How to setup IP Passthrough/Bridge mode for Zyxel NR5103E

[jamesmarkcook]

After lots of fiddling I've finally figured out how to get the Zyxel working with IP Passthrough. In other words, the Zyxel is my modem, and I'm using it with my own WiFi router downstream. Here are the steps I followed:

1. Go to Network Settings -> Broadband -> Broadband tab and edit Cellular WAN 1. Switch off NAT.
2. Go to Network Settings -> Broadband -> Cellular APN tab and edit the first one in the list. Turn APN Manual Mode on and then change the APN to three.co.uk and switch PDP Type to IPv4.
3. Go to the hamburger menu and Restart the router. Don't pull the plug, just restart it from the UI.
4. Go to Network Settings -> Broadband -> Cellular IP Passthrough tab and switch it on. At this point if you go back to the Home screen, you will most likely still see a local IP address in the Cellular Info, probably 192.168.1.2. It will probably also report that it has lost connection to the internet.
5. Again, go to the hamburger menu and Restart the router.
6. Once the router has restarted, look again at the Cellular Info and it should show your WAN IP address, something like 10.123.xx.xxx or similar. The Status should also say it is Up.
7. Plug in your own Wifi router to LAN 1, NOT LAN 2/WAN!!! Give it a minute. Your router should eventually get assigned the WAN IP and you're good to go.

Notes

- The internet icon on the top of the Zyxel should be blue in IP Passthrough mode. Don't assume it isn't working because it hasn't gone green yet.
- The LAN2/WAN descriptor is extremely confusing. This is if you want to provide an internet connection to the Zyxel via Ethernet cable on LAN 2. There is an option to switch this on in the broadband settings. You don't need it.
- You need to regularly restart the Zyxel for things to work properly. I noticed that some things would 'half-work' if you just apply the settings but don't restart. If something isn't working as expected, restart the Zyxel from the UI (don't pull the plug).
- I did all of this while connected to my downstream router's wifi. Even though it might not have an internet connection at various points, you should still be able to access the Zyxel admin panel if your router is connected via Ethernet on LAN 1.
- Don't mess around with DHCP settings. Leave them as they are.
- I've not tried turning off the Zyxel WLAN (Wifi networks) yet but I don't see why it would cause any issues.

Here are some screenshots of my settings:

[Onyx300]

Thanks for this extremely helpful guide. This fixed my online gaming issues, now I can play online without a VPN connection.

One caveat for me was that I had to enable NAT for Cellular WAN 1. With this option disabled, I couldn't connect to the internet on my personal Huawei router or log in to the Zyxel router dashboard.

[tosiacar]

Thanks for the details James. How reliable is your setup? I have a virgin media internet connection and use three as my backup internet. But cancelled virgin media so will be doing this in a few weeks to use my 2 x eero based home setup. I am keen to know what oddities you've run into.

I am on V1.00(ACBJ.0)b15 firmware and every few months I have to power cycle the gear. At the moment no more than 2 x Windows 11 devices are connected at any one point. I would really like to not be in the habit of power cycling the modem regularly.

[jamesmarkcook]

Fairly reliable. I'm in an area where I can only usually receive 2 bars of 5G, 3 bars at an absolute stretch on a good day and I've noticed sometimes that the connection does appear to just completely drop out. However, I think this might be more to do with the signal in my area than the router setup.

I've also noticed that I initially got a 1000M wired connection between my 5G modem and my Wifi Router, but this has dropped down to 100M for some reason which probably isn't helping matters. I'm going to play around with things to see if I can fix that again. The 5G router seems to have a mind of its own when it comes to what speed it allows over the cable.

For now, everything works just ok. I do miss my 500mb Virgin connection, but I never ever want to deal with Virgin again in my life. They are terrible. So for now, this will do.

[jamesmarkcook]

Replaced my cable (which was a 5e cable) for a 5e patch cable and I'm now getting the full 1000M wired speeds. Must have been a dodgy cable.

Strangely since doing though I'm now only getting 1 bar of LTE signal (no 5g signal). Has to be a coincidence right?

Access technology has changed to LTE-A and my signal is now -119 😟

[jamesmarkcook]

Silly me knocked the antenna switch on my Zyxel to 'EXT' when I was fiddling, hence the 1 bar of LTE. Took me all evening to figure out what the issue was. Switched it back to the internal antenna and back up to nearly 200mb speeds.

[andhorne]

Why did you need to make the change to  set APN Manual Mode on and then change the APN to three.co.uk and switch PDP Type to IPv4. I would have thought that just setting IP passthrough mode and disabling any forewall would give you what you want. Then your Wifi device(s) will have full control on security etc?

[jamesmarkcook]

IP passthrough doesn't work for me until I change APN to those manual settings. I got that idea from other threads that mention manually setting the APN. Apparently the default one with IPv6 has some compatibility issues with IP passthrough. I'm not knowledegable enough to know why that is.

[RogerD]

One thing to add - I didnt' disable NAT in the

"1. Go to Network Settings -> Broadband -> Broadband tab and edit Cellular WAN 1. Switch off NAT." 

I'm relucatanbt to right now as I can access my router remotely, and its in a lift 4 stories up!

[RogerD]

Nice one. I found out the same, particularly the LAN1 bit - was driving me mad!

How to you connect to your 5G router for admin? I've a cable from my main router to the 5G one, WAN to LAN1, and its fine. However, to access it for admin, I have to know my external IP, then either add 1 or subtract 1, from the last digit of the address, and then I can access it from my LAN (my 192.168 network) - most odd, but it works.

i.e. if Three give the 5G router 96.23.23.200 (made up)...   then to access the Admin of the 5G router on my internal network I have to enter, usually, 96.23.23.201, but, sometimes 96.23.23.199 (never both). Most odd!

So if I lose internet and need to access the 5G box for a reboot, I need to find its IP in my internal router settings, then use that (+ or - 1 !!)