[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Router lan wifi hardware

Hello,

I have a question about routers, lan, wifi and devices.

If I want to add some devices to my home network using wifi but restrict them can that be done?
I dont want the devices to be able to send data or contact anywhere except the local network.
I dont want them to be able to change network firewalls or network passwords.

The devices are home automation devices but I know the brand transmits data to other countries which I dont want to happen.

That is why I am asking about restricting what they can do and prevent inbound or outbound data.

Thanks in advance
Vander

[Assistant]
Vander said:
Hello,

I have a question about routers, lan, wifi and devices.

If I want to add some devices to my home network using wifi but restrict them can that be done?
I dont want the devices to be able to send data or contact anywhere except the local network.
I dont want them to be able to change network firewalls or network passwords.

The devices are home automation devices but I know the brand transmits data to other countries which I dont want to happen.

That is why I am asking about restricting what they can do and prevent inbound or outbound data.

Thanks in advance
Vander
Click to expand...

If you put them on a guest wireless network and disable intranet access, they won't be able to access your LAN or anything else on the guest network. However they can access the internet, and that is required for most IOT devices to work. There are workarounds to block them from accessing the internet but it isn't a simple feature of any normal home based router.

drinkingbird said:
If you put them on a guest wireless network and disable intranet access, they won't be able to access your LAN or anything else on the guest network. However they can access the internet, and that is required for most IOT devices to work. There are workarounds to block them from accessing the internet but it isn't a simple feature of any normal home based router.
Hello,

Thanks for the fast reply to my query.

My follow-up question based on your answer is as follows.
Can I add the devices to a router that has no internet connected to it?
And if so would the devices still work?

Thanks
Vander

Vander said:
Hello,

Thanks for the fast reply to my query.

My follow-up question based on your answer is as follows.
Can I add the devices to a router that has no internet connected to it?
And if so would the devices still work?

Thanks
Vander
Click to expand...

If the devices require no internet access, sure. You don't even need a router, just an access point.

If they need internet access, Asus and many other brands do have firewalls that you can configure access to only certain internet destinations (or none at all) but you'd have to figure out what destinations they need and add those, and deny all others. Depending on what devices you're talking about, they may or may not need internet access, but most IOT stuff does.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Mac OS SMB max NVME throughput on 10GbE network?

Not sure if there's any fine tuning that can be done here to optimise R/W performance but in a nutshell I’m not seeing the R/W speeds on NVME drives I would expect on a 10GbE network (maxing out around 1100mb/s)

I have 2 Mac Computers, both with TP Link TX401 10GbE NICs, connecting to an Asus ax89x via 5m Cat7 cables, one connected to an SFP to Rj45 converter to utilise both 10GB ports.

Mac 1 is a computer video editing workstation.
Mac 2 is acting as a server with a 60TB Softraid 5 array, and a 6tb NVME Softraid 0 array (3x2tb PNY nvme’s in an Asus HyperX m.2x16 v2 in PCI slot 1)
Both Mac’s running BigSur 11.7.3

I’ve run iperf3 both ways on both computers and getting max link speeds of 9.8 Gbits/s

AJA System test results:
NVME Raid Array locally gets 3500+/5000+ mb/s W/R speeds
60TB Raid Array locally gets 600/700 mb/s W/R speeds

However through the network SMB protocol R/W speed performance from Mac 1 to Mac 2 is:
NVME Raid Array network gets 1100/1100 mb/s W/R speeds
60TB Raid Array network actually performs better at 660/720 mb/s W/R speeds

I’m beginning to wonder if the Mac OS SMB protocol is becoming the bottleneck around 1200-1500mb/s with throughput (I’ve seen R/W pulses at around 1200-500 but never higher). Does anyone else have opinion?

Settings I’ve Tested:

AX89X:
I've enabled Jumbo Frame in the AX89X settings, set negotiating speeds to the max for both the 10GB and SFP port. After caparison testing setting the SFP port to Auto/ and SFP TX clock to off, resulted in better iperf3 link speeds.

MACOS 10GbE NIC Manually Configured Network Settings:
I've set all the settings to the max
Disabled AVB/EAV Mode
Jumbo Frame 9000. I’ve tested different settings (can go up to max 16000 on the TPLINK NIC) but 9000 default jumbo frame seems to perform best with W/R speeds.

MACOS .conf files
I’ve updated the etc/nsmb.conf on both mac’s to include the line: signing_required=no
This did result in a boost to the current speed performance
source https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212277
source https://kb.promise.com/thread/disable-smb-signing-on-os-x-10-11-5-10-12-x/
I’ve learned more about fine-tuning the sysctl.conf file, which seems to be depreciated in BigSur+, and it looks as if creating and writing to the file, and creating a custom .plist to load on boot is required to make the settings stick upon reboot. But regardless the below settings didn’t improve performance
sudo sysctl -w kern.ipc.maxsockbuf=4194304
sudo sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.sendspace=2097152
sudo sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.recvspace=2097152
sudo sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack=0
sudo sysctl -w net.inet.raw.maxdgram=16384

The last maxdgram value is an interesting one because it allowed me to do some testing on max MTU on Mac OS and the AX89X

Mac OS does not actually by default allow you to ping 9000 bytes, even if jumbo frame 9000 is enabled.

When running in terminal
sysctl -a | grep maxdgram
Default values are:
net.local.dgram.maxdgram: 2048
net.inet.udp.maxdgram: 9216
net.inet.raw.maxdgram: 8192

Which allows a max ping of 8184 bytes
ping -D -s 8184 192.168.50.1

Anything higher by default results in a timeout, or message to long

Once the net.inet.raw.maxdgram is manually increased to 16384 (using the above terminal code sudo sysctl -w net.inet.raw.maxdgram=16384) I found these results:

When Keeping the Jumbo Frame Hardware settings in the NIC at default 9000 MTU:
The max byte size ping is 8972 bytes before timing out to the other Mac or the Router
ping -D -s 8972 192.168.50.1

If I increase the Jumbo Frame Hardware settings to 16000 MTU:
The max byte size ping is 12242 bytes before timing out on the Router
ping -D -s 12242 192.168.50.1
The max byte size ping is 8990 bytes before timing out to the other Mac
ping -D -s 8990 192.168.50.101

The above tells me that Mac OS limits the jumbo frame to 9000 and the Asus AX89X is at 12250. Any thoughts?

sources:
Tuning TCP/IP Performance for MassTransit | Knowledge Base
Summary: This article describes how to tune TCP/IP for maximum performance with MassTransit. Description: Explanation & Overview TCP/IP Settings As network speeds have increased some of the default configuration settings for TCP/IP no longer result in maximum performance. In particular, networks...
kb.acronis.com
source https://www.gdt.id.au/~gdt/presenta...et-tcp/reference-materials/web/psc-tuning.pdf
How to test if 9000 MTU/Jumbo Frames are working
An overview on how to test if jumbo frames/MTU 9000 is working on mac, Linux, and Windows
blah.cloud

[Assistant]
Well, it's simple math. 10gbps is 1250MB/s and take into account overhead of protocols and it's performing as expected.

Tech Junky said:
Well, it's simple math. 10gbps is 1250MB/s and take into account overhead of protocols and it's performing as expected.

dang math, bits and bytes, yikes

sharkey said:
Not sure if there's any fine tuning that can be done here to optimise R/W performance but in a nutshell I’m not seeing the R/W speeds on NVME drives I would expect on a 10GbE network (maxing out around 1100mb/s)

I have 2 Mac Computers, both with TP Link TX401 10GbE NICs, connecting to an Asus ax89x via 5m Cat7 cables, one connected to an SFP to Rj45 converter to utilise both 10GB ports.

Mac 1 is a computer video editing workstation.
Mac 2 is acting as a server with a 60TB Softraid 5 array, and a 6tb NVME Softraid 0 array (3x2tb PNY nvme’s in an Asus HyperX m.2x16 v2 in PCI slot 1)
Both Mac’s running BigSur 11.7.3
Click to expand...

Looks fine by me...

About the only thing I would change is to insert a 10Gbe switch between the two Macs, taking the router out of the middle of things, but I don't think that would improve thruput...


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Can I do VLAN? Pfsense and Asus AP

Hello all,

I have recently setup a pfsense appliance and put my Asus Router in a AP mode with AI mesh enabled with two remote nodes. Is there a way I can implement VLANs to segregate devices on different AImesh nodes.

Thanks in advance.

[Assistant]
ali. said:
Hello all,

I have recently setup a pfsense appliance and put my Asus Router in a AP mode with AI mesh enabled with two remote nodes. Is there a way I can implement VLANs to segregate devices on different AImesh nodes.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Yes requires merlin and scripts, do a search, discussed many times. The script will depend on which router you have, there are two different main types which use different commands.

If you router supports freshtomato you can use that and configure vlans through the GUI, however I believe you'll lose Aimesh ability, which isn't a huge deal.

drinkingbird said:
Yes requires merlin and scripts, do a search, discussed many times. The script will depend on which router you have, there are two different main types which use different commands.

