Is my new Buffalo Airstaton router normal? Please advice

[fastcat]

I have recently bought a Buffalo Airstation router and I see that it only comes with RJ45 ports, this is very annoying, how am I supossed to connect it to the phone line?

 

My phone line comes with a country wide standard RJ11 socket outlet, I have never seen a phone line using RJ45 ports and I do not understand why Buffalo sells a router with no RJ11 ports, I have had to buy an overpriced adapter to be able to use it, I am trying to understand why Buffalo did not include RJ11 ports, I don't think it is normal for customers to have to buy an adapter for their new router, I have had three different ISP branded routers before and they all had RJ11 ports.

 

Thanks for helping me understand where I am supposed to find an RJ45 port at home to get ADSL, I don't see any way to do that, I am just thinking that Buffalo designed their router like this for a reason that escapes me.

 

 

[Jeston Veteran]

You need a DSL modem/router combo (or gateway), not just a router.

 

Normal routers just have RJ45 ports and nothing else.

 

Alternatively, you can buy a separate DSL modem now that you have a standalone router and just connect the modem to the router which is a pretty typical home network setup.

 

In lamens terms, a modem connects you to the internet (whether it be with cable or phone line), and a router or switch lets you share that connection with multiple devices in your home (whether it be with RJ45 ethernet or wireless).

[fastcat]

From what you are saying, the RJ11 to RJ45 adapted cable I bought, when plugged in from the Buffalo Airstation RJ45 to the phone line socket outlet RJ11 will not give me Internet access then?

[Jeston Veteran]

From what you are saying, the RJ11 to RJ45 adapted cable I bought, when plugged in from the Buffalo Airstation RJ45 to the phone line socket outlet RJ11 will not give me Internet access then?

Nope, not a chance.

[ViperAFK]

You bought a standard router, and got exactly that. With an ADSL connection you *need* an ADSL modem. With ADSL combined modem/router devices are often used, but you can also use a regular "dumb" ADSL modem and plug the router into the modem with an ethernet cable.

[fastcat]

I assumed that since a modem is always needed to have Internet access it would come embedded in the router,  I feel a little stupid now that I understand it, well I am going to check Amazon's return policy and see if at I can get a refund for the cost of the RJ11 to RJ45 adaptor. It all makes sense now.

 

I still have my ISP modem/router combo, I only got the Buffalo for the dd-wrt, I should be able to make them work together unless incompatibility issues arise since there will be now two routers.

[Jeston Veteran]

If you're going to be using both at the same time, you're going to have to do a little research on how to configure them as you will need to disable DHCP on one of the routers and also change one of the router's IP addresses to something other than 192.168.1.1 to avoid IP conflicts.

 

Normally in this situation, one would disable DHCP on the standalone router and also change the standalone router's IP address to something like 192.168.1.2. This basically turns your new router into a switch/wireless access point.

 

Also, make sure you plug the cable from you modem/router combo into one of the new router's LAN ports, not the WAN port.

[fastcat]

 I am definetely going to do that jeston, it is too late now for me to replace my router otherwise I would exchange it for a modem/router combo. I will try and get the setup as you said, all I want is to be able to use dd-wrt and I bought the buffalo router because it was the only one I found with dd-wrt from factory. Thanks to everyone for the help.

[+BudMan MVC]

If you set it up per jetsons instructions you would be just using it as a AP, it would not be your gateway - it would not be doing the nat of your network. And not doing much to be honest.

If you want to use dd-wrt as designed you would want to turn your first gateway device from your isp into just a "modem" so its not doing nat and provides dd-wrt router your public IP.

[HawkMan]

on some of the newer ISP combo routers, you can't truly turn it into a modem so he'll have to settle for DMZ'ing it. 

[+BudMan MVC]

Where did he say his isp gateway was newer? ;) What is the make and model number of your current device from your isp and we can lookup if it does "modem" mode.

If not you could always get one that does, or what hawkman is saying you can double nat.. Which is pretty pointless - might as well just run your new one as AP.

[HawkMan]

By newer I do mean 5 years and up though. depending on when they started sending out "new" ish equipment. and it could go for older equipment on other ISP to for all I know :)

 

I have to run my modem/router as DMZ and just pretend it's a modem :) Though there might actually be a way to configure my new one as a modem but I don't understand all the weird crap in the config page of this new one. all kinda weird acronyms like atm0 and stuff, and it works as it is :) 

[ViperAFK]

on some of the newer ISP combo routers, you can't truly turn it into a modem so he'll have to settle for DMZ'ing it. 

In my experience with most modem/router combos you can just set them to "pure bridged" mode to make them act as just a modem, but you sometimes have to put some extra settings in your separate router depending on if they use PPPOE authentication or something.

[Roger H. Veteran]

I'd do as suggested by ViperAFK - If you can get your ISP to turn their router into a "bridge" then you use the router to authenticate via PPoE or PPTP whatever your DSL provider uses. That way the ISP router will be a "dumb" box and does nothing other than interfacing with the ISP's infrastructure while your Buffalo router will do the actual network management (routing).