Can anybody point me to any documentation on using a 2211 in
bridge mode?

I switched it from route mode to bridge mode, and I started
seeing things like DHCP traffic (that was sent as broadcast
packets) to/from other devices. That tells me it’s actually in
bridge mode, right?

However, my router can’t ever get a DHCP lease from the ISP
because the 2211 still seems to think it has an IP address (the
“internet” page still shows that the 2211 still has an
externally visible IP address. A bridge device shouldn’t have
an externally visible IP address should it?

The other alternative is to do double NAT/routing, but that
requires the ability to forward all ports, and the 2211 can’t
do that.

Are there any docs that explain the difference between DHCP relay and DHCP forward in the 4.3.0 MM2211 firmware. The manual says nothing other than that you have to pick one or the other.

Grant, as you know, with the 2211-NG in Factory default mode, it comes up in Route mode, which includes features like DHCP, NAT, etc. Simply changing the Operation mode to Bridge is not enough. This will not shutdown the features associated with Route mode. At a minimum you need to reboot the 2211 after changing its Operation mode. It is strongly advised to change the Operation mode through the Smart Configuration option. At the end of the wizard, the 2211 will be rebooted.

Be aware the external DHCP server needs to be fully compliant with all DHCP RFCs, especially DHCP Forward/Relay. The 2211 in Bridge mode will use the same MAC address for all communication on the Metro side (ie it will clone one of the Home MAC addresses), so every DHCP Discover will arrive at the external DHCP server with the same source MAC address. The DHCP server needs to issue IP leases based on the MAC in the BOOTP fields.

This is how I understand the difference between DHCP Relay and DHCP Forward: Forward simply forwards the client’s DHCP packet without making any signficant changes in the payload, ie the packet is forwarded as a broadcast. Relay adds/changes information in the packet payload and may unicast the packet to DHCP servers it knows of (which are manually configured on the DHCP Relay agent).

Ruckus Support

Thanks for the info. That helps a lot.

Even if I can get bridge mode to work, I’ll still have to
figure out what authentication protocol is currently being used
between the Metroflex and the ISP and then get my
firewall/router to support that.