I'm getting AT&T fiber installed this Friday. Our current internet setup is comcast paired with our Orbi mesh wifi. Does anyone know if the hardware that AT&T installs is superior to mesh systems like the Orbi? Is using your own wifi router an option with AT&T?

Your mesh system will still be better than the all in one router/access point that att installs. And yea, you'll still be able to use your orbi

Yes, Orbi is better than the AT&T gateway. I use an Orbi with AT&T fiber, and it works great.

Two notes from my experience:
1) You have to use the AT&T gateway at least as a modem.
2) You'll need to go into the gateway settings, turn off the WiFi, and enable IP Passthrough.

I have the AT&T/Orbi combination. I didn't turn off the AT&T wifi (of all things, my vacuum cleaner needs the AT&T network) and just run parallel networks. It hasn't caused me any issues. Other than this rash, I guess.

I have so many questions,...

you should be able to temporarily change your Orbi network to 2.4GHz and set it up with your vacuum.

That way, no need to use the ATT router

We have suddenlink and let the modem/router assign IP's with the wireless disabled.

Our Orbi supplies the wireless to our house and everything will be in the same subnet as the wired devices.

Not relevant to the OP, but ATT recently replaced my original 1gbps unit with the new 2.5gbps fiber all the way to the router model. I was shocked it picked up the settings from the old router and worked perfect with my orbi as a gateway only and no wifi without any setup at all.

I almost refused the upgrade to avoid having to set that all up again.

Cargo Shorts FTW said:

---

Not relevant to the OP, but ATT recently replaced my original 1gbps unit with the new 2.5gbps fiber all the way to the router model. I was shocked it picked up the settings from the old router and worked perfect with my orbi as a gateway only and no wifi without any setup at all.

I almost refused the upgrade to avoid having to set that all up again.

---

I'm in the process of setting stuff up to actually utilize the 2gbps line speed. Its kind of a fun project.

I just got ATT today .. talk about super fast. I'm going to get my own router .. should I go w Orbi or EERO ? We have fiber at another place on the lake and the company installed EEROs with the fiber system

Never mind .. the Orbi Mesh Eero 6 seem like they are both good systems

Diggity said:

---

you should be able to temporarily change your Orbi network to 2.4GHz and set it up with your vacuum.

That way, no need to use the ATT router

---

Slightly different, as we have Xfinity. But we leave the Xfinity router wifi on as well, we have a TV that uses Xfinity Stream and it has to be on the Xfinity wifi to work.

Regardless, we haven't noticed a single issue since taking the router out of passthrough mode and leaving both it and the Eero's wifi on.....

yeah, different scenario on your end.

It's probably not a big deal, but if you don't have to have competing wifi signals in the house, best to avoid it.

Quote:

---

we have a TV that uses Xfinity Stream and it has to be on the Xfinity wifi to work.

---

It seems odd that a smart TV would be restricted to a specific wifi device.

dubi said:

---

Quote:

---

we have a TV that uses Xfinity Stream and it has to be on the Xfinity wifi to work.

---

It seems odd that a smart TV would be restricted to a specific wifi device.

---

It's because it's essentially streaming our cable. Only works at our house. Just a way to watch cable without needing a box for every tv.

If watching Netflix, etc., we can be on any Wi-Fi

ETA: I can also use the Xfinity Stream app anywhere, doesn't have to be on that specific wifi, but then I do have restrictions of channels you can watch, etc.

AT&T has an option, for an extra $10/mo., to add up to 5 "extenders" in your home, thus creating a mesh network. I did that instead of roll my own, and it's been great.

Since you already have the hardware to do so, I would recommend using it paired with your AT&T modem. I'm not familiar with the name of the settings, but be sure to configure your modem to hand off the wifi + DHCP for your network to your Orbi hardware.

Interesting... I tried to use my own Netgear router with the ATT modem a couple years ago, but they cut my speed dramatically. Googling shows that this is the norm for many people. How have y'all had better luck?

I'm having ATT Fiber installed next week. From reading ahead to plan for my install, it sounds like the standard equipment they give out now is the BGW320. If you want to use your own router behind it, you need to put it in "IP Passthrough" mode, otherwise you'll end up with a double NAT scenario. This can sometimes cause issues.

akaggie05 said:

---

I'm having ATT Fiber installed next week. From reading ahead to plan for my install, it sounds like the standard equipment they give out now is the BGW320. If you want to use your own router behind it, you need to put it in "IP Passthrough" mode, otherwise you'll end up with a double NAT scenario. This can sometimes cause issues.

---

I've had far more problems with "IP Passthrough" aka "Bridge Mode" than with having nested NAT devices.

First, I run a small wireless ISP. We don't have enough IP addresses to go around and so we use CGN (Carrier Grade Nat) for that. Our outer firewall can pass traffic straight through to routable IP addresses and can NAT the CGN addresses.

The CGN addresses should eliminate the possibility of a NAT device having the same IP address block (or overlapping IP address blocks) on both WAN and LAN. No customer should ever use a CGN address block (in the 100.64/10 range) on their own network. Also, the firewall has a pool of routable addresses for the CGN to use.

