I finally got the "local" networking to work with my ideal configuration. All this without affecting the out-of-the-box features of the BlueCurve router, its WiFi functionality, and the functionality of the TV Player Pods.
@mdk I was not sure the approach I was going to take would work but some of what you've posted indicated to me that it would likely work so I took a stab at it. Thank you very much and kudos!
This is not meant to overwhelm, this is meant to help. In my case, the details from @mdk helped.
SHORT VERSION:
- Leave the BlueCurve modem and TV Pods with the out-of-box configuration. The BlueCurve modem does not have to be in bridge mode.
- This does not require 2 public IP addresses. In my case, 1 public IP address is sufficient.
- On the back of the BlueCurve modem (Technicolor CGM4140COM), there will be two Ethernet ports that are enabled by default. With this modem, it would be the two ports located right above the power cable and coaxial cable connections.
- IMPORTANT: From one of these Ethernet ports, use an Ethernet cable to connect it to the WAN port of your own router - Asus, D-Link, Netgear, Linksys etc.
- At this point, a lot of what @mdk described in his post is accurate.
ADDITIONAL DETAILS - read only if you need to:
- With my setup, I actually have 3 network segments:
- BlueCurve WiFi - this is the default out-of-box BlueCurve configuration. It is primarily used by the TV Player Pods or any other wireless device I choose to connect to its WiFi SSID.This has uses the default 10.0.0.x private IP address range.
- Network 1 | Router 1 - The WAN port of this router is connected to the first Ethernet port of the BlueCurve modem. It has its own WiFi SSID. It has its own private IP address range (192.168.0.x) that is different from the BlueCurve network. It also has 4 computers hard-wired computers connected to the LAN ports of this router.
- Network 2 | Router 2 - The WAN port of this router is connected to the second Ethernet port of the BlueCurve modem. It has its own WiFi SSID. It has its own private IP address range (192.168.0.x) that is different from the BlueCurve network. It serves as a LAB/guest network.
- With this method, the computers/devices connected to Network 1 and Network 2 benefit from the more advanced features that are available with the routers in their respective networks. An example - more security features are available on Router 1 & 2 - none of which are available on the BlueCurve.
- Additionally, this allows for better separation of network traffic between the devices. For instance, the traffic between the wired computers are "contained" in Network 1. This improves performance and security.
- As an alternative, you may want to configure your own router in bridged mode. This will create one network segment.
- IMPORTANT: With this, you should not use the WAN port to connect the BlueCurve but instead use one of the LAN ports of your router.
- This does two things: you effectively turn your own router into a WiFI access point, and, any computer/device you hard-wire into that router becomes "visible" to both wired/wireless devices in your BlueCurve network since by bridging, it would use the same 10.0.0.x IP address range.
MY CONFIG:
- BlueCurve: WAN (public IP block DHCP-assigned - coax) | LAN Port 1 and Port 2 and WiFi (10.0.0.x)
- Router 1: WAN (private 10.0.0.x IP range DHCP assigned - LAN Port 1) | LAN Ports 1-4 and WiFi (192.168.0.x)
- Router 2: WAN (private 10.0.0.x IP range DHCP assigned - LAN Port 2) | LAN Ports 1-4 and WiFi (192.168.0.x)
- NOTE: This shows that the "WAN" IP of the routers are the private IP addresses obtained via DHCP from the BlueCurve. This includes DNS (depending on your router, you may now be able to change this setting instead of using Shaw's DNS (OpenDNS Cloudlare, etc)).
