Do you all mean WAN or LAN. The wan has to be enabled or it wouldn't accept an IP address from your DSL, Cable, or Router depending on if it's connected before or after the home router. The LAN side; which is it's router functions can be disabled if you are connecting after a home router and not using it to feed/route PC's or other devices.

On a similar side bar: Is the WAN side accessible to the web interface so that we can give the 502 a static IP address from our home network, or do we HAVE TO let it grab an IP address via DHCP? I run only static IP addresses on my home network and need to be able to see the 502 to a 192.168.x.x static IP address on the WAN side. Thx... Mike....