If you router supports freshtomato you can use that and configure vlans through the GUI, however I believe you'll lose Aimesh ability, which isn't a huge deal.
Click to expand...
Merlin is already there, which scripts are we talking about?
Here is my setup:

Pfsense appliance ---> Asus ROG GTX-11000 in AP mode ---> Asus AX86U & AX68U as remote nodes.

ali. said:
Merlin is already there, which scripts are we talking about?
Here is my setup:

Pfsense appliance ---> Asus ROG GTX-11000 in AP mode ---> Asus AX86U & AX68U as remote nodes.

When the main node is in router mode and Guest Wireless 1 is enabled it will create VLANs 501 and 502 (and 503 if you have a tri-band router). I'm not sure if it does this when using AP for the main node but I suspect it may.

Enable GW1, both 2.4 and 5Ghz (assuming you want both), reboot all 3, then post the output of "brctl show" on all 3 devices. That will give a good idea of what needs to be done. You might get lucky and you need to do nothing other than configuring 501 and 502 tagged on the PFSense port.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: FIOS connection keeps failing

Hello all,

My internet connection is for most part stable, however, it keeps dropping every few weeks and I have to use the FIOS app to fix it and bring the net back online. I wanted to put this on the forum here before I got Verizon involved. The dropped connection happens enough time and some times during work hours that it is an annoyance. And every single time the FIOS app fix internet issue option resolves the problem.
I have set my ASUS router to restart every weekend just as a best practice. Has anyone else who has faced the same issue been able to login to their FIOS ONT and schedule a reboot to alleviate this problem? Or if you have faced this issue, what resolved this intermittent dropping of connection?

Any help/advise is greatly appreciated.

[Assistant]
There's a fair amount of lore on these forums that connecting ASUS routers directly to Verizon ONTs doesn't work terribly well. Maybe somebody inside ASUS or Verizon knows the reason, but if so they're not telling. However, it has been reported that sticking a plain-vanilla Ethernet switch in between will fix it. I see things like Netgear GS305s going for $15 on Amazon, so it's a pretty cheap fix (oh, don't forget you'll need one more ethernet patch cable ...)

ali. said:
Hello all,

My internet connection is for most part stable, however, it keeps dropping every few weeks and I have to use the FIOS app to fix it and bring the net back online. I wanted to put this on the forum here before I got Verizon involved. The dropped connection happens enough time and some times during work hours that it is an annoyance. And every single time the FIOS app option resolves the problem.
I have set my ASUS router to restart every weekend just as a best practice. Has anyone else who has faced the same issue been able to login to their FIOS ONT and schedule a reboot to alleviate this problem? Or if you have faced this issue, what resolved this intermittent dropping of connection?

Any help/advise is greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

There was an issue in the firmware causing DHCP requests from Guest Wireless 1 to be sent to the ONT with a VLAN tag on them, and the ONT strips that tag off, forwards the request upstream, and causes an outage.

This may not be the issue in your case what firmware are you on) but if you're using Guest Wireless 1 it may be.

I have Verizon FIOS off my RT-AC1900 (RT-AC68U variant) and it works fine, can go weeks or months without rebooting the router.

You cannot access the ONT to reboot it unfortunately, and it probably wouldn't help anyway, it is just a bridge device. When you use their app to do "fix" it does several things within their network such as clearing out DHCP leases.

tgl said:
There's a fair amount of lore on these forums that connecting ASUS routers directly to Verizon ONTs doesn't work terribly well. Maybe somebody inside ASUS or Verizon knows the reason, but if so they're not telling. However, it has been reported that sticking a plain-vanilla Ethernet switch in between will fix it. I see things like Netgear GS305s going for $15 on Amazon, so it's a pretty cheap fix (oh, don't forget you'll need one more ethernet patch cable ...)
Click to expand...

That issue should be fixed, the "dumb" switch was blocking the rogue DHCP requests since they had a VLAN tag on them, but at least on my router 386.7_2 has eliminated the bug where tagged DHCP was being sent out the WAN (may have been a previous version, don't recall exactly).

I'm tempted to buy one of the GS305e switches on sale for $15 right now (or the 8 port for $27), they support port mirroring, cheapest ethernet tap out there for those that want to do sniffing.... save me having to pull out a cisco switch when I need to. But my hatred of netgear has me conflicted.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Hardware Advice Needed

I am trying to identify the best new network setup based on a number of changes and demands now needed at home and home-based business. The problems have included wifi mesh dropping out, broadband dropping, Sky Q having continuous problems, passed from pillar to post with all suppliers (Sky saying my tv problems will be solved if I take their BB, BT saying Sky is the issue, take BTTV instead etc)

Current h/w Vigor 130 modem, connected to Asus AX88U and AiMesh with Asus Zen4 nodes.

Have a house with a large number of devices (60-100, phones, tablets, laptops and IoT devices) so this rules out most ISP provided hardware, plus in a rural location so FTTC is the only option, with d/l speeds of 30mbps.

I have tested a 5G router with an external antenna which will give better speeds, but not confident enough that the signal will strong enough at all times (plus Sky engineer 5G mobile BB doesn't work well with Sky Q) so looking to go for dual wan, then a reliable Mesh solution.

Has anyone got anything similar or experience to suggest any reliable hardware to meet the challenges?

[Assistant]
No one knows what is going to work well in an unknown location with unknown building configuration and built from unknown materials. If you have not enough knowledge to solve the problem yourself - call a local computer/networking company and tell them what do you want. When they come show them what they have to deal with. I personally would ditch all home "mesh" marketing devices and install the number of needed business class access points. Low cost options are TP-Link Omada and Ubiquiti UniFi systems, Cisco/Zyxel APs are available at affordable price, DrayTek APs are available in the UK. With your many devices you have to make a decision what do you want - play with home "mesh" forever of build it once properly with future expansion options. Router/firewall with VLAN support, PoE switch for your wired devices (with number of ports as needed), PoE access points for your Wi-Fi devices (ceiling, wall plate, outdoor as needed, wired or wireless), PoE cameras on separate VLAN (existing or future), IoT on separate VLAN (existing or future), etc.

Since you are on mostly Asus/Netgear users forum mostly home routers suggestions will come your way. Ready to play?

Tech9 said:
No one knows what is going to work well in an unknown location with unknown building configuration and built from unknown materials. If you have not enough knowledge to solve the problem yourself - call a local computer/networking company and tell them what do you want. When they come show them what they have to deal with. I personally would ditch all home "mesh" marketing devices and install the number of needed business class access points. Low cost options are TP-Link Omada and Ubiquiti UniFi systems, Cisco/Zyxel APs are available at affordable price, DrayTek APs are available in the UK. With your many devices you have to make a decision what do you want - play with home "mesh" forever of build it once properly with future expansion options. Router/firewall with VLAN support, PoE switch for your wired devices (with number of ports as needed), PoE access points for your Wi-Fi devices (ceiling, wall plate, outdoor as needed, wired or wireless), PoE cameras on separate VLAN (existing or future), IoT on separate VLAN (existing or future), etc.

Since you are on mostly Asus/Netgear users forum mostly home routers suggestions will come your way. Ready to play?
Click to expand...
...I don't have the knowledge myself, which is why I came here as I thought I might find some help. Will start with removing the mesh and take a look at the AP options.

Thanks

you will need to be able to run CAT6 or CAT5e ethernet cable to the locations where you want to put APs back to a central location for the router and switch. While doing those runs, i would hardwire ethernet to devices that do not need to use wireless. Some may be able to branch off the location of the ethernet run to the AP with a small switch.

If you already have unused coax to most of the locations, you should look at MOCA2 or 2.5 modems to extend the ethernet instead.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Am I doing this basic VLAN correctly?

I need to separate my wife office computer and IP phone from everything else. VLAN 1 will be all of our home device, and VLAN 2 will be for my wife's work devices. Both VLANs will be on their own subnet.

I have asked this in a couple places, and am I getting...yes, it will work, and others saying no it will not.

Thanks in advance!

________

I have two smart managed switches, both TP-Link TL-SG108E's, one in my office where the router (TP-Link ER605 V2) is, and one switch in her office. Both are linked on Port 8 on each switch. The switch in my office is connected from Port 1 on the switch, to Port 5 on the router. Port 1 on the router is the WAN.

Router (ER605 V2) Port 1 is WAN, Port 5 to Switch A

VLAN 1: 1-5
VLAN 2: 1,5

Untagged Ports: 1-4
Tagged Ports: 5

Switch A (TL-SG108E) is connected to router (ER605 V2) on Port 1

VLAN 1: 1-8
VLAN 2: 1,8

Untagged Ports: 2-7
Tagged Ports: 1,8

PVID 1: Port 1-8

Switch B (TL-SG108E) is connected to Switch A on Port 8

VLAN 1: 1-8
VLAN 2: 6-8 (Wife’s work computer, and VoIP phone connected to Ports 6 and 7)

Untagged Ports: 1-7
Tagged Ports: 8

PVID 1: Port 1-5,8
PVID 2: Port 6-7

[Assistant]
Screwdriver said:
I need to separate my wife office computer and IP phone from everything else. VLAN 1 will be all of our home device, and VLAN 2 will be for my wife's work devices. Both VLANs will be on their own subnet.

