[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as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for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 lost connection- modem or router?

I've just moved from cable to 5G. My 5G is from Lyca over a Zyxel NR5103EV2. This is running in bridged mode. My main router is a Linksys MR7350.

Every couple of days I get an internet not reachable from multiple devices. The status led on the front of the Linksys goes red. But the leds on the front of the Zyxel NR5103EV2 look fine (green,blue,blue,green). If I reboot the router, the led starts flashing blue, then sometimes goes steady blue, and the devices re-connect, or sometimes goes back to red. It always seems to be working again within 10 mins, but my partner is blaming me for switching networks!

How can I trouibleshoot this? Is it likely to be Lyca, the Zygel or the Linksys?

[Assistant]
Put the Zyxel back in router mode and remove the Linksys. Issue go away ?
If you need more lan connections, put a 5 or 8 port switch on the LAN connection on the Zyxel.


[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as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for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: Looking for a 10Gbps wired router

I have been looking at this: https://mikrotik.com/product/ccr2004_1g_12s_2xs#fndtn-specifications for a new wired router. Will this deliver better wired routing speeds than ASUS's GT-BE98 PRO? It's certainly older than the ASUS.

[Assistant]
I have a few Netgate 6100 appliances for business use. For home use you can build your own router/firewall cheaper. It can be much faster than all of the mentioned so far hardware. For true 10GbE processing better go with high clock x86 CPU and pfSense/OPNsense OS.

Tech9 said:
I have a few Netgate 6100 appliances for business use. For home use you can build your own router/firewall cheaper. It can be much faster than all of the mentioned so far hardware. For true 10GbE processing better go with high clock x86 CPU and pfSense/OPNsense OS.
Thanks, I have, indeed, been thinking about building my own router, though I am having trouble finding a barebone computer that is small enough to hang onto a wall where my present router resides. Recommendations welcome.

Amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=pfsense+pc&ref=nb_sb_noss&tag=snbforums-20

for just a few choices


[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: After 10 years DSL suddenly stopped working, Verizon tech support worthless?

I really need some help, one of my friends who has DSL because neither FIOS or cable has been available in their area for the last 10 years has had their internet stop working. I helped him set it up originally with the Verizon modem / router set to bridge mode and he has a static IP address; I set him up with an Asus router which we swapped out a year or two ago with an Asus RT-AX86S. Everything has been working fine since then and as of the end of the day on 08/26 everything was working then the morning of the 27th he noticed the internet light on the router was red and he had no internet. Repeated calls to Verizon did nothing as they said "the line tests good and the modem tests fine the problem must be with your equipment"; they finally sent a repair person with a new modem / router who knew next to nothing and he didn't even know that he had to set the modem to bridge mode and he left with the modem / router misconfigured which I found out when I went to look at it. I got the modem / router properly configured with the help of a Verizon support person but the internet is still not working and the router still has a red light.
This is a complete list of the Asus router options when Wan Connection type is PPoE can anyone tell me if these are correct or if there's an incorrect setting:

WAN Connection Type: PPPoE
Enable Wan: Yes
Enable NAT: Yes
Nat Type: Symetric
Enable UPnP: Yes
Get the WAN IP automatically: No
IP Address: <Static entered>
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: <Entered>
Forward local domain queries to upstream DNS: Yes
Enable DNS Rebind protection: No
Enable DNSSEC support: No
Prevent client auto DoH: Auto
DNS Privacy Protocol: None
Username: <Random Name>
Password: <Random Password> Verizon claims that anything in these fields will work
PPP Authentication: Auto
Disconnect after time of inactivity: 0
MTU: 1492
MRU: 1492
Service Name: Blank
Access Concentrator Name: Blank
Host-Uniq (Hexadecimal): Blank
Internet Detection: PPP Echo
PPP Echo Interval: 6
Additional pppd options: Blank
Enable VPN + DHCP Connection: No
Host Name: Blank
MAC Address: Blank
Extend the TTL value: No
Spoof LAN TTL value: No

Does anyone have any ideas what the problem is or what happened overnight between the 26th and 27th that would cause the current internet setup to stop working?

Thanks!

[Assistant]
"Forward local domain queries to upstream DNS" should normally be set to No, unless there's something about Verizon's service that requires it be changed. But that wouldn't be the cause of your problem.

Personally, I would start by removing the Asus and going back to a "standard setup" with the ISP supplied device working as a router. Once that has been confirmed to be working only then would I attempt bridge mode with the Asus.

ColinTaylor said:
"Forward local domain queries to upstream DNS" should normally be set to No, unless there's something about Verizon's service that requires it be changed. But that wouldn't be the cause of your problem.

Personally, I would start by removing the Asus and going back to a "standard setup" with the ISP supplied device working as a router. Once that has been confirmed to be working only then would I attempt bridge mode with the Asus.
Click to expand...
When the DSL Modem / Router was not set to bridge mode yes it worked but he has services that require port forwarding that doesn't work properly on the junky no name brand modem / router so he has to have it set to bridge so that the Asus router can do the port forwarding rather than the Verizon router.

Is his ASUS set to auto update firmware ?

If this is wireline DSL ( over old pots lines), i have had techs at the DSLAM box in the neighborhood mistakenly either take one of my pair wires or misconfigure someone elses wires. Don't know if this will work with the ASUS box as the router (it shouldn't matter as the Verizon modem is terminating), but have Verizon do a line test for continuity and bit rate to make sure everything is physically ok on their end. You should be able to see the same thing in their modem/router logs and diagnostic reports. Then if all ok, put the Verizon router back in router mode and test. And go from there.

Have the Verizon tech support make a note of the date/time of the start of the issue. Sometimes they can track down what changed. You may have to escalate. Ask if a tech was working in that box the day before/day of the outage start.


[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: Was able to pinpoint my AX58U V1 as the culprit of ping spikes during wired gaming. What to do? Spectrum Internet

Hey guys.

Have been suffering from ping spikes and packet loss for the past few years now, but recently it has gotten worse.

ISP: Spectrum (500 down, 20 up)
Router: AX58U V1 (used both ASUS and Merlin Firmware)

Devices in network:
PC - Hard wired via Cat6
2.4 band - Smart TV
5.0 band - 2 iPhones and 1 Samsung Phone

Primary issues:
- Frequent ping fluctuations and only OUTGOING packet loss. This occurs with or without network load from other devices.

