Westell Ultraline Series 3: How do I use my own router with Fioptics?


I’ll admit it, I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to networking. I took a some CISCO classes in highschool and ended up really enjoying it. Because of that I often don’t like or don’t want the equipment that my ISP tries to provided me with.

That was the case with Fioptic’s Westell Ultraline Series 3 (WUS3). It uses a VDSL connection to connect multiple units in our condo building to the internet. I really wanted to start using my Asus N600 router as my primary LAN/Wi-Fi, but the WUS3 has a built-in router too. Rather than messing around with bridging the WUS3 into a modem only, I ended up using the DMZ host function to expose my ASUS to the internet.

If you’re reading this you’ve likely had the same problem (the bridge interface is a pain and doesn’t really work). In that case follow my instructions and hopefully you can not waste your Saturday evening trying to get your network setup the way you want it.

1. Enable the DMZ Host on the WUS3 via the homepage by clicking Firewall>DMZ Host and setting the DMZ to the address you’ll give the router (I used 192.168.200.2, the next logical increment after the WUS3’s IP).

2. Connect the Router’s WAN port to the any of the 4 ethernet ports on the switch of the WUS3.

3. Connect to the router and use the configuration or internet wizard to tell the Router to use the static IP we set as the DMZ host.

4. Check the connections and you should be on your way.

Update (2/11/2014):

After consulting this thread and failing to get bridge, I reset the Westell one more time. This time I did the following and it worked!

1. click on my network

2. click on connections

3. click on WAN

4. go to bridging

5. bridge the WAN and ethernet (I’m a bit foggy here, if you try the same let me know what you did here so I can have a more complete description)

6. you’ll be prompted about changes to br0 and bridging WAN

7. that should be it, my router plugged into an ethernet port on the Westell’s built in switch got a DHCP address from the ISP.

Bonus: I left the wi-fi active (and out of the bridge) so I can still access the Westell even though it is currently in bridge mode.


2 responses to “Westell Ultraline Series 3: How do I use my own router with Fioptics?”

  1. On 4. go to bridging, I don’t see bridging anywhere after clicking on WAN. Has this since changed? I’ve been trying forever to get my modem into bridge mode…

    • It may have, unfortunately, I know the last guide I had found before writing this up had changed too. If you can provide a screenshot, perhaps I can help?

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