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Help setting up modem/router + router home network

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Famia

New Around Here
This is going to be long as I wanted to be as detailed as possible. You can jump to the questions if you want. And I'm also not sure if this is the right place, but it's the closest. Mods can move it to the right section if this is not the right section.

Background: Our old DSL modem broke and the new replacement is a modem/wifi/router combo instead of a plain old modem, no more plain modem according to the ISP (I'll call the combo a modem from this point on). The settings are heavily locked down, unsecure admin password (guess the admin password. Hint: 4 digits starts with 1 and ends in 4. You're right and I cannot change it) and very weak/slow wifi. Let's put the wifi this way, it was not able to complete a speedtest to the ISP server, stuck on the download test.

My old setup is plain modem --> WRT610N router that everything connects to (The router from this point on).

I tried setting up the new modem to match my old setup so I can just go ahead with my life, but no such luck.

Below are what I did
1.) Test to make sure modem --> LAN PC is working
2.) Add the router and poking around until I got wifi working but LAN not working
3.) Turned off DHCP on the router and it's now working. Both wired and wireless.

Settings are as follows:
1.) Modem acting as the DHCP server. I can't change this or maybe I can if I can get a competent rep from my ISP that knows what a DHCP is, can't change setup on my end.
2.) Line 1 on the modem connected to line1 of the router
3.) Modem IP starts at 192.168.1.1, again cannot change
4.) Router IP I set it up as 192.168.2.1
5.) Router has DHCP and NAT disabled. It's also working with NAT enabled, but I disabled it and enabled DHCP to check if it will work, did not work.
6.) my LAN IP right now is 192.168.1.4. I don't know why despite being connected to the router, please see question #3.

The modem model is speedsurf504AN, which seems to be the same as the ProLink Hurricane 5004AN. Doing a google earlier shows this from Toms hardware --> http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1738970/configure-modem-router-modem-e2500-router.html.

So far so good with my applications, even blizzard games are updating correctly which previously needs specific ports forwarded are working after I setup the port forwarding on the router to 192.168.2.2, which is not my current LAN IP, it's currently on 192.168.1.4. Though I have not thoroughly used it. I did try it earlier without the port forwarding disabled, but I did not wait for more than 15mins before giving up. I finish setting up by 3am so forgive my impatience.

The problems and my questions are:
1.) I wanted to keep my port forwarding, QoS and DDNS settings. Do the settings in the router work even with DHCP disabled? Is it working in my setup?

2.) I can't access the router after I disable DHCP. typing 192.168.2.1 with DHCP enabled works, but it does not work with DHCP disabled. The router is not showing up on the modem DHCP table (192.168.1.1). Tried a few guesses on the 192.168.2.x (x starting at 1 and 100, because my router default start is 100) and 192.168.1.x range still nothing. How do I access the router with DHCP disabled?
I also tried not booting the modem and tried to access the router while it is directly connected to a PC but still nothing.

3.) I still have everything connected to the router instead of the modem. Only the router is connected to the modem. but My IP are in the 192.168.1.x range, I was expecting the range to be 192.168.2.x. Why?
I was able to have it work briefly with DHCP enabled over wifi with my IP in the 192.168.2.x range but PC connected directly to the ports are not working, connected to either modem or wifi.

4.) Will any DSL modem work or are these DSL modems ISP specific. It's ADSL, DSL over the phone line, UPnP setup, not cable to be very specific. I'm seriously considering importing a TP-Link TD-8616 ADSL2+ Modem from amazon to get my old setup back.

5.) I want the modem to be just a modem and leave the routing to the router. Is this doable with what I currently have? How do I go about doing this? Is it as simple as asking for the DHCP on the modem to be disabled and re-enabling the DHCP on the router? I don't mind the ethernet ports on the modem not working, nobody is going to miss it.

6.) If it were you, how will you go about setting this up?

Here is what I'm imagining the setup is to be or how I think I wanted it to be. But I can't seem to make it happen.
1.) Modem with router capabilities acting on it's own, supplying internet to the router. People can connect to this if they want and they get 192.168.1.x.
2.) Router gets internet from Modem and acts as a gateway/repeater(not 100% on the term but I think you guys get it). People can connect to this and get the benefit of the advanced capabilities of the router.
3.) Effectively falling back to my old setup with the modem as a backup router if needed.

Last, I was able to semi-secure the modem by creating a random very long wifi password by running my fingers over the keyboard until it says string too long and trim it to get max character password. So the only way to access the modem settings is through physical access or calling my ISP. And if either of those happen without someone from the family initiating it, I have bigger problems than just securing the modem.

Thanks.
 
Hi,
If I were you I'd put the router on the modem into bridge mode and like you say then you'll get on with your life..... If you can't do that ask
your ISP to put it into bridge mode. Good luck.
 
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As TonyH said, putting your modem/router in to bridged mode would be best.

But if you can't...... Cascade either LAN-to-LAN or LAN-to-WAN.

Follow the Linksys instructions carefully and you'll be good to go.

http://kb.linksys.com/Linksys/ukp.aspx?pid=80&vw=1&articleid=3733

Edit: Many people that are unable to put their DSL modem/router in to bridged mode will cascade their secondary router LAN-to-WAN as per instructions and then enable the DMZ feature on their DSL modem/router.
Since it sounds like you've made some incorrect changes (and you have ;) ) it's probably best you reset the linksys to factory default and start over from scratch.
 
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Thanks. Reading the article now and then going to do it once I understand what to do. I'll post another update later on how I'm doing.

I'll do the LAN to WAN first since it's harder to get a hold of a good rep than doing the ones on my end first.

Edit: it worked. I guess, what I did wrong earlier was followed an article for LAN to LAN but wanted to do a LAN to WAN so I did not plug the cable to the internet port.
 
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