Telus Wi-Fi Hub re-enabling wifi despite being in full bridge mode?! DHCP chaos.

[eyestalk]

Hello All,

First post here... have had Telus 750/750 for a week now. 

This morning (at about 3 am), it seems my Telus Wi-Fi Hub (white diaper genie style), re-enabled the WiFi services on it, despite it being disabled and being in full bridge mode.  This is problematic as it seems to also spin up a DHCP services etc... Started getting alarms that all my security cameras were dropping offline.

I have a full Ubiquiti unifi deployment through the house, so this of course caused chaos.

I thought that being in full bridge mode disabled wifi services, and was surprised when I logged into the modem (through the now available Telus wifi SSID), to see it STILL in full bridge mode, but with all Wifi service running.  I toggled bridge mode, got the WiFi off and everything back to normal.

Question: Is this a known issue??  Do I have to look forward to my entire IT infrastructure suffering a stroke with two DHCP servers running once a week?

Thanks.

[Nighthawk]

Do you have an ONT installed in the house? It should have an ethernet line running between it and the Telus gateway. If you do and you don't have Optik TV, just connect your router (WAN port) directly to the ONT. If you do have Optik then the setup will be a little more complex and still require the Telus gateway to be in use.

[eyestalk]

They installed a box on the outside of the house, I have no idea what's inside it.  The fibre line comes into the house into the SFP port on the Telus Wi-Fi Hub/modem, which the goes from port one on the Telus Wi-Fi Hub to my Ubiquiti Security Gateway via RJ45.  I don't think I have an ONT?

Pro Tip: The installer will try and just put the Telus Wi-Fi Hub into bridge mode to port 1, you have to put it in full bridge mode to disable the wireless functionality of the Telus device and stop the DHCP server... took my a while to figure that out after the installer had left.

[jrueger]

What do you mean by "Full" Bridge mode?  I'm running a similar setup with Ubiquiti gear connected to the Telus router Port 1 Bridged.  I set DHCP on the Telus box to serve a different subnet and range from that used on the Ubiquiti subnet ... and the SSIDs have different names as well.  If you set things up so that your Ubiquiti gear joined a specific SSID that is different from the SSID(s) used on the Telus box I don't see how there could be a problem.  There would only be a problem if two different DHCP servers were assigning the same IP subnet and range along with different gateways and DNS servers etc.  I'm assuming that you also have Ubiquiti wireless APs as well and are managing the Ubiquiti side of things with their Unifi management software - you don't mention anything about having OptikTV but if you don't have OptikTV you could actually connect the fibre line directly to the Ubiquiti USG and not use the Telus router at all (of course you would need a fibre port on the USG or a converter of some sort).

[eyestalk]

The default DHCP range of the Telus hub is the same as my network (192.168.1.1/24), so it caused total chaos.

The problem here is the Telus hub turned the wifi back on by itself after I deactivated it.  I had to log in again and turn it back off.  Full bridge is an option, just as bridge to port 1.  Bridging to port 1 keeps wifi alive and the DHCP server, which I do not want.  When I logged into the Telus hub on the now re-activated wifi signal, the router was still in full bridge mode, which even according to their description turns OFF wifi.

WHY did the Telus hub decide to re-enable Wifi all by itself.  That is the problem here.

[kevhawk]

It may have simply been pushed a software update that causes it to reset it's settings.

You may have better luck just eliminating the Telus hub and taking the SFP (non +) module out and plugging it into a media converter such as a TP-Link MC220L then just plug that into your router.

Optik TV with Ubiquiti is really a non-issue it's pretty easy to setup if you know how to modify the config.gateway.json on the cloud key I run it all with no issues.

[eyestalk]

If I can just plug direct into SFP from the fibre coming into the house that would make things even easier.

What do you think of going with something like Ubiquiti's UniFi Dream Machine Pro?  Has a 10G SFP+ port for WAN, which should be backwards compatible?

It's still in early access, but hopefully should be generally available soon.

Features:

• 8-Port gigabit switch with 10G SFP+ port
• Dual WAN ports for redundancy and load balancing: 10G SFP+ and 1G RJ-45

I was probably going to go UDM Pro anyhow to simplify my install, instead of running Cloud Key Gen 2+ and a USG security gateway.

[kevhawk · Accepted solution]

SFP and SFP+ are not compatible hence why I mentioned the need for a media convertor.

You could also use a Ubiquiti Edge Router ER-X-SFP but it's got some issues with the Nokia SFP Telus uses and is not unifi.

With the media converter your simply converting the fiber SFP which is max 1Gbps to single 1Gbps Ethernet port you can just plug into your current hardware.

[eyestalk]

Thanks.  Will look into a media converter to eliminate the Telus Hub

[doctorkb]

@kevhawk : "SFP and SFP+ are not compatible hence why I mentioned the need for a media convertor."

Not entirely true.  There is backwards compatibility, at least with the Ubiquiti equipment.  You can put an SFP cable/ONT into an SFP+ port -- you may need to force it to 1Gbps, but other than that, there's no issues.

@kevhawk : "You could also use a Ubiquiti Edge Router ER-X-SFP but it's got some issues with the Nokia SFP Telus uses and is not unifi."

The Ubiquiti Security Gateway Pro (USG-4P) has SFP ports and works perfectly with the Nokia SFP provided by Telus.  I have three units all set up and working correctly with this.

[Sphinxy]

Sorry for reviving this old thread but thank you @kevhawk! For the last two and a half months I've been struggling to get the Arcadyan Telus Wi-Fi Hub to let me use my own router in bridge mode. For some reason it insisted on being a DHCP server on all ports regardless of bridge mode settings, preventing my own router from accessing the internet *at all* and forcing me to hard factory reset it every time I tried to enable "full" (all ports) bridge mode. At least I think that's what was going wrong, either way I eventually gave up and used it as my network's router for a few months (ugh).

Finally last night I got fed up and somehow by the right combination of search terms, I came across this thread. Ordered the recommended TP-Link MC220L and got it set up today. It works flawlessly so far and now I can use my eero mesh Wi-Fi system without the pain of the Arcadyan hub acting as my router! Thank you for the clear recommendation and instructions for how to use the MC220L with the fibre cable coming into my house (I had no idea the SFP module came out from the Telus hub)! Latency and speed are just as good as they were before (150/150 plan).

[198SIX]

Hey @eyestalk just got the Acadyan AC Fibre Modem - how did you put it into bridge mode??? I can't seem to find the options in the menu.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks

[NFtoBC]

@198SIX 

In the Admin Panel. Network > LAN > Bridge.