MR6500 IP Passthrough?

Hello Hyseas10, let's get you pointed in the right direction on if the MR6500 M6 Pro has the selection for IP Passthrough in its web interface.

Essentially the NETGEAR Nighthawk M6 Pro (MR6500) is a wireless hotspot and not a router. You would need to reach out to the manufacturer (NETGEAR) to check if this option would be available.

Let us know if this helps, and thank you for contacting the AT&T Community Forums.

Jeff, AT&T Community Specialist

Hello. The MR6500 (M6 Pro) does have an "IP Passthrough" option when using the web UI. This will disable the WiFi, so this only works with USB-C tethering and/or Ethernet. I did try this for a router behind the MR6500 (using an ASUS RT-AX68U, which has plenty more bells and whistles than I really need, but I want to use this router for QoS and media/print server ease of use).

Note: I changed my default MR6500 IP from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.2.254 to avoid conflicts with my router which shares the same default. For added measure, I changed the router from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.0.1.

Unfortunately since this is a MiFi device, this will use Carrier-Grade NAT (CGNAT), so the IP address is technically already "private" before it gets to the MR6500 and when it passes this to the router, you will have a private IP address in the 10.a.b.c range. My router only recognized this as a private IP with no other choices (it technically is, since your data traffic gets rolled up with other wireless customer data at the AT&T tower before being sent on the public/static IP from there, AFAIK), so certain functions will not work, such as DDNS. A double-NAT ("moderate" at best, but likely "strict") will be the result.

I elected to add the "MyAccessLAN" to my data-only plan for $7.50/month, which allows a static IP to be assigned (and hopefully bypass the CGNAT issue). This has not yet processed, but if you tag me in (hopefully) a few days or next week, I will update you on what this resulted in.

Fingers crossed.

Exactly! FYI, it's setting the LAN to an address other than 192.168.1.X that keeps the MR6500 from giving the "[Named Gateway] failed to obtain the IP address for WAN because no response from the server." While the MR6500 appears to allow changing its IP address, its embedded webpage appears firmware coded (locked) to 192.168.1.1. So while a LAN router will show the assigned IP address for the MR6500 as the gateway, if the LAN is on 192.168.1.X then it will conflict and the MR6500 gives the failed to obtain the IP address error above.

In short, to use IP Passthrough the LAN IP must not be 192.168.1.X, the DHCP of the MR6500 must be left ON (but can be limited to a range of two IP addresses), and the MR6500 will be assigned a 10.X.X.X IP address by ATT - just as easy2 explains above.

I look forward to hearing easy2's success of a staic IP assignment. I wasn't aware this was an option!

Easy2, did you every get the static IP to work?  We just ordered MyAccessLAN in the hopes that there is a way.

Unfortunately after multiple attempts of adding the feature update request myself through the "Change/Upgrade Features" drop-down on AT&T/FirstNET account management, and each time receiving the more-or-less "automated" reply a day or two later letting me know my request had been cancelled due to "feature unavailable", I tried calling customer service.

The first representative could not assist, as her manager was also unable to override. The representative recommended I visit the AT&T store I ordered the service through. Figuring they would probably have to call someone themselves on the technician/engineer side, and since that's about two hours away from me (also the closest one to where I am), I waited a couple hours and tried customer service again.

The second representative patched me through to one of the FirstNET/AT&T Engineers within a few minutes, and the engineer also had difficulty adding the feature. After multiple days of back-and-forth updates on how the engineer team above him recommended he resubmit the request, and after two weeks total time, I received the call with "Sorry, this feature is not available for customer paid FirstNET plans. You must be on an agency-managed plan and the FirstNET agency manager can assign a static IP."

Oh well. I guess if you want this feature, either be on a regular AT&T MiFi plan and add the "AccessMyLAN" feature for between $7.50-10.00 per month, or if you are FirstNET as I am, then be on an agency-managed plan.

At least they tried, but seems silly why the feature isn't available. Had to let work know they can't VPN in to my work machine if I have to access work stuff remotely and they have to check something. Since the agency I work for doesn't have anymore agency-managed devices to dole out, I guess we'll just have to deal with it or they can add some more to their managed plan to dole out if they want critical stuff like remote management to work.

FirstNET/AT&T doesn't want the extra money from me to add the feature to this customer paid plan.

¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

I was able to consistently get my new device to work as expected. Here is what I did.

Once I got a proper device w/ APN that had static IP I set the GW IP to 192.168.55.1, DHCP scope to 192.168.55.50-60, IP Passthrough Enabled, DHCP enabled.

Power cycle MR6500

Verify settings

Pull battery from MR6500

Plug in downstream router on LAN port, Replace battery and boot up MR6500

This is the only consistent way I can get the IP to passthrough property to my router. If I just use the button to power off and move from device for device (for testing) it would not work properly.

I hope this helps.

I still can’t get mine figured out, it refuses to connect to our WiFi router 

Has anyone figure anything else out to make it work with a router?

Not sure what you’re asking Harvey10101010. It’s Ethernet from M6 to router WAN in. On M6, Ethernet standby disabled, battery removed (in order for Ethernet port to work). Should work, just double NATed. The rest is refinement.

Okay I have tried Ethernet to router with no luck trying to trouble shoot