Bridge mode for airport extreme or dsl modem? Recomendations?

Thanks Tesserax. I see you saw what truly blazing speeds I have to deal with, but I wanted my home-internal network to be fast amongst the devices. In fact, the DSL modem/routers I"m looking at don't use a Gigabit port (just Fast, at 10/100), and have max download speeds of only 24 Mbps. Sad, but true. One would think that living withing 40 miles of downtown Cleveland would allow faster avenues, but nichts.

I've seen the AE bridge/modem router combination you suggest a LOT in my obsessive-compulsive reading of configurations on blogs. My main concern was messing up the ability of hanging a network drive off the AE, or perhaps an unknown (to me) side-effect of bridging the AE with Apple TV. I was thinking about TC, but was turned off by a lot of the commentary (negative) about these systems dying (perhaps due to overheating?); so for starters I'll do the poor man's network file server.

Again, many thanks. Any other takers?

Sounds like, speed-wise, you are in the same state of affairs as I. I don't like DSL but it's the only game in town for a value standpoint. Satellite is expensive and has data caps.

I will do some experimentation with swapping bridge modes on the modem/router & the Apple router. Like you said, what am I going to mess up! I was more concerned about the interaction of AppleTV, which I currently have hardwired off of my Linksys E1200 router, with the proposed upgrade, and whether or not file sharing would be in some way compromised. I'll probably keep that connection configuration in place by connecting AppleTV via ethernet cable to the new Apple router (either AE or TC).

And speaking of file sharing--thanks for the update on the reliability of TC...I agree with you that it's a really good buy and in principle a much better option than USB-attached drives on AE. I was leaning in that direction initially and then I saw all the negative commentary on TCs dying, lack of support from Apple for those configs, etc. I will give them another look and let you know.

First step...done.

I implemented a Netgear DM111PSP ADSL2+ router (50 bucks), and used my old winbox with an ethernet connection to the modem to auto-setup from a CD. It was actually pretty easy. The software detected my DSL ISP plus all the gateway, modem IP, DNS addresses, PPPoE, layer 2 encapsulation, etc. Took all of 5-6 minutes. I sat back in absolute astonishment. Never seen anything with a modem happen that easily.

Next, I reconnected the Linksys E1200 (802.11n) router, and...success as well. Both have their own served up DHCP capabilities (the modem for my router, and the wireless router for everything else). I also upgraded the wireless router firmware for good measure.

The Netgear modem now senses that I can achieve >14Mbps (more than the listed 12 Mbps of my ISP--my old one could only sense 8 Mbps). The external speed tests are now in the 9-10 Mbps range, about 3-6 Mbps higher than what I could get before.

Next week: buying and installing an Apple Time Capsule. Wish me luck!

I'm back and wanted to put a coda on this thread.

First of all, many thanks to the recommendations by Tesserax and LaPastenague. You helped allay my fears in converting over to the Time Capsule environment.

The home network is working just great. Internal speed-ups all the way around. TC is working great as both a file server AND a Time Machine site. The Netgear DSL modem is the firewall and the DHCP server for my network. As stated in earlier posts, it has superior firewall capabilities compared to the Time Capsule. I configured the Time Capsule to Bridge Mode with my iPhone 5C, the configuration of which only took a couple of minutes. The speed between the 802.11 ac devices, my TC and the new Mac Mini, are unbelievably fast--on the order of 150+ Mbps at a distance of 40 feet or so through several walls--beamforming really does appear to work as advertised. That doesn't matter overall except for the Time Machine aspects, as my DSL line is a blisteringly fast 12 Mbps.

The only glitch I've had over the last 3 weeks was due to a short power outage, and the main problem was the networking with hard ethernet connection to the Time Capsule. I had to reboot the Netgear modem, as it was in a funky state, while other devices, such as my new Mac Mini, were waiting for the modem to vend a DHCP address. It turns out that the Apple TV had some persistence with its old DHCP-vended address, and the Mac Mini somehow received its IP address first--which conflicted with the Apple TV. Now, I'm not sure why the wirelessly networked Mac Mini beat the Apple TV to receiving a DHCP vending first, but it did, and the address persistence of the Apple TV created a conflict on the Apple TV network connection. Once I realized the problem, I shut down the Mac Mini and made sure all my other devices were off as well. I then restarted the entire network, the Apple TV received its IP address first, and all was well again. Granted, I could have disconnected the ethernet and allowed really fast wireless to the Apple TV, but it's only 4 feet away from the Time Capsule, so I might as well have the fastest pipe available for HD streaming to my large-format HD television.

The switchover was absolutely painless. Both the modem and the Time Capsule took, all total, about 10 minutes to set up and configure. Much easier than with Winboxes. Other than the Apple TV IP conflict after the power outage, it's been a real delight.

I'm very happy I switched to this new network configuration.

You are right. UPS setups will smooth out the line fluctuations, etc. which may have been the actual problem with the network.

I'll be checking some of them out. Probably only need 5-10 minutes power cover to handle most problems, and having the UPS filter the noise is a plus.