Disable Actiontech DHCP?

[SpinalTap]

I've got a nice new Netgear WNDR3700, complete with 2.4 and 5 GHz N.  I've read the turorial at dslreports, and finally have the thing working.  Bottom line is that I want the Netgear to hand out DHCP addresses to my PCs, Blu-ray, etc.,  NOT the Actiontech.  In short, I want the Actiontech to do only two things:  connect to my STB, and pass traffic through to my new router.  Sounds like two static IPs to me.

I note that the STB ALWAYS claims 192.168.1.100.  Is it possible to turn off the Actiontech's DHCP, and hope that the STB never notices?  My fear is that after a power reset or power failuire, the STB will boot up, realize it's not getting an address from an Actiontech device, and thus not function as it should.

I realize that this question has been asked before here and elsewhere, but wanted to ask again.  I am very unsatisfied with the Actiontech, and would unplug it in a heartbeat if not for the loss of the guide and VoD.

<RANT ON> If Verizon would simply make an "N" router available to us longtime loyal customers, I probably wouldn't have bought the Netgear!  <RANT OFF>

Thanks in advance...

[Anti-Phish1]

You don't say how you have the WNDR3700 connected to the Actiontec.

• Is it LAN-to-LAN or LAN-to-WAN?

If it is LAN-to-LAN, then yes, you can turn off DHCP in the Actiontec and enable it in the WNDR3700.

You will want to recycle the STBs so they pull a DHCP lease from the WNDR3700 after the change.

[jumpin68ny]

To disable DHCP on the Actiontec Router:

Once you log into the router select My Network from the top of the main screen

On the left side choose Network Connections

Under Action Choose Edit under Network (Home/Office)

From the next screen choose settings

Scroll down to IP Address Distribution:  Change setting to Disabled.

The STB's will get the address from the netgear assuming its on the same network as the Netgear.

Be cafeful with this because you may disable the remote dvr functionailty or you may run into issus with VOD, Channel Guide. etc.  Once you disable DHCP on the actiontec, you will want to reboot your STB to confirm it gets an address.

You may also want to run the self diagnostics to confirm that it gets an address and can reach the VZ Servers as displayed in the Self diagnostics screeen

Another option is to keep the Actiontec DHCP as active, disable DHCP on the netgear and disable the wireless on the Actiontec.   Remember a device doesn't care who gives out the address, these are very small packets and would have no affect on the traffic that is going through the netgear.

[lasagna]

One word of caution about not using the DHCP server on the ActionTec -- the STB's are assigned IP addresses in a specific range AND are give certain DHCP options to set various quality of service bits so that their traffic is handled as a priority over other traffic so that content they may need to stream across the network gets priority over less sensitive standard data.     You may impact this operation if you turn off DHCP on the ActionTEC.

If you have no specific reason why you can't run in WAN to LAN mode with the new router, I would encourage that setup as it would give you the best of both worlds.   Verizon in theirs and you in yours.

[prisaz]

If your router will assign IP addresses based on MAC addresses, you can always be sure the TV hardware gets addresses 100-107. But based on the other posts and my experience, there can be drawbacks by doing this. THE QOS that gets set by the Actiontec for the TV, will not be controlled properly by a non Verizon router. I figured the Quality Of Service for my Internet was more important than the QOS for streaming Video On Demand. But I do have 35/35 service and it gets enough. But not using the Verizon router up front, don't expect remote access to the DVR or Caller ID for any of the TV hardware. Unless you have a very specific reason for not having the Verizon router up front, I would say leave it where it is and do as others have said. But if you have advanced network experience, do not need network support from Verizon, then do as you please.

I just added a DVR,  and the new DVR was assigned 192.168.3.187 and did not realize it until I had the HMDVR feature switched from my older DVR to my second DVR by tech support. HMDVR still shared video content. The tech said it should not work and did not ask to many questions. I just asked if he could switch the feature without connecting to the box. He asked why and my response was he could not get through my firewall.

Typo Fixed 2/19 08:51

[viafax999]

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@lasagna wrote:

One word of caution about not using the DHCP server on the ActionTec -- the STB's are assigned IP addresses in a specific range AND are give certain DHCP options to set various quality of service bits so that their traffic is handled as a priority over other traffic so that content they may need to stream across the network gets priority over less sensitive standard data.     You may impact this operation if you turn off DHCP on the ActionTEC.

If you have no specific reason why you can't run in WAN to LAN mode with the new router, I would encourage that setup as it would give you the best of both worlds.   Verizon in theirs and you in yours.

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I'm sure he meant LAN to WAN i.e lan port of actiontec to wan port of netgear.

I agree it's a far better route to go.  Does mean however that if you are using port forwarding to devices on the new router that on the actiontec you will need to port forward everything you need to the static address on the new router where you will then need to port forward to the specific devices,