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I have a 2Wire Uverse router(RG). I'm not particularly fond of it and want to use it as a modem only. I have a Linksys router with Tomato firmware on it and want that to be configured as the router.

Most of the "guides" I've seen in my searches has been to enable DMZ Plus mode, but I don't see a way to make that work while my router has a static IP address. I played with it for quite some time yesterday and didn't see a way to get it to work. Then I ran across a setting in broadband for configuring another network. I played with that for a little bit but ran out of time and couldn't get it to work.

So my question is for anyone out there who has Uverse and successfully setup a Tomato based firmware router behind the RG. How did you get it configured? I'm sure if I continued playing with it I could get it to work, but if someone out there already has it working then that would make my life easier.

Thoughts? Thanks.

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Got it all setup finally. I ended up doing a mix of Matt's and NReilingh's answers. I plugged the RG into the WAN port of the Linksys router, then setup the RG to DMZ+ mode for that device. Then setup the Linksys like normal. My mistake in the first place was not plugging into the WAN port. –  Nori Feb 27 '11 at 2:03

4 Answers 4

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I don't have quite the same setup but I have had a similar setup for some time (until recently that is).

What I did is just set up the modem as a basic router.

Connect your linksys router to it so that the WAN port on the linksys router is connected to the LAN on the back of the RG.

You'll want to set up a local network on the RG with settings like: Local LAN setting

Now on the Linksys router set the LAN port to this. (gateway mode - router mode didn't seem to work for me?) DHCP enabled.

On the Linksys router on the WAN side assign a static IP of

Now only plug devices into the linksys router ethernet ports or use the wireless on the linksys router. You can then use the QoS features of Tomato etc.

Make sure you disable the wireless LAN on the RG (it appears from the doc I'm reading that it has wireless features).

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I'll try this out and let you know. –  Nori Jan 4 '11 at 19:52

You probably can't turn off the the router functionality of the Uverse, so you'll probably end up having it route to the WAN port of the Linksys. I'm not sure what you mean about your router having a static IP address, but a static public IP should have no bearing on this—that's just going to be assigned to the Uverse router and there's nothing you can do about it.

It sounds like you're close: allow the Uverse to assign a LAN IP to the Linksys, and then configure the Uverse DMZ for that IP.

From the Linksys, the LAN IP will show up on the WAN port, and then you can configure tomato however you want for the rest of your network.

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The 2Wire router doesn't allow DMZ+ mode with a device that has a static IP such as a second router. I'd like my router to have a static IP address and then setup the 2Wire as just a modem. –  Nori Jan 4 '11 at 19:50
What's the problem with just allowing the Uverse to assign a DHCP IP to the second router's WAN port? On the second router's WAN, it'll still have whatever static IP it assigns itself, since the Uverse's DHCP won't cross the two halves of your second router. –  NReilingh Jan 5 '11 at 2:34
Interesting. I hadn't thought of that. Assuming it would assign a IP to the router than I think that would work okay. I would prefer to have the 2Wire router as only a modem, but that could work. –  Nori Jan 5 '11 at 14:02

Ugh. 2Wire modem/routers are frustrating as heck. If you do some google-ing you'll find that there is a way to get into a command prompt on these devices. From there you need to put the device into bridge mode. Then your tomato can do its thing. I've used tomato for a number of years with a linksys device and never had a problem.

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Yes they are frustrating, and they are huge... I haven't seen any way to get to command line on google. Do you have a link? –  Nori Jan 4 '11 at 19:52
@Nori - sorry, can't seem to find it. IIRC, you could just telnet to it. –  Harv Jan 6 '11 at 1:20

What's your time worth? I think the best solution is to just buy a better modem/router and use that. The Netopia ones are good.

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You must not have Uverse :) You can't use any modem other than theirs from all that I've read and seen... fun fun –  Nori Jan 4 '11 at 19:46
That shouldn't make any difference Nori. Just plug in a different one. I can recommend the Draytek modems. They have a very useful PPPoA/PPPoE passthrough feature which would allow you to operate the modem in a true bridge mode passing pppoa through to a pppoe client in tomato. A suitable model would be the 2920 vdsl modem. However, I'd persevere with the 2wire modem unless you can't bare it any longer. –  Matt H Jan 4 '11 at 20:52

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