I have asked this in a couple places, and am I getting...yes, it will work, and others saying no it will not.

Thanks in advance!

I have two smart managed switches, both TP-Link TL-SG108E's, one in my office where the router (TP-Link ER605 V2) is, and one switch in her office. Both are linked on Port 8 on each switch. The switch in my office is connected from Port 1 on the switch, to Port 5 on the router. Port 1 on the router is the WAN.

VLAN 1: 1-5
VLAN 2: 1,5

Untagged Ports: 1-4
Tagged Ports: 5

VLAN 1: 1-8
VLAN 2: 1,8

Untagged Ports: 2-7
Tagged Ports: 1,8

PVID 1: Port 1-8

VLAN 1: 1-8
VLAN 2: 6-8 (Wife’s work computer, and VoIP phone connected to Ports 6 and 7)

Untagged Ports: 1-7
Tagged Ports: 8

PVID 1: Port 1-5,8
PVID 2: Port 6-7
Click to expand...

What is the default for the WAN port on the router? You shouldn't need to change that. My guess is that it probably wasn't 1, but maybe. Otherwise looks fine.

Note do not tag VLAN 1 anywhere, on your trunk ports 1 should be untagged and any others should be tagged. Unless the router or switch is designed wrong.

I recently created a separate guest network with VLANs which works well. @drinkingbird is right:

- No tagging on the router at all, not WAN nor LAN
- Trunk on port 1 of switch A allowing both VLAN1 and VLAN 2 to pass (1U, 2T) to the router via LAN
- Trunk on port 8 of switch A and switch B (1U, 2T) to allow both VLANs to pass from switch B through to switch A to the router LAN side
- Switch B, Tag ports 6 (2T) and 7 (2T) - don't tag anything else

You now need to set up the VLAN2 in the router with its own DHCP server and subnet and assign that subnet as the gateway for VLAN2 (if that is the way your router is configured, i don't know brand or type).

I think that should be it. VLAN1 being the default, doesn't need to be touched.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: optimal VPN MTU higher than optimal WAN MTU

I know that VPN MTU and WAN MTU settings are interface specific—but I’m looking to understand, is the actual optimal VPN MTU limited by the optimal WAN MTU?

I think my optimal VPN MTU is higher than my optimal WAN MTU. (How) is that possible? Why wouldn’t my optimal VPN MTU, in practice, automatically top out at my WAN MTU?
Thanks

(My WAN MTU is 1428 but my VPN mtu is 1500)

[Assistant]
The MTU sets the maximum size a transmission unit might have. That doesn't mean it will always use that size. The "optimal" size depends not only on your interface characteristics but all the other devices between you and the destination. To determine the actual MTU size that will be used PMTUD is used.

OpenVPN has additional options that relate to MTU in cases where PMTUD doesn't work. This usually involves setting options like tun-mtu, tun-mtu-extra and mssfix.

Right but let’s say that I KNOW (both from ping tests and from my ISP) that the WAN MTU is 1428. How is it possible for the VPN MTU to exceed that (I can ping up to 1472 without fragmentation over the VPN interface, which ultimately uses the same internet connection…?)

Sorry I realize this is just me not having a solid foundation on the subject. Id be happy to be pointed at a good resource where I could read up more …

I don't have the same type of WAN connection as you so I can't be 100% sure of your situation, but.... If you're trying to determine the max MTU through the tunnel using ping then you're likely seeing a false response. The pings are inside the tunnel. If you force frames through the tunnel that are larger than the MTU of the WAN interface they will be fragmented and reconstructed outside the tunnel. Your ping command will be unaware of this happening.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Recommend a good quality coax/Ethernet test tool for home use?

I could use a good quality coax/Ethernet cable/connector test tool for home use... I'd appreciate recommendations here. I checked Klien Tools but they have too many choices for me to decipher with any confidence... I have no experience using such tools.

Thanks!

OE

[Assistant]
OzarkEdge said:
I could use a good quality coax/Ethernet cable/connector test tool for home use... I'd appreciate recommendations here. I checked Klien Tools but they have too many choices for me to decipher with any confidence... I have no experience using such tools.

Thanks!

OE
Click to expand...
TESTS & TONE GENERATORS - HDMI Cable, Home Theater Accessories, HDMI Products, Cables, Adapters, Video/Audio Switch, Networking, USB, Firewire, Printer Toner, and more!
Monoprice, Inc. (DBA. MonoPrice.com) specializes in the wholesale distribution of world class cable assemblies for home theater, PC, and high technology industries. MonoPrice.com offers a wide range of products from standard PC products, network cables, and HDMI cables to custom cable assemblies...
www.monoprice.com

For years I have used a couple of these from Monoprice. As the reviews show, good stuff at a reasonable price.

OzarkEdge said:
I could use a good quality coax/Ethernet cable/connector test tool for home use... I'd appreciate recommendations here. I checked Klien Tools but they have too many choices for me to decipher with any confidence... I have no experience using such tools.

Thanks!

OE
Click to expand...
Do you just need to check a cable that it is pinned correctly and there is continuity on all pairs or do you want to certify that a cable with handle certain speeds?

CaptainSTX said:
Do you just need to check a cable that it is pinned correctly and there is continuity on all pairs or do you want to certify that a cable with handle certain speeds?

Both sound useful.

My Ethernet is exposed patch cords and a few custom cables, so easy to troubleshoot/swap out. I can continue to trust Ethernet blindly until I have in-wall segments and wall plate connectors (next house?) that may require confirmation that they are ok and not the problem. But, being able to test custom Ethernet cables may save me some grief, if I ever make some more.

I'm adding MoCA 2.5 backhauls over existing in-wall RG59 coax and would like to prove a coax segment ok before I hook it up and hope for the best. And if the tool can confirm 2.5Gbps capacity, that would be nice to know provided that tool doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

I suspect I'm like a lot of people when it comes to such tools... live without them until some theshold need or justification... like confirming my existing in-wall coax is suitable for MoCA 2.5 networking.

Confirming in-wall telephone wiring would be useful, too, for use with ATAs.

OE


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Need help with installing two routers in house with limited ethernet cable

Please be patient with this one, networking is not my strong suit!

My ISP is Telus in British Columbia. They provided an optical network terminal and a T3200M modem/router. The router stinks, but with their Optik TV (IPTV), I'm stuck with it.

I'm trying to install two new routers into the system to overcome the T3200M's shortcomings. I have an Asus AC86U and AX-86U. I have flashed them both with Asuswrt-Merlin.

This is where things get tough. The junction box in my garage has very limited space, but that is where all the ethernet cable comes in. Ideally, one of the Asus routers would be on my first floor and the other on my second floor. I have the T3200M set in bridging mode.

I have an unmanaged switch in the junction box where it sends the cables off to different rooms in my house.

Can someone suggest how to make this setup work with ethernet backhaul in the AIMesh setup? I've tried a few different things, but it doesn't seem to work. I have reached the end of my networking know-how (not much to begin with).

The problem with having the first router on the first floor is that there is only one cable in. So that means that cable has to be in and out? Would a managed switch overcome this?

ONT > T3200M WAN

T3200M Port 1 > Garage switch

Garage switch > first floor connection
> second floor connection

First floor connection > managed switch
> router 1 wan port
> lan port 1 > managed switch > second floor router wan port

Feel free to mock, but helpful suggestions are welcome too!

[Assistant]
I think what you want is one cable from the ONT to the primary node's WAN port, and then a cable from the primary node's LAN port (any one will do) to the secondary node's WAN port. Then make sure the primary is in router mode and the secondary is in AP or AIMesh-node mode.

If you have more wired gear to connect, adding a switch on the LAN side of the primary router is fine, but it won't matter whether it's managed or not. (And, frankly, if you're a networking newbie then you don't want to trouble with managing a managed switch.) You probably don't want to try to connect more than one device directly to the ONT, so having a switch connected to that is not very helpful.

tgl said:
I think what you want is one cable from the ONT to the primary node's WAN port, and then a cable from the primary node's LAN port (any one will do) to the secondary node's WAN port. Then make sure the primary is in router mode and the secondary is in AP or AIMesh-node mode.

If you have more wired gear to connect, adding a switch on the LAN side of the primary router is fine, but it won't matter whether it's managed or not. (And, frankly, if you're a networking newbie then you don't want to trouble with managing a managed switch.) You probably don't want to try to connect more than one device directly to the ONT, so having a switch connected to that is not very helpful.
Click to expand...
sorry, I skipped important details!