I have been experiencing very frequent and noticeable ping spikes when playing tac shooters where consistent latency matters. After going back and forth with Spectrum for days now, I can safely say the router is the problem. After getting their techs out to replace the drop line and to inspect my signals, everything is fine on their end. I decided to do extensive testing with just my PC connected directly to the modem, and all of my issues have disappeared. When connected directly to the modem, my ping graph is much tighter and outgoing packet loss is very rare.

Attached are two images referencing my in-game ping graphs, one when wired to the router and the other when wired directly to the modem. QoS does not work (tried adaptive, traditional, Cake). My wireless devices do not use much bandwidth at all.
Over the years, I have tried multiple routers - Back in 2021, I tried the Nighthawk XR500, and I've been on the AX58U for about 2 years now. Took a break from competitive shooters, so I stopped caring about the issues, but now that I'm playing a lot again, the inconsistency in latency is quite noticeable and frustrating. Any ideas?

I will be going to Best Buy to try out the AX86U Pro today to see if anything changes. Have tried a lot of troubleshooting over the years and would like any input. Thanks.

[Assistant]
tiddlywink said:
Do this test:
Bufferbloat and Internet Speed Test - Waveform
Is bufferbloat causing issues with your internet connection? Run this test to find out.
www.waveform.com

Triple check all ethernet cabling and ports.
Click to expand...
Hey Tiddly.

I have checked all ethernet cabling and ports. The only factor that changes things is the router. I just ran to Best Buy and grabbed the AX86U, and it's still the same. Is it my configuration? I currently only have one device on the network and it's my PC hardwired.

tiddlywink said:
Do you have a cable modem or one of those AIO gateway/modem/router devices?

You are describing two problems.
1. bufferbloat issues - What did the buffer bloat test say especially for "low latency gaming?"
2. wan packet loss - Are you experiencing packet loss to everywhere or just gaming? How many hops before packet loss?

WinMTR will show you packet loss in a nice GUI.

Here is a nice write up on how to run it:
Click to expand...
I have an MB8600 for my modem.

Is bufferbloat the issue if I'm the only device on the network?

When I was wired from my PC directly to the modem last night, I got full speeds (500+ down, 20 up).

When I'm wired to my router as the only device on the network, I'm getting 500 down, 5 up (sometimes get 20), outgoing packet loss, and ping fluctuations. Here's my test right now with the router connected and my PC as the only device. I will do another test when hardwiring directly to the modem. Give me a few minutes.

Bufferbloat and Internet Speed Test - Waveform
View the full results, and test your own bufferbloat
www.waveform.com

tiddlywink said:
Do you have a cable modem or one of those AIO gateway/modem/router devices?

You are describing two problems.
1. bufferbloat issues - What did the buffer bloat test say especially for "low latency gaming?"
2. wan packet loss - Are you experiencing packet loss to everywhere or just gaming? How many hops before packet loss?

WinMTR will show you packet loss in a nice GUI.

Here is a nice write up on how to run it:
Click to expand...
Here's the test with being hardwired to the modem. The upload ping is much better here, and is also evident when playing games as I'm not getting packet loss on the outbound side.
Bufferbloat and Internet Speed Test - Waveform
View the full results, and test your own bufferbloat
www.waveform.com


[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: Tomato64 - x86-64 port of the Tomato Firmware Distribution

Some folks might find this interesting, as Tomato is the basis for some of the factory firmware distributions (such as AsusWRT)...

Tomato64
tomato64.org

@RMerlin @TheLostSwede - thoughts here?

[Assistant]
Used to, no? I believe Asus has stripped out most of that code by now.
That said, all routers have some base firmware that they're built on.
MTK has their own SDK/firmware that is all in-house and at least used to be quite easy to "skin".
Qualcomm seems to have their own custom version of OpenWRT and unless they've changed, they use an older kernel, because reasons...
Broadcom I don't know.
Realtek also has something in-house.

I guess this could be interesting for those that want to try to build their own x86/x64 based routers, but the hard part will be to find suitable WiFi modules that are supported, at least if you're planning on building an integrated device.

Was interesting to see the recent Belkin GPL drops for their AX3200 device - classic Linksys WRT, and not too terribly far away from Tomato and DD-WRT as branches...

Know that QC and MTK dev kits these days are branches on OpenWRT - mostly because they have to support SDK's across chip gens are archs - everything from MIPS to ARMv7 to aarh64 - OpenWRT/Fork allows that... and pulling in their tasty closed source chocolately river of code...

Realtek - don't know, but I assume it's buildroot on the easy path, or Yocto on the hard path...

Getting back on track - Tomato is/was a fairly efficient platform as 3rd party - so it's fun to see the port.

How it works with other distro's in the same space - it's up to them...

Anyone willing to try it?

New Port of Tomato64 to the GL.iNet Flint2 (GL-MT6000)


[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: Test for reliability of router - Bench test - throughput - ping load etc

Hello, been a while since posted anyways I have a Netgear gaming XR500 router latest updates installed however i have been seeing some degradation recently with ping load and or reliability of signal to devices , dropped packets etc maybe other issues that i am not aware of. Our ISP is spark light 1gig cable connection connected to Motorola Modem MB8600 Docsis 3.1. then connected to my netgear router. I want to do some load testing on the router and or test the WAN to LAN connection to find issues with signal or other issues again I may not be aware of , is it time to replace this router or the modem? I have had the router for at least 5 years - maybe the power adapter is going the front led lights sometimes dim sometimes. The modem how can i check issues with it? please provide websites to use to perform network load, LAN WAN testing. benchmarking etc. XR500 V2.3.2.134 is the version

Thanks

[Assistant]
The NG XR500 has not had a firmware update in 2 years and 5 months likely End of Life. I would consider upgrading to something much more recent.

Analog-1 said:
The NG XR500 has not had a firmware update in 2 years and 5 months likely End of Life. I would consider upgrading to something much more recent.
I have this one in storage -
TP-Link AX6600 latest firmware i think however i noticed last time i had it setup web pages would be delayed so i swapped it out with the netgear xr500. can you receommend one at this time if the TP link is too old ?

Archer X90 (AX6600) is okay device and not too old. Pages delay issue most likely wasn't router related. You've made some weird router choices. Not sure what was the intended use of relatively expensive 3-band router, now kept in storage.


[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: Philips Hue Bridge triggers performance notice

Hello!

My RT-AX58U node is warning about my Philips Hue Bridge-connection. I've tried different cables (cat6) and ports but I still get this notice wherever the bridge is connected. I haven't confirmed this yet but believe the physical ethernet capabilities of bridge ethernet port is 100 Mbit/s, so perhaps that's the cause of the warning, If that is the case, is there anyway I can suppress the notice?

