Networking issue

Hey guys,

 

lately I've been experiencing issues, namely with IP conflicts inside of the home network. I tried fixing the stuff myself but I've tried setting, resetting and rebooting but I couldn't get it to work for long or for all our devices.

So I'm pretty sure I am doing something wrong. At the base I have a Ubee EVW320b. This modem/router is provided by my ISP so I don't want to exchange it. Connected to this router is an ASUS RT-AC68U to provide the wifi coverage.

In the base modem (the Ubee), I turned off wifi. I set the ASUS modem to provide an Access Point, which automatically turns off DHCP and all that. By doing so, I figured that the ASUS wouldn't be the one providing the IP's. The Ubee would've been the sole device providing the IP's. So naturally there shouldn't be an IP conflict. But there was. Actually there were several. My conclusion was that the ASUS was assigning IP address that were in conflict with the IP addresses assigned by the Ubee and there was some sort of virtual war going on between those routers.

My next step was to turn off the ASUS, relying solely on the Ubee. So I unplugged the ASUS and turned WiFi back on on the Ubee. But then last night I got another IP conflict and the ASUS wasn't even turned on.

The thing is, I really don't understand half of what's going on underneath the hood here, but being the nerd in this household I'm expected to fix this stuff. Since you guys are all more clever then I am, here I am writing asking for your help.

Plugged in to these devices are 2 PC's, a Synology NAS, a TV, and a decoder. Wireless hosts anything between 1 and 8 devices. 

When I went on the interwebz to read up on this issue (especially using a second router as an access point), there were people suggesting static IP addresses. So I checked in the Ubee and the only IP address that is static is the one assigned to the NAS, which is xxx.xxx.xxx.19. Naturally I want that to be static since I use an IP address in the local network to access the NAS, and it's always on anyway.

So this is me thinking I simply did something wrong setting up either of my routers. for my wireless needs I really only want the ASUS router. In truth, I really wouldn't even know how to set up a static IP address, so I could really go for some directions right now.

Thank you!

There might be something wrong with how the ISP provided router is assigning IPs, but more than likely its the static IP you have assigned.

Your need to assign the static IP outside of the DHCP range to prevent the DHCP server from accidentally attempting to assign it whilst it is in use.

Have you also assigned the Asus router with a static IP? If not, this would be better all round as well.

Make these changes and see how you get on.

Also try to make sure the 2 routers are on the same subnets

I would be willing to bet your ISPs router has a screwed up DHCP server. I've seen routers from ISPs do that before. See if you can turn off DHCP in that router, and tell the ASUS one to do DHCP. For your settings in the ASUS DHCP server:

IP range: whatever you wanna do, ex: 192.168.1.10-192.168.1.254

Netmask: 255.255.255.0 unless you need another one

Gateway: the static IP of the Ubee router

Dns nameservers 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220

Hopefully that fixes it. If it doesn't, try looking at the Ubees DHCP settings, or maybe reset it to factory defaults if you can. I've had routers before that just spontaneously stopped serving up IPs correctly after a few months. Weird.

Try resetting eveything back to factory default. Change the LAN IP lease time (if you have the setting) to say 15 minutes on the ASUS and let it to receive an IP from the Modem. Check the modem's DHCP assigned IP to the ASUS and if able, set it to never change. Also, don't be surprised that you internet provider is monkeying around with the modem, at least trying to - pushing out updates or whatever or a noisy cable signal.

I have probably the same ubee cable modem. I have thought it was either my old netgear wirless router too. I bought an ASUS AC66u instead of your AC68u. Still networking problems, it's every 3-4 days. Or my family would have intermittent internet on their smart TV or cellphones. We blame everything from ddos, old java codes on PCs to virus and hacks. No avial. In the past I've tried turning off firewall, off other options on the ubee. Ran on ubee with wires instead of router. Everything, nothing seems to work. IMO I know 2-4 weeks before I swapped out the NETGEAR, can't remember where but on the logs, it keeps saying something like 100% CPU usage on the Ubee. Doing what? pinging packets back and forth from router to cable router? I can't place my finger on it either. This has been going on for a year now. 

Theres a few potential solutions. I have two.

Apparently that ISP modem can be placed into bridge mode, this makes the modem act as a modem only and the ASUS router handles all IP routing and assignment. The page is taken out apprently but can be accessed by going to http://<your modem ip>/TlChangeMode.asp

Keep in mind id do more research on that option as it can be tricky getting back into the modem without hardware resetting it.

second option.

Set the ISP modem with wifi off, dhcp off, create a different address and subnet between the modem and ASUS router (static) (10.0.0.0/24 for example), then configure the ASUS router to handle wifi, dhcp for the rest of the network on the default 192.168.0.0/24 network.

This will separate the modem from the rest of the network and shouldn't cause any problems.

What has been said before applies here in regards to your NAS, the static IP for the NAS needs to be outside the DHCP range otherwise DHCP will at some point accolate the NAS address to another computer.

Well. As Eden said you should set your modem to bridge mode. You really don't want it to do more than it has to. your Asus router is a hell of a lot better for the routing bit. Just let the modem handle the conversion from cable traffic. You should "NOT" set the Asus router as an access point. Basically you want to make the modem do as little work as possible, and the superior Asus router the do the brunt.

