Do I NEED to enable bridge mode to use an additional router?

[#1]

I've got hub2 and just got a ubiquiti Edgerouter-X. The idea is this will be the main router into which I plug my mesh system, home LAN, etc.

I configured the ubiquiti with the default settings through the wizard and my PC is connected to it by a cable. When I put a cable from hub2 into the router's configured internet port not only could I not see the hub on http://192.168.1.254/ but I lost connection to the router as well.

I know I can and ultimately should set the hub2 in bridge mode but do I have to - is that the problem? I would much rather get things joined up first so I can access the web config for each device at the same time before nobbling the hub2.

I wondered if my current issue is possibly a DHCP conflict, the Edgerouter assigns a default range also on 192.168.1.

[#2]

Unless you set the Hub 2 to bridge mode, then you will need to change the subnet and dhcp range of one of the routers. They can not be the same otherwise the Ubiquiti wont be able to route to the Hub 2 and out to the internet

[#3]

That makes sense. To clarify in bridge mode, hub2 would need me to configure the new router against it using PPPoE, not DHCP... Hub2 doesn't handle authentication at all in this mode, everything is left to the external router?

The Edgerouter guide says the following, I *think* I want option 1 with bridge mode off and option 3 with it on, but I'm not certain:

The available internet connection types are:
- DHCP The most common scenario. Use this option if your ISP is distributing IP addresses via DHCP.
- Static IP Use this option if your ISP provided you with a static public IP address.
- PPPoE Use this option if your ISP authenticates your internet connection using PPPoE.

[#4]

To clarify in bridge mode, hub2 would need me to configure the new router against it using PPPoE, not DHCP... Hub2 doesn't handle authentication at all in this mode, everything is left to the external router?

Correct

The Edgerouter guide says the following, I *think* I want option 1 with bridge mode off and option 3 with it on, but I'm not certain:

Sounds right, you need PPPoE when the Hub2 is in bridge mode and DHCP  when it's not

[#5]

If you are not using bridge mode you can use static IP or DHCP.  Personally I use static IP and configure manually.  If you are not entirely familiar with IP routing you may better using DHCP and letting the PN hub hand out the IP configuration.

It's actually less painful to bite the bullet, put the PN hub in bridge mode, configure the Edge-Router PPP settings and avoid the double NAT thing.

[#6]

Excellent - for now I just reassigned the new edgerouter on the 192.168.2 subnet, left everything else using the defaults on both devices and now have everything (I think) working. Which is basically the starting point I was shooting for before trying anything more elaborate.

Quick question on the Hub2, it has auto-assigned the edge-router to 192.168.1.79. I know I can lock this IP but can I manually set it to something more memorable and then lock it? Or does hub2 lack the ability to assign IPs explicitly? Not a big deal.

Many thanks

PS: @mssystems you replied while I was writing this... are so saying lock the ERX to a fixed IP on the Hub2, then use that as the static IP on the ERX?

[#7]

The ERX WAN interface just needs to have an IP address on the same subnet as the PN hub LAN interface.  If the PNHub is using 192.168.1.1/24  192.168.1.254/24, I would set the ERX WAN interface to 192.168.1.2/24

/24 is shorthand for setting the subnet mask to 255.255.255.0 meaning the mask has 24 bits set.

The gateway address is the PN hub 192.168.1.254

[#8]

PN Hub2 defaults to 192.168.1.254 with a dhcp range of .64 to .200. So any ip between .1 and .63 should be ok