Bridge Mode with Verizon 5G Home Internet Gateway

💻📡 Use your own wifi router.

If the lack of bridge mode on the Verizon 5G Home Internet Gateway device seems irreconcilable, fear not! It can be configured to act like a simple 5G modem, bridging to another network interface, without sub-networking of its own. This will resolve any networking problems due to double-NAT.

Enable IP Passthrough

Login to the Gateway admin website, and then navigate to:

• Advanced settings
• → Network Connections
• → Network (Home/Office)
• → ✅ Enable IP Passthrough.

This change disables all the home networking features of the Gateway: NAT, wifi, & LAN. Instead, a network router of your choice can be plugged into port 2 of the Gateway, to be assigned the public internet address and perform all sub-networking functions.

Warning ‼️ once IP Passthrough is enabled, the Gateway’s admin website will become accessible only through the port 1 network jack. Read on for details…

Changes to the Network Jacks

By default, the network jacks (RJ-45 plugs) underneath the Gateway provide a hardwired connection for computers to access the local-area network of the Gateway.

When IP Passthrough is enabled, these ethernet jacks underneath the Gateway are reconfigured for different purposes:

Port 1 only allows access to the Gateway admin website at 10.10.0.1.

Port 2 provides the bridged connection, passing through the public IPv4 & IPv6 addresses to the connected device.

Warning ‼️ whatever is plugged into port 2 is fully exposed to the internet. Only connect a router WAN interface. Unless you understand the risks, this can lead to viral & zero-day attacks on the connected device.

With this configuration, it’s no longer possible to access the Gateway's admin website via direct wifi connection. Instead, you must connect your computer directly to port 1 using a CAT-5 or CAT-6 network cable. Once the ethernet connection is up, visit 10.10.0.1 in a web browser on the connected computer.

Background

My home network has been cursed by poor download speed from AWS Cloudfront and probably other content distribution networks. When my computer is directly connected to Verizon 5G Home Internet Gateway, there is no slowdown. The difference in transfer speed is profound, 200kbps vs 200mbps.

While I never figured out the precise technical reason for this problem, I did realize that my original double-NAT setup was suspect. After many searches and experiments, I found a Verizon community post mentioning IP Passthrough and eventually an advertisement-laden page with the exact solution.

Why don’t they just call it ”Bridge Mode“? Perhaps Verizon considers it too dangerous for the average citizen.

🏠⚡️ Take control of your home network.

Discuss this post in the fediverse. Published 2024-05-31.