Member Avatar for manchurianCEO

For weeks I have had issues with an AT&T supplied 2wire modem/router.

It keeps constantly rebooting itself and so far has nothing to do with bad jacks (at&t changed them a few months ago) or power supply (I had that problem already and it has a newer one, also power supply issues have different symptoms).

But I had it calling at&t, always same steps and the issue comes back and as I have read, I'm not alone. The last thing I read is that the 2wire itself has that rebooting issue and apparently what makes it reboot could be attributed to the routing functiong of it. And it may occur from day 1 after you purchase it or later down the road.

I have a couple of extra routers just sitting pretty, I think I could just log into the 2wire and disable wifi all together. Then just hook one of my extra routers and connect it to the 2wire as if it was a plain modem and then do the "usual". Log into the router and configure it, then make sure my home devices are signed into the new router.

But I googled up that option and came across a vague "it's much more complicated than that". Can someone point out what's those other complications?

Thank you!

PS. I'm a junior in CS so I can more or less handle technical words, feel free to use them.

Other than that, if you have nothing helpful or your solution is "hire another service" or anything that rather avoids the issue and doesn't come near the information I am looking for, please do not bother to post.

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Short version: AT&T 2Wire gateways generally do not offer a true "bridge" mode you can switch on; instead use the gateway's IP Passthrough / DMZplus feature to give your Netgear the public IP and let the Netgear handle NAT, DHCP and Wi‑Fi. That accomplishes what described (one device doing the routing) but uses AT&T’s supported method rather than a classic bridge. (att.com)

How to do it (high level): connect the Netgear WAN port to a LAN port on the 2Wire, set the Netgear WAN to obtain an address via DHCP, open the 2Wire GUI at 192.168.1.254 (or homeportal/setup), go to Settings → Firewall → Applications, Pinholes and DMZ, select the Netgear device and choose “Allow all applications (DMZplus)”, save and restart the gateway, then power‑cycle the Netgear so it grabs the public IP. After that the Netgear should show the WAN as a public address and you can run your LAN behind it. (att.com)

Important tradeoffs and checks: DMZplus hands the public IP to one device and removes the gateway firewall for that device — make sure the Netgear firewall is enabled. DMZplus does not convert the 2Wire into a hardware‑only modem; if the 2Wire is rebooting for hardware or firmware reasons, passthrough won’t stop those reboots. If instability continues, request a replacement from AT&T or consider using a supported standalone DSL modem (AT&T documents procedures for non‑AT&T modems on DSL lines). For some AT&T services (U‑verse / fiber) the provider equipment is required, so confirm with AT&T before buying gear. (att.com)

Quick troubleshooting tips: ensure the Netgear WAN is set to DHCP; select the correct device in the 2Wire UI (or use the fixed‑MAC passthrough option if offered); power‑cycle both devices after changing settings; disable the 2Wire Wi‑Fi to avoid SSID/SSID conflicts. If the Netgear never receives a public IP, recheck the DMZplus selection, try DHCPS‑fixed with the Netgear MAC, and then contact AT&T if the gateway still misbehaves. (att.com)

Member Avatar for rubberman

Yech! I used to have an AT&T 2Wire as well, and it is an absolute piece of junk. I had them replace it with a Motorola Netopia device - been working for over 4 years now without a hiccup! Anyway, if you go into the configuration web pages for the router, you should be able to change its configuration from router to bridge. Then, just hook your netgear to that, and let it do the routing. I did that with a Linksys router (switched to bridge mode) to good effect. Anyway, it is worth a try. Assuming you are running DSL and not U-verse, it may be easier to just get a DSL modem to hook to the netgear.

A final note. I think you will need to connect a port on the 2Wire to the WAN port on the netgear router for this to work. You may need a patch cable to do that.

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