How to connect AirPort Extreme to Bigpond Technicolor TG587n

You have two basic methods..

Leave the 587N as a router, and bridge the airport extreme and use it as WAP.

There is nothing wrong with doing it this way.. the Technicolor are a reasonable router.

The other method is to bridge the 587N .. simply go to the setup wizard in the Technicolor and choose bridge template.. finish the wizard.

Then setup the AE using PPPOE client for the WAN interface.. plug WAN into the modems LAN port.

This is simply moving the bridge from the AE to the Technicolor and then you have AE as main router.

It is around the same in the end.

The post by LaPastenague all sounds very complicated. I have seen other forums where it says disable the router function of the TG587n, put it in bridge mode, etc. so that the two routers do not interfere with each other.

All I did was connect the Airport Extreme to ethernet port #1 on the TG587n and the modem and Airport Extreme network both work great even with the WiFi of the modem still enabled. If you don't want two networks, just press the ECO button on the TG587n and turn the green light to blue.

Early on in the setup procedure the modem turned itself off a few times with the error message "concentrator not reachable", so I followed a suggestion on the Telstra Crowdsupport forum and did a factory reset. No more problems.

Early on in the setup procedure the modem turned itself off a few times with the error message "concentrator not reachable", so I followed a suggestion on the Telstra Crowdsupport forum and did a factory reset. No more problems.

How this works depends on if the modem is registered to you or you bought it retail. A registered modem will automatically configure itself.. A modem bought in the Telstra shop will not.

How difficult is setting the Thomson / Technicolor to bridge. IMHO it is one of the easiest models on the market to bridge.. but here is the exact screenshots to do it.

1. Open the modem interface in your browser. All Telstra modems use 10.0.0.138.. but Thomson / Technnicolor normally use 192.168.1.254 so type either of those addresses into your browser address bar.

Press enter and the router gui will open.

Open Technicolor gateway (or Thomson gateway on earlier models).

2. First option under pick a task. Setup my Technicolor Gateway.

It will open the setup wizard.

3. Click next and choose the bridge from the list of templates.

There is nothing else you need to do.. just click next until you finish.. but so you can see what the screens looks like.

When you click start it will load the new bridge configuration into the modem and it will then work as bridged.. note also you can still access the modem by its wireless.. that is why I don't turn off the dhcp.. that is very useful as then you can access the bridged modem by wireless to discover sync and line info.

LaPastenague, thanks very much for that.

But I am now wondering, what is the advantage of putting the Technicolor modem into Bridge mode if it is now working OK with the Airport Extreme without it in Bridge mode? Will its performance be enhanced?

Brian

You will have double NAT.. this leads to sites that will not load properly and many interactive functions on the web not working. Does your TC show double NAT error. If so it is better to fix it than ignore.

LaPastenague,

Thanks for your reply and the helpful advice you have given.

I have never received a double NAT error. Following advice I read on a forum some time ago (I can't remember the reason why) I haven't updated my AirPort Extreme firmware and are still running version 7.6.1. AirPort Utility Version 6.3.2 shows a green Double NAT bullet advice for the AirPort Extreme, but not as an error warning. Another iMac running the old AirPort Utility version 5.6.1 shows "This AirPort Extreme is already set up and not reporting any problems."

I also have an AirPort Express connected wirelessly to the AE network (just for playing iTunes to my sound system) and that is being reported by AirPort Utility as having an "excellent" connection.

All websites are loading well and interactive featutes (I assume you meaning internet banking, shopping, PayPal and that sort of stuff) are not giving any problems. I am a "if it is not broken, don't fix it" sort of bloke so I might just leave everything as it is. If I start getting problems, I might then have to go to Bridge Mode on the TG587n.

If I do eventually bridge the TG587n, and the AE was originally configured many years ago using a old Speedstream 4200 modem (without a router) and a single ethernet port, will have to do a reconfiguration on the AirPort Extreme?

Thanks again for your help.

Brian

You will need to reconfigure things to get it working.

Double NAT will affect more things like interactive media.. skype, voip things like that. Certainly some games will not work.

Anything that needs ports opened from the outside.

The things you mentioned are all opened from inside on standard ports.. so they are not an issue.

LaPastenague,

Technicolor TG587n + Airport Extreme still going OK still with double NAT.

I have been on the internet a lot during the last few days and everything works fine. Skype works great.

I don't know about games, but I don't do internet games, so not a worry.

Thanks again for your help.

TWC gave me TC 8715D and i put it in bridge mode so i can control network connections through an airport extreme and have it all going but now i have no internet connection on the TC side. Not even macbook pro wired to the TC modem gets lights or connection. Any suggestions as i havent seen anything on this model of router from TC on line?

p.s. I hate twc and value the apple community much more then third world tech support.

TWC gave me TC 8715D

This is a cable modem and gateway router.. If you bridge it you need to shut it down for at least 20min for the public IP to be reallocated.

If you plug a computer into it in bridge it should get the public IP address.

Doing that means you need to shut off the modem again to plug in the airport extreme in full DHCP and NAT mode so it will pick up the public IP..

If you have issues I would go back to running the TC8715D in router mode.. but there is a special way to setup the Airport Extreme.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5981989?answerId=25135547022#25135547022&ac_cid=tw123456#

This may help in your case.