Each customer gets a /24 block in the CGN space. For example, one customer might have 100.99.0/24 and the customer next door might have 100.98.7/24.

Our customers have a radio to communicate with our access points. Our access points are in bridge mode, but the CPE radios are rarely in bridge mode. Then the customer will generally have their own router behind the radio.

---

The three primary issues that I've seen arise are:

1) You don't want to have the same or overlapping IP blocks on both side of the router. If you do, then the router does not know how to route the traffic and you cannot connect. Since most home routers seem to have a default LAN IP address in the 192.168.0/24, 192.168.1/24, 192.168.2/24, and 192.168.88/24 blocks, we use an entirely separate LAN IP block on our CPE radios.

So far, this has never presented an issue for us.

2) The WAN port on the inner router must be plugged into a LAN port on the outer router. If you plug it into the LAN port on the inner router instead, anything plugged into the inner router may or may not work, depending on whether it receives it's IP address from the inner router or the outer router. For example, if the outer router has the LAN address 172.20.76.1 in the 172.20.76/24 block and the inner router has the LAN address 192.168.1.1 in the 192.168.1/24 block, then any device plugged into them may either get an address in the 192.168.1/24 block if it gets it from the inner router DHCP or in the 172.20.76/24 block if it gets it from the outer router DHCP. If it is in the 192.168.1/24 block, the router won't be able to route it to the first router and so it won't work. If it is in the 172.20.76.24 block then most routers will pass it along fine.

Also, if you connect to the router using wifi, the IP address you will get will be in the 192.168.1/24 block and the router will not be able to route the traffic at all.

This presents an issue for us maybe once every year or two. We can often see it by looking at the DHCP tables on the radio since only the router entry should have an entry. If we see for cell phones, computers, tvs, ..., then it is normally plugged in wrong and easy to fix. If we also see an entry for the router itself, then it might be in bridge mode.

3) As far as I'm concerned, the biggest pain in the ass, by far, is having a router set up in bridge mode. It can really contemplate figuring out what is wrong. If there is something with the outer NAT device and it stops passing IP addresses, then your inner NAT device is either not going to have an IP address or it will have a fallback IP adddress that may or may not be easy to find.

Or it might be that the cable went bad -- you wouldn't believe how many people think that if they damage the cable, it is enough to just wrap the pairs together (and sometimes even splitting pairs). The worst I've seen was by an electrician who thought that ethernet was like telephones and tried to run an ethernet cable from point A to B, another from point B to C, and another from point C to D and then wirewrapped the pairs together. That was very puzzling to figure out what he had done.

If you have a problem and the router is configured in Bridge Mode, you have a few possibilities:

A) Hopefully you set a fixed IP address on the device and wrote it down on a label and attached it to the router. Of course, if that fixed IP address on the device is not in the IP address block of the outer NAT device, then it isn't going to be able to automatically update the firmware.

B) If you don't have the foresight to assign a fixed IP address and write it on a label, you can try guessing. This usually isn't worth the effort.

C) Or you can press the red button to reset the router to factory defaults and then reconfigure it normally.

D) You should be able to plug a laptop or computer into the outer router and check the DHCP table to find the address.

E) If D doesn't work, then you might need another router that you can take out of the closet, plug in the router you can't reach, plug in a laptop or desktop, and check the DHCP table on it. Hopefully, this router is not in bridge mode.

F) If all else fails, throw the router away and go buy a new one.

---

In our case, there is another reason not to put the router in bridge mode. If the router is one that we maintain for the customer, the CPE radio outside the house or business may itself be in bridge mode. If that is the case and you change the router to bridge mode, then all your devices will receive CGN addresses. This complicates the issue even more.

---

So if you set your router in bridge mode, you can make life simpler if you assign it a fixed IP address, preferably in the same block assigned by the outer NAT device, and write the IP address and block on a label and attach it to the router. For example, if you give it 192.168.1.76 in the 192.168.1/24 block, then write "192.168.1.76/24" on the label. It may make your life far simpler.

Quote:

---

First, I run a small wireless ISP.

---

It was interesting reading, but a homeowner should not run into not having enough IP's assigned by the router.

dubi said:

---

Quote:

---

First, I run a small wireless ISP.

---

It was interesting reading, but a homeowner should not run into not having enough IP's assigned by the router.

---

Yeah, but they can still run into the same problems with having nested routers, especially if the second is in bridge mode.

eric76 said:

---

dubi said:

---

Quote:

---

First, I run a small wireless ISP.

---

It was interesting reading, but a homeowner should not run into not having enough IP's assigned by the router.

---

Yeah, but they can still run into the same problems with having nested routers, especially if the second is in bridge mode.

---

I have an Arris cable modem/router and Orbi set to bridge mode and it has worked flawlessly. If it didn't work, i definitely would be clueless on how to fix the problem.

One of the gurus here on the Nerdery showed me how to configure my Orbi settings to bridge mode. I thought it was impossible until I was told to use the web page configuration instead of the Orbi app. The app is missing lots of the advanced settings.

Yeah. Bridge mode works fine until it doesn't. If it does have problems, then it is generally more difficult to deal with.

I have to add that there is a benefit to using bridge mode on a router. If you use bridge mode, you can often plug whatever you need in where you can plug it in. So it does simplify that part of it.

eric76 said:

---

I have to add that there is a benefit to using bridge mode on a router. If you use bridge mode, you can often plug whatever you need in where you can plug it in. So it does simplify that part of it.

---

I do it because most stuff in my house is wired and I wanted everything on the same subnet.

That is why i wanted the modem/router to assign the IP's and not the Orbi.

That makes sense. I didn't realize that home devices needed to exchange much information between them.

You can bypass the AT&T gateway altogether. This is what I've been doing for almost a year - and it has been flawless so far. This won't work if your fiber terminates directly into the AT&T gateway, only if you have an ONT connected to the gateway via ethernet.

Put a switch in between the ONT and the AT&T router. Start the router and let the broadband connect - the disconnect the AT&T GW from the switch and plug in your router of choice. Make sure you clone the ATT GW WAN MAC address on your other router for the WAN connection. Set the router to acquire the IP via DHCP and you should be good to go.

Make sure you connect everything to UPS - the ONT, switch, and router. Otherwise, if the power goes out you'll need to connect the AT&T GW again to authenticate with the ONT.

A quick Google search found this page describing the process.

eric76 said:

---

That makes sense. I didn't realize that home devices needed to exchange much information between them.

---

For example my printer is wired. When my wireless devices (iphone/ipad/laptop) were on a different subnet, I could not print because they could not see the printers on the network.

foulbeast said:

---

You can bypass the AT&T gateway altogether. This is what I've been doing for almost a year - and it has been flawless so far. This won't work if your fiber terminates directly into the AT&T gateway, only if you have an ONT connected to the gateway via ethernet.

Put a switch in between the ONT and the AT&T router. Start the router and let the broadband connect - the disconnect the AT&T GW from the switch and plug in your router of choice. Make sure you clone the ATT GW WAN MAC address on your other router for the WAN connection. Set the router to acquire the IP via DHCP and you should be good to go.

Make sure you connect everything to UPS - the ONT, switch, and router. Otherwise, if the power goes out you'll need to connect the AT&T GW again to authenticate with the ONT.

A quick Google search found this page describing the process.

---

I'm also seeing reports now of SFP modules set up for XGS-PON, where you clone the MAC of the gateway and run the fiber directly to a 10G switch... for the case you mention where the fiber runs directly to the gateway (which I believe is the norm now for all new installs as they upgrade from GPON to XGS- PON across the board

Bumping this

Thinking about AT&T Fiber and came to make a post but saw this one. I'm in Houston and have been with Xfinity for 6 years, but gonna try to cut the cord at new house and figured would make the jump to AT&T Fiber.

Naveronski said:

---

Interesting... I tried to use my own Netgear router with the ATT modem a couple years ago, but they cut my speed dramatically. Googling shows that this is the norm for many people. How have y'all had better luck?

---

Do you have the Pace modem? A couple of years ago AT&T rolled out a firmware update for the Pace which killed the ability to pass through or bridge your connection to your own personal router. When you attempted to do so, it dropped speeds down to around 10mbps or less. It was a pretty big deal on the AT&T forums and AT&T did not fix it for over a year.

I discovered it when I was about to add my own router and then had to wait for over a year before they fixed it. Once they finally fixed it, I added my own router and it worked but only because I lucked out and the guy on the call I was working with to set it up lucked out and figured it out. He got it set up through trial and error. Didn't even have a script to follow because AT&T doesn't want you using your own router, ideally. He was guessing at what settings to change and got it working after about an hour of trying.

We just moved and I'm cancelled our ATT fiber at old house but may add it back at new house because I can get faster speeds at a cheaper rate than what we are paying Spectrum. Actually surprised I can get fiber here.

New house is 2 story ~3500sqft house, best to just go with their gateway (and extender if needed) or do a mesh system like Orbi/Eero?

Will likely go 1gb or 2gb from AT&T Fiber, debating between these:

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Whole-Tri-Band-System-RBK752/dp/B086HJXKJJ


https://www.amazon.com/eero-reliable-gigabit-connect-Coverage/dp/B091G64GVK/


https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Deco-X55-Pro-3-Pack/dp/B0C7SR7C6K

I went with a mesh and it covers my house well, a bit smaller than your place. Do you have wired Ethernet? Most would say to use that for your backhaul to the router.

My Arris is triband so one band is dedicated for back haul because I don't have a wired house.

I bridged mine and went directly into a SonicWall TZ370 firewall. Also running two AP's throughout the house. It's a bit more expensive than the Orbi or Eero, but works really well and gives me quite a bit of control and visibility into my network.

I've used the modem/router that AT&T provides for years. Works great. I don't see the need for any additional hardware, in my home at least.