Disable DHCP on Nest router to use alternate router in front of it.

[jonscobie]

There are a few posts on this and many mentions online about limiting the DHCP pool to 1 etc.

However, what I have is a GL-MT2500 VPN capable router as my first incoming WAN connected device, then my LAN port going to the Nest wifi router which has a few mesh points around the place. 

I just want to disable DHCP on the Nest router and use the MT2500 DHCP server but it seems it's impossible to do this. Threads have been ended with saying we'll pass on to the team but there is nothing after that. 

[LovelyM]

Hey jonscobie,

Thanks for posting here in the Community forum. We'd love to help.

Disabling the DHCP on your Google Nest Wifi router is possible if you enable bridge mode on it. However, we don't really recommend this since once bridged, it will lose most of its functionality, including the ability to create a mesh network. Check out this support website for more information.

Let me know if you have additional questions.

Cheers, 
Lovely

[AbigailF]

Hi folks,

@jonscobie, checking back in should you still have some questions here. Let us know by replying to this thread. 
Thanks for the help, @LovelyM.

Best, 
Abi

[AbigailF]

Hey everyone,

We haven't heard from you in a while so we'll be locking this thread if there is no update within 24 hours. If you have any new issues, updates or just a discussion topic, feel free to start a new thread in the Community.

Regards, 
Abi

[jonscobie]

Well, disabling DHCP of the Nest router which disables the entire mesh support isn't exactly helpful. Has anyone got a technical reason why the Nest router cannot use the DHCP server from another router, even if it meant locking the mac addresses of the nest router and mesh nodes to specific addresses?

[Jeff]

Hey jonscobie,

Looking for the technical reason why disabling the DHCP routing abilities killing the mesh is likely to run you into circles in regards to answers. The design of the product, how it communicates between points and back home, and how it interacts with connected devices is reliant on it acting as the sole DHCP server. This is why bridge mode disables the mesh functionality, though wired connections will still work properly.

I can see the use case for what you're looking to do and see how it would be useful as a feature for you to have, but it's simply not possible with the product for another router to act as the DHCP server on the Nest WiFi mesh network.

Thanks,
Jeff

[Jeff]

Hi again jonscobie,

I just wanted to check in real fast to see if you saw my reply and to find out if you still needed any help on this. If you're still needing assistance, please just let me know and I'll be happy to continue helping.

Thanks,
Jeff

[jonscobie]

Thanks for the answer Jeff. As someone who has done a fair amount of network driver programming, I'd be more than happy to see detail but fair enough. I won't keep harping on. I'll just get around it another way. Maybe google should look at building in OpenVPN and Wireguard support as a way around this 🙂

[AbigailF]

Hello jonscobie,
 

We appreciate your feedback about building OpenVPN and Wireguard support. We're always looking for ways to improve and we'll take it as feedback. I also suggest that you send feedback by following this link. Let me know if you have other questions or concerns, otherwise I’ll be locking this thread after 24 hours.
 

Best,
Abi