I want my Archer CR500 gateway to be just a modem & use my Archer A7 as the wireless router

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I want my Archer CR500 gateway to be just a modem & use my Archer A7 as the wireless router

This thread has been locked for further replies. You can start a new thread to share your ideas or ask questions.
I want my Archer CR500 gateway to be just a modem & use my Archer A7 as the wireless router
I want my Archer CR500 gateway to be just a modem & use my Archer A7 as the wireless router
2020-04-06 00:51:34 - last edited 2020-04-10 03:05:33
Model: Archer CR500  
Hardware Version: V1
Firmware Version:

I have the Archer CR500 gateway and I have a Archer A7 wireless router.

 

  • I want the CR500 to act as only a modem
  • And I want the A7 to be the wireless router

 

I tried setting these two up to work together and was having issues connecting to the internet and working correctly. My CR500 uses 192.168.1.1 and my A7 also uses that same ip to login.

 

Could someone give me a simple setup guide for getting this to work correctly? The reason why I'd like to use the A7 as the router instead of the CR500 is that it gives me more options and it's easier for me to customize the settings with DD-WRT. The CR500 just feels more limited due to the ISP restrictions.

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Re:I want my Archer CR500 gateway to be just a modem & use my Archer A7 as the wireless router
2020-04-06 21:23:56

@SYN80 

 

Log into the CR500, go to Advanced > Operation Mode, and set it to bridge mode. That should pass the internet through the modem. If you want to get back in the CR500 later you would use the IP of: 192.168.100.1

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Re:I want my Archer CR500 gateway to be just a modem & use my Archer A7 as the wireless router
2020-04-06 21:57:52

@Tony So after setting the CR500 to Bridged mode, I would connect an ethernet cable from port 1 of the CR500 to the blue "Internet" port on the Archer A7 wireless router correct? And then plug in my other ethernet wired devices into the A7's 1-4 ports. Are there any other required settings I need to make on the A7 wireless router to work with the CR500?

 

Thank you

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Re:I want my Archer CR500 gateway to be just a modem & use my Archer A7 as the wireless router
2020-04-07 20:07:37 - last edited 2020-04-10 03:05:33

@SYN80 

 

No, what you described is correct, should any happen where you lose complete network connectivity you can just factory default the CR500 (hold reset pinhole behind the CR500 for 10 seconds) to get things back to what they were in case.

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Re:I want my Archer CR500 gateway to be just a modem & use my Archer A7 as the wireless router
2020-04-10 03:05:27

@Tony I reset my Archer CR500 gateway, switched it to bridge mode and it rebooted. Once the status lights turned green on the CR500 I turned on my Archer A7 (it is updated to the latest firmware). After the A7 fully booted up it was showing solid orange on the "Internet" icon. I tried resetting and rebooting the A7 again and still have the orange light "Internet" icon.

 

I've tested the ethernet cables with a RJ45 tester and all cables are fine.

 

One end of the ethernet cable is plugged into port #1 on the CR500 and the other end of the cable is plugged into the "Internet" port on the A7. I don't know what could be wrong or what to do, I thought this would be a simple task to make my CR500 act as just a modem and use my A7 as a wireless router.

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Re:I want my Archer CR500 gateway to be just a modem & use my Archer A7 as the wireless router
2020-04-10 17:18:38

@SYN80 

 

If the LED light is orange then it sees a connection, but obviously internet is not going through. Next thing is to log into the A7 and see what the internet settings are telling you. 


If the WAN IP or Internet IP is 0, leave the A7 on, and reboot just the CR500. Once it comes back up go back into the A7 and see if a public IP address now shows up, should not be anything starting with 192.x.x.x.

 

If there is a public IP address there, then you need to configure the DNS addresses. Log into the A7, go to Advanced > Network > Internet, click on the down arrow next to advanced, and set the following DNS addresses:

 

Primary 8.8.8.8

Secondary 8.8.4.4

 

When you save those setitngs, look at the intenret light, it should change soon after.

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Re:I want my Archer CR500 gateway to be just a modem & use my Archer A7 as the wireless router
2020-04-11 00:18:24

@Tony I tried your directions, I got the A7 to connect to the CR500 but then found out the CR500 said it was in "Router mode" after rebooting it. Everytime I reboot the CR500 it defaults to "Router mode" after being in "Bridge mode". I got tired of trying to reboot both devices and getting the same results. Either the A7 stays with an orange light or I get it to turn green but then the CR500 is automatically switches to "Router mode" after it's rebooted. I give up, this is causing nothing but headaches and waste of time. It seems like the only way I can get the A7 to work as a router is if I got rid of my CR500 and just got a modem instead of a gateway. I really thought this would have been simple and just work but I guess not.

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