[Assistant]
It's just reporting the fact that the SoC in the Phillips Hue Bridge runs its LAN port at 100Mbps. The router isn't smart enough to know that the device isn't capable of anything more. If I have my 2024 Samsung TV plugged directly into the router it does the exact same thing. So I guess the advice is don't get hung up about warnings that aren't going to impact anything.

Crimliar said:
It's just reporting the fact that the SoC in the Phillips Hue Bridge runs its LAN port at 100Mbps. The router isn't smart enough to know that the device isn't capable of anything more. If I have my 2024 Samsung TV plugged directly into the router it does the exact same thing. So I guess the advice is don't get hung up about warnings that aren't going to impact anything.
Thanks! Yes. Letting go if trivial GUI-warnings that has been a life long struggle for me. But now I know, thanks


[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: Devices losing connection all the time. Wifi on/off solves it immediately

I have a problem with my Asus mesh configuration. I have a RT-AX92U as my main router which is connected directly to a fiberglass "box? There is no modem before the router. In the same network there is also a RT-AX53U in mesh.

What happens often is that there is a strong wifi connection on my devices but no internet. When I turn off wifi on my device and immediately turn it on again the connection is good and the internet is back. When the internet is good it stays that way. The problem usually occurs when I've been out of the house and return home.

What also happens is that I can't connect to my harmony hub which is on the same lan. I cancel the connection attempt, close the app and connect through wan instead of lan.

My idea was that it maybe has something to do with dhcp settings, but I can't find anything strange (I think).

Is this a known problem? Help would be really appreciated.

[Assistant]
Maybe there is too much wifi signal in the house and client devices are getting confused. Try powering off the AX53 and see what the stability is like. Since 2.4 GHz bands penetrate more walls and go further than 5Ghz bands, easily possible if they are too close together.

Are you using wired (ethernet) or wireless backhaul for the AiMesh ?

BTW, you should post in the ASUS Wireless AX subforum rather than here for better response.


[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: Home Network Ethernet Wiring

Need some home network advice here, please.

I have AT&T Fiber in my house, using a centrally located gateway (BGW210) providing WIFI. Even centrally located, the WIFI is weak at the corners of the house. My new Mac Mini M2 Pro suffers on the Internet, so let’s try using an ethernet cable.

The house is wired for ethernet, and I have a network closet in the master bedroom walk-in closet. Ultimately, I want my computers and TVs on ethernet, not relying on WIFI.

I had an AT&T service tech come out to the house ($149.00 house call), but he discouraged me from relocating the gateway into the network closet, as it would lower the WIFI signal to the main TV. (That was a wasted effort.)

I can’t imagine running lengths of CAT5 cable down the hall to each room from the gateway - that wouldn’t work at all. The house is already wired for ethernet.

So, what’s my option? How do I move the AT&T gateway into the closet, wire up the house for ethernet using the four ports on the back of the gateway, but still have a decent WIFI signal in the house?

Am I obligated to use the AT&T gateway device? Can I add another WIFI transmitter in the house, somewhere, connected to the house ethernet?

Thoughts?

Thank you.

[Assistant]
Put an Ethernet switch in the wiring closet, connect your router to an Ethernet cable to the switch and branch out from the switch to the rest of the house.

bbunge said:
Put an Ethernet switch in the wiring closet, connect your router to an Ethernet cable to the switch and branch out from the switch to the rest of the house.
Great answer, and quick.

How about this one?

Amazon.com

NETGEAR 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Switch (GS308) - Home Network Hub, Office Ethernet Splitter, Plug-and-Play, Silent Operation, Desktop or Wall Mount

(Why do you suppose the AT&T tech didn't suggest this in the first place?)

tmhanser said:
Great answer, and quick.

How about this one?

Amazon.com

NETGEAR 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Switch (GS308) - Home Network Hub, Office Ethernet Splitter, Plug-and-Play, Silent Operation, Desktop or Wall Mount

(Why do you suppose the AT&T tech didn't suggest this in the first place?)
Click to expand...
If you only have 8 Ethernet connections in the closet it will be fine. But, more ports on the switch may be better to future proof it. An unmanaged switch is good for starters. Netgear is good. I have a Netgear managed PoE switch for my security cameras.


[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: ASUS ExpertWiFi EBG15 as main router

As main router RT-AX82U is in garaje, with very poor coverage, I was thinking about ASUS ExpertWiFi EBG15 as amin router and RT-AX82U in AP mode in better location
I can not find information about ASUS ExpertWiFi EBG15 CPU etc. What CPU uses?

Is ASUS ExpertWiFi EBG15 better than AX82U as main router (LAN, WAN)

IS COMPATIBLE ASUS ExpertWiFi EBG15 with AIMESH if in the future i want to enable it

Should you buy this router for a domestic lan????

[Assistant]
Best?

Buy, test in your environment, and enjoy or return as necessary.

tiomiguel said:
Is ASUS ExpertWiFi EBG15 better than AX82U as main router (LAN, WAN)

It has better CPU (ARMv8 vs ARMv7) and runs newer ExpertWiFi version of Asuswrt 5.0 firmware, but it's designed to run ExpertWiFi series APs also running Asuswrt 5.0 and your RT series router (on Asuswrt 4.0 firmware) won't be compatible with all the features available even if you run it as AiMesh node. Did you try your routers on Performance Wi-Fi settings or still restricting yourself? Spending more money on new hardware won't help much in your situation.

L&LD said:
Best?

Buy, test in your environment, and enjoy or return as necessary.
I sholud need more information about the router: Hardware inside etc.


[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 me router for handling SQM on 1 Gbps Fiber

Hi

Like in topic.

Can Mikrotik RB5009 handle SQM on 1Gbit/s Fiber? Or should I go with mini PC as router? Which OS do you recommend then?

Also in future I plan to upgrade to 2Gbps Fiber bandwidth.

[Assistant]
I wouldn't worry about any QoS on Gigabit of faster fiber connection. If you really insist then x86 hardware with 2.5GbE ports (for your future upgrade plans) and pfSense/OPNsense are popular choices. You can play there with traffic shapers and limiters all you want plus other things.

