Use Motorola NVG510 as wireless router only

Question

I recently switched from AT&T DSL to Comcast cable, and I have a leftover Motorola NVG510 modem/router from AT&T. I bought a new modem for Comcast, and I want to use the NVG510 as a router only (not a modem).

My question is very similar to this one, and I've tried the solution to that question and the linked Yahoo.com question.

If I simply connect the modem to one of the LAN ports on the back of the NVG510 and open up a web browser I get a page served from the NVG510 telling me it can’t establish a DSL connection.

How can I use the NVG510 as a router only?

Solution

Like Ecnerwal already said, this is not going to work. (with just the NVG510 alone)

The problem here is that you're getting a public ip from your modem. This means the modem itself does not act as a DHCP-server. The other method you linked to only works if there is another DHCP-server.

Normally the router/access-point (NVG510) would get an ip from the modem via its WAN-port after which you could use its internal DHCP-server to issue private ip ranges on the LAN-side.

But because this WAN-port is a DSL-port and does not work (correctly) as a normal WAN-port you can't use it. So you would need to connect the modem to a LAN-port and that port should get the public ip. But thats not possible because all the LAN-ports should get the same ip-range to be able to communicate with each other.

There are 3 possible solutions to this:

• You could use a computer to directly connect to the modem and share the internet via a second network-adapter. You can connect your NVG510 to that because your computer acts as a DHCP-server. Downside is that your computer always needs to be on.
• You could get your hands on a cheap broadband router which only acts as DHCP-server (no WiFi necessary because you could connect your NVG510 to it)
• You could buy a less-cheaper broadband router which also has wireless capabilities.

Comments

[Rik]

Do you still need to connect other devices to the Comcast modem? Or is the NVG510 the only device connected to it?

[Rik]

What type is the "Comcast cable"? And on your pc (direct connected to it) do you get a private-ip (10.* or 192.*) or a public-ip?

[MattL]

@Rik, the NVG510 is the only device connected to the Comcast modem. The modem gives me a public IP address. I'm not sure what you mean about the type of Comcast cable. It is XFINITY cable internet running over a coaxial cable.

[Giacomo1968]

Others have stated what I believe is the obvious; that there is no simple way to repurpose that modem/router into a standalone router. But I would recommend you look at this site which contains tons of deep level hacking info on NVG510. Perhaps something there can lead to something to help you? earlz.net/view/2012/06/04/0754/…

[Rik]

If his modem only gives only 1 public-ip, and does not act as a DHCP-server, he does need the DHCP-server from the NVG510. And i think the instructions mentioned only work if the modem assigns a private ip (like 10.*).

[MattL]

I guess based on your explanation that I want the NVG510 to work as a router not an access point. I'll update my question to reflect that.

[Ecnerwal]

Cleaned up my answer to reflect the new information, and removed the now irrelevant information about using the old device as an access point.