How to bridge CR-1000A gateway to work with Eero Pro 6e Mesh 3 Pack System (with Internet/Phone/TV service)

[#1]

Question

Hello all...

I recently picked up a set of Eero 3-Pack Mesh routers to improve internet connectivity throughout the house and wanted to set it up with my existing Fios 1G connection.  I would like to use my new Eero routers as my main system for WiFi (all 3 of them are going to be hardwired) and for other features.  I was advised to install the Eero devices behind my existing Verizon CR-1000A gateway and create a double NAT, before putting the devices into Bridge Mode.  I currently have TV (with 1 set top box) and Internet, and Phone service with Verizon .  I was told that with the new CR-1000A gateway, all that I would need to do would be to DISABLE the 2.4Ghz/5Ghz/6Ghz WiFi radios and that should be good enough to get the gateway into "bridge mode".  Is that really all that needs to be done or do I need to change the IP Address Distribution from "DHCP" to "Disabled" and give the CR-1000A another IP such as 192.168.1.250 as well?  Anyone else have this similar setup up (especially with the CR-1000A) and running and if so, how did you do it?  Thanks in advance!

Answer

I don't have a CR1000A to try this out with, but I'm looking at the User Guide. I have to say that it's not great. Then I tried to find a User Manual for the eero Pro 6e, which seems non-existent. I found one short setup guide that didn't help. There are a few ways to add the eero Pro 6e into your network. 

The first and easiest would be to leave the CR1000A as the primary router but have the eero system take over the wireless network. The short version of the steps would be :

1. Shut off wireless services on the CR1000A router
2. Put the eero system in bridge mode or use double NATing

Page 47 of the CR1000A User Guide shows a Wi-Fi Enabled button that should shut off all Wi-Fi services on the Verizon router. The eero website has a link for keeping your existing router that has different links to follow for using the eero system in bridge mode or using double NATing.

Choosing bridge mode turns the eero system into a wireless mesh network. You do lose eero features when it is in bridge mode. 

Going the double NAT-ing route creates a separate internal network for your wireless devices that operates behind the CR1000A. That means your wireless devices will be on a different network with a different set of IP addresses than what the CR1000A is issuing. That means that the eero nodes will get addresses in the 192.168.1.* range from the CR1000A. Your wireless devices, however, will get IP addresses from the eero system, and they will be some other IP range (like 10.0.0.* or 192.168.2.*.)

The second way would be to put the CR1000A into bridge mode and have the eero system take over all duties. I couldn't find out precisely what the CR1000A disables and what it leaves enabled when put into bridge mode. I could not find instructions for enabling bridge mode in the CR1000A, but here is an interactive guide for setting bridge mode in the G1100 that should be helpful. The TL;DR version is that you change the CR1000A router's connection mode to Bridge, set the router's IP address to a high number in the range, and disable DHCP on the router. (It's unclear if bridge mode turns off the Wi-Fi network, so you may need to do that, too.)

A third way would be to make the first eero router the primary router - effectively replacing the CR1000A. (You only need the CR1000A in the mix for its Ethernet to MoCA conversion to keep the guides for the set-top boxes.)

1. Log into the CR1000A (using an Ethernet connection)
2. Disable the DHCP server (by setting IP Address Distribution to Disabled) 
   1. If you need to reboot the router at any point after this, you will need to manually set the IP address of the (Ethernet-connected) device you are using to log into the CR1000A to something like 192.168.1.3
3. Disable the wireless services (pages 47-48 of the User Guide) (which is why you need to be connected via ethernet)
4. Change the starting LAN IP address to something like 192.168.1.254 (see the bridge mode in the G1100 link above or page 113  of the CR1000A User Guide)
   • If you need to reboot the router at any point after this, you will browse to 192.168.1.254 (or whatever  to get into the CR1000A's built-in website.)
5. You will want to disconnect the router and turn it off. There may be multiple reboots along the way.
   • If you manually set an IP address on the device you were logging into the router, reset it to obtain an IP address at this point automatically.) 
6. Plug the ethernet cable from the ONT (going into the WAN port on your CR1000A) into one of the ports on the Eero mesh router. (It apparently doesn't matter which port you use.)
7. Go through the setup for the eero routers via the phone app.
8. Plug an Ethernet cable from a LAN port on your eero router to a LAN port on the CR1000A and turn it on.
9. If necessary, adjust the DHCP range served by the eero routers to exclude the IP address used by the CR1000A (192.168.1.254 in the example).
10. Verify it all works.

We don't put the CR1000A into bridge mode in this last approach. We reduce it down to just another device on the network. It converts Ethernet to MoCA for your STBs. You should be able to just use a MoCA 2.5 adapter to replace the CR1000A completely.  I did that using an older version of that MoCA adapter with an older version of the Verizon STB for years. (I just use streaming TV now.) 

Solution provided by Capricorn1.