Tech9 said:
I wouldn't worry about any QoS on Gigabit of faster fiber connection. If you really insist then x86 hardware with 2.5GbE ports (for your future upgrade plans) and pfSense/OPNsense are popular choices. You can play there with traffic shapers and limiters all you want plus other things.
Which mini PC router do you recommend for best price/value performance?

price changes frequently. Qotom is one brand that has been used by some here ( look for the threads). Also can look at
www.servethehome.com for reviews of specific boxes


[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: Do i need an IoT VLAN

The deal is as follows, i have configured 2 VLAN's in my network. The main LAN (VLAN 1) and a Public LAN (VLAN 10), both with their own DHCP server and subnet. The Public is mainly for guests that want wifi access in the house and is completely isolated from my main LAN. Until now, i really didn't bother much with the gaming consoles and the thermostat being on the main LAN but now i got a wifi speaker (from the illusterous brand Xiaomi) as a christmas gift from my work which i have connected once the main LAN to test it and it works really well. The thing though is that unfortunately, i have little trust in Chinese brands and certainly wouldn't want them having access to my main LAN network which has my Nextcloud server and fileserver which contain my personal and company files so after the trial, i disconnected the speaker and boxed it again.

This got me thinking that maybe it is time to have a separate IoT VLAN to connect things that i do not want to have any access to any other LAN resources other than the internet, similar to the Public Wifi. The thing though is that i do not know if you would need to be on the same LAN in orde to play music from the mobile to the speaker or if that all goes through the internet. In the end, the main question is, do i really need yet another VLAN for IoT or should i just use the Public for both purposes. Reconfiguring the existing stuff such as the game consoles and the thermostat to connect to the Public LAN is obviously a very simple operation. Is there anything i am missing here?

[Assistant]
ddaenen1 said:
The deal is as follows, i have configured 2 VLAN's in my network. The main LAN (VLAN 1) and a Public LAN (VLAN 10), both with their own DHCP server and subnet. The Public is mainly for guests that want wifi access in the house and is completely isolated from my main LAN. Until now, i really didn't bother much with the gaming consoles and the thermostat being on the main LAN but now i got a wifi speaker (from the illusterous brand Xiaomi) as a christmas gift from my work which i have connected once the main LAN to test it and it works really well. The thing though is that unfortunately, i have little trust in Chinese brands and certainly wouldn't want them having access to my main LAN network which has my Nextcloud server and fileserver which contain my personal and company files so after the trial, i disconnected the speaker and boxed it again.

This got me thinking that maybe it is time to have a separate IoT VLAN to connect things that i do not want to have any access to any other LAN resources other than the internet, similar to the Public Wifi. The thing though is that i do not know if you would need to be on the same LAN in orde to play music from the mobile to the speaker or if that all goes through the internet. In the end, the main question is, do i really need yet another VLAN for IoT or should i just use the Public for both purposes. Reconfiguring the existing stuff such as the game consoles and the thermostat to connect to the Public LAN is obviously a very simple operation. Is there anything i am missing here?
Click to expand...
I think your reasoning is sound. I do everything possible to keep my IoT devices off my primary LAN. I also run another VLAN for my entertainment/ streaming devices. I have found that most devices can be administered with an app on a mobile device so there isn't any need that they can be reached on my primary LAN. I also run as many of these devices as possible through a VPN so they don't even share a public IP with my more secure devices.

I have been thinking about the same thing. My guest VLAN has kind of turned into my Apple VLAN.

I have 2 ideas that I have been throwing around is creating another VLAN and running SNORT on Pfsense on the LAN side to track out going connections including LAN to LAN. Pfsense licensing and Christmas slowed me down, so I have not moved forward. Plus, I don't have but one Pictureframe device I would like to track.
I am not sure I want a third SSID. I am trying to decide whether I can live without wireless on the main LAN. It would kind of become a management VLAN. I would only allow access to network devices from my management VLAN. I am also deciding how hard I want to work.

My DHCP is run from my L3 switch for all networks. I don't use separate DHCP servers just multiple DHCP server scopes. Each VLAN has its own scope with its own network.

ddaenen1 said:
The Public is mainly for guests that want wifi access in the house and is completely isolated
Do you need a guest VLAN?
I have a "not trusted" VLAN with devices that don't get software updates and also guests.


[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: Hyperotpic router replacement - will it solve my problem with connection dropping!

Hi
I have recently changed from BT adsl to 1gb Hyperoptic in London UK. My Hyperoptic Nokia supplied router is connected with cat 7 cable to my xbox one x and cat 5e to my Mac Studio. I having a few problems and I wonder if they would be resolved by switching to a new 3rd party router.
1 Connection randomly drops for a few seconds throughout the day (MS teams freezes or game freezes)
2 Speed when checked on both Mac and xbox can vary incredibly. Sometimes reads up to 900 mbit upload and down load, other times only as high as 20 mbit!

I have tried power cycle the router and that sometimes helps, other times no difference.

When I rang Hyperoptic support they said:
1) only use cat 5e or 6 cable
2) I have too many wireless devices connected to my router. (I have a ring alarms and cameras, and also some lightwave power sockets and light switches connect to the wi fi)

Can this really be the cause of the connection dropping?

Any thoughts on what I should do.

Any help greatly appreciated.

[Assistant]
Is it just one device or all devices experiencing connection drops? Speed tests fluctuations are due to traffic between you and the testing server.

Hi Greg
I really only notice it on my Macstudio connected via ethernet, my xbox connected via ethernet when gaming, and also my iPad sometimes when streaming Netflix

Turn off the wireless for a few hours. Does the issue go away for the wired devices ?
If it does, you may have to turn off all the wireless devices and then bring them back one by one to find the culprit or loading that is the issue.


[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 access

I have 2 routers connected via wire.

This is my setup.

Fibre to the home going to ISP router (A) ----> my router (B)

My router(B) is connected to the ISP router(A) via cable (lan port A to wan port B)

Both routers have DHCP enabled so B is on A's lan.

My question

1) How can I access (ie login) my router(B) when I am on the internet and away from home ? (ie in another country)
2) How vulnerable is my router(B) to attack from a hacker outside of my network ?
The scope of this question is only thru the fibre to the home connection. (excludes my devices connected to B.

[Assistant]
Fundamentally, you port forward from A to B. Or perhaps place the WAN ip of B in the DMZ of A. But that's not necessarily safe. You don't typically want to expose your router's GUI (or much of anything else frankly) directly to the internet. The better option is to establish a VPN client connection from the public side of A to a VPN server, running either on A or B, thus making B (and potentially the rest of A or B's local networks) accessible.

All that said, there are a lot of different ways to approach VPNs, including OpenVPN, Wireguard, or third-parties like Cloudflare tunnels, Tailscale, ZeroTier (which usually don't require port forwarding), just to name a few.

Thanks.

If I setup a vpn server on B, how can I possibly access it when not at home ? The IP address assigned to it is from router A DHCP (lan address). I'm assuming some kind of portforwarding from A ? I understand DDNS, however, I thought that was strickly for internet facing routers (ie A). I only have basic knowledge of networking.