ONT > T3200M WAN

T3200M Port 1 > Garage switch

Garage switch > first floor connection
> second floor connection

First floor connection > managed switch
> router 1 wan port
> lan port 1 > managed switch > second floor router wan port

The problem with having the first router on the first floor is that there is only one cable in. So that means that cable has to be in and out?

OK, now I think I get it: you need both of the cable runs I described to pass through the garage junction box?

If that's the situation, you're right, an unmanaged switch won't cut it because it will just think there are four interchangeable connections. You need to separate that so that traffic on the WAN side of your new router doesn't intermix with traffic on the LAN side. You should be able to do that if you can replace the garage switch with a managed switch. (Basically, create separate VLANs for each side and put the appropriate ports into each VLAN.)


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Xfinity says I need a new modem

My Xfinity internet download speed has been 400 Mbps for several months. Today I got an email from them saying because they are increasing my speed to 400 Mbps, my Arris SB6183 isn't capable of that speed so I need a new modem. Just ran the speedtest on the Xfinity site and got 481 Mpbs! I get similar results with Ookla and the built-in Merlin speedtest. The 6183 specs says it's capable of up to 400 Mbps. So I guess my old Arris is good for a while yet. Unless there's enough difference between Docsis 3.0 and 3.1 to warrant the upgrade. For my use (web surfing, email, streaming video), I don't think so.

[Assistant]
You got that notice as Comcast over provisions speed by 20%.
On the 400 tier you actually get about 484 Mbps.

Unless they begin forcing something, you can ignore that email. When/if you can't get online, it may be time to revisit getting a new modem then.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Does a modem need to enable IPv6?

I own an Arris s33 modem.

I can't find much information on how to see if it supports IPv6..

There doesn't seem to be any options to configure or enable it on the local config page, http://192.168.100.1/

Do modem's actually have anything to do with IPv6? Should I just enable IPv6 inside my router?

I recall comcast's XB7 gateway had some settings for IPv6, but it's a combo modem+router..

[Assistant]
Searching google for "does a modem need to enable ipv6" - the first sentence in a few results suggests that modems MAY have SOMETHING to with IPv6:

A modem is a bridge. You have to enable IPv6 on your router. Not sure why you're continuously looking for trouble. Dual WAN, Link Aggregation, WAN Aggregation, IPv6... what else you don't need you want to try on your Gaming RGB box? Firmware beta tester not enough for you?

devinrhode2 said:
I own an Arris s33 modem.

I can't find much information on how to see if it supports IPv6..

There doesn't seem to be any options to configure or enable it on the local config page, http://192.168.100.1/

Do modem's actually have anything to do with IPv6? Should I just enable IPv6 inside my router?

I recall comcast's XB7 gateway had some settings for IPv6, but it's a combo modem+router..
Click to expand...
@devinrhode2, would you mind sharing your ping times to 192.168.100.1 from a wired connection?


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Arris S33 on Comcast Business

Has anyone tried an Arris S33 on a Comcast Business tier lower than Business Internet 500? They don't update this sheet regularly but was wondering if it would work at the 200M or 300M tier. I can tell you my Netgear CM1000v2 works at the 200M tier despite it not being listed, so my faith in this list being correct is pretty low.

Article | Comcast Business Support

[Assistant]
Go on faith and try it then. Return if it doesn't work.

Unless you plan on upgrading to a tier greater than 1Gbps I would recommend going with the SB8200. It is approved for Comcast and considered by some to have better quality hardware than the S33. It has been a rock solid modem for me.

fryedchikin said:
Unless you plan on upgrading to a tier greater than 1Gbps I would recommend going with the SB8200. It is approved for Comcast and considered by some to have better quality hardware than the S33. It has been a rock solid modem for me.
I'm hoping it might eliminate the +4ms ping times to all sites that started with the CM1000v2. With a laptop directly connected to my modem, I shouldn't be getting 4ms pings to 192.168.100.1.

@fryedchikin, what are your pings to 192.168.100.1 with the SB8200?


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Samsung connection issue

I have an Arris cable modem Model TM822G which is being used for internet access only. I have a Netgear GS105 gigabit switch and a Nighthawk AXE7800 router. There is 3ft Cat 5 patch cable from the modem to the switch. The router is connected to the switch with approx. 75ft of Cat5E cable.

This setup has worked flawless to allow wireless connection to cell phones, a television and a computer.

The issue I am trying to solve is I cannot get a wired connection to a Samsung television. The new line I am trying to introduce is approx. 50ft Cat5E to the television. The television seems to recognize there is something connected to it but it does not recognize the network and will not connect to it. I have connected the cable to the switch and to another switch a Netgear GS108 switch at the television end I have both status lights flashing on both ends at each switch indicating a good connection. I have a DirecTV Genie receiver and if I use the same cable I am trying to connect to the TV with, the genie receiver does connect to the network and the internet. I have tried a new cable but with the same results to the television. When the television is connected to the network I do not get any status lights on the switch.

Other troubleshooting I have tried is replacing the switch with a Netgear GS108 switch and I get all the same results. I have found if I disconnect the cables from the switch and connect the television cable to the switch first I get both status lights flashing on the switch and it connects to the internet. Now if I connect the router cable to the switch the router does not get a connection and I lose the WIFI signal. If I connect the router cable first then the television cable the router works and the television does not. So it seems the television is dragging down the network.

Some other pieces of information are the television board has been changed twice for a total of three of the same boards and always the same results. Does anyone have any insight?

[Assistant]
TM822g to Router then to switch and TV.

Looks like the TM822G is just a modem and not a router.

connect the cable from the tv to the router, not the switch between the modem and router. The TV is getting DHCP from the router over wireless initially. The router will not issue dhcp addresses over its WAN port. The Samsung is expecting a new dhcp address for its lan port when you plug the cable in. It needs to get an address from the router via the cable if the lan ports and the wireless interface are not on the same subnet (e.g. 192.169.xxx.yyy where xxx is the subnet value, yyy can be anything within the dhcp range set by the router dhcp server.)
Alternatively, you can manually set the Samsung lan and wireless to static addresses consistent with what the router dhcp server hands out for each of the interfaces (wireless, wired). You still need to connect the Samsung ( or the local switch that is connect to the TV lan port), to the router LAN port.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Solved Friends can't connect to my server with external IP.

Year after year I have been the one to host a minecraft server for a few weeks when the new minecraft update comes so me and my buddies can have some nostalgia and fun.
Every year I set up the server. In my router settings I set the port and double check the if the server's internal ip is still good. and done. Then I give my friends my external ip. And everything works fine.

But this year I can't figure out why none of them can join. Everything is the same. The router and it's settings, the pc I run the server on.
I'm the only one who can join with the servers and only with it's internal IP. But not with external one.

I just can't figure it out. I looked around for posts on the subject but did not manage the solve the problem.

Please help!

I am sorry if this is not the right place to ask this question. Thank you for the help in advance.

[Assistant]
Has your external IP changed? Maybe your ISP has given you a CGNAT address. What are the first two octets of your WAN IP address as reported in your router's GUI?

ColinTaylor said:
Has your external IP changed? Maybe your ISP has given you a CGNAT address. What are the first two octets of your WAN IP address as reported in your router's GUI?
My external IP did not change.
The first two octets of my WAN IP: 100.65.x.x

janoshar said:
100.65.x.x
As suspected that is a CGNAT address. If you go to canyouseeme.org you will notice that the IP address doesn't match. So your router will not be directly accessible from the internet.

Carrier-grade NAT - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: "Preferred" way for router to serve local DNS

DSL-AX82U here. When I first got my router, I struggled to get devices on the network to resolve by their host names. After some research and tinkering, I've accomplished this by entering my router's IP address in the LAN DHCP DNS server setting, as DNS server #1 instead of the "advertise" checkbox because apparently that appends and might cause problems. It works pretty well so far, but sometimes resolution fails for some period of time, perhaps after I reboot the router, or something.

My question is whether the most elegant way to accomplish this is what I'm doing. I've noticed the DNS Director settings and wonder if that is a more appropriate solution, or if there is another alternative someone more knowledgeable than me suggests.

p.s. there is no good reason I've chosen not to assign static hostnames along with static IPs in the manual override section of the DHCP list -- I guess I just feel like this *should* work and I'd like to figure out how to do it.

Thanks in advance.

[Assistant]
What do you define as "a period of time" after the reboot?

In the setup you describe, the resolution relies on known DHCP data - the reboot clears that information and you have to wait for it to repopulate as the clients refresh their leases. Default lease times of a day mean this can take 12 hours.

You could reduce the default lease time to reduce the time this happens for.

@drinkingbird recently put together a how-to on restoring dnsmasq lease information on a reboot but I don't recall whether that included host names or just mac/ip mappings.

eightiescalling said:
What do you define as "a period of time" after the reboot?

In the setup you describe, the resolution relies on known DHCP data - the reboot clears that information and you have to wait for it to repopulate as the clients refresh their leases. Default lease times of a day mean this can take 12 hours.

You could reduce the default lease time to reduce the time this happens for.

recently put together a how-to on restoring dnsmasq lease information on a reboot but I don't recall whether that included host names or just mac/ip mappings.
Click to expand...

