Tips for moving from Netgear Orbi router

[ashfsg]

Hi there,

I am hoping to try out Opnsense in the next few days. I have a HP 280 (i3 with 8gb ram), a cheap SSD and an Intel I350=T4 Quad Port NIC to play around with.

I am a bit nervous though about how to move away from my current system, essentially the order in which to do things. I am currently using a vigor modem into a Orbi router, which does my DHCP and DNS. I can put the Orbi router into bridge mode. I will keep it then, along with its two satelites for wifi.

Any thoughts or tips on the process?
Thanks

[analog]

If you're planning on putting the Orbi router into bridge mode, I'd take it out of the picture entirely and use it's satellites solely as access points if that's possible. I assume you don't have a static IP address from your ISP, is your modem in bridged mode? I would suggest this if possible to avoid a doube NAT situation.

Otherwise, setting up a basic network in OPNsense is pretty painless in my experience. Do you have any specific concerns?

[ashfsg]

Thanks for the reply.

I don't think I can remove the orbi router completely, it was my understanding that I needed to retain it but in bridge mode as you say.

I don't have a static IP, I am with EE in UK so a dynamic IP is my only option.

I am not sure about the modem, I think I will need to check, thanks for the tip!

I think its the order I do things to start with I am concerned with. Do I switch off the DHCP server for instance? Put the orbi router into bridge mode (AP mode), then confirm the vigor modem is also in bridged mode prior to inserting the new router in the chain?

Some good news anyway, the HP 280 arrived today, and it works, so thats a start!

[analog]

Is that orbi the mesh wifi system? I'm not intimately familiar with it in particular, but it should have an option for "AP mode" rather than bridge mode (I believe I misspoke before). If so, that's what I'd use. So your network topology would be ISP>Modem (bridge mode)>OPNsense>Orbi mesh(ap mode)/other devices.

As for the order, I'd setup OPNsense on the 280 with the WAN interface set to DHCP, enable basic things like dhcp, dns, etc. then set the modem into bridge mode, plug the OPNsense machine into it, and make sure you have internet.

Then setup the Orbi system as access points on your new LAN, and you'd be good to go.

I hope that makes sense, and I hope it works out for you!

[ashfsg]

Thank you again for replying.

What you say makes sense, and I will try in that order.

In terms of the orbi router, I was using 'ap mode' and the term 'bridge' interchanagbly I think, when perhaps I should not. The Orbi does have an 'ap mode', I can confirm that.

I know I have a bit of a learning curve to go through, but gettings set up without breaking the internet is my first small goal!