I'd like to use the WAN port as WAN while in access point - is this supported?

[andy_d]

I'm trying to avoid having to run longer cable to get to another device to use its WAN. Wondering if Merlin's firmware supports using the WAN port while access point is enabled.

 

[Nullity]

Why not use router-mode with DHCP disabled?

You need share more details about what you are trying to do.

 

[andy_d]

Why not use router-mode with DHCP disabled?

You need share more details about what you are trying to do.

If I go by your signature, I'm trying to do pretty much that.

I have a server that I'd like to set up with a VM of pfsense which will be my router. What I don't want to do is run the cable from my modem to that server so that it has the WAN port. I'd like to keep the cabling setup I have now but to do that I'd have to use the WAN port on my RT-N66U. From what I've read, if I enable AP mode on the router it will treat the WAN port as LAN instead.

 

[Nullity]

I guess I'm confused about your reasoning behind wanting an AP to act as a router when you already have a router.

Why do you need 2 routers?

Maybe you're confused about what exactly an AP & router do? An AP is practically a wireless switch. A router is only really needed at your gateway to the internet. All internal/LAN devices will be interconnected through switches.

 

[andy_d]

I guess I'm confused about your reasoning behind wanting an AP to act as a router when you already have a router.

Why do you need 2 routers?

Maybe you're confused about what exactly an AP & router do? An AP is practically a wireless switch. A router is only really needed at your gateway to the internet. All internal/LAN devices will be interconnected through switches.

I don't want the Asus router to act as a router but I don't want the WAN cable to go the server with pfsense. Is it clear? I need the cable from my modem to go somewhere - at the moment that is the Asus router. I have the server connected to this router via a switch. I want to keep this setup - meaning what I don't want is the cable from the modem to now go to the server with pfsense. I want it to stay at the router

I could be misunderstanding what I should be doing / how this would work but basically that's all I want - the cable from the modem to still go to the router that will no longer act as router as I don't want to have a longer cable now run to the server directly.

 

[Nullity]

I think I understand. Ultimately it seems like a dangerous setup. Maybe not though. You'd likely want to separate pfSense & the modem into it's own VLAN which isn't easy with AsusWRT..

To get more help you could post a pic of your proposed network topology and the appropriate details so that anyone looking to help can understand your problems quicker & easier.

 

[RMerlin]

I'm trying to avoid having to run longer cable to get to another device to use its WAN. Wondering if Merlin's firmware supports using the WAN port while access point is enabled.

Typically, the WAN port is already used to connect the AP with the main router, so you should already have access to all five ports.

 

[andy_d]

I've attached what I want for a network. Hope that clarifies. It could be that I need to just run the cable but making sure before I have to

 

[Nullity]

1 thing, pfSense isn't really a good choice for a networking bridge/switch since it's a 100% software device.

Unless you're fully aware of the networking drawbacks of what you are trying to do, I'd seriously consider just doing it right: modem -> pfSense -> switch -> everything else.

 

[andy_d]

Ok fair enough. Thank you. I'll just run the cable when I'm ready to try it out

 

[sfx2000]

I'm trying to avoid having to run longer cable to get to another device to use its WAN. Wondering if Merlin's firmware supports using the WAN port while access point is enabled.

Odd question - but in AP mode, all the ports, if I recall are switched - e.g. no routing here...

So it becomes an AP - and that's ok perhaps...

If you need WAN, then reconfig as a router, and the AsusWRT scripts will do this automatically, mapping out the WAN port as WAN.

 

[sfx2000]

1 thing, pfSense isn't really a good choice for a networking bridge/switch since it's a 100% software device.

Depends on the platform - pfSense can do some very nice L3 switching if one gets all Ninja on it - depends on the chipset and interfaces...

(FWIW - Intel Atom can push over 13Gb across virtual ports in my experience - it's all in RAM - there's a couple of other chips that are faster (QCA and Marvell) that I know up front)

Unless you're fully aware of the networking drawbacks of what you are trying to do, I'd seriously consider just doing it right: modem -> pfSense -> switch -> everything else.