My script is just to maintain DHCP leases upon reboot by moving the file to JFFS and setting the lease time to 30 days.

When the router reboots, the majority of connected devices will renew their lease which should get DNS resolution working again (assuming they report their hostname when obtaining a lease). However I have found some devices when in sleep or low power mode do not, some don't even do it when coming out of sleep as they don't know that the connection went down/up.

With manual assignments, that is stored in NVRAM and should survive a reboot fine.

As far as @carlucci 's comment about manually setting router IP in DHCP not sure why that changed anything, should be no different than just leaving them blank and checking "advertise router IP". That's how mine is and never any issues with resolution.

Thank you both for your responses.

Admittedly, I've had a difficult time in the past learning the separation between DHCP and DNS, but I have a much better handle on it these days. Although, perhaps you're right, I need to pay more attention to DHCP lease-renewal when this issue pops up. FWIW - the devices that are typically unresolvable when the issue occurs are Raspberry Pis. From what you write, @drinkingbird, it sounds like I should SSH to the "not found" device by IP and manually try to renew the DHCP lease. Is it then reasonable to expect local DNS resolution immediately?

With regard to setting the router IP in DHCP, it's been a while so I can't quite remember, but I think I was having issues getting local DNS to resolve over VPN. But, differing from your point, I always had DNS public DNS servers manually specified in addition to checking the "advertise" checkbox. I will test the settings you outline over the weekend, perhaps.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Cable modem latency issues

Hi All,

I have a strange issue that I'm curious to hear if anyone else has had or might have experience with.

I used to have a Zoom 5370 DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem on Comcast Business Internet 200. Pings from my wired LAN machines to the Zoom (192.168.100.1) were always 1ms, and pings to 8.8.8.8 were always 7-8ms from all machines. The modem totally died one day, so I replaced it with a Netgear CM1000v2 DOCSIS 3.1 modem. I kept the router the same, which was an Asus RT-AC66U B1. I had to add a WAN static route into my Asus to reach 192.168.100.1 on the Netgear. Pings to 192.168.100.1 jumped to 4ms, and pings to 8.8.8.8 jumped to 11ms. A few months went by and I upgraded my aging and NVRAM limited Asus RT-AC66U B1 to a Asus RT-AX86U Pro. The higher pings remained the same, so the culprit is likely the modem. The higher pings existed even when pinging from both router's GUIs to 192.168.100.1.

Is the Netgear modem crap, or is this a DOCSIS 3.1 problem? The Netgerar is very stable and returns great line stats with zero errors for months, but it has caused latency to jump by about 4ms to everywhere, even itself. Here are the line stats:

Any ideas as to why the latency went up with the newer modem? I looked at swapping the Netgear for a Motorola MB8600 but read a couple of reviews by people that said they were also getting the same 4ms ping jump to 192.168.100.1.

[Assistant]
I did notice on Comcast's page that the CM1000v2 is only supported in the 500MB speed tier, and the CM1000 is supported in most speed tiers. Maybe my CM1000v2 is provisioned with CM1000 Comcast firmware and that's causing the ping issue?

Supported modems:
Article | Comcast Business Support

I dont have comcast and I have an arris router but if I ping my modem 192.168.100.1 through my asus router over 5g wireless no less.. i get 3 to 4 ms.

Maybe try connecting a laptop directly to the modem and try your 192.168.100.1
ping ? Also change the cable to a good 5e or cat 6 between the modem and router...just because your old modem liked that cable doesnt mean the new one does...though that would affect speed rather than latency? I would try an Arris 8200 or S33.. but again I dont have comcast.

RMinNJ said:
I dont have comcast and I have an arris router but if I ping my modem 192.168.100.1 through my asus router over 5g wireless no less.. i get 3 to 4 ms.

Maybe try connecting a laptop directly to the modem and try your 192.168.100.1
ping ? Also change the cable to a good 5e or cat 6 between the modem and router...just because your old modem liked that cable doesnt mean the new one does...though that would affect speed rather than latency? I would try an Arris 8200 or S33.. but again I dont have comcast.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I forgot to mention that I also connected a laptop directly to the modem via Ethernet and had the same 4ms ping to 192.168.100.1.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Two routers same network

Hi, I’m trying to connect 2 routers in the hope of getting increased Wi-Fi coverage and to provide additional wired ports, upstairs, for my son’s gaming.
There are lots of tutorials online but all seem to give differing methods. I tried one method but it didn’t work, I’m on my second method and initially thought I’d cracked it but now I have problems!
I’m using a NETGEAR nighthawk as the main router and a NETGEAR N600 (wndr3700) upstairs connected via Ethernet cable.
I’ve attached the method I followed.
My wired connection from the nighthawk to my firestick keeps dropping out every 10-15 minutes or so.
Does anyone know why? Any help gratefully received!

[Assistant]
Don't bother doing that "LAN to LAN" method, it's probably unnecessary. Go into the wndr3700 and configure it as an Access Point. See pages 81/82 of the manual. I don't have experience of the wndr3700 specifically but with most APs the LAN ports still function as normal.

https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/WNDR3700V4/WNDR3700v4_UM_30Oct2015.pdf

ColinTaylor said:
Don't bother doing that "LAN to LAN" method, it's probably unnecessary. Go into the wndr3700 and configure it as an Access Point. See pages 81/82 of the manual. I don't have experience of the wndr3700 specifically but with most APs the LAN ports still function as normal.

https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/WNDR3700V4/WNDR3700v4_UM_30Oct2015.pdf
Click to expand...
But if I want to use the ports of the 2 routers?

ronorbar said:
But if I want to use the ports of the 2 routers?
I said: "I don't have experience of the wndr3700 specifically but with most APs the LAN ports still function as normal".


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: AX200 compatibility with legacy MB

Hi there. Newbie here and look for any suggestions. Thanks in advance.

Try to update home router from Netgear R7000 to Asus AX86u. Also try to change some intel 9000 series wireless adapter to AX200/210. The problem is my z97+4790 rig now outdated a lot, and the intel representative told me the AX200 adapter unable to run on that platform.

The thing is I can’t find in the market any meaningful PCIe Wifi adapters using solutions predated AX200, and I indeed found an intel doc saying there shouldn’t be a problem when you run AX200 with a legacy CPU.

So, should I take the risk to update the PCIe WIFI adapter?

[Assistant]
Welcome to the forums @Modd.

I almost never recommend 'upgrading' a PCIe WiFi adaptor. Those things are going the way of the dinosaur for many years now and have never given a 'guaranteed' improvement in many cases.

What I do recommend is using a spare (or inexpensive) router as a Media Bridge instead. You may even find one for less than the WiFi adaptor you're considering.

The benefits of a Media Bridge are that the routers full power is used to connect back to your main router (with 3x3:3 or 4x4:4 antenna: streams), much more than any WiFi adaptor will currently allow. And it does so at full radio power (for your jurisdiction). You then plug in your desktop via Ethernet and experience the fastest connection possible. Without any dismantling of the PC, nor any fiddling with the drivers, etc.

Simply place the Media Bridge router where it has the strongest signal from the main router. Now, connect the PC (and any other wired capable devices) to the Media Bridge router.

Oh, my. I should have come here years ago to seek you guys’ inputs. Never thought about this before, although sometimes have been suspicious about the “updates” or “improvements”. Definitely I will give it a try this time.

Modd said:
Also try to change some intel 9000 series wireless adapter to AX200/210. The problem is my z97+4790 rig now outdated a lot, and the intel representative told me the AX200 adapter unable to run on that platform.

while some might disagree - a late model 2 stream Intel WiFi5 adapter will be 'just fine' - you won't notice a difference for the most part compared to a AX200/2xx card.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Time to replace SB8200 - Comcast??

Greetings All,

The past few months I've been seeing that i haven't been getting the DL speeds at my router (RT-AX86U - ASUSWRT-Merlin v388.1 running spdMerlin). I have the 1200mbs service and used to get 800-900+ down pretty consistently, and now I'm seeing 400-600 mbps. After doing some searching, I'm seeing that Comcast/Xfinity has marked my modem (Arris SB8200) as "not supported due to filters".. (What the hell does that mean??). From what I'm reading, there may have been a fw update pushed down to the modem... So here's my question... Is it worth messing around with WAN Link aggregation and seeing if that helps, or should I just bite the bullet and upgrade the modem? Any advice on a good modem to get? Motorola? etc???

Thanks, in Advanced.

Happy Holidays!!

