What Is Bridge Mode Xfinity?
Xfinity is one of the largest cable high-speed internet in the United States, with a wide range of services offered. They have a feature known as bridge mode that gives the power users even more control over the local home network. Well then, what is bridge mode Xfinity and when might you utilize it?
What is Bridge Mode?
Bridge mode essentially turns off most of the router features of Xfinity and allows you to use your router. Generally, Xfinity offers a single device that acts both as a modem and a router that plugs into the Xfinity cable line at one end and transmits wireless signals within your house.
This essentially changes the Xfinity gateway to a simple modem that simply relays the internet connection to a router of your choosing. Thus, rather than relying on the router capabilities integrated into the Xfinity gateway, you connect your high-quality wireless router to it and use it for the WLAN and other network-related operations.
Why Use Bridge Mode?
There are a few reasons why you might want to take your Xfinity gateway into bridge mode: There are a few reasons why you might want to take your Xfinity gateway into bridge mode:
- To use a better router – Combest offers routers that are not very efficient and have low and sometimes limited range and settings. Bridge mode enables you to switch from the basic level to a high-end gaming router, mesh network, or even an enterprise-class router.
- Avoid the double NAT problem – Having two routers, namely the Xfinity router and your own, connected on the same network can sometimes lead to problems with NAT for some applications. Bridge mode helps to avoid the dual NAT issue.
- Connect your modem – This will enable you to manage several settings such as firewall policies, parental control, QoS, and other configurations of your preference rather than settling for whatever Comcast has provided.
- Segment/isolate IoT devices- Smart home devices may be connected to a dedicated network segment with a separate router that supports VLANs. It is not possible if you are using the basic Xfinity gateway.
Disabling bridge mode does not present any significant disadvantages as long as one has a router for usage together with the appropriate ports and features. It is not a complex process either – it is just some simple settings changes on the web interface of the Xfinity gateway to turn off its routing capabilities. Below are the procedures we shall follow to perform the process of how to set up the Linksys router to bridge mode:
Enabling the Xfinity Bridge Mode
The process will differ very slightly depending on your model of Xfinity gateway but generally spans these steps: The process will differ very slightly depending on your model of Xfinity gateway, but generally spans these steps:
1. The first step in the configuration is to visit the gateway admin interface located at 10.0.0.1 – For this, you will have to connect to your home WiFi or wired Ethernet connection. Go to the address 10.0.0.1 and type your admin user/password to get into the system.
2. Disable WiFi radios – A short-term measure involves deactivating the gateway’s WiFi/wireless to allow your router to broadcast your new SSID in the future without interference.
3. Bridge mode – Search for the setting to enable bridge, transparent bridging, or modem mode – which essentially disables the router functionalities. This setting is available under different tabs depending on the gateway version.
4. Check that bridge mode is enabled – You should now see a new message stating that bridge mode has been enabled. The public IP address will appear as your new router address when connected instead of showing on the gateway info screen now.
5. Connect your preferred router to the Xfinity network – Since the routing is disabled on the Xfinity side, all you have to do is plug the cable from the WAN/internet port on your router to an Ethernet LAN port on the back of the gateway. Then reboot both devices.
Your router will then get that public IP address directly from Comcast the next time you reboot the router. Any further wireless settings, port forwards, QoS rules, etc should be configured on your router’s interface rather than the Xfinity one from here onwards. And if for some reason, you would like to undo the change, just reset the Xfinity gateway back to bridge mode to make the router work again normally.
Potential Pitfalls
There are a couple of gotchas that sometimes trip users up when first switching over to bridge mode: There are a couple of gotchas that sometimes trip users up when first switching over to bridge mode:
- Internet and/or TV guide disconnected where WiFi is not engaged on the Xfinity router itself. Enable one of its radios again or make sure you have Ethernet access to the settings.
- New rules for port forwarding could be different from the old ones that were in the gateway interface of the previous router.
However, other than such minor problems as above, bridge mode is very easy to enable. Just follow the steps above, to successfully regain control over your network from the rented Xfinity gateway to your preferred networking equipment. This gives you significantly more control over how your home network functions than if you relied on equipment provided by your ISP.
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