Best advantage of running IP Passthrough on main AT&T router/modem with Fiber and using your own router ?

ng4ever

2[H]4U
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Feb 18, 2016
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Trying to determine if it is worth it. I have done it before but had to switch back a few months ago.
 
If you are blocking all incoming connections then the only advantage is to be able to read the logs and see what has been blocked. And I think now you have double NAT going on - not an advantage.
 
It's always worth it! But then I like knowing what my network is doing, and end up hitting weird edge cases in lots of network hardware. I forget exactly what the AT&T RGW was doing that pissed me off so I bypassed it, because it was too long ago, but man it was something. Something ipv6, IIRC, like couldn't allow incoming v6 connections or couldn't run a tunnel to he.net, etc. ipv6 really messes up the centurylink CPE after I moved too, so now I do even crazier stuff (i built a redundant pppoe client, so I can reboot one of my servers without losing sessions, kind of neat, maybe not an effective use of time)
 
If you can I would say worth it. If not, use their GW as a router only. Run your own AP(APs) and setup a PI-Hole VM or Physical system(anything will work with a PI 2 and above. With the above setup this would be sufficient enough for home use.
 
With Comcast you cannot change the DHCP address sent out to LAN clients. If AT&T is the same that could also be one advantage of running your own router.
 
Not relying upon dated firmware for your network security, being able to select your own modem (if your isp let's you do this), etc.

If you are doing more on your network than just blasting all traffic to your isp and their DNS, you likely already have hardware capable of doing the routing as well.
 
With Comcast you cannot change the DHCP address sent out to LAN clients. If AT&T is the same that could also be one advantage of running your own router.
With Comcast, if you use their modem/router, you are forced to share bandwidth with their public WiFi service. With your own router (like my ASUS XT8), I avoid that b/s.
 
It's always worth it! But then I like knowing what my network is doing, and end up hitting weird edge cases in lots of network hardware. I forget exactly what the AT&T RGW was doing that pissed me off so I bypassed it, because it was too long ago, but man it was something. Something ipv6, IIRC, like couldn't allow incoming v6 connections or couldn't run a tunnel to he.net, etc. ipv6 really messes up the centurylink CPE after I moved too, so now I do even crazier stuff (i built a redundant pppoe client, so I can reboot one of my servers without losing sessions, kind of neat, maybe not an effective use of time)
I ran across odd issues with their gateway too although it was back in 2014? I think so my particular issue of it blocking ipsec phase 2 connections may be resolved. I had to buy a block of static IPs which still had to be programmed into their gateway, and even though I didn't think it would work, it did!...right before we moved again, lol.

Bottom line if you can just get an ONT vs a gateway, GET IT!!
 
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