You can pay xfinity for a 2nd public ip address, You can switch to a business class account that allows multiple public ip address, or you can simply connect a router to it. 

For the average consumer, its to allow greater than gigabit speeds through wan port aggregation. 

Is there a reason you’re wanting the use of the 2nd port? 

Thanks.  I have multiple devices that require “external” access, i.e. remote access via the internet with separate IP addresses.  

I did try to secure a 2nd IP address from xfinity, but their customer service folks were unable to even tell me how to do that.

I was able to solve it by utilizing the GE ports on my Wifi mesh routers.  Made the wiring a bit more difficult since some of the routers aren’t in my wiring closet, but it works.

I don’t think many devices “need” a direct access. directly connecting them takes the router of the configuration and removes the firewall/protections from your devices. 

Even larger corporations still use a router that manages everything (even if it is a business grade with a lot more features/capability). 

What are these devices and what issue are you running into? 

So I have this S33 modem and would like to configure my network with a hard ethernet cable from modem to my mac pro and then run a separate line to my wifi router (older Netgear 100mbps router). 

I’m with WOW internet and have 200mbps speed service (I’ve confirmed 200mbps download via speedtest with direct ethernet port from the S33 to my Mac today). 

Pardon my ignorance on networking but I *thought* I could simply go from the S33 via ethernet to a 1Gb switch and be able to split the signal via cat 5/6 to my wifi router and one to my mac pro.  

The issue with that is I have only 1 IP address so only one device can have it (either the Mac or the WiFi router). 

I contacted WOW tech support and long story short they cannot simply add a second IP address to my account without going to a business account (not economical in the slightest).  

My ideal setup is a hard wired ethernet connection, but my existing router only rates at max speed of 100 mbps (wired).  

So my first question is:  Is the most economical option now to simply upgrade my wifi router, run the ethernet cable from the S33 to the wifi and then have a direct port coming off that to my Mac Pro?  

If so, I should have just bought a different modem (wifi capable) to start I guess. 

Second question:  If I wanted to keep this modem, what is my best option?  If I returned the modem, what then would you do?  

Cheers and thanks for teaching a tech-challenged kid -- hard to believe, I know.

CoreyA, it’s a bit hard to advise. The key question is, if you have 200 mpbs down, but the netgear only supports 100 hardwired, is that actually going to be a constraint for your Mac Pro. That should be plenty for video streaming and so forth. The S33 is a fine device, but may be “overkill” for what you are trying to do. How many devices do you have connected to your network, and what kind of speed do you think you really need? If you like the Netgear hardware, an AX1800 is about $125. The S33/AX1800 might be overkill, but will certainly make it easy to address needs going forward.

@LoveMyLab thanks for the insight!

How big is your home and what is your budget? 

there’s a ton of routers out there and a few I’d recommend. 

But there’s also the temptation to look at mesh systems if your home is big enough. 

With the push for Wifi 7 a lot of the older AX stuff is on pretty solid sales and renewed. 

But without knowing the size of your home and budget, its tough to recommend much. 

Most of the AX generation is going to easily handle 200mbps

@plemans thanks for your comment too.  2500 sq ft. router is centrally located but we don’t need the access in every corner of our place. Truthfully, 50 mbps is plenty fast enough for our usage but WOW keeps doing the “free” bump where they back you into higher internet so we are currently sitting at 200…  

Budget is $100-$200. Down the road I’d like to totally remove wiFi from my house and go wired but that is a totally different topic.  I really just need a way to split my single IP to allow for multiple wired ethernet connections and be able to scale up for higher speeds should that become a necessity. Hope that sounds clear. Cheers!

I’m a fan of planning for the future. If you’re an arris guy, the W31 is just over $100 on amazon renewed and new around that $150 new. I’ve used one and its pretty solid and fast. Plus if you decide to go mesh, you can add another (when they’re even cheaper) for a mesh network. Only downfall is you have to manage it in an app versus gui. 

Or if you’re a netgear guy, the RAX50 is slightly more renewed but has lower specs and can’t add mesh satellites. 

I’d go with the arris for that price if it was me. A solid AX11000 router with the capability to upgrade. 

And I’ve used both arris and netgear. For the price, the arris will have more capability. Once you start getting higher end (and in turn more expensive), then I’d switch to netgear.