AT&T Modem/router with airport extreme

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AT&T Modem/router with airport extreme

Qyestion: AT&T is sending me their newest modem/router as of January, 2023. I have an airport extreme connected to the current AT&T hardware used as modem only and all my Apple devices are connected to the airport extreme via ethernet except for iOS devices. Wi-Fi is turned off in the AT&T - used as modem only, And selected as router behind router - everything works fine.

Airport extreme is not a new device and newer protocols on new AT&T hardware may bottleneck through the airport extreme with its older technology. I did this because I have security cameras and it’s very hard to create pin holes though the AT&T router. I did it once successfully then they went and changed out the router with a new one about five years ago and could not get it to work. So I pulled out my old airport extreme which I was about to sell and got everything working quickly and no problem configuring the AT&T hardware to work with the airport extreme.

My question is what are the pros and cons of this set up, and what am I losing going through the airport extreme and it’s older technology? Should I get another router which is easier to configure for the security cameras? I tried to get AT&T supposed Tech service folks to get my security cameras working through their hardware and they wanted me to pay an extra $10 a month for giving me a static IP address, which I found was total nonsense? Create static addresses through the security cameras. At least I think that’s how it works.

Any advice on the best hardware to use and if I keep using the AirPort Extreme, will this be limiting the functionality? To my particular address there is optic to the alley, but it’s copper wire to the building, so I’m limited to 25–30 MB per second. This has never been a problem for what I do and for one year used cable Internet getting 400 MB per second and could not tell any difference, and in fact, was less reliable with my system set up. Plus they could not be trusted and had to call them every month about billing with some new problem. Switched back to AT&T, which is the only other option I have here.

Any advice, recommendations as how best to proceed with the new AT&T hardware coming today would be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance, Seth

iMac 27″

Posted on Jan 4, 2023 5:26 AM

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Answer 1

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Bob Timmons

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167,450 points

Jan 4, 2023 6:09 AM in response to Seth77

The first question here would be whether the new AT&T modem/router be configured to act as a simple modem so the AirPort Extreme can be configured as the main router for the network.

If it can, I don't see much of a downside if you want to continue to use the AirPort Extreme as the network router. The AirPort Extreme is not capable of newer WPA3 wireless security, but WPA2 is going to be OK for most home networks.

As far as a "Static IP" address, this would be the IP address that the AT&T modified "modem" would provide to the AirPort Extreme. The AirPort Extreme in turn would provide IP addresses to all of the devices on the network. You have the option to have the AirPort provide a "static" IP address for each connected device as part of the Port Mapping assignments for the security cameras.

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Answer 2

Seth77 Author

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70 points

Jan 4, 2023 5:07 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Thank you so much for the timely reply. As I expect the new gateway AT&T hardware will be at home when I return. All previous AT&T gateways are easily to log onto Settings and a software button to turn Wi-Fi on and off has always been an option. You can name things so you may reference in the future, having forgotten how you did things. But there’s one option that receives different responses on how to set up a router to/behind the gateway, or the option to click “on” when connecting another router, which is called, “router behind router“. There’s also bridge mode and a couple of others, I believe, and certain settings need to be done in the airport extreme. One thing that keeps coming up is the old “back to my Mac”, which is no longer a functional entity, but Apple wants you to provide your Apple ID password which accepts, then sometime later says it was not accepted, with an amber dot next to it. I’ve asked the question here about this, and people say to ignore it, and that it doesn’t do anything to affect the functionality of the set up that I have described.

My question now is should I connect my Apple 4K TV, 2 iMacs and MacBook Pro, using ethernet, to the airport extreme, or directly to the AT&T gateway? Anything gained, or anything considered a “con” to do this? Losing a layer of security? versus broader bandwidth provided by the AT&T gateway? In the past it seems the hardware they send is usually a couple years behind current technology available. Or, continue using as I have in the past - connecting everything to the AirPort Extreme; and, airport extreme to the AT&T Gateway? Best, Seth

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Answer 3

Jan 4, 2023 5:26 PM in response to Seth77

All previous AT&T gateways are easily to log onto Settings and a software button to turn Wi-Fi on and off has always been an option.