Your remote access options are heavily dictated by your available hardware and network configuration.

As I said, port forwarding has been the traditional method, but comes w/ potential hazards. As long as you have a public IP on the WAN of router A, you can use DDNS to keep a dynamic hostname updated w/ your current public IP, then reference it back to router A on its WAN, where the incoming traffic can be forwarded to router B's WAN.

You can keep the DDNS hostname updated using router A (which has the public IP) provide it has a DDNS update feature, or else configure the DDNS update feature on router B, but tell it to determine the public IP by connecting to a public website intended for that purpose, rather than examine its own WAN ip. Most DDNS updaters have that option precisely for this reason.

All in all, pretty simple and basic stuff. The mechanics are well understood and it's documented in many places. And it's been around forever. But there's a potential catch.

If router A does NOT have a public, but instead a *private* IP (aka CGNAT, e.g., 100.64.x.x), you can NOT route to it from the internet. You either have to convince your ISP to give you a public IP (and assuming they can/will, it might come w/ a surcharge), or else use an alternative like Cloudflare, Tailscale, etc.

In the case of Cloudflare et al, you establish an outbound connection to one of their public servers, from which you tunnel back into your home network. It avoids the need for port forwarding entirely (making it more secure), but it introduces a third-party to your network. And that could be an issue for some ppl in terms of privacy, and whether you trust them in not getting hacked, esp. since they are a bigger target than you merely acting alone. Still, it's mighty convenient, and many ppl choose this methodology, even if they have the ability to port forward w/ a public IP.


[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: Microsoft to block access to routers with USB storage in Windows 11 24H2

It looks like Microsoft is about to get tough on network security in Windows 11 and beyond killing off support for SMB1, the company also wants to block access to routers with USB storage, unless they support cryptographic signing. The same seems to apply to NAS devices too and according to Tom's Hardware, Microsoft wants feedback on the issue.

Pyle explains that Microsoft would like to know if users have routers with USB ports and NAS units that do not support SMB signing. He says, "If you have a third-party NAS device that doesn't support SMB signing, we want to hear about it. Please email wontsignsmb@microsoft.com with the make and model of your NAS device so we can share it with the world and perhaps get the vendor to fix it with an update."

Windows 11 24H2 may block connections to unsecured third-party NAS devices — Microsoft enables SMB signing for enhanced security
Better late than never, Microsoft disabled two protocols by default which will secure over a billion PCs and NAS
www.tomshardware.com

[Assistant]
TheLostSwede said:
get tough on network security
Riiiiiiiight

When they convert their core to Linux and overlay the GUI that might happen. Apple started with Linux and then made it pretty and thus easy enough for anyone to use with less 'patches' needed.

Apple didn't start with Linux. They use parts of FreeBSD

"Pyle says that this change in Windows 11 24H2 will secure over a billion devices as it will force NAS and router makers to update unpatched devices."

That just won't happen and they know it. NAS and router makers will use this to get more new sales and it helps push win11.

What everyone will end up doing:
Accessing a third-party NAS with SMB in Windows 11 24H2 may fail
Changes to SMB security in Windows 11 24H2 release preview may prevent access to third party NAS appliances or other devices.
techcommunity.microsoft.com

"6. Disable the SMB client signing requirement:"


[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: Random cutting out of all internet, ISP says its probably my router (Asus rt-ax82u) (have system logs)

Starting a few days ago the same day my router had a firmware upgrade, my internet as a whole (2.4g 5g and ethernet) all go out for a few seconds every so often. i have the system logs from after the last time this happened and im wondering if anyone can do me the favor of doing a quick look at them and letting me know if they see anything that may be helpful when it comes to solving the issue. i did factory reset the router and it has seemed to help the issue as its only happened 2 times today compared to yesterday when it was every 2-5 minutes. (let it be noted my router does not crash or restart, its like a halt of all connection)

[Assistant]
If you loaded a previously saved config file, factory reset again, reboot, then manually configure the router with just your basic needs and run it for a while.
Otherwise, revert to the previous version and contact support

Crazy_bacca said:
let it be noted my router does not crash or restart, its like a halt of all connection
Start 'isolation' diagnostics...

Next time you loose internet, disconnect ethernet cable from modem to router. Do not turn ether device off. Then, by ethernet cable, connect PC or Mac (or other computer) directly to your modem. Reboot your computer while ethernet cable is connected to your modem.

You may need to change your computer' NIC to the modem subnet - depends on computer OS and DHCP setup.

If you are still not able to connect to the internet, then the problem is either your modem or ISP.

If, when your computer is directly connected by ethernet cable to your modem and you get internet, the problem is your router.


[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: INFO: Word of warning about Vodafone UK FTTH/FTTP

TLDR : triple check the username and password Vodafone sends you is correct.

Just had a hellish time swapping out the Vodafone supplied THG3000 for a DIY mini pc router running pfsense. Being fairly new to pfsense I assumed throughout many hours of frustration that I must be doing something exceptionally dumb, when it turns out the dumb thing I did was to assume Vodafone "tech support" sent me the correct login details.

Vodafone does not supply new users with the login and password you need in order to sign in to their service, which is PPPoE based. Instead, once your installation is live, you have to contact their advisers and ask for login details to be sent to you, which they do via SMS. This is handy because it means you have a permanent record of what they've sent you. In my case a permanent record of the wrong login being sent.

The login username should come in the format dsl123456789@broadband.vodafone.co.uk with a short password in the format aABbCcDdEe. In pfsense you create a VLAN with 911 for Cityfibre based off the parent WAN physical port and then enter your username and password with this VLAN selected as your WAN interface.

This was all completely new territory for me, and at first it seemed to go OK, but then as soon as I entered the login details the previously green arrow for WAN connection on the pfsense dashboard turns red and points down. This is where I assume I'm doing something dumb and start searching online for answers, reading forum posts and watching you tube videos.

Eventually, many hours of getting nowhere later, I got back in touch with Vodafone support and asked them to resend me the login details just in case they'd made a mistake with the username or password - suspecting that there might have been a typo. There had been - but not where I initially checked which was the password and the prefix dsl123456789@ - i.e. the bits that were specific to my user account. Both the prefix and the password were identical from both advisers, so back to the drawing board!

Many more hours later I eventually realised that they'd sent me a username in the format dsl123456789@broadband.vodafone.uk - spot the difference? Well I didn't for a very very long time!

It turns out that someone else had gone through similar hell with dsl123456789@brodband.vodafone.co.uk a few weeks earlier and there'll probably be variations on a similar theme in future.

