Been reviewing the forum for guidance but still confused. I have an Asus AC88U which is primarily run off Ethernet cables to the cable company gateway and to my computers. WIFI on the cable company gateway is disabled. Though you are required to ask the cable company to configure the gateway remotely not to advertise SSIDs, it rarely happens and I can see every home network name in my area. I have a few WIFI devices setup, but those are on the AC88U’s 5G Guest Network and the 2.4 seems broken. (2.4 lost about the same time as a firmware upgrade. Don’t really have anything that is 2.4 anyway.) Also been thinking of buying a new AX88U Pro or the BE88U or waiting to see if any BE88U Pro is marketed with 6G while keeping the 2.5G ports. I don’t want to spend big $$ for the GT-BE98 or BE96U. I know about 30 people who want the same and are ready to buy new routers.
Here is the problem. Every year the cable company promotions expire and every year the same old tired ‘no new promotion’ pitch is made to keep the bill higher. This is/was concurrent to new deals found tied to on-line accounts but ignored by cable company personnel.
Other area Internet providers have much cheaper promotions, but mostly use cellular WIFI setup with no actual wiring run to the house, no cable or other wiring. I have been researching ways to connect to the WIFI gateway for these non-cable company internet providers and still use current setups with Ethernet cables to the computers and maybe also keeping the Guest Network items. Other people interested have basically the same issues.
My AC88U is currently in the Default Wireless Router/AiMesh Router mode and also has the Access Point, Repeater and Media Bridge modes. The Bridge can be configured as AP Only, WDS only or Hybrid. There is a caveat stating: “The function only support [Open System/NONE, Open System/WEP] security authentication method.” I checked but don’t seem to find a security setting for WEP so I may only have Open System or variations of WPA and WPA2. Setting to Legacy doesn’t offer WEP. However I note that the Bridge mode asks for the MAC address of the main router. Would this setting, Open System/None, offer some protection with MAC address filtering. It is also unknown what security settings the non-cable company internet providers will have from the WIFI gateway to the internet or WIFI gateway to device. It would be nice if the WIFI is setup via cellular connection with Ethernet cables out to devices, but that is unknown and probably different for each provider.
Again the problem is connecting to the WIFI gateway routers from non-cable company internet providers while trying to use my AC88U, or others, to run the computers off AC88U’s Ethernet cables and maybe the 5Ghz Guest Network. I don’t understand how the Repeater Mode would be the solution. Is the Bridge mode on WDS only or Hybrid the solution or have I missed something blindly simple. If the Bridge mode is the solution, anything tricky I need to know?
Of course the easy answer is to use WIFI connections for all computers and devices, but that isn’t the issue and also not the safest.
Thanks.
