Motorola 6180 in bridge mode to Apple Airport Extreme loses connection

[DReborn]

My setup:

Motorola 6180 in bridge mode
Airport Extreme 5th gen acting as router
dlink gigabit 8 port switch connected to one of the ports on the Airport
I have two computers, a sonos device, a Tivo, xbox, ps3, and a media streamer connected to the switch.

Ok, so Timewarner makes me use the awful Moto 6180 for DOCSIS 3.0 but the wireless performance was so bad that I needed to get a wireless router. Unfortunately I got the Airport Extreme 5th gen before I read all the amazing reviews about the ASUS 56 and 66 (the Asus 66 is ordered on Amazon, hopefully it will come soon).

Anyways...every now and then the 6180 will have to reset (love Timewarner) and when it reboots it tries to give the public IP from Timwarner to SOMETHING. Unfortunately, i have other devices connected to the Airport through the bridge. So the Airport never gets the IP address. In order to fix it, I have to power off both the modem and router. Make sure ONLY the Airport is plugged into the 6180, turn on the 6180, wait for it get connected, then plug in Airport, wait for it to fully connect, and the replug all my devices/bridge. Annoying.

Is there any way to FORCE the 6180 to only give it's IP address to the Airport? And force the Airport to only accept that IP address? Maybe so then I would only have to power cycle Airport when a reset happens? Or maybe not have to reset anything...

I did have a Timewarner rep out today who fixed my signal so hopefully there will be less resets but Im sure it will still happen.

thanks!!!

 

[thiggins]

Unfortunately, i have other devices connected to the Airport through the bridge.

Please explain how these devices are connected.

 

[DReborn]

here are the devices directly/Wired connected to the Airport:

Moto 6180
sonos bridge
Synology NAS
Dlink 5 port bridge

Devices wired into the dlink 5 port bridge:

Win7 desktop
iMac
Brother Multifunction Printer
Dlink 8 port bridge

Devices wired into the Dlink 8 port bridge:

Win7 HTPC
Xbox 360
PS3
Tivo
Sonos device

ha, i think that's it for wired devices. Everything other device is wireless.

my first thought was to try to have ONLY the 6180 and a switch plugged into the Airport but would that make a difference? I could pick up another 8 port switch so I could have all the devices plug into that instead of some into the airport and the rest in the switch.

thanks!

 

[thiggins]

Still confused. The 6180 is acting as your broadband modem, so should just be connected via Ethernet to the Airport Extreme WAN port.

 

[DReborn]

yes, the 6180 is plugged into the Wan port of the airport. but then i have the sonos bridge, Synology NAS, and Dlink 5 port bridge connected to the airport Ethernet/LAN ports.

that make sense? sorry if I'm not helping =(

if i leave everything connected when I reboot the 6180, the airport doesn't necessarily get the public IP from timewarner. maybe because the airport takes longer to boot up?

 

[thiggins]

if i leave everything connected when I reboot the 6180, the airport doesn't necessarily get the public IP from timewarner. maybe because the airport takes longer to boot up?

Your initial post indicated some other device on your LAN was getting the IP from the modem.

If the issue is simply that the Airport isn't getting the IP, then yes, you need to let the modem finish booting, then reboot the router. If the router finishes booting first, it may not automatically retry getting an WAN IP.

 

[DReborn]

to be more clear: yes, a few times my Win7 desktop received the ip address from the modem even though it was plugged into one of the LAN ports of the airport.

if i have anything else plugged into the airport BESIDES the 6180 into the WAN port, the airport will not get the ip address from the modem. the modem will send it to another device first. I suppose the 6180 modem has no idea that it should only send the ip address to the WAN port of the Airport even though that is the only cable plugged into the 6180 (and the airport is still booting up i suppose).

to summarize my main complaint: if my 6180 ever reboots the airport will not regain the ip address UNLESS I unplug both the 6180 and the airport, unplug everything from the airport except the 6180 into the WAN port, turn on the 6180, wait for it to connect/fully boot up, then turn on the airport and wait for it fully connect before I reconnect all the other devices.

 

[overdrive31]

Looks to me like the 6180 is just a standard bridged modem, it's the 6580 that has wireless N and gigabit switch.

The 6580 in bridge mode needs the MAC address of the device it will give an public IP to be configured into the modems software. Did you happen to program the PC(keeps getting an IP from the modem), MAC address and clone the same address on the Airport router? Can't understand why a public address is being assigned to a device behind NAT, unless you have that PC in the DMZ.

If what I assume is the case, one solution would be to only program the Airport router default MAC address into the modem and not a cloned PC MAC address, the other would be to move the PC out of the DMZ.

 

[DReborn]

yes, very sorry I must have the 6580.

so if i log into my 6580 i should be able to set the airport's mac address into where?

thanks, sorry being a newb

 

[overdrive31]

You can use this tutorial to help guide you.