Hope this helps someone not waste a day!

[Assistant]
This has always happened, and always will. It's the nature of farming out customer service to the lowest bidder and providing the very basic of scripts to them (in this case support is via a North African country).
Get used to it, it's the future of budget uk ISPs.
BTW, for vodafone's openreach fttp the VLAN isn't used.

I've edited out the faulty Openreach VLAN info - though that is what was copied and pasted into the SMS I got irrelevently. Of course I didn't really expect the adviser to know what a VLAN was, not 100% sure I do really!
There's no question that if you've got the money to spare then paying the extra for an ISP that does UK based tech support is worth every penny. Before my wife got sick we've had both John Lewis and Zen as our ISPs and it was a huge relief to talk to someone who clearly knew a hell of a lot more than me with both companies.

awediohead said:
I've edited out the faulty Openreach VLAN info - though that is what was copied and pasted into the SMS I got
Yeah, it still seems they haven't updated the scripts for openreach fttp yet, and it's been available for years. I have to admit though, when they get it right it's great value for money.


[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 me identify device - ARM, BCM4708, BCM4366, ASUS, LINKSYS, OR ???

So I have this device I picked up and need help identifying it so i can flash the correct firmware. There are no markings, no stickers or identifiable printings on the boards. I have console access and the device boots up to load a kernel then crashes. Id like to flash a firmware but wanna make sure I know what the device is so I can get the correct build. From what I have gathered is its a ARMv7 Processor with a Broadcom BCM47XX 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Controller.

Here is the boot console output. Maybe someone can help shed some light on this.

Thanks in advance!

Code:
Decompressing...done
Found a ST compatible (Winbond/NexFlash) serial flash with 256 64KB blocks; total size 16MB
CFE version 7.14.170.1708 (r720827) based on BBP 1.0.37
Copyright (C) 2000-2008 Broadcom Corporation.
Init Arena
Init Devs.
Boot partition size = 262144(0x40000)
Found a Mxic NAND flash:
Total size:  512MB
Block size:  128KB
Page Size:   2048B
OOB Size:    64B
Sector size: 512B
Spare size:  16B
ECC level:   8 (8-bit)
Device ID: 0xc2 0xdc 0x90 0x95 0x56 0x00
DDR Clock: 800 MHz
Info: DDR frequency set from clkfreq=1400,*800*
et0: Broadcom BCM47XX 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Controller 7.14.170.1708 (r720827)
CPU type 0x0: 1400MHz
Tot mem: 524288 KByte
CFE mem:    0x00F00000 - 0x017A0C34 (9047092)
Data:       0x00F590D0 - 0x00F596A0 (1488)
BSS:        0x00F596B0 - 0x00F9EC34 (284036)
Heap:       0x00F9EC34 - 0x0179EC34 (8388608)
Stack:      0x0179EC34 - 0x017A0C34 (8192)
Text:       0x00F00000 - 0x00F4DA5C (318044)
Boot:       0x017A1000 - 0x017E1000
Reloc:      I:00000000 - D:00000000
Device eth0:  hwaddr 00-00-00-00-00-00, ipaddr 192.168.50.1, mask 255.255.255.0
        gateway not set, nameserver not set
Loader:raw Filesys:raw Dev:nflash0.os File: Options:(null)
Loading: ... 1639493 bytes read
Entry at 0x00008000
Closing network.
Starting program at 0x00008000
Uncompressing Linux... done, booting the kernel.
[    0.000000] Booting Linux on physical CPU 0x0
[    0.000000] Linux version 4.4.194 (jenkins@openwrt_build) (gcc version 5.4.0 (LEDE GCC 5.4.0 r0+4266-fdb07c5) ) #0 SMP Wed Apr 14 08:29:14 2021
[    0.000000] CPU: ARMv7 Processor [413fc090] revision 0 (ARMv7), cr=10c5387d
[    0.000000] CPU: PIPT / VIPT nonaliasing data cache, VIPT aliasing instruction cache
[    0.000000] bootconsole [uart0] enabled
[    0.000000] Memory policy: Data cache writealloc
[    0.000000] Hit pending asynchronous external abort (FSR=0x00001c06) during first unmask, this is most likely caused by a firmware/bootloader bug.
[    0.000000] PERCPU: Embedded 11 pages/cpu @c6bcd000 s12608 r8192 d24256 u45056
[    0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on.  Total pages: 130816
[    0.000000] Kernel command line: console=ttyS0,115200 earlycon
[    0.000000] PID hash table entries: 512 (order: -1, 2048 bytes)
[    0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
[    0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
[    0.000000] Memory: 514512K/524288K available (3458K kernel code, 118K rwdata, 1272K rodata, 220K init, 270K bss, 9776K reserved, 0K cma-reserved, 393216K highmem)
[    0.000000] Virtual kernel memory layout:
[    0.000000]     vector  : 0xffff0000 - 0xffff1000   (   4 kB)
[    0.000000]     fixmap  : 0xffc00000 - 0xfff00000   (3072 kB)
[    0.000000]     vmalloc : 0xc8800000 - 0xff800000   ( 880 MB)
[    0.000000]     lowmem  : 0xc0000000 - 0xc8000000   ( 128 MB)
[    0.000000]     pkmap   : 0xbfe00000 - 0xc0000000   (   2 MB)
[    0.000000]     modules : 0xbf000000 - 0xbfe00000   (  14 MB)
[    0.000000]       .text : 0xc0008000 - 0xc04a6e2c   (4732 kB)
[    0.000000]       .init : 0xc04a7000 - 0xc04de000   ( 220 kB)
[    0.000000]       .data : 0xc04de000 - 0xc04fba3c   ( 119 kB)
[    0.000000]        .bss : 0xc04fba3c - 0xc053f374   ( 271 kB)
[    0.000000] SLUB: HWalign=64, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=2, Nodes=1
[    0.000000] Hierarchical RCU implementation.
[    0.000000] NR_IRQS:16 nr_irqs:16 16
[    0.000000] L2C: DT/platform modifies aux control register: 0x0a130000 -> 0x0a530000
[    0.000000] L2C-310 enabling early BRESP for Cortex-A9
[    0.000000] L2C-310 full line of zeros enabled for Cortex-A9
[    0.000000] L2C-310 ID prefetch enabled, offset 1 lines
[    0.000000] L2C-310 dynamic clock gating enabled, standby mode enabled
[    0.000000] L2C-310 cache controller enabled, 16 ways, 256 kB
[    0.000000] L2C-310: CACHE_ID 0x410000c8, AUX_CTRL 0x7e530001
[    0.000011] sched_clock: 64 bits at 700MHz, resolution 1ns, wraps every 4398046511103ns
[    0.008064] clocksource: arm_global_timer: mask: 0xffffffffffffffff max_cycles: 0xa17102bcf3, max_idle_ns: 440795224838 ns
[    0.019276] Calibrating delay loop... 2786.91 BogoMIPS (lpj=13934592)
[    0.082079] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
[    0.086759] Mount-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.093427] Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.100912] Initializing cgroup subsys io
[    0.104945] Initializing cgroup subsys devices
[    0.109418] Initializing cgroup subsys freezer
[    0.113869] Initializing cgroup subsys net_cls
[    0.118341] Initializing cgroup subsys pids
[    0.122555] CPU: Testing write buffer coherency: ok
[    0.127686] CPU0: thread -1, cpu 0, socket 0, mpidr 80000000
[    0.133459] Setting up static identity map for 0x82a0 - 0x82d4
[    0.199216] CPU1: thread -1, cpu 1, socket 0, mpidr 80000001
[    0.199276] Brought up 2 CPUs
[    0.207957] SMP: Total of 2 processors activated (5580.39 BogoMIPS).
[    0.214374] CPU: All CPU(s) started in SVC mode.
[    0.220848] clocksource: jiffies: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 19112604462750000 ns
[    0.230774] futex hash table entries: 512 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
[    0.237081] pinctrl core: initialized pinctrl subsystem
[    0.242676] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[    0.247632] DMA: preallocated 256 KiB pool for atomic coherent allocations
[    0.280880] clocksource: Switched to clocksource arm_global_timer
[    0.288014] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[    0.292978] TCP established hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.299986] TCP bind hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
[    0.306373] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 1024)
[    0.312792] UDP hash table entries: 256 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
[    0.318687] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 256 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
[    0.325170] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[    0.330396] Crashlog allocated RAM at address 0x3f00000
[    0.341538] squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31)
[    0.347421] jffs2: version 2.2 (NAND) (SUMMARY) (LZMA) (RTIME) (CMODE_PRIORITY) (c) 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc.
[    0.358864] bounce: pool size: 64 pages
[    0.362766] io scheduler noop registered
[    0.366712] io scheduler deadline registered (default)
[    0.372310] Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 2 ports, IRQ sharing disabled
[    0.379205] console [ttyS0] disabled
[    0.382868] 18000300.serial: ttyS0 at MMIO 0x18000300 (irq = 18, base_baud = 7812500) is a 16550
[    0.391755] console [ttyS0] enabled
[    0.391755] console [ttyS0] enabled
[    0.398773] bootconsole [uart0] disabled
[    0.398773] bootconsole [uart0] disabled
[    0.408095] nand: Could not find valid ONFI parameter page; aborting
error restarting...