[Assistant]
Is this not what you are seeing? This is what I see for my Xfinity service for my SB8200 self-owned modem. Seems it doesn't quite provide your max speed but can provide up to 957 Mbps.
Cable Modem
ARRIS SB8200 | Model number: SB8200
Model Specifications

Device Type Cable Modem
Wired Download Speed Up to 957 Mbps
Voice/Telephone enabled No
Built-in WiFi No
DOCSIS Channels 32 down x 8 up
DOCSIS Version DOCSIS 3.1
IPv6 Yes

bluzfanmr1 said:
Is this not what you are seeing? This is what I see for my Xfinity service for my SB8200 self-owned modem. Seems it doesn't quite provide your max speed but can provide up to 957 Mbps.
Cable Modem
ARRIS SB8200 | Model number: SB8200
Model Specifications

Device Type Cable Modem
Wired Download Speed Up to 957 Mbps
Voice/Telephone enabled No
Built-in WiFi No
DOCSIS Channels 32 down x 8 up
DOCSIS Version DOCSIS 3.1
IPv6 Yes
Click to expand...
Understood. That's what I was saying ...I WAS getting 800-900+, then all of a sudden getting 500-600. Also seeing on Reddit and other places that people are complaining about drop-offs in speed with the SB8200 with xfinity.

Per the Xfinity device site....

I am also using an SB8200 on Comcast. There are two separate issues.

Despite an Arris specification which is higher, Comcast's download speed rating for the SB8200 is 800. Recently Comcast increased the theoretical maximum download speed for my plan to 1000. I would need to replace the SB8200 with a cable modem rated by Comcast as 1000 or higher to be "compatible" and for the vague e-mails to cease. The three "compatible" modems, Comcast rated for 1200, are listed here https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-cable-modem/. I get the impression that WAN aggregation has been hit or miss for end users and the cable companies do not want to support it. So theoretically I would also need to replace my wireless router with a model featuring at least a 2.5 Gbps WAN ethernet port. I am in no rush to do this.

I do not have a guess as to why actual download speeds would have dropped. I do not run speed tests frequently. When I have, the download speeds vary and I can only count on 560 down and 20 up, so I configure QoS with these values.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Using smartphone with 4G to connect to host in LAN.

Hello everyone.

So here's the deal. I have a router with a PLC connected to one of its LAN ports with an ethernet cable. I want to be able to access this router from anywhere, also outside my home, using a smartphone with mobile internet. I've already looked into the principles of portforwarding. It turns out that the internal port, which forwards to the PLC, must be set to 80. I set the external port to 80 as well. I've set the protocol to both TCP and UDP. To my understanding, I should now be able to enter my router's public IP address into my mobile browser's search bar, followed by :80, to access the PLCs user interface. Unfortunately, this leads to a connection time out.

Does anyone know a cause and possible solution for this? I've heard people speculate you might need a 4/5G-compatible router, because the router needs to be able to communicate using the 4G/5G protocol for another device to be able to access it using mobile internet, the way I described. Is this where the solution could lie?

[Assistant] Are you sure your ISP isn't blocking that connection? Verizon, for example, has TOS that forbid running servers on residential connections. I haven't actually tested, but it wouldn't surprise me if they enforce that by blocking inbound traffic to common server port numbers like 80. (Even if there's not a technical block, what you want to do would be a TOS violation that could get your service cancelled, if you're using Verizon.) Dunno about other ISPs, but you should start by checking whether it's nominally allowed by your ISP.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: To Double NAT or Not - Advice

Hello All,

Just a seeking some advice around pros and cons for a simple home network setup. Here is the scenario.

ISP modem / router combo (router 1) for WAN access. A second router (router 2) connected to ISP using a private IP and all wired devices (printers, servers, NAS, XBox) connected to router 2.

I want to use router 1 to take all wifi devices in my house / office because it has some great tools to manage and monitor wifi connected devices.

What I need to do it be able to securely access my devices on router 2 via VPN built in the router 2, also allow those devices such as Xbox / PC to host / serge games and chat etc using UPNP I believe.

If I put the ISP device router 1 into bridge mode I loose the wifi features.

Is there a practical way to bypass the ISP firewall, NAT and DHCP and achieve desired results without bridge mode or will this create a double NAT and more problems?

Does anyone have any suggestions as how I could achieve this without creating more problems for myself? Perhaps I should just do the bridge mode and scrape the wifi management feature in the ISP router 1

Seeking insight for my pros and cons planning.

Thanks,

[Assistant]
You would need to put the WAN IP address of router 2 in the DMZ of router 1.

If you were only wanting to access router 2's VPN server you could get away with just forwarding its port on router 1. However, because you want to use UPnP on router 2 for gaming there is no foolproof way of knowing all the ports that might need forwarding. Therefore the only practical option is to put router 2 in the DMZ.

This will indeed create a double NAT for devices connected to router 2, but that shouldn't be a problem.

ColinTaylor said:
You would need to put the WAN IP address of router 2 in the DMZ of router 1.

If you were only wanting to access router 2's VPN server you could get away with just forwarding its port on router 1. However, because you want to use UPnP on router 2 for gaming there is no foolproof way of knowing all the ports that might need forwarding. Therefore the only practical option is to put router 2 in the DMZ.

This will indeed create a double NAT for devices connected to router 2, but that shouldn't be a problem.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. Perhaps I can can devices that require UPnP (xbox, gaming PC) on WiFi connection to Router 1 and eliminate that issue.

BasicBlue said:
Thanks for the reply. Perhaps I can can devices that require UPnP (xbox, gaming PC) on WiFi connection to Router 1 and eliminate that issue.
There are various way you could configure your devices, I just responded to what you asked. As I said, double NAT isn't a problem. But if you move gaming devices from a wired connection on router 2 to a wireless connection on router 1 you might experience increased latency.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Localhosts losing connection

Hello, I was directed here from Reddit. Sorry if this is the wrong location for this thread! I'll just post what I said here, if that's ok!

I use localhosts between programs to talk to each other, & ever since I started using a Netgear Nighthawk R7000P, my connections have been disconnecting & I have to restart the program to reissue the connection. I've written rules in the firewall, & turned the firewall off, but that does not seem to help. I used a different (eeros) router before, & did not have this problem. I use a few localhosts to connect things while streaming, such as local connections between my phone & computer, websockets between programs (OBS & a stream bot), Streamelements connecting to a custom bot, etc. They lose connection after an hour or two & I have to restart them. I'm unsure what to even Google for these answers as when I look for stuff they're talking about opening ports outside (no need) & for creating my own localhost programs. Even if someone can help point me in a direction for Google as I don't know what term this is. Thanks ♥

I have a Nighthawk R7000P. I am hard-wired to the router. I am on Firmware Version V1.3.3.154_10.1.86.

[Assistant]
crybaby said:
I use localhosts between programs to talk to each other...
What exactly do you mean by this? Are you talking about the Windows "hosts" file or something else? Describe in detail what are you doing.

ColinTaylor said:
What exactly do you mean by this? Are you talking about the Windows "hosts" file or something else? Describe in detail what are you doing.

For one example, I have programs which reach out to Twitch through their API. They use what I assume to be localhosts on my end to connect to other programs & tell them what to do. I also use websockets to communicate between other programs such as a self hosted script running on my computers end, to OBS. It loses connection seemingly randomly, & I have to restart the program to reconnect the two. Another example that may be easier to find out from me (since I'm already confused) is how StreamElements & OBS use their custom bot name, which I assume is sending the information to OBS itself & rerouting it to the custom chatbot that I set in OBS.

Sorry if I'm confusing, I'm confused myself. I will try to be as clear as I can!

Sorry, I am unfamiliar with that software or how it works.

crybaby said:
They use what I assume to be localhosts on my end to connect to other programs & tell them what to do.
"localhosts" isn't a thing. This sounds like something you've invented. "localhost" is the hostname of the loopback adapter (127.0.0.1) of the local machine. Each machine on the local network will also have its own unique host name (e.g. DESKTOP-123ABC9) and IP address.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Can't access 2nd router in LAN

I've got Router A (main router) with an IP of 192.168.0.1
Also have Router B, with an IP of 192.168.1.1. Router B is just connected to Router A via an ethernet cable.
I'm trying to access Router B's web UI as well as SSH into it for file management, but no luck, and admittedly networking isn't my strongest smoot.

Both ASUS routers are running Merlin, and when I run ASUS's Device Discovery tool, it see's the second router (B), but clicking it shows the following error:

According to the screenshot, we're both in the same 255.255.255.0 Subnet Mask, so I'm a bit shook.

I've tried adding various routes in the "routes" tab in Merlin on Router A, but no luck, and TBH I'm not sure I'm even doing that right.

Anyone know how to do this (assumingly simple) task?

[Assistant]
You will need to disable the firewall on router B or create some firewall rules to allow SSH through.

You will also have to create a route on Router A to Router B subnet.

Router a and b are not on the same subnet. The net mask does not drive that the ip address does. B is on su net 192.168.1.0/24

Jeffrey Young said:
You will need to disable the firewall on router B or create some firewall rules to allow SSH through.

You will also have to create a route on Router A to Router B subnet.
That's the problem, I can't get to the ui to make any changes. Going on recollection I think i had the firewall on that router turned off.

Which exact route info should i enter?


