Hello,
Digging up an old thread for some (possible) updates. I would appreciate if you can have a look at my old post below .
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/f...-assign-wan-port-to-switch.38577/#post-319342
I have an Asus-RT-AC68U running advanced tomato (not merlin due to reasons mentioned in my above post), and recently got a NetGear R7000 as well, which is now flashed with XWRT VORTEX version
384.13_0 with CFE upgraded to 1.3.0.7 as guided over here
https://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php?threads/asuswrt-merlin-on-netgear-r7000.71108/post-305944
My aim was to cover the weak and dead wireless sports in my house using AiMesh.
Additional Info : (A crude version of the poor man's mesh I am already running by running advanced tomato on Asus-RT-AC68U and a Linksys Cisco E3000, and setting the same wireless SSID and other parameters on both, to let devices roam around, even though requires manual intervention some times).
Since my setup and sequence is like the below (which I intend to keep), every wired/wireless device is in a single subnet range (192.168.10.x - where x=1 for my ISP Provided Huawei HG8245Q and goes onwards for remaining 25 devices)
Internet ---> Huawei HG8245Q ---> UTM (Untangle - Transparent In-line) ---> Asus RT-AC68U (running Tomato Firmware 1.28.0000 -3.5-140 USB AIO) ---> remaining wired and wireless devices
http://www.imagebam.com/image/6281d41075921134
So now I wish to use R7000 with Asus Merlin in the "very same setup" as I had in terms of network topology while being able to utilize the differentiating value added features of Merlin (over Advanced Tomato).
If I keep using WAN port as it is, it forces me to do different IP subnetting before and after WAN port and would do a double NATting in addition to introducing maintenance complexities for my home network.
As of now I am unable to get a clue if the option to use WAN port as a bridged LAN port exists in Merlin or not, when disabling the WAN entirely. Something the like the below checkbox from tomato
I know all 5 ports on the Asus/Netgear router running Merlin can be used as LAN (as like a switch), but only when the router is put in AP mode. However in AP mode Merlin hides a lot of useful options like VPN (which remains available in Tomato) .
So the ask is, can I achieve the needful when trying to make a transition to Merlin specifically the following :
1. Keeping my network topology and addressing as it is. (only replacing tomato device with a merlin device)
2. Being able to use WAN port as LAN , since the WAN is handled by ISP provided Huawei Gateway.
3. Being able to use VPN , to be able to selectively route some or all internet traffic thru it, as available in Merlin routing policy.
Thanks for reading the long post and suggesting a possible solution.
Regards.
Digging up an old thread for some (possible) updates. I would appreciate if you can have a look at my old post below .
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/f...-assign-wan-port-to-switch.38577/#post-319342
I have an Asus-RT-AC68U running advanced tomato (not merlin due to reasons mentioned in my above post), and recently got a NetGear R7000 as well, which is now flashed with XWRT VORTEX version
384.13_0 with CFE upgraded to 1.3.0.7 as guided over here
https://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php?threads/asuswrt-merlin-on-netgear-r7000.71108/post-305944
My aim was to cover the weak and dead wireless sports in my house using AiMesh.
Additional Info : (A crude version of the poor man's mesh I am already running by running advanced tomato on Asus-RT-AC68U and a Linksys Cisco E3000, and setting the same wireless SSID and other parameters on both, to let devices roam around, even though requires manual intervention some times).
Since my setup and sequence is like the below (which I intend to keep), every wired/wireless device is in a single subnet range (192.168.10.x - where x=1 for my ISP Provided Huawei HG8245Q and goes onwards for remaining 25 devices)
Internet ---> Huawei HG8245Q ---> UTM (Untangle - Transparent In-line) ---> Asus RT-AC68U (running Tomato Firmware 1.28.0000 -3.5-140 USB AIO) ---> remaining wired and wireless devices
http://www.imagebam.com/image/6281d41075921134
So now I wish to use R7000 with Asus Merlin in the "very same setup" as I had in terms of network topology while being able to utilize the differentiating value added features of Merlin (over Advanced Tomato).
If I keep using WAN port as it is, it forces me to do different IP subnetting before and after WAN port and would do a double NATting in addition to introducing maintenance complexities for my home network.
As of now I am unable to get a clue if the option to use WAN port as a bridged LAN port exists in Merlin or not, when disabling the WAN entirely. Something the like the below checkbox from tomato
I know all 5 ports on the Asus/Netgear router running Merlin can be used as LAN (as like a switch), but only when the router is put in AP mode. However in AP mode Merlin hides a lot of useful options like VPN (which remains available in Tomato) .
So the ask is, can I achieve the needful when trying to make a transition to Merlin specifically the following :
1. Keeping my network topology and addressing as it is. (only replacing tomato device with a merlin device)
2. Being able to use WAN port as LAN , since the WAN is handled by ISP provided Huawei Gateway.
3. Being able to use VPN , to be able to selectively route some or all internet traffic thru it, as available in Merlin routing policy.
Thanks for reading the long post and suggesting a possible solution.
Regards.