Older surf soho connection wanted for zyxel C3000Z

Hello, I have a 5 year old Surf Soho and have been using it with cox broadband and an Arris SB6183…(and to occasionally wifi my iphone 6S) but cox broadband is now too congested in my residential neighborhood to work from home and today installing Century Link fiber optic 100 mb down/100 mb up cabled internet.

They use a Zyxel C3000Z combo modem/router.

How would I need to configure this new setup to bypass the built-in router of the C3000Z and continue using the Surf Soho? I use only the wired connection with a 4 year old Win 10 Pro “gaming” desktop (not used for gaming, used for work but pretty bare bones for ease and speed of work).

thanks!

Hi. The main thing will be to set the Zyxel box into bridge mode. That’ll, in essence, bypass the router “feature” of the Zyxel and stop the NATing. Your provider should be able to help with that if you are unable to find written instructions elsewhere.

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ok, thank you

Hey home user here,

Actually…the SOHO MK3 is really good at handling double NAT’ing - particularly if all the client devices are on the SOHO only. You don’t have to bypass the zyxel router or configure bridge mode (usually a PITA especially for home users).

Plug an ethernet cable into the zyxel LAN port of your choice and run it to the SOHO’s WAN port and you are in business.

Bridge mode is not required in all situations.

I apologize in advance as this advice may run afoul of CCNA and MCSE good guidelines / best practices etc…

See if you can get it working. Leave the zyxel configured/connected as provided and just plug the SOHO in as described above - that way if there is any problem you can just go back to the zyxel no harm no foul. That way any clients plugged into the zyxel will not be disrupted while you configure the SOHO.

Furthermore you could forgo the WAN to LAN cable and just “WIFI WAN on 2.4/5Ghz” the SOHO to the zyxel’s Wi-Fi, (if your older SOHO supports that).

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Yes, I had seen this work online somewhere else with a different brand modem and meant to try it on my soho, though I still do have one of the originals soho, not the MK3, when I got a chance-- but whooo hoo!

thank you!


Click on “Wireless Networks” select yours and attempt to join…





:partying_face:

That’s what it looks like on a MK3. The older SOHO may need a firmware upgrade…

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