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Slow Ethernet jack

One Ethernet jack in my house is slower than the others. Iperf measures 1 Gbit/s between PCs on all other jacks, but only 95 Mbit/s to the slow jack. A network cable tester finds no issues with the cable going to the slow jack. However, all cables in the wall are Cat 5 (not 5e). Am I just getting lucky with all the other Ethernet jacks? Or is there possibly some other issue affecting this jack's speed?

[Assistant]
You're just getting lucky with the others.

Is this problem jack the furthest run?

dismas said:
One Ethernet jack in my house is slower than the others. Iperf measures 1 Gbit/s between PCs on all other jacks, but only 95 Mbit/s to the slow jack. A network cable tester finds no issues with the cable going to the slow jack. However, all cables in the wall are Cat 5 (not 5e). Am I just getting lucky with all the other Ethernet jacks? Or is there possibly some other issue affecting this jack's speed?
More likely the jack or patch cable used for testing is not connecting all 4 pair of wires in that one cable. Your 100 MB (nominal) tells me that just two pair of wires are connected. Or the cable is not punched down correctly. If you are using just a continuity tester it may not show if the jack is connected per TIA/EIA 568A or B. And CAT 5 is still good enough for a GB connection. Granted, 5e is better.

L&LD said:
You're just getting lucky with the others.

Is this problem jack the furthest run?
No, it's about half as long as the longest run.

bbunge said:
More likely the jack or patch cable used for testing is not connecting all 4 pair of wires in that one cable. Your 100 MB (nominal) tells me that just two pair of wires are connected. Or the cable is not punched down correctly. If you are using just a continuity tester it may not show if the jack is connected per TIA/EIA 568A or B. And CAT 5 is still good enough for a GB connection. Granted, 5e is better.
I'm using a cable tester that blinks 1 through 8, one at at time (tested by connecting the main body to the Cat 5 cable and the remote to a Cat 5e cable plugged into the Ethernet jack). It gives normal results, doesn't that mean that all the wires are connected correctly per TIA/EIA 568A or B?


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Netflix Detects My VPN Only On TV

I have a RT-AX88U running the latest Merlin. I have the router configured to connect to ProtonVPN and route traffic to it with the VPN Director. I have a PiHole that the router forces all DNS request to go to, and the PiHole, uses Unbound for most things, but will direct Netflix related domains to use ProtonVPN's DNS.

Using this setup has Netflix working on my computers using a browser, on my Android phone using the Netflix app, and my Chromecast while casting from my phone. On my LG SmartTV though, it gives me the usual "you seem to be using a VPN" error message. I can't figure out why it's detecting it on the TV. I've attached screens of some configuration settings too. Console screenshot is the dnsmasq configuration to use the ProtonVPN DNS for the Netflix related domains.

I know the TV app is hard coded to use Google's DNS server 8.8.8.8, so maybe it's related to that somehow? I can't figure it out, any ideas?

[Assistant]
Not sure why you didn't post this in the Merlin forum. You'd be more likely to get relevant help. I only noticed it by accident.

Based on what you posted, it would seem to be correct. Yes, the TV using a hard-coded DNS of 8.8.8.8 would normally be a problem, but that should be corrected by the global DNS filter.

BTW, the rule for 192.168.1.10 is superfluous since it's already covered by the rule below it, 192.168.1.0/24 (unless OVPN3 is a mistake, and like 192.168.1.3, it was meant to use OVPN2).

You might be a good candidate for my DNS monitoring utility, just as a sanity check.

Tutorial - How to monitor DNS traffic in real-time
The following script allows for real-time monitoring of DNS on the router for the purposes of knowing what DNS servers are in use, and which network interfaces are being used. https://pastebin.com/AGNF8cC8 Overview One of the most difficult aspects of the router for users is managing DNS. DNS...
www.snbforums.com

Given the complexity of DNS configuration options, sometimes things don't behave as expected.

P.S. What version of Merlin? v386.5 was just released Wed., so I want to be sure whether it's 386.4 or 386.5.

I wasn't really sure where the best place to post would be. If it could be moved there that would be great. I am on Merlin 386.5. The rule for .10 is superfluous as it's set up right now, but originally I was going to have it aimed at a different one, so I just left it there until I make a final decision on it.

I have looked at the nf_conntrack contents as you talk about in that tutorial, and I see the request/response from the TV. I'm wondering if the TV sees something fishy in the response?

Khantahr said:
I wasn't really sure where the best place to post would be. If it could be moved there that would be great. I am on Merlin 386.5. The rule for .10 is superfluous as it's set up right now, but originally I was going to have it aimed at a different one, so I just left it there until I make a final decision on it.

I have looked at the nf_conntrack contents as you talk about in that tutorial, and I see the request/response from the TV. I'm wondering if the TV sees something fishy in the response?
Click to expand...

That connection shows the global DNS filter in action. The client is attempting to access 8.8.8.8 as you suggested earlier. But it's being redirected to the router's DNS proxy (DNSMasq), which in turn has forwarded it to Unbound @ 192.168.1.2. So at least for that one particular connection, it presumably wasn't attempting to access any of the server directives you have specified in the DNSMasq config file.

That's why it would better to monitor *all* the DNS traffic w/ the script than to randomly extract just one connection from connection tracking.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: How to Troubleshoot Odd Periodic Internet Connectivity Breaks?

I've got a five month old HP Pavillion Desktop, connected to my network via ethernet through a Powerline adapter. I use several of these on my home network, one for the PC, and two others to connect WAPs.

While I haven't kept an exact log of events, I'd say once or twice an hour, the PC loses internet connectivity for one to three minutes. It will always come back online if I do nothing.

Here's what I've done so far to try and narrow things down that might be the problem:
a) Tried different browsers. Doesn't matter
b) Looked to see if the problem is network wide, i.e., shows up on other devices connected via the WAPs. It doesn't.
c) Logged into the router to check for a history of outtages. There aren't any.
d) Viewed the data in Device Manager for the Network Adapters for anomalies. None reported.
e) Noted Windows 11 status of my connection during outages: it reports "connected."

I seem to be being steered toward the PC as the issue, but I'm not sure how to proceed. Any ideas?

[Assistant]
PC is ethernet and disconnecting? Could your powerline adapter be failing? Try swapping it with your other ones. I kno2. Othing about those but ethernet short of having a bad cable, port, NIC, is pretty reliable.

TBH, I'd bet first on the powerline adapters as the locus for trouble. Is this PC using a different adapter from your non-troublesome machines? Is that adapter on a different power circuit from the others? Maybe there's a poor physical connection between circuits, or the adapter itself is faulty.

And, as @RMinNJ says, don't rule out faulty cable or faulty ethernet port on the PC. I wasted quite a bit of time just this past weekend on what turned out to be an ethernet cable that I hadn't inserted quite all the way . Still, powerline has a reputation for flakiness, where normal ethernet cabling does not.

RMinNJ said:
PC is ethernet and disconnecting? Could your powerline adapter be failing? Try swapping it with your other ones. I kno2. Othing about those but ethernet short of having a bad cable, port, NIC, is pretty reliable.
I've ordered another adapter. I could swap, as you suggest, but once I get everything working on my network (which is the case now, except for the PC interrupts), I never mess with it. I'll report back on results in a few days.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Network Ping Question....

Hello All,

New here and I am looking to see if i can get some help. I am looking to get some help with the below. When it comes to running a PING to different machines. I can ping Sales PC1 to PC2 just fine as well as Engineering PC1 to PC2, but say when i try to ping Sales PC2 to Engineering PC1 i get a failed Ping. From my understanding is that due to it being (15 .100) vise the Sales pc (10.101) i shouldn't be able reach it correct? Or am i missing something? ALso if this belongs in a different topic, I apologize I tried looking around first. TIA

[Assistant]
You have your layer 3 wrong, defining networks. I assume you are using L3 switches. If not, then your router has a problem with setup. What is the dotted line between switches? You could have a spanning tree issue to where the route is being blocked. Are you doing static routing? Maybe a routing protocol would simplify this.
You don't have enough info on your diagram.

coxhaus said:
What is the dotted line between switches?
Yeah, and why is it there at all? It looks like you have two data paths between Switch-01 and Switch-02, that is either the dotted line or via Main-Office_Router. This is a bad thing.

coxhaus said:
You have your layer 3 wrong, defining networks. I assume you are using L3 switches. If not, then your router has a problem with setup. What is the dotted line between switches? You could have a spanning tree issue to where the route is being blocked. Are you doing static routing? Maybe a routing protocol would simplify this.
You don't have enough info on your diagram.
The dotted lines between switches is a gigabit connection between the two. As for the setup it is possible that there may be errors in the setup. it is for a class that i am taking and it is step by step out of a text book on how to set it up but they may throw errors in there on purpose that im just not seeing.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Help with connecting Isp modem, a router and stb device

Hello I have an ISP modem on the second floor and tp link Archer c20 router and ISP stb device for iptv on the first floor.

I am looking to connect the ISP modem and the router with the 1 ethernet cable going from 2nd to 1st floor and then connect the ISP stb iptv device to the router.

