Re: OT: Router behaviour
On Sat 20 Feb 2021 at 12:36:24 (+0000), Mark Fletcher wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 04, 2021 at 08:23:39PM -0500, Stefan Monnier wrote:
> > > 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.
> >
> > I you sure you plugged your ISP-router into the WAN port of your
> > (Buffalo) router and not into one of the LAN ports?
> >
> > The behavior you describe would be easy to explain if it was plugged
> > into a LAN port (or if the WAN port was somehow bridged with the LAN
> > ports) since in that case you'd have basically a single network with
> > packets forwarded between the two routers, and two DHCP servers, making
> > it quite possible that a DHCP request received on your router ends up
> > being answered by the ISP router instead (since the request is
> > broadcasted to all connected machines).
> >
> So thanks to everyone who replied to this thread, some really great
> links and suggestions which I am following up. One thing for the record,
> there is absolutely no possibility I connected the LAN port to LAN port
> -- the LAN port on the ISP's router is plugged into the WAN port of the
> old router. That has been checked, double checked and triple checked.
> Whatever is causing it, it isn't that.
Sorry, causing what? A bad thing or a good thing? By now, perhaps you
have some preferences to report as well as just symptoms.
For example, if you want to run any device anywhere in the house with
minimal work, it helps but is not essential to set both WAPs to the
same SSID and password. Otherwise you have to configure two different
passwords on each movable device. That only affects connections to
wireless devices, of course, and is a separate issue from the IP.
The other decision is whether every device only needs to reach the
Internet, or whether each device must be able to connect to any other.
AIUI, the former will be the default if you just chain the routers:
~Ұ~ ~Ұ~
| |
Internet —cat5— WANport=router.1=LANports —cat5— WANport=router.2=LANports
but I think that you can make configuration changes in router.2 for the
latter. Otherwise, if a device connected to router.1 tried to connect
to a computer on the other router, router.2 would firewall it off as
an intrusion. I don't know what this change would be exactly.
My own router.2 (previously called "tertiary") has a broken WANport,
so I configure them thus:
~Ұ~ ~Ұ~
| |
Internet —cat5— WANport=router.1=LANports —cat5— LANports=router.2=LANports
Now, any device can broadcast and connect to any other device.
DHCP is set Off in router.2, so that it's all handled by router.1.
This configuration is simpler to set up, but you lose one LANport
on router.2 of course. Not an issue for me as I have four Powerline
devices that I can use for ad hoc needs.
> There is a switch on the back of the old router, with 2 settings, "AP"
> and "WB". "AP" is obviously "Access Point". Not sure yet what "WB"
> stands for but I suspect some of the links you guys supplied will help
> me figure that out. The router is set to "AP" -- I _think_ it always has
> been, but I might be misremembering that and the switch could easily
> enough have been moved in the course of an international move or while
> lying around on my spare bedroom floor for the best part of a year.
AIUI Wireless Bridge is for:
~Ұ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~Ұ~
| |
Internet —cat5— WANport=router.1=LANports LANports=router.2=LANports
So with cat5 cable linking the two routers, I don't think we want WB.
> Anyway -- thanks very much all for the input supplied, I have plenty
> reading to do! :)
Cheers,
David.
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