Rethinking network guts

[KenZ71]

At the risk of blasphemy I am thinking less truly might be more.

Replaced my owned SB6121 Modem due to weird vpn issues with a rented TG1682G Gateway. That gives me the option to retire two APs & one router.

Only been about 18 hours but preliminary results indicates less is more. WiFi is working better. VPN was good for 3+ hours. Prior to the swap it cut out twice in 2 hours. With frequent disconnects past few months.

VPN is cisco anyconnect provided and managed by my employer who is a huge multi national. Their tech support is slightly easier than Comcast. Being one of the support team I am a bit biased

Sorry assuming things continue to work well. Any thoughts on a) keep renting the gateway / return the EdgeRouter b) buy a newer standalone modem & AP?

 

[L&LD]

Less is always more.

I always recommend to rent the modem if the ISP requires one. As soon as you have the choice to jump to true Fibre (with an ONT connection) do so, asap.

For everything past the modem though, make sure you have full and total ownership. That means no 'cloud' requirements to use the hardware you buy and no issues if you decide to jump ship tomorrow from manufacturer 'x' to go to manufacturer 'y', if and when you decide that it is better for you.

Can you put the gateway into true bridge mode (where it only acts as a modem)?

Are you getting a true public IP address on your (fully owned, configurable and replaceable, if need be) router?

If so, continue.

If not, fix any of the above points as necessary to have full control of your network with minimal reliance on external sources, including but not limited to your ISP.

 

[kvic]

@KenZ71

Return the Edgerouter for sure. Please PM me where you bought it.

*grin*

 

[KenZ71]

I am starting to come to the humbling conclusion that I am not the uber advanced PC geek I thought I was. Hmmm, I guess that's not so bad.

I'll run with the gateway only for a week or so. Assuming issues are gone I'll then consider adding back the EdgeRouter followed by WiFi APs.

@kvic, purchased from newegg for like $50. They will charge $8 restocking plus shipping so I'll let you know in a couple weeks.

 

[ekkoville]

I am starting to come to the humbling conclusion that I am not the uber advanced PC geek I thought I was. Hmmm, I guess that's not so bad.

I'll run with the gateway only for a week or so. Assuming issues are gone I'll then consider adding back the EdgeRouter followed by WiFi APs.

@kvic, purchased from newegg for like $50. They will charge $8 restocking plus shipping so I'll let you know in a couple weeks.

So, have you given thought to adding APs to the modem and if so, how do you do that? I have the same modem in bridge mode with a AC66R in router only mode with a UAP-AC-Pro doing wireless. I have been toying with the idea of an Edgerouter to handle routing and dumping the Asus. Can you add wireless APs to that modem behind a switch? Just wondering if that is an option since I'd need a switch or two anyway. Keep us advised on how stable that thing is, I may try it myself.

 

[sfx2000]

Just wondering if the SB6121 was getting close to the end of service life...

Or perhaps just the AC Adapter starting to fail as that would be a contributing factor...

I recently replaced a SB6141 that _did_ die with an SB6183, and pretty happy with the new modem...

My symptoms were similar, and yes, AnyConnect is a great VPN client, but it does get a bit confused sometimes when the WAN connection is, erm, troubled...

 

[KenZ71]

Just wondering if the SB6121 was getting close to the end of service life...

Or perhaps just the AC Adapter starting to fail as that would be a contributing factor...

I recently replaced a SB6141 that _did_ die with an SB6183, and pretty happy with the new modem...

My symptoms were similar, and yes, AnyConnect is a great VPN client, but it does get a bit confused sometimes when the WAN connection is, erm, troubled...

Yes, the SB6121 is officially end of life.

I did have a ping batch script running for a while which ironically could not ping google's dns a few times. But at the same time was pinging my employer VPN host w/outil issue. That is most likely an ISP issue but they won't talk to me with an EOL Modem that I own.

So, my plan is let the rented Gateway run for a week or so, hopefully without issues. Then add my WiFi APs or replace w/ Unifis. Assuming that too works well then I'll put the gateway in bridge mode and put the EdgeRouter in rotation.

Although I still think I may be making this too complicated. Perhaps stick with a all in one Gateway since I've never had a need for customization / qos / etc.

 

[sfx2000]

Moto/Arris is still considered a good device...

Moving from SB6141 to SB6183 - most of the change was replacing older with newer - and this chart doesn't indicate the outages so much...