Troubleshooting ip's can be a pain in the ass. Troubleshooting wifi can also be a pain in the ass. Make sure it is not the wifi which is giving you trouble by disabling it and testing with cable.

 

Make it easy for yourself. Gimp the modem. Bridge it if possible. disable all extra functions if not. 

 

IP: You want to translate(NAT) as few ipadresses as possible to make it less complex. Ergo, use 1 unit for iptranslation, the superior unit being the ASUSrouter.

WIFI: This is an entirely different chapter. WIFI would be so easy if every WIFIunit used the same protocol. The problem is that WIFI has been araound for years and you do not want to use the default standard from the 90s when you can use the newest faster standards. 

WIFI:

b/g: crap

n: good

AC: Best today.

 

the thing is that if you connect even 1 unit using b/g standard the router will automatically use that standard for all the units connected via WIFI. 

 

Solution? Split up the network on your ASUS router. Set up 1 SSID for 2.4ghz(b/g) wavelength and 1 SSID for 5ghz(n/ac) wavelength for your faster units. (Yes it is even more complex than this, but you can use this as a guideline unless you want to dig deeper).

Well. As Eden said you should set your modem to bridge mode. You really don't want it to do more than it has to. your Asus router is a hell of a lot better for the routing bit. Just let the modem handle the conversion from cable traffic. You should "NOT" set the Asus router as an access point. Basically you want to make the modem do as little work as possible, and the superior Asus router the do the brunt.

Troubleshooting ip's can be a pain in the ass. Troubleshooting wifi can also be a pain in the ass. Make sure it is not the wifi which is giving you trouble by disabling it and testing with cable.

 

Make it easy for yourself. Gimp the modem. Bridge it if possible. disable all extra functions if not. 

 

IP: You want to translate(NAT) as few ipadresses as possible to make it less complex. Ergo, use 1 unit for iptranslation, the superior unit being the ASUSrouter.

WIFI: This is an entirely different chapter. WIFI would be so easy if every WIFIunit used the same protocol. The problem is that WIFI has been araound for years and you do not want to use the default standard from the 90s when you can use the newest faster standards. 

WIFI:

b/g: crap

n: good

AC: Best today.

 

the thing is that if you connect even 1 unit using b/g standard the router will automatically use that standard for all the units connected via WIFI. 

 

Solution? Split up the network on your ASUS router. Set up 1 SSID for 2.4ghz(b/g) wavelength and 1 SSID for 5ghz(n/ac) wavelength for your faster units. (Yes it is even more complex than this, but you can use this as a guideline unless you want to dig deeper).

Thanks guys, I will be looking into this today. Need coffee first.

Okay guys so here's what I did!

  1. I disabled the Wireless functions of my ISP router
  2. I disabled the DHCP functions of my ISP router
  3. I set the ASUS router to have a static IP address (192.168.178.2)
  4. I set my NAS to have a static IP address (192.168.178.3)
  5. I set up my ASUS to have a 2,4ghz and a 5ghz network, having different SSID's
  6. I set up my ASUS to have DHCP enabled, ranging from 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.254, since the direct LAN IP for the ASUS is 192.168.1.1
  7. The IPv4 DNS servers for the ASUS are equal to the ones in the ASUS, though I don't know if I should share them here :D
  8. the ASUS subnet mask is equal to the ISP provided Ubee (255.255.255.0)
  9. I COULDN'T find the NAT function inside the Ubee, please advice if this is critical.

So right now, judging from the last 3 minutes the wireless and wired appear to function normally. However, there is still one thing I am uncertain of:

I still need to use the network ports of the ISP Router (the Ubee). Right now I use 2, one for the ASUS router and the other for the Synology NAS. However, the ISP Router has 4 ethernet ports and I am going to need to use them all. Is it now required to set all static IP addresses I plug into that device? It doesnt have DHCP enabled.

If so, I guess I'm going to have to plug into my two PC's in there and give them static IP adresses.

Please advice.

Does the ASUS not have any network ports?#

>I COULDN'T find the NAT function inside the Ubee, please advice if this is critical.

If you're connecting to the internet fine its probably already doing its job fine, nothing you need to change.

> Is it now required to set all static IP addresses I plug into that device?

If you connect to the ISP router/modem, yes you will need to set a static IP for each device.

The Asus has 4 as well but I need 6.

So I'll have to use the Ubee. Is that an issue?

Not really. Though if you want everything on the same subnet you could get a $30 netgear or TP-link switch and you'll have 9 ports (3+4) or get a 8 port switch ($50~) and have 10 ports.

Thank you for pointing that out, because that made me remember I had a switch laying around the house somewhere. I doubt it's gigabit but it gets the job done. Not all clients need that kind of speed anyway. 

So now I have the ubee modem, which has a grand total of 1 connection. That's the Asus router.In the Asus I have my NAS and two PC's and a switch which connects two more devices.  

It's a mess but it works. 

Also, thanks to your suggestions I set up that 5GHz network a MY GOD is that blazing fast. When I'm just 10 feet away on my couch I get speeds close to matching my Ethernet cable. On cable I get 90-92 mb/s and on 5GHz I get 88 according to speed test. I did not see that coming. 

Thanks for the advice!