Telus Pure Fiber NH20A in Bridge mode - PPPoE?

[leonki]

I'm in Toronto and recently upgraded from Bell to Telus and am super happy with the service. I wanted to confirm that the setup I have is the recommended / optimal solution. I use a Ubiquity Dream Machine with multiple access points around the home as my main router. 

No matter what settings I tried (bridge FULL/Port 1/10Gb port/WAN disabled) the only solution I found where my router gets a valid WAN IP address is if I setup the NH20A in bridge mode (I now use bridge port 1 - dream machine is limited to 1Gbps) and the router does its own PPPoE login. The NH20A still has it's PPPoE login credentials and also gets a WAN IP that's different than the WAN IP my router. Speed test on my router shows that it gets almost 1Gbps up/down, so everything works correctly. I'm surprised that WAN/PPPoE login has to be enabled on the NH20A, else PPPoE login on my router doesn't work in bridge mode.  Is this expected behaviour? is my setup correct? (2 devices login in with the same credentials, getting a different WAN IPs?)

If I disable WAN on the NH20A the LED on the Fibre modem shows it has no connection, and my personal router can't do any PPPoE login due to no Internet.

[TELUS_Support · Accepted solution]

We’re glad to hear you’re enjoying the service! Regarding your setup: what you’re seeing is actually expected behaviour with the NH20A. Even when in bridge mode, the NH20A requires its WAN interface to remain active to maintain the physical link with the fibre ONT and allow passthrough for your own router (in this case, your Ubiquiti Dream Machine) to authenticate via PPPoE.

If you want to avoid the NH20A from acquiring its own public IP, you could try removing its PPPoE credentials and keeping the WAN interface active, but behaviour may vary — your current setup ensures reliable connectivity and is supported.

[darreno]

Here are my 2 cents, I have all Unifi equipment as well and I don't even use the TELUS modem, the fiber comes into a white box that has 4 ports on it, this is what I was told is the wan device, I plug my Gateway into that and then my switches and APs into the switch. The TELUS modem with Wi-Fi and Lan settings is bypassed. I received an internet address into my Gateway, and it worked great, port forwarding, security rules, and VPN all worked great. Hope this makes sense.