Is it possible to configure this I also want to use wifi on the tp link router.

While trying to configure this I have acquired the ISP modem admin account info and PPPoe info.

[Assistant]
to test, just take the c20 and the stb up to the modem and use ethernet cables to verify it works or sort out any problems before you wire the house between floors.

Figured it out.
Step 1. Make it so Isp modem sends both iptv and internet traffic out of 1 of its ports( i just had to check 2 checkboxes in some port binding settings)
Step 2. Set tp link archer c20 into router mode, connect the ethernet cable into 1 of its lan ports. Wan setting leave on dynamic. Set lan ip address of router to be an address from isp modem subnet ( exclude that address from dhcp on isp modem). Disable dhcp on the router, leave iptv settings as default: igmp snooping and proxy on and v3, iptv disabled. Configure wifi on the router. Connect stb to 1 of its lan ports.

Thats it now I have extended wifi and tv both through 1 ethernet cable.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: [Help needed] Reachhing a router behind another router through DDNS and port forwarding.

Hi everyone, I need a little help with a mix of WAN + LAN + NAT situation…

So I have Router A, B & C.

(A) is Internet facing

(B) is setup on a different subnet to offer VPN coverage by using the router’s VPN client

(C) is configured as an Access Point to offer expanded wifi coverage.

With the help of a DDNS I can connect to Router (A) at:

https://xxx.xxxddns.com:8400

or alternatively at:

https://10.10.25.05:8400
EDITED ADDED NOTE: That 10.x.x.x address is completely fictious and shouldn't be read into as a valid IP. It is provided just as a placemarker of somekind to the description of my inquiry. My actual wan is not part of the reserved adress space.

Now I am trying to also connect remotely through DDNS to Router (B) & (C).

So I have tried to setup port forwarding to connect to Router (B) (and similarly but on a different port to try to connect to C) by using port 8460 (or https://10.10.25.05:8460) as follow:

Tried in Router (A):

ExtPort:8460 IntPort:Blank IntIP:192.168.3.1
Tried in Router (A):

ExtPort:8460 IntPort:Blank IntIP:192.168.2.20

Note:
I am able to connect to:

192.168.2.1, 192.168.2.5, 192.168.3.1 irrespective of which router I am connected to. This is so to allow any device to connect to all devices behind Router (A). As inferred above I did unsuccessfully try similar settings to port forward to Router (C).
So my question:

Is it possible to connect to a router behind another router from the wan and if so how?

[Assistant]
Is "10.10.25.5" just a fictitious address that you're using as an example? Because that is not a publicly accessible address.

@mozbius just to add to what ColinTaylor said, here's info on the reserved address spaces:
Reserved IP addresses - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org

ColinTaylor said:
Is "10.10.25.5" just a fictitious address that you're using as an example? Because that is not a publicly accessible address.
yes it is fictious.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: CenturyLink C4000LG Modem/router?

CenturyLink C4000LG Modem/router?

Hello All

A little of my back ground.

I got certification as A+ tech and Network+ by Comptia 20+ years ago.

So my experience and training are very old.

Here is my question.

The CenturyLink C400LG is manufactured by at least 3 diffract companies however they are supposed to be all configured the same.

I have several computers working on the wireless LAN I tried to hard wire one of them and can’t get a connection. I don’t have a second CAT5 cable to check my cable with.

My question is can anyone here tell me if the CAT 5 ports on this modem are active under the default software configuration?

Thank in advance

Phil P

[Assistant]
Is that a C400 or C4000 ? All i get on google is C4000.

can you check your cable by plugging into two devices ( PC to PC for example) and see what the sync rate is either by the sync lite on the port or what the operating system is reporting ?

If you get a sync lite on the C400LG or the PC, that will tell you a speed and that the port/cable is working. You may not have internet access though.

The user manual indicates all ports should be functional, so i would guess either the PC lan port or the cable are having issues. Does device manager in windows indicate an issue with the LAN port or driver ?

Have you tried with a second PC ?


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: help to better undersand FQDN, DNS, local domain

I am trying to better configure my network and better utilize DNS. The more I try to do this, the more I think my thinking is a bit off with it.

All my devices use a subnet mask of 255.255.252.0
My DHCP pool is 192.168.2.20-100
services hosted on 192.168.0.x and 192.168.1.x
cameras on 192.168.3.x
I setup on the router for domain as "mydomain.com" and router is named "router"
I am able to access my router at router.mydomain.com

Now I also did the same for other devices and services I have on the network, but in general the static IP devices do no work properly for me using this method.
Then on a windows PC it does not allow you to just use a name on the domain, it wants to join and then I seen the advanced ipv4 settings to put the suffix too, but not sure that is what I am needing either. Am I doing this right? lol
Also just to make sure I understand the subnet mask. With all devices having 255.255.252.0 mask, allows any device from 192.168.0.x-192.168.3.x can communicate with each other across a layer2 switch even if the gateway/router is down.

[Assistant]
dominatorstang said:
Now I also did the same for other devices and services I have on the network, but in general the static IP devices do no work properly for me using this method.
Your description of the problem is too vague. "do no work properly"? Be aware that generally any devices you've configured statically will not have their host names registered in the router's DNS server. Therefore other devices on the LAN won't be able to resolve those host names via a DNS lookup. This is why you want to avoid using static configurations as much as possible.

dominatorstang said:
Then on a windows PC it does not allow you to just use a name on the domain, it wants to join...
You're in the wrong place. You do not want to join a domain. That's for networks running a Microsoft Domain Controller.

dominatorstang said:
and then I seen the advanced ipv4 settings to put the suffix too, but not sure that is what I am needing either.
For static configurations this is where you specify the LAN domain name.

dominatorstang said:
Also just to make sure I understand the subnet mask. With all devices having 255.255.252.0 mask, allows any device from 192.168.0.x-192.168.3.x can communicate with each other across a layer2 switch even if the gateway/router is down.
Correct.

Thank you ColinTaylor. I guess that is part of the pros and cons of static IP's then. I like static since it can work standalone too, but I guess it would not be standalone if something must provide DNSanyway. Not to mention the client storing the DNS. Choices choices.

I only use static assignments for infrastructure devices that I want to work independently of the router, e.g. critical servers, switches, etc. Everything else is DHCP (why make life hard for yourself ).

However, for those few static devices I also manually create an entry for them in my (router's) DNS server. There's not a separate menu specifically for DNS host names, but you can use the DHCP "manually assigned" page to do the same thing. Sure, the client isn't DHCP but that doesn't matter. In fact you don't even need to use the host's MAC address, you can use a dummy address of say 00:00:00:00:00:00.

N.B. This is assuming you're using Merlin's firmware.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Connecting 2 Routers

As far as the thread title goes, I did it. And it has worked for over a year. Still chugging along. ASUS RT-AC3200 as my main router, ASUS RT-AC85U as my secondary router. To see how I set it up, check out this tutorial.

but just recently I decided to update the firmware on the routers. The update process went fine for the main router. But when I started on my secondary router I got a message stating that it was not connected to the Internet. That was quite interesting because I was using the Internet. My mail was working, my browser was going to websites. (In fact, I using a wireless channel to write this right now that “isn’t connected to the internet”.)Everything was normal. When I checked the router information using my browser, I found that, indeed, it showed that the router was not connected to the Internet.(See pic) I did a factory reset on the secondary router and installed everything again, thinking that maybe I had done something wrong. Nope, it still showed it wasn’t connected to the Internet, but everything still worked. And I still get the same message about not being able to update the firmware.

One last note… I use this router in my living room and have a LAN cable running to my Firestick TV. In checking that things were okay after the factory reset/reconfiguration I checked the download speed. With the cable it was running at 94Mbps??? Switched to wireless and i jumped to 325Mbps. What’s happening here?

Any ideas what is happening here?

[Assistant]
Fire TV Sticks only have a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet socket.

ColinTaylor said:
Fire TV Sticks only have a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet socket.
Then it doesn’t matter. Then why does the WiFi give a higher figure, 3X that of the cable. (Not that such matters now.

Zerpersande said:
Then why does the WiFi give a higher figure, 3X that of the cable. (Not that such matters now.
Because the WiFi adapter in the Fire TV Stick has a much higher bandwidth. The link speed over WiFi could be up to 867 Mbps.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: intermittent DSL outage

I am having a weird issue... every so often my internet cuts out... i dont think its my end... but i have a non centurylink bonded pair modem... a Zyxel VMG4005-B50B which as next to no documentation ... i got it about 2 years ago... and at the same time i got that i also got the internal wiring re-run for the bonded pair vdsl2 connection.. so it shouldn't be that.... but i get hiccups that interrupt my work at home... the VDSL counters are below...
Spoiler: Line 0

Spoiler: Line 1

are there any ideas that can be done on my end or do people think its on them and i need to get them to get a tech out here?

[Assistant]
This CenturyLink forum may also offer some insight:

CenturyLink forum | DSLReports, ISP Information

OE