How to put the Motorola NVG589 in 'bridge mode' (or as close as you can).

Question

OverviewMost people don't need advanced features that personally owned routers offer and will be just fine using the NVG589 and turning off their personally owned router.  But if you're like me (and I know I am!) then you are probably reading this thread because you have ip cameras, personal clouds, photo servers, guest wifi, VPN's, xbox, QOS settings, et al.  I have an ASUS RT-N66U , a VIP2250, and a wireless reciever with a WAP; but your settings should be similar.  The NVG589 does not have a simple 'Bridge mode' setting so you will need to get into weeds to get this working.  I hope you're ready. First StepsMake sure you have a laptop or a computer that you can connect directly into the NVG589.Unplug all ethernet cables from the NVG589 except for the one going into the aforementioned laptop.Write down the MAC address of your personal router (the WAN MAC address if you see different ones for LAN and WAN) Settings on the NVG589Login to your NVG589 by going to 192.168.1.254Go to 'Home Network' then 'Subnets & DHCP'.  Your password is on the side of the modem.If your 'Device IPv4 Address' is the same subnet as your local router, I suggest changing it.  I changed mine to 192.169.2.254 but you can stick with whatever you like / need.  My subnet Mask remains at 255.255.255.0Change 'DHCPv4 Start Address' to 192.169.2.1 (or whatever your above Device IPv4 address is but with a 1 at the end instead of .254)Change 'DHCPv4 End Address' to 192.169.2.5, Just a few more than the Start Address.  We need these for any WAP extenders for wifi TV's.  It's important that you only have the laptop plugged into the ethernet at this point.Click 'SAVE' at the bottom.Go to 'Home Network'  then 'Wireless' and turn wireless off.  You want to use the wifi on your own router right?Go to 'Firewall' then ' 'Packet Filter'.  Disable Packet Filters.  Again, we want our router to do the work.Make sure you don't have any of your own settings turned on in 'NAT/Gaming' (don't worry if you see 1 in there already that you can't delete).Go to 'Firewall' then 'IP Passthrough'.  For 'Default Server Internal Address', select or type in 192.169.2.1.For 'Allocation Mode' select 'Passthrough' (I had to do it in this reverse order to be able to type for some reason)For 'Passthrough Mode', select 'DHCPS-Fixed'Type in the MAC address for your router under 'Manual Entry', lowercase is fine.Click SAVE.  It will tell you that it needs to reboot.  Hang on for a minute.Go to 'Firewall Advanced' at the top and turn everything OFF.Near the top of your screen, you should see an option telling you to reboot the router. Go ahead and do this now. It takes about 2 minutes.Personal Router Settings.
 Unplug your laptop and plug in your personal router while the NVG589 reboots.  Plug your laptop into your personal router and login to it.  For me, it was 192.168.1.1 (hence why I changed things above)For the ASUS RT-N66U, I had to go to my WAN settings, then 'Internet Connection'.Change 'WAN Connection Type' to 'Automatic IP'.  This will give your personal router the external IP of the NVG589 and is the key to making this whole thing work. Some folks will have to manually enter in an IP and this can be found under the 'Broadband - Status' section of the NVG589 settings.  If you don't have 'automatic IP' then I feel bad for you since you will have to manually change this every time your IP changes.'Enable WAN', 'Enable NAT' and 'Enable UPnP' is all set to YES for me.  I recomend Setting your own DNS server.  I use Google's but you use whatever you like.  Google's is 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4'Account Setting - Authentication' is 'None'.There are no Special requirements from ISP at the bottom.Hit APPLY at the bottom and your router will reboot.I also changed settings in my IPTV under LAN:Profile was None.Choose IPTV STB port, I set to LAN3 & LAN4.  I plugged my U-Verse WAP for the wireless reciver into the NVG589 and I plugged the ethernet cable going to the VIP2250 into LAN3 on my personal router.  I'm really not sure if this was necessary but I'm having 0 issues with this setup.  I initially tried putting the WAP on my personal router but had issues so I stuck it back on the NVG589 and it's fine.  I could probably just plug the VIP2250 into the NVG589 as well but I'm just enjoying the small victory of using my personal router for now.  Hit apply at the bottom, another possible reboot.At this point, I checked the internet and everything was working great through the router.  I restarted by 2 TV boxes (the VIP and the wifi ones).  Everything is peachy. Your mileage may vary.  Good luck.    EDIT to update WAP configuration.  

Answer 1

 a couple of notes I would like to make on this. for the most part it's correct. Bullet 1.) 192.169.2.254- I would not change it outside the 192.168.x.x class network specification. Doing this can cause some connectivity , DNS, and routing problems going outside the class.  Example (and yes I did this once!)-- I changed my base IP address to 135.153.1.1 as well as changed everything else. Everything worked ok till I do a traceroute or a path ping. This problem was really pervasive when on my iphone, speed tests would be way, way off, and wireless would sometimes have problems connecting. many times the first hop which should be my router didn't resolve properly and I also created other DNS problems (page can't be displayed, etc...) For this example I would stay within the confines of the wikipedia entry for private network.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_network it states24-bit block10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255 16,777,216
single class A network
10.0.0.0/8 (255.0.0.0)
24 bits
8 bits
20-bit block
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255 1,048,576
16 contiguous class B networks 172.16.0.0/12 (255.240.0.0)
20 bits 12 bitsof course the common block everyone with a router uses.
16-bit block
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255
65,536
256 contiguous class C networks 192.168.0.0/16 (255.255.0.0)
16 bits 16 bits
In this addendum I would say use
192.168.2.254 or 192.168.168.10.254172.16.0.1 or 172.17.0.110.20.1.1 or 10.30.1.1 Either or would be fine. Avoid the headache I created and stay within a private network setting. most DNS boxes already know what the private networks are. If you stay within the confines of them you are not adding frustration to your cause.    bullet 3 to bullet 5.) a tweak of subnets and IP's Now you can leave this at 255.255.255.0 /24 (default) which would give you 254 Ip addresses on that NVG589 to use. however if you are not going to use them just eliminate them. Much less work on broadcasting that the router will have to do. Since you are passing the IP right to your router anyway save the work for the router behind.for instance if you want a shorter range255.255.255.240 would allow 14 IP addresses total this can also known as 255.255.255.240 /28255.255.255.224 /27 This would allow 30 IP addresses total
what you essentially do is cut down on how many hosts you actually have. Essentually you are making the NVG (as well as any router made by any manufacturer) smarter buy giving it a short phone book to work with. An example below for the NVG589device IPv4 address: 172.21.0.1
DHCPv4 start IP address: 172.21.0.7
DHCPv4 end IP address: 172.21.0.14
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.240 DHCP addresses available: 8Static IP's available: 5 
Another example I would usedevice IPv4 address: 10.20.1.1
DHCPv4 start IP address: 10.20.1.5
DHCPv4 end IP address: 10.20.1.30
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.224 DHCP addresses avaialble: 25static IP addresses available: 4 
Another example using 192.168.x.xDevice IPv4 address: 192.168.15.1
DHCPv4 start IP address: 192.168.15.5
DHCPv4 end IP address: 192.168.15.30
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.224 DHCP addresses avaialble: 25static IP addresses available: 4 Note: I do not count the base IP address as a useable IP (another headache I learned to avoid the hard way).    Continue on:  From the bullet point of Go to 'Home Network' then 'Wireless' and turn wireless off. You want to use the wifi on your own router right?I would continue on.  Final note:  I don't get here all the time to check and see who replied so if there is any questions please drop me a line as I don't come here very often.  Thanksdavid