Superhub shub 2 modem mode

daveeb · 07-08-2014, 10:34

Hi all

Talking to my brother who uses his shub 2 with a third part router. I was asking him how easy it is to set it to modem mode. He said he hadn't heard of modem mode, he just turns of wifi on the shub 2 then connects his own router to a superhub ethernet port. This doesn't sound right to me, can anyone confirm if what he's doing is correct. (I could be getting one in near future so just want to be prepared).

Thanks

General Maximus · 07-08-2014, 10:57

no it is not. Disabling the Wi-Fi obviously only takes care of the wifi, if he leaves the shub in router mode then it is still acting as a router which is why the ports on the switch at the back are still active. Yes he can still attach another router to it but it is like making a daisy chain. The 3rd party router will handle all the routing for the devices connected to it but if they want to go outside of the side (lan) and get onto the internet, they have no direct connection, the new router is simply going to handle the traffic to the shub because it is going to see it as the default gateway and the shub is then going to route it off to the internet. He is "double nating" and forcing the traffic to go through another router unnecessarily which can only introduce more problems.

As soon as you log into shub2 in router mode there is an option on the page to put it in modem mode. Modem mode disables the routing functionality and turns the shub into a modem. This means that only port 1 is active on the back of the shub and the only way you are going to get a device connected to the internet is if it is directly connected to port 1 or if you connect a router to port 1 (i.e. attaching a router to the modem) and then connecting multiple devices to the router. In this scenario the router will be the sole device maintaining the network and it will act as the dhcp server and handle the routing etc. In your brothers case, the shub will have been handing out ip addresses for it's subnet and the 3rd party router will have been as well. The only bit of good news is that he has got away with conflicts because the two routers will more than likely have been setup for different subnets. The shub is 192.168.0.1/24 and most 3rd party routers I have seen are 192.168.1.100/24

Long story short is your bro has done it completely wrong and modem mode is there for a reason. Turning off wifi is only part of the answer and does nothing to stop wired routing, shub firewall, dhcp or any of the other stuff going on.

daveeb · 07-08-2014, 13:05

that's what i thought, and thanks for the excellent and detailed explanation GM. I'll be in touch with him to inform him of his schoolboy error with a degree of smugness as he's a rocket scientist (and satellites too !).

pip08456 · 07-08-2014, 13:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by daveeb

that's what i thought, and thanks for the excellent and detailed explanation GM. I'll be in touch with him to inform him of his schoolboy error with a degree of smugness as he's a rocket scientist (and satellites too !).

Not a good one though. [IMG]

[/IMG]

daveeb · 07-08-2014, 13:40

Actually turns out that the engineer set it up like that when he installed it !

pip08456 · 07-08-2014, 14:11

With a third party router attached??? I doubt it. Possibly turned off wireless as only 1 PC attached and your brother later add added the router without changing anything.

legenderi32 · 07-08-2014, 14:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by daveeb

Hi all

Talking to my brother who uses his shub 2 with a third part router. I was asking him how easy it is to set it to modem mode. He said he hadn't heard of modem mode, he just turns of wifi on the shub 2 then connects his own router to a superhub ethernet port. This doesn't sound right to me, can anyone confirm if what he's doing is correct. (I could be getting one in near future so just want to be prepared).

Thanks

Here is a helpful link for you also:

http://help.virginmedia.com/system/s...MER_TYPE=Cable

daveeb · 07-08-2014, 15:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by legenderi32

Here is a helpful link for you also: http://help.virginmedia.com/system/s...MER_TYPE=Cable

Cheers, think i'm sorted.

I've got a linksys E3200, so should i use that or stick with the shub routing ?

qasdfdsaq · 07-08-2014, 15:33

To be fair, while it's not inherently a good idea to daisy-chain two consumer NAT gateways it's not going to have any negative consequences for a lot of people either.

General Maximus · 07-08-2014, 15:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by daveeb

Cheers, think i'm sorted.

I've got a linksys E3200, so should i use that or stick with the shub routing ?

definitely stick with a the E3200, it is a cracking router. Put the shub in modem mode and set the Linksys up. One of the first things I would do which is going to save you soooo much hassle in future is set your dns servers to 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4 and 208.67.220.220 (google's dns servers and opendns). This is one of those occasions when you'll set it up and never look back and should be used as best practise by VM tbh. You have got a very very good router and once you have got it set up properly everything is going to tick away nicely and you'll never have any problems. Once you are happy with what you have done you can show your bro how to do the same thing.

legenderi32 · 07-08-2014, 16:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by General Maximus

definitely stick with a the E3200, it is a cracking router. Put the shub in modem mode and set the Linksys up. One of the first things I would do which is going to save you soooo much hassle in future is set your dns servers to 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4 and 208.67.220.220 (google's dns servers and opendns). This is one of those occasions when you'll set it up and never look back and should be used as best practise by VM tbh. You have got a very very good router and once you have got it set up properly everything is going to tick away nicely and you'll never have any problems. Once you are happy with what you have done you can show your bro how to do the same thing.

^
What he said

daveeb · 07-08-2014, 18:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by General Maximus

definitely stick with a the E3200, it is a cracking router. Put the shub in modem mode and set the Linksys up. One of the first things I would do which is going to save you soooo much hassle in future is set your dns servers to 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4 and 208.67.220.220 (google's dns servers and opendns). This is one of those occasions when you'll set it up and never look back and should be used as best practise by VM tbh. You have got a very very good router and once you have got it set up properly everything is going to tick away nicely and you'll never have any problems. Once you are happy with what you have done you can show your bro how to do the same thing.

That'll do for me, many thanks General Maximus

General Maximus · 07-08-2014, 19:01

np dude

Gstevie · 09-08-2014, 22:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by pip08456

With a third party router attached??? I doubt it. Possibly turned off wireless as only 1 PC attached and your brother later add added the router without changing anything.

The engineer that was sent out to me one time set my at the time new Superhub exactly that way, I actually asked him why he had done that as I wanted It set up as setup in modem mode and he told me turning off WiFi was the setting that done it. I just waited till he left and fixed it myself.

General Maximus · 09-08-2014, 22:47

I think they are trying to fob people off. They probably worked out a long time ago that people wanted modem mode because wireless was/is rubbish on shub1 so they are lulling everyone into a false sense of security by disabling wireless and letting the new router handle it whilst at the same time letting the shub act as the primary router so tech support can still do their stuff when you ring up. Sneaky.

Tbh I don't blame though, if I was a tech I wouldn't set it up either. I would provide the shub as is and if the user wants to put it into modem mode and then setup their own 3rd party (for which I accept no responsibility or liability for) then so be it. The user can't be dependant on the tech to setup their own router. If they don't know how to set it up then they shouldn't have bought one.