware version 6.01.07. 

 

Almost all of my television is streaming through the internet. Sling, Peacock, YouTube, Netflix. I get the locals with an over the air antenna to a Tablo DVR which I access over the network from my AppleTVs.

[RaddyKewl]

Just got the new Synology router and I’m having trouble getting everything setup.

 

I disabled DHCP on the old Netgear modem/router. The new Synology gateway IP is 192.168.1.1 and the IP range starts at 192.168.1.2. I changed the gateway IP of the Netgear to 192.168.1.2.

 

The Synology router is not detecting the Netgear modem on the WAN port. It  won’t let me force it to use that IP for the gateway, and no other device on my network is currently using that IP. What am I doing wrong?

[Donut417]

11 minutes ago, RaddyKewl said:

Just got the new Synology router and I’m having trouble getting everything setup.

 

I disabled DHCP on the old Netgear modem/router. The new Synology gateway IP is 192.168.1.1 and the IP range starts at 192.168.1.2. I changed the gateway IP of the Netgear to 192.168.1.2.

 

The Synology router is not detecting the Netgear modem on the WAN port. It  won’t let me force it to use that IP for the gateway, and no other device on my network is currently using that IP. What am I doing wrong?

You have to put the gateway in to bridge mode or replace it with a standard modem. Disabling DHCP on the gateway is not enough because its still acting as a router. 

 

Due to Federal Law Comcast has to allow customer owned modems. They have a sizable list online that will be compatible. 

[RaddyKewl]

I can't seem to find a way to enable Bridge mode on the Netgear C7800. The Synology Router is detecting the WAN connection, but it's not passing that connection to attached devices.

I tried this tutorial, but I don't have this option available on my particular Netgear Modem/Router.

 

https://kb.netgear.com/27191/How-to-set-the-cable-modem-router-to-be-on-modem-only

[Donut417]

1 minute ago, RaddyKewl said:

I can't seem to find a way to enable Bridge mode on the Netgear C7800. The Synology Router is detecting the WAN connection, but it's not passing that connection to attached devices.

I tried this tutorial, but I don't have this option available on my particular Netgear Modem/Router.

 

https://kb.netgear.com/27191/How-to-set-the-cable-modem-router-to-be-on-modem-only

Don't know what to tell you. I haven't used a gateway device in at least a decade. If this was a Comcast supplied box they would be able to enable it on their end. Not sure if they can do it for a non Comcast supplied box. This is why you dont buy gateways and just standard modems with a separate router. For reference Comcast controls the firmware for modems. So Im not 100% sure if you can update that gateway device with the latest firmware. Because generally that would be something Comcast would do. You CANT request an upgrade from Comcast as they update on their schedule and not a users schedule. 

 

I think it could be an IP address conflict as both boxes use the same IP addresses but Im not sure. However hooking a router to a gateway device will result in double NAT. Just be aware. 

 

[RaddyKewl]

I just disabled NAT on the Netgear router and now the Synology router is sharing the internet connection to all the other devices. The Synology router was only detecting the internal IP provided by the Netgear router, now it's detecting the public IP provided by Comcast.