Networking → [Connection Sharing] Advice Needed on Uverse Router and Secondary Router

I have a UVerse Pace PLC 5031NV-030 router ("UV") with a Netgear DGN2200 Wireless N ("NG") plugged into one of the LAN ports on the UV as a backup network. I currently use the NG for guests so that I can change the network password frequently. The NG has DHCP off and has a static IP address under the LAN settings. The static IP I gave the NG is actually outside the allocated address of the UV, but the UV nonetheless recognizes the NG as a device on the network with the IP address I gave it under the NG settings.

The question I have is would it be in my best interest to switch the configuration so that the NG is the primary router and the UV is the backup since the NG is Wireless N and the NG has gigabyte speed. If it is beneficial to do so, is there an easy way to make the switch so that both routers are still active, but the NG becomes the primary router. I imagine I'd need to shut off DHCP on the UV, but I'm unsure if there is such a feature. I'd appreciate any feedback on this. I do perform LAN backups on occasion, but I could easily just connect to the NG when doing so. But I'm wondering if just overall it makes more sense to use the NG as my primary router especially from a performance standpoint.

I don’t like either option, at least from a security perspective.

I take it these are both combo modem+router devices, and probably don’t have an exposed WAN port. So you can’t even daisy-chain them, LAN to WAN (preferred). That would at least allow you to place the guest router upstream of the private router and prevent guests from accessing the private network thanks to its firewall (but even this isn’t foolproof; arp poisoning is still theoretically possible). But if you’re connected LAN to LAN, everyone is effectively on the same network. And that’s as bad as it gets.

What you should do is use only one or the other of these modem+router devices, configure it in bridge mode (thus demoting it to only a modem), and get another “real” router (not one of these combos!) and which supports guest networks. Now you have a properly configured and safe network.

Because as long as you rely on these combo devices, you’re never going to be able to protect your network from guests. Not unless they offer guest network configurations in their own firmware.

All really good points. The netgear is actually just a router without a built in modem. It does, however, have a "guest" mode function that prevents guests from accessing any other networked drives. After messing with this last night though, it looks like I can't use the Netgear to act as a bridge for the Uverse though. The reason being is it doesn't have a WAN port. Only LAN ports and they only transfer at 100 which makes me think, it wouldn't be worth it anyway. My best case scenario would be to probably by a gigabyte router with a dedicated WAN port and LAN ports that transfer at gigabyte speed.

Well according to this…

»www.netgear.com/home/pro ··· 200.aspx

… the Netgear DGN2200 *is* a combo modem+router. Most such devices don’t expose a WAN port. The connection between the WAN port and the modem is INTERNAL! That’s one of the reasons these combo modems suck; they make reuse difficult (e.g., as just a router).

However, according to those specs, it says:

Ethernet WAN—Easy Upgrade to cable/fiber

That suggests to me that you probably can reconfigure one of the LAN ports to a WAN so you can reuse it!

Wow. I forgot that thing was a modem too. I looked on the Internet, but couldn't find any reconfiguration options. Thanks though.