[Assistant]
creativeinstigator said:
So I have this device I picked up and need help identifying it

Use Google Lens, take a picture of the device, Google will tell you.

There's a good reason why it's in the bin in the first place...

I would responsibly e-waste this one - the HW is quite literally 15 years old as the bootloader suggests...

The crash you're seeing is due to bad NAND, and the other key is the MAC addr of all zeros...

Better things to do with your time...

Broadcom SDK7 device BCM4709 @ 1.4 GHz, so probably somewhere around the 2014-2016 era.

Defaults to the 192.168.50.0/24 subnet, so it might be an Asus device.

Would need a photo to identify it, but looks to be defective hardware indeed as there is no MAC. Failure to boot could be either failed hardware or wrong OpenWRT version flashed.


[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: Lan-to-Lan VPN between 2 homes

This seems like a pretty easy thing to do, but my head is spinning with terminology and I just can't get my arms around it.

There are 2 homes each with high speed internet. Both have modem/router supplied by provider which provide landline and wireless connections. One is Google Fiber (which doesn't seem to allow you do much in the way of configuration) and the other does provide a bit more networking options. My goal is simple. I want to be able to ping a device from home A that is inside home B. Now, that device in home B will be a wireless device. I tried to study about Lan-to-Lan VPN using IPSEC, but Google Fiber's router doesn't seem to support it. So, I bought a TP-LINK ER605 router to put inside the home network. Actually I bought 2 so each home would have them. I figured I could use them to set up the VPN, but settings and terminology just got too confusing.

If I plug the cable from the provider's router into the WAN port of the ER605, then it has an IP of 192.168.0.1, which is different than provider's network which is 192.168.1.1. Now I have seen some videos where I can force my ER605 to be on the same 192.168.1.1 subnet, but then I get lost in how to configure the ER605 to create a VPN.

Now I think I could probably get the VPN set up if I plugged both ER605's into the WAN port and follow some videos to configure IPSEC. However, now I'm stuck because neither router can see anything on the wireless network, because that is a different subnet.

First..does any of this make sense? Second, if I do use WAN ports and configure a VPN between them, how can I get the ER605 routers to see the devices on the wireless network (192.168.1.X subnet), or can I configure them so that they are all on the same subnet and still create a VPN?

I know this is a hail mary, but if anyone has done this or can point me to some videos so i can educate myself I would appreciate it.

[Assistant]
Implicit in your description is the belief (perhaps true, perhaps NOT) that in order for the VPN to work, it must be via the WAN of the ER605. But I can tell you that, at least w/ many third-party firmware, this isn't necessarily the case. With my ASUS RT-AC68U running FreshTomato, I can place the router in a LAN only configuration (i.e., WAN disabled) *and* establish an OpenVPN connection on the LAN side. That keeps the VPN on the same private IP network as the primary router. IOW, the RT-AC68U becomes just another LAN device, no different than if it was a desktop, NAS, etc.

Since I know *nothing* about the ER650, I don't know if the same applies to it. You might very well be forced to establish the VPN over the WAN. However, it might not matter *provided* the router is willing to route *upstream* to the primary router's private network via the ER650 WAN! Once again, I just don't know what the ER605 router will allow.

And therein lies the problem w/ using OEM firmware. Once you're using OEM firmware, your stuck w/ whatever the OEM decides is proper, leaving you w/ few options. You get what you get.

Of course, the other option is to use the ER650 routers as primary routers, ideally by placing the existing routers in bridge mode (if supported). Of course, you lose the existing APs and will need to establish them back on the ER650 as standalone APs. That's why it might have been better to ask your questions before committing to the ER605s, which do NOT support wireless.

