If my Time Capsule is set to "bridge mode", is it the primary router?

I just bought this Asus Ac88 to replace my apple time capsule to be the main router bcos it have 8 Lan ports that connected to the whole house.

i use the apple TC in my master bedroom as additional router, now my iMac cannot backup to TC.

The only interactions should be DHCP and having the router bridge the packets to/from the TC.

And that is exactly what the Apple support folks do not want you to do.

They want the TC "in charge" of the network....or, at least in charge of all devices that will be connecting to the TC......so the TC is the device that is assigning IP addresses to connected clients......so that nothing needs to be "bridged" to connect to the TC.....even if this creates a Double NAT situation on the network.

Ironically, Apple's AirPort Utility software will then advise you to avoid the Double NAT though and place the TC in Bridge Mode. Apple Support's advice on this?......."Ignore" the Double NAT issue.

At least that is how the "genius" at the Apple Stored explained this to me when I asked him about this. By the way, he did mention that he did not agree with the "official thinking" from Apple......but he has little say in the matter.

My questions is this: in bridge mode, am I using the Apple Time Capsule / Airport as my router, or the new one from the provider? I would like to use my apple product.

If the Time Capsule is in Bridge Mode, then it is not your main router, although it can still provide a wireless network for you to use, and you will be able to back up your Macs to the Time Capsule.

The Bridge Mode setting (Apple technically calls this "Off (Bridge Mode))", which means that the routing functions of the Time Capsule are "Off"....so it is in "Bridge Mode".....is the correct setting to use when you have another router "upstream" on the network. The reason for this is that you do not want to have two devices on the same network both trying to be the router for the network.

If you want the Time Capsule to act as the main router for the network, you have two options:

1) Your modem/router might offer a "modem only mode", also called "bridge mode", so that it will function like a simple modem, and not a router. If the modem/router can be configured this way, then the Time Capsule can be set up as your main router. Chances are, your modem/router was supplied to you by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), so you could ask them about this possibility. The question would be if the modem/router can be configured to operate in bridge mode to function as a simple modem....and whether your ISP will help you do this.

2) Ask your ISP if they offer a simple modem, which you would use in place of the existing modem/router. This would be a much simpler option than the first option mentioned above.

I did notice that when I logged onto the ISP default address that there was an option on the router to "disable wireless".

"Disable wireless" will do just that.......turn off the wireless function on your modem/router. But, doing this will not make the modem/router a simple modem......it will still be a wired modem/router that is still in charge of your network.

If it were me, I would pursue option 2 above first, since reconfiguring a modem/router to operate as a simple modem.....even if it is possible (it may not be).....is not for the faint of heart.

Unfortunately, fewer and fewer ISPs are even offering a simple modem option these days.

I'm also assuming I should switch my apple airport / time capsule to NAT / DHCP BEFORE I make my change on the ISP's modem.

That might work, and you could try, but whenever you change the modem.....as you are doing.....it is a good idea to reset the Time Capsule back to default settings and then set it up again.

This can be complicated if your on cable.. so once you bridge the cable modem you need to power it down for around 20min so the registered MAC address of the modem router is replaced and when you power on the TC it can capture the IP.. for adsl it is even tricker.

What are you trying to gain by using the TC as the main router.. ??

As an alternative to using TC as router and bridge the modem..

You can use the TC as a secondary DHCP and DNS server.. This gives it back a lot of its original control without causing a double NAT.

I have outlined the method here.

Re: airport time capsule keeps disconnecting

I used it to fix a different issue but I find it works in a way that is stable and allows full use of the setup in the TC.

The reason I would like to use the Mac Time Capsule as the main router is because I assumed it would be faster and have better range.

The Time Capsule as a "main" router will neither be any faster, nor will it have any greater range than it would have if it were in bridge mode.

I meant that I thought using the Time Capsule as a "main" router that I would get better range and faster wireless in the house overall as opposed to a faster Time Capsule. Perhaps that's still what you meant.

No, I meant what I said. Performance with the Time Capsule will be no faster and have no greater range in router mode than it would in bridge mode. "Range" always refers to wireless performance, since you don't see discussions or questions about Ethernet range (which is about 330 feet, or 100 meters).

Remember, it is your Internet Service Provider that is determining what the Internet connection speed on your network might be. No router can take the signal speed that it receives from the Internet connection and somehow make it go faster. If you need faster Internet connection speeds, you will need to talk to your ISP about a faster connection plan.

If having the Time Capsule / Airport in bridge mode and using the ISPs modem as the "main" wireless router makes no difference to internet performance then I don't think I'll bother fussing with it as all systems seem to currently be a go.

The only good reason that I can think of to have the Time Capsule set up in router mode would be that this would enable a certain feature.....like the Guest Network.....or Back to My Mac.....which are not enabled when the Time Capsule or an Apple router is set up in bridge mode.

I would add to this that I was just informed by Apple Support that Time Machine backups to a Time Capsule that is running in bridge mode is not supported if the router being used is not an Apple router, and that one should not expect this setup to work reliably. "It's a matter of time before it fails."

And in my case, it did fail, even after replacing the Time Capsule...I was continually getting verification failures from Time Machine and it wanted to erase and restart backups every few days. I was advised to use the Time Capsule as the wifi router. Although I had a few reasons to prefer the router I was using, I agreed to remove it from my setup and to use the Time Capsule as the only wifi router. We'll see how it goes.

I was just informed by Apple Support that Time Machine backups to a Time Capsule that is running in bridge mode is not supported if the router being used is not an Apple router

Apple must be losing it, since their own software in AirPort Utility will direct the user to correctly configure the Time Capsule in bridge mode if it senses another router upstream on the network.

So, in effect Apple is saying here that they do not support the configurations that have been suggested by their own software. Brilliant.