So I have CenturyLink's 1 gigabit Internet. One of the biggest complaints I've seen around the Internet over the last year or so is that it's really difficult to use the router of your choice with their service.
CenturyLink provides some pretty awful equipment with their gigabit Internet service. Wireless-N router. Seriously?
The 2 biggest problems I see are the VLAN 201 issue where CL requires you to put a VLAN 201 on the Internet/WAN port of our router. A lot of consumer routers don't support this, or you have to flash custom firmware, etc. And the 2nd biggest problem is consumer routers not being able to download up to the full gigabit speed. Some routers cap out at 300Mbps - 500Mbps.
I FINALLY HAVE FOUND THE SOLUTION! Between the 2 problems mentioned above, my steps below completely solve th VLAN 201 issue.
Now I'm not a networking person, so maybe this seems pretty obvious to some of you. However, over my last year of research, I have not seen this mentioned anywhere on the Internet. I finally found this info on DD-WRT forum website by someone who goes by the username "JAMESMTL." He suggested to a user "why don't you just buy a managed switch and create a VLAN 201 on it."
I seriously thought to myself, "is that all it takes to finally fix this VLAN 201 issue once and for all?" Absolutely!
So here's the switch I bought off of Amazon "NETGEAR ProSAFE GS105Ev2 5-Port Gigabit Web Managed (Plus) Switch (GS105Ev2)" I got it for roughly $40.
Once I got the switch in the mail, it was pretty much just configuring the switch with VLANs 201 on ports 1 and 2. This way the managed switch handles the VLAN 201 issue and then you can almost use any router you want with your CenturyLink service!
Keep in mind, I think you will still have to have a pretty new and kick-butt router, because the router needs to have decent hardware so it can download almost gigabit speeds. I think it's called "NAT acceleration?" From what I've leared online over the last year or so, some routers write their firmware to take advance of this. It's a mixture of hardware/software. If you're going to try and use an old router from a couple years ago, you may run into the 2nd biggest problem I've mentioned above. Your router may cap out download speeds of 300Mbps - 500Mbps.
2 routers I have tested behind my managed switch, are Asus AC3100 and the Netgear Orbi that just came out last month. Both routers performed excellent in speed tests! I was able to achieve 900+Mbps.
Now on to the good stuff! Configuring the Netgear ProSafe GS105Ev2!
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In a nutshell, this is essentially how your network is going to setup with the managed switch:
switch port 1 -> The ethernet cord going from your ONT box is to be plugged into port 1 on the managed switch.
switch port 2 -> The ethernet cord going from port 2 of the managed switch will plug into the WAN (or Internet) port on the back of your router.
switch port 3 -> The ethernet cord going from port 3 should plug into your computer's Ethernet port so you can access the switch's admin panel to configure it.
STEPS TO CONFIGURE THE SWITCH WITH VLAN 201:
So what you're going to do is open the Netgear Utility program to manage this switch.
1. Disable DHCP on the switch, as your router will be handling DHCP. You'll do this by clicking on 'IP Settings' after the utility program discovers your switch.
2. Make sure the switch is on the same subnet as your router. My default router's gateway is 192.168.1.1, therefore, after I disabled DHCP on the switch, the Netgear utility program assigned the switch an IP address of 192.168.1.15. Perfect! Now the Netgear switch is on the same IP subnet as my router. Apply the settings! Now it's time to go into the switch and configure it!
3. Click the VLAN tab in the Netgear configuration utility program.
4. Click on 802.1Q
5. Click on 'Advanced'
6. Enable Advanced 802.1Q
7. Create a VLAN ID with the value '201'
8. Now click on the 'VLAN Membership' link on the left-hand side.
9. In the 'VLAN Identifier' drop-down list, select 201
10. Click on the white box right below 01 port until the letter 'T' is displayed. (T stands for 'tagged.' Port 1 is going to be 201 Tagged.)
11. Click on the white box right below 02 port until the letter 'U' is displayed. (U stands for 'untagged.' Port 2 is going to be 201 Untagged.)
12. Click on the white boxes below the rest of the ports (ports 3, 4, and 5) until there is nothing displayed in the boxes.
13. Click 'Apply' to save your changes.
14. Finally, click 'port PVID' on the left-hand side.
15. Put a check-mark next to Port 01 and Port 02. Assign them both a PVID of 201. Click 'Apply' to save your changes.
16. Configure your home router with your CenturyLink's PPPoE credentials. You can get this info by calling CenturyLink if needed. However, most of us should have received this info from our technician when they installed our Internet. Once you do this, your Internet light on your router should turn green (or whatever color it turns to indicate it's receiving a good Internet connection!)
17. Now disconnect the ethernet cord going from port 3 of the switch to your computer. You now need to plug an ethernet cord into your desktop's LAN port and plug the other end into a port on the back of your router (your desktop needs Internet access after all!)
18. (Optional Step) If you want to be able to access the Netgear's admin panel later on in case you ever need to make changes, then plug an Ethernet cord into port 3 on the back of your managed switch, and plug the other end of ethernet cord into a free port on the back of your router.
REMINDER!: If you are using a router that does by chance allow you to set a VLAN 201 on the WAN/Internet port (like a lot of Asus routers) don't forget to go and remove that now! Your managed switch will be handling the VLAN 201 tagging from now on :-)
YOU'RE DONE! Your $30-40 managed switch is now configured with VLAN 201 so you can now use ANY router with your CenturyLink gigabit Internet (as long as the router supports PPPoE, which most do.)
I know this seems like a lengthy process, but it's actually not. I want to say I spent anywhere from 45 minutes - 1 hour tops! I'm not an expert, but I'm also not a novice.
If anyone has any questions, I'll be happy to answer!
So to wrap it up. What does this work-around provide? It will allow you to use the router of your choice with your CenturyLink gigabit Internet service. You don't have to worry about flashing custom firmwares to routers. You don't have to worry about finding a router that allows you to creat VLANs on the Internet/WAN port, etc. The Netgear managed switch takes care of this!
Hope this helps!
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