I am not a VPN expert, but this is the first example I have seen of running a VPN server on LAN instead of the WAN.
It appears to me that this approach each client still needs a static route to the remote subnet via the LAN IP of the VPN server.
It appears that your approach may work for IPsec site to site on an Edgerouter.

However, this is what I did with an Edgerouter x (erx) behind a Spectrum router.
Connect the erx WAN port to the LAN.
Reserve the erx WAN IP address in the Spectrum router.
Set the erx LAN subnet to one that doesn’t conflict with either the Spectrum LAN
subnet or the remote subnet. I generally use /24s from the 172.16 to 172.31 private range.
Connect an erx LAN port to the LAN. Note the LAN MAC address of the erx must be different than its WAN MAC address. You now have two cables from the erx to
the rest of the LAN.

I think a better alternative would be to add the new subnet to the LAN port of the erx and only use one cable.

Enable NAT traversal on both VPN servers.
On the Spectrum router forward the IPsec and Nat traversal ports to the WAN IP of the erx.
On each Windows PC set “dhcpstaticipcoexistence” enabled and add a non-conflicting static IP in the new subnet.

Уеб достъпът до този сайт е временно ограничен

On each Windows PC add a static route to the remote subnet.

jkopatich said:
This seems like a pretty easy thing to do, but my head is spinning with terminology and I just can't get my arms around it.

Draw a picture of what you want to do...


[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: Unable To Connect To Hive Heating Hub

I have just purchased the Asus RT-AX59U router which is much better than my Virgin Media Router.

Since installation of the new router and hive hub, I can no longer connect the hive heating hub to the router and this connection is from the router to the hub via ethernet cable. If I use my old router it works fine and so does the Virgin Media router.

Not sure why it is refusing to allow the hive heating hub to connect to the router.

Any ideas, or had anyone in the UK came across this issue?

[Assistant]
Dominatez said:
I have just purchased the Asus RT-AX59U router which is much better than my Virgin Media Router.

Since installation of the new router and hive hub, I can no longer connect the hive heating hub to the router and this connection is from the router to the hub via ethernet cable. If I use my old router it works fine and so does the Virgin Media router.

Not sure why it is refusing to allow the hive heating hub to connect to the router.

Any ideas, or had anyone in the UK came across this issue?
Click to expand...
Does the hub use a static IP addresse? If so the default IP address of the AX59U may need to be changed. Or, power down all the LAN clients, set up the router then connect the wired lan clients. Try several of the LAN ports.

Dominatez said:
Not sure why it is refusing to allow the hive heating hub to connect to the router.

See if WPA3 is enabled on the WiFi. Use WPA2 for IoT devices.
Just had the exact issue here with my new router.


[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: Tuofudun mini PC - anyone have experience?

I see a lot of posts on the web about folk building PfSense and OPSense with Protectli Vault passively cooled mini PCs, but I've seen another better-specced brand called Tuofudun which are cheaper and better equipped hardware-wise.

Anyone used Tuofudun mini PCs?

[Assistant]
Johno said:
I see a lot of posts on the web about folk building PfSense and OPSense with Protectli Vault passively cooled mini PCs, but I've seen another better-specced brand called Tuofudun which are cheaper and better equipped hardware-wise.

Anyone used Tuofudun mini PCs?
Tuofudun, Hunsn and Topton are resellers of CWWK products, I believe. There's a lot of discussion about these on the Serve The Home forum.

I brought back a CWWK N305 from Asia recently. It's early days but I'm pleased with it: I'd seen numerous comments about gaps between the CPU and heatsink, where people had to take the board out and use MX6 cooling paste and sometimes also copper shims. I expected to do this, but found the CPU sitting nicely flush to the heatsink with a cooling pad between, and it's been good out of the box.

The case has been at the upper end of warm with Proxmox running OPNsense, Windows 11, Debian with about a dozen Docker containers, plus Home Assistant. I put in 32GB of Crucial DDR5 4800Mhz, which was a good move since it gets picked up no trouble. To keep temps down, I went for the SK Hynix P31 Gold NVMe (great reviews).

I'm getting my head around OPNsense, which I have running on 4/8 cores. NordVPN on Wireguard reaches about 900 Mbit on my 1Gb connection, which is great. Security-wise, I don't expose more than a couple of ports, so I'm interested in a lightweight IPS such as CrowdSec. I've started testing it together with the freebie Zenarmor. If ZA gets too resource-heavy, I might give it the boot.

Spud said:
Tuofudun, Hunsn and Topton are resellers of CWWK products, I believe. There's a lot of discussion about these on the Serve The Home forum.

I brought back a CWWK N305 from Asia recently. It's early days but I'm pleased with it: I'd seen numerous comments about gaps between the CPU and heatsink, where people had to take the board out and use MX6 cooling paste and sometimes also copper shims. I expected to do this, but found the CPU sitting nicely flush to the heatsink with a cooling pad between, and it's been good out of the box.

The case has been at the upper end of warm with Proxmox running OPNsense, Windows 11, Debian with about a dozen Docker containers, plus Home Assistant. I put in 32GB of Crucial DDR5 4800Mhz, which was a good move since it gets picked up no trouble. To keep temps down, I went for the SK Hynix P31 Gold NVMe (great reviews).

I'm getting my head around OPNsense, which I have running on 4/8 cores. NordVPN on Wireguard reaches about 900 Mbit on my 1Gb connection, which is great. Security-wise, I don't expose more than a couple of ports, so I'm interested in a lightweight IPS such as CrowdSec. I've started testing it together with the freebie Zenarmor. If ZA gets too resource-heavy, I might give it the boot.
Click to expand...
Thanks, the Protectli kit I looked at only seems to work with DDR4 memory so that fact the CWWK kit uses DDR5 at high clock speeds is great. Like you've done, I'm also thinking of installing lots of RAM so as to host VMs in Proxmox. I'll browse the Serve The Home forums for further info.

Johno said:
Thanks, the Protectli kit I looked at only seems to work with DDR4 memory so that fact the CWWK kit uses DDR5 at high clock speeds is great. Like you've done, I'm also thinking of installing lots of RAM so as to host VMs in Proxmox. I'll browse the Serve The Home forums for further info.
BTW, they don't ship with manuals, so the forum is a lifeline. For example, I just installed a SATA SSD in addition to my NVMe, but I couldn't get it showing in the bios. After a lot of searching, I found out I had to remove a bracket for a second NVMe install in the WiFi slot. Now the SSD works fine. However, it's better to finalise the hardware before installing Proxmox - adding the SSD bumped my NIC numberings up by 1, which took a bit of effort to sort out.


[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: Non wireless router?

Hi all, so I’m redