Advanced Home Settings

31

R6100 WiFi Router

NETGEAR genie Advanced Home Screen

The genie Advanced Home dashboard presents status information. The content is the same

as what is on the Router Status screen on the Administration menu. The genie Advanced

Home screen is shown in the following figure:

Internet Connection Setup Wizard

You can use the Setup Wizard to detect your Internet settings and automatically set up your

router. The Setup Wizard is not the same as the genie screens that display the first time you

connect to your router to set it up.



To use the Setup Wizard:

1.

Select

ADVANCED > Setup Wizard

.

2.

Select either the

Yes

or

No, I want to configure the router myself

radio button.

If you select No, you are taken to the Internet Setup screen (see

Internet Setup

on

page

20).

3.

Click the

Next

button.

4.

Select your location.

5.

Click the

Next

button.

Advanced Home Settings

32

R6100 WiFi Router

The Setup Wizard searches your Internet connection for servers and protocols to

determine your ISP configuration.

WAN Setup

The WAN Setup screen lets you configure advanced settings for your Internet connection,

and enable the router to respond to a ping on the WAN (Internet) port.



To view or change the WAN settings:

1.

Select

ADVANCED > Setup > WAN Setup

.

2.

Specify the following settings:

•

Disable Port Scan and DoS Protection

. DoS protection protects your LAN against

denial of service attacks such as Syn flood, Smurf Attack, Ping of Death, Teardrop

Attack, UDP Flood, ARP Attack, Spoofing ICMP, Null Scan, and many others. This

should be disabled only in special circumstances.

•

Default DMZ Server

. This feature is sometimes helpful when you are playing online

games or videoconferencing. Be careful when using this feature because it makes the

firewall security less effective. See the following section,

Default DMZ Server

.

•

Respond to Ping on Internet Port

. If you want the router to respond to a ping from

the Internet, select this check box. Use this setting only as a diagnostic tool because it

allows your router to be discovered. Do not select this check box unless you have a

specific reason.

Advanced Home Settings

33

R6100 WiFi Router

•

Disable IGMP Proxying

. IGMP proxying allows a computer on the local area network

(LAN) to receive the multicast traffic it is interested in from the Internet. If you do not

need this feature, you can select this check box to disable it.

•

MTU Size (in bytes)

. The normal MTU (maximum transmit unit) value for most

Ethernet networks is 1500 bytes, or 1492 bytes for PPPoE connections. For some

ISPs, you might need to reduce the MTU. This is rarely required. Reduce the MTU

only if you are sure that it is necessary for your ISP connection. See

Change the MTU

Size

on page

34.

•

NAT Filtering

. Network Address Translation (NAT) determines how the router

processes inbound traffic. Secured NAT provides a secured firewall to protect the

computers on the LAN from attacks from the Internet, but might prevent some Internet

games, point-to-point applications, or multimedia applications from functioning. Open

NAT provides a much less secured firewall, but allows almost all Internet applications

to function.

3.

Click the

Apply

button.

Your changes are saved.

Default DMZ Server

The default DMZ server feature is helpful when you are using some online games and

videoconferencing applications that are incompatible with Network Address Translation

(NAT). The router is programmed to recognize some of these applications and to work

correctly with them, but other applications might not function well. In some cases, one local

computer can run the application correctly if the IP address for that computer is entered as

the default DMZ server.

WARNING:

DMZ servers pose a security risk. A computer designated as the

default DMZ server loses much of the protection of the firewall

and is exposed to exploits from the Internet. If compromised, the

DMZ server computer can be used to attack other computers on

your network.

The router usually detects and discards incoming traffic from the Internet that is not a

response to one of your local computers or a service that you have configured in the Port

Forwarding/Port Triggering screen. Instead of discarding this traffic, you can have the router

forward the traffic to one computer on your network. This computer is called the default DMZ

server.



To set up a default DMZ server:

1.

Select

ADVANCED > Setup > WAN Setup

.

2.

Select the

Default DMZ Server

check box.

3.

Type the IP address.

Advanced Home Settings

34

R6100 WiFi Router

4.

Click the

Apply

button.

Your change takes effect.

Change the MTU Size

The maximum transmission unit (MTU) is the largest data packet a network device transmits.

When one network device communicates across the Internet with another, the data packets

travel through many devices along the way. If a device in the data path has a lower MTU

setting than the other devices, the data packets have to be split or “fragmented” to

accommodate the device with the smallest MTU.

The best MTU setting for NETGEAR equipment is often just the default value. In some

situations, changing the value fixes one problem but causes another. Leave the MTU

unchanged unless one of these situations occurs:

•

You have problems connecting to your ISP or other Internet service, and the technical

support of either the ISP or NETGEAR recommends changing the MTU setting. These

web-based applications might require an MTU change:

-

A secure website that does not open, or displays only part of a web page

-

Yahoo email

-

MSN portal

-

America Online’s DSL service

•

You use VPN and have severe performance problems.

•

You used a program to optimize MTU for performance reasons, and now you have

connectivity or performance problems.

Note:

An incorrect MTU setting can cause Internet communication

problems. For instance, you might not be able to access certain

websites, frames within websites, secure login pages, or FTP or

POP servers.

If you suspect an MTU problem, a common solution is to change the MTU to 1400. If you are

willing to experiment, you can gradually reduce the MTU from the maximum value of 1500

until the problem goes away. The following table describes common MTU sizes and

applications.

Table 2.

Common MTU sizes

MTU

Application

1500

The largest Ethernet packet size. This setting is typical for connections that do not use

PPPoE or VPN, and is the default value for NETGEAR routers, adapters, and switches.

1492

Used in PPPoE environments.

Advanced Home Settings

35

R6100 WiFi Router



To change the MTU size:

1.

Select

ADVANCED > Setup > WAN Setup

.

2.

In the MTU Size field, enter a value from 64 to 1500.

3.

Click the

Apply

button.

Your change is saved.

LAN Setup

The LAN Setup screen allows configuration of LAN IP services such as Dynamic Host

Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Routing Information Protocol (RIP).

The router is shipped preconfigured to use private IP addresses on the LAN side and to act

as a DHCP server. The router’s default LAN IP configuration is:

•

LAN IP address

. 192.168.1.1

•

Subnet mask

. 255.255.255.0

These addresses are part of the designated private address range for use in private networks

and are suitable for most applications. If your network requires a different IP addressing

scheme, you can change these settings in the LAN Setup screen.

Note:

If you change the LAN IP address of the router while connected

through the browser, you are disconnected. You will have to open a

new connection to the new IP address and log in again.

1472

Maximum size to use for pinging. (Larger packets are fragmented.)

1468

Used in some DHCP environments.

1460

Usable by AOL if you do not have large email attachments, for example.

1436

Used in PPTP environments or with VPN.

1400

Maximum size for AOL DSL.

576

Typical value to connect to dial-up ISPs.

Table 2.

Common MTU sizes

(continued)

MTU

Application