Understood, but simply turning the Wi-Fi off does not make the device a modem. It is still a wired router.

but there’s one option that receives different responses on how to set up a router behind the gateway, or the option to click on when connecting another router, which is called, “router behind router“.

Correct, this is usually called IP Passthrough Mode on most routers. It's about as close as you can get an AT&T gateway to act like a simple modem in that it forwards a Public IP Address to the next router on the network.

There’s also bridge mode in a couple of others

Correct, but I've yet to see an AT&T gateway that actually has a real setting labeled Bridge Mode. I would be surprised if your new AT&T gateway has a dedicated Bridge Mode setting, but anything is possible I suppose.

One thing that keeps coming up is the old “back to my Mac”, which is no longer a functional entity, and even state cell, but want you to provide your Apple ID password which excepts then sometime later says it was not excepted.

This setting was dropped from AirPort Utility about 5 years ago when Apple decided to no longer support Back to My Mac. You won't find this setting in AirPort Utility unless you have a very old Mac running a very old operating system.

My question now is should I connect my Apple 4K TV, 2 iMacs and MacBook Pro, using ethernet, to the airport extreme, or directly to the AT&T gateway?

If you are going to try to configure the new AT&T gateway for IP Passthrough or Router Behind a Router Mode, then all of your network devices would connect to the AirPort Extreme. In this type of setup, you have to think of the gateway as a modem, even though it is not really acting as a pure modem.

If you want to use the AT&T gateway with its default settings as a modem/router then there is really no reason to use the AirPort Extreme at all. If you do want to connect the AirPort Extreme anyway, it will need to be set up in Bridge Mode....(Apple calls this "Off (Bridge Mode)". You will lose the option to set up Port Mapping on the AirPort Extreme though, if you do this.

If the new AT&T modem/router has an option for Wi-Fi 6 and WPA3 security, you will have higher performance and higher security using the AT&T modem/router as it was designed and not using the AirPort Extreme at all.

But, if your cameras require Port Forwarding (Apple calls this Port Mapping), then you will need to figure out if the AT&T modem/router has this option.

Often in cases like you are asking about, there really are no right or wrong answers as far as how things are set up. To me, it makes little sense to buy a modem/router and then reconfigure it to not be a router, but a lot of users do this.

All things considered, it is unfortunate that AT&T does not really offer a simple modem option, but I doubt that they will change.

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Answer 4

Seth77 Author

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70 points

Jan 5, 2023 6:59 AM in response to Bob Timmons

WoW! Thank you for such a well delineated step-by-step answers to my most pertinent questions. I don’t see any reason to change to the Arris gateway, but any thoughts on how I might fix the Internet service dropouts? It was suggested to reset the Pace to factory defaults and start over, and that should fix the problem? Internet service again was dropped this morning for about 10 minutes, but could’ve lasted longer, as I restarted the gateway and my Apple 4K TV, which tends to act Unpredictably when things happen with the Internet service, slow speeds, but usually service just stops.

The only reason I even brought my AirPort Extreme back to life it’s because of the security cameras, which I got working with a previous AT&T gateway, which took me about two weeks to do. I paid $50 for tech AT&T service with the hubs they could help me set up pinholes to their gateway, but no such luck. After seven or hours and conferring with their senior supervisor, they left me with stating I needed to pay an extra $10 or $15 per month for a static IP address for the cameras. I must’ve wasted a couple of hours with these guys that I don’t think really knew anymore than I did. I figured out how to do it on my own, but then they changed the gateway to a new model and could not recapitulate what I had done previously. This is about 10 years ago. So, connected the airport extreme, which was already configured for the security cameras, and instantly everything started to work properly. Now I’m left with the problem of Internet service dropouts which occurred daily. Best, Seth

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AT&T Modem/router with airport extreme

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