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Trying to connect external router to modem with built-in router. Need help please!

Tags:
  • Routers
  • D-Link
  • Modem
  • Networking
October 13, 2014 4:23:33 AM

Greetings,

Time Warner Cable recently sent me a new ARRIS DG1670A modem to replace my older, obsolete modem. The older modem worked fine, though it included no router or WiFi capabilities, so I had it connected to a D-Link DIR-825 dual-band wireless router. With this combo, everything was fine with my wired and wireless Internet connectivity.

The new ARRIS modem includes a built-in dual-band wireless router, so I tried completely replacing my old modem and router with it. Afterward, everything seemed fine with my wired Internet connectivity, but my wireless connectivity was really sucking hard. Speed tests over WiFi indicated very inconsistent results, with connectivity frequently dropping out altogether. I couldn't even maintain a consistent 128 kbps live mp3 stream for more than a few minutes without losing the connection. I tried both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands over numerous channels; nothing helped.

So I got the bright idea to try connecting my D-Link router to the new modem with the intent of completely replacing the modem's routing and WiFi functions with the router's. After a few hours of fumbling and head-scratching, I seem to have gotten it working. WiFi is nice, fast, and reliable, just like it was with the old modem.

The problem is that connections to sites seem to take exceedingly longer than normal now. Once a connection to a remote site is established, the connection stays fast and reliable, but getting the connection established in the first place is much more slow and unreliable than it used to be. I assume this is because I botched something in the modem and/or router's configuration, and DNS resolution is choking somewhere along the line. This is where I could really use some help.

One big red flag to me shows up when I open the Windows 7 Network and Sharing Center on the PC wired to the router. It shows two active networks: one for the router and one "unidentified network". I don't know how to make the second network go away. When I view properties for the Local Area Connection, I find that there are 2 default gateways: one of these looks like a legit address from TWC, and the other is 192.168.1.1. My DHCP server and DNS server also show up as 192.168.1.1.

To get to this point, I changed the ARRIS modem's NAT mode from "RoutedWithNAT" to "Bridged". This disabled the wireless radios on both bands. In addition, I disabled the DHCP server and the firewall.

As for the D-Link router, I reset it to its default configuration. Then I changed its IP address to 192.168.1.1 so as not to collide with the default admin IP address of the modem (192.168.0.1). I also changed the DHCP IP address range to 192.168.1.100-199.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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