OT: Router behaviour
First apologies for the off-topic post, but I know this community is
full of experts on this topic and my ask in the end is a simple one:
Can anyone point me at a reasonably accessible guide to the details of
how IP networks work, in particular the communications that occur
between router devices that are designed to support home networks? I'm
computer science trained but from many years ago and if I ever learned
these specific details I have forgotten them, but I feel equipped to
understand them. I'm after a certain amount of detail and would prefer
to avoid adverts or advice of the "just buy our product, plug it in and
your problems will all be solved" type.
The background to my request is this:
A while ago I moved house (and countries) and since arriving in the new
house I have been using a WiFi router provided by my broadband provider,
somewhat reluctantly, but without a really serious alternative since the
router also contains the ISP's modem. In the old place I used a
store-bought router+WiFi device of very typical type (Buffalo brand,
although I don't expect that to be relevant) plugged into the (cable)
modem.
My kids have been complaining recently about the quality of the WiFi and
so I thought I'd fire up the old router from the old house and see if
it's any better. I experimentally fired it up without plugging it into
anything and the old WiFi networks came up, I could connect to them, and
got an IP address in the range I used to use at the old house (which is
different from what I use now, for arbitrary reasons).
I powered the router down again, plugged its WAN port into one of the
LAN ports of the ISP-supplied router, and brought it back up. It came up
but seems to have automatically subordinated itself to the ISP-supplied
router and is now offering up IP addresses in the range supplied by the
ISP's router... It seems like it has automatically taken a subordinate
role to the ISP's router. It is still offering up the old network names
with the old password but when I connect I get an IP address in the
range used by the ISP's router (said address works fine).
I don't think I expected it to do that, certainly not automatically, and
before I decide if I am happy with this outcome or not I want to
understand in detail what just happened and why, so I can understand its
implications. Just as one example, I want to understand what the
implications are for the store-bought router's firewall -- has it just
been bypassed? and so on. Hence the request for a pointer to some good
documentation. Book, website, whatever you think would be most helpful,
I would much appreciate any pointers.
Thanks
Mark
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