Optik TV + Asus Rt-AC3100

[Pabla]

Hello all,

I've had fiber for few years now which has working fine with my Asus Rt-ac3100. Yesterday i got OptikTV installed but could not get it to work, the box would initialize and play for a few seconds then show up a connection error. Turns out you cant use a third party router easily with OptikTV. So i did some research and found that i need to enable IGM snooping. I followed this link's instruction that seemed to have worked for a lot of users. https://www.digitalhome.ca/threads/successfully-replaced-actiontec-t1200h-with-asus-rt-ac56u.240329/   Those steps did not work, and we were still getting issues so heres what my set up looks like if anyone can help out. From the ActionTec T3200 (set in bridge mode)->Asus RT-AC3100 Wan Port->16 Port Netgear Swtich connected to the LAN 2 port of the Asus->from the Netgear switch to all my wired devices throughout the house including my OptikTV boxes. 

So I set the 'STB Port' on my Asus router to LAN 2, and none of my wired devices worked neither did the OptikTV boxes. So the installer turned the ActionTec off bridge mode turned its wifi signal back on and used that network to set up the boxes wireless and that worked fine. That is less than ideal because i started getting issues with my Asus router with double NAT (i believe) and there were now two wireless networks which caused interference. 

I turned the ActionTec back into Bridge mode just so that I can regain my regular network back but obviously the OptikTV boxes no longer work. 

My questions are:

1. If I hardwire the Optik TV boxes via ethernet into the ActionTec while its in bridge mode will that cause issues?

2. If I wanted to use my Asus router would I have to have the Optik TVs on strictly their own LAN port on my router?

3. If worst case scenario I had to turn off bridge mode on the ActionTec how could I configure it so that it does not cause Double NAT issues?

A few notes:

-My Router is on a different floor than the ActionTec therefor I cannot add a separate switch just for the OptikTV boxes dedicated to a single LAN port on my Router. 

-I have to use my Asus router as the main router and cannot use the ActionTec since its in poor location and not powerful/stable enough. 

-Where each Optik TV box is placed there is a CAT6 cable and Coax that all lead back to the location of the ActionTec.

Any help would be appreciated, the installer is a hard worker but has very little networking knowledge. He currently has mix of hardwired (with Coax) and extenders connected to the OpticTV boxes which are causing a whole lot of issues with my main network. 

[NFtoBC]

You can connect your TV by Ethernet to the Actiontec device without difficulty. You can also connect them by Wi-Fi to the Actiontec SSID.

You can then operate the rest of your network on the router of your choice on bridged port 1.

[Pabla]

How will the IPs work then? Wont there be a conflict if both the ActioTec and Asus share the same pools?

[xray]

The network on the bridged port (LAN 1) is separate from the network on the other LAN ports. They do not see each other. They have separate DHCP servers. You cannot route traffic between the 2 so they can have the same subnet or different subnet, it doesn't matter.

[Pabla]

Ah I see! I will give this a try later today. Will I ever need to have the OptikTV boxes on the same DHCP server as my main network?

[xray]

I suspect that the Google Assistant integration may require your GA devices to be on the same network as the Optik boxes.

[Pabla]

Hm okay even though I am not planning on using GA I don’t think it will be an issue. If i ultimately wanted to connect the OptikTV boxes through my ASUS router I would have to have them all on one dedicated LAN port correct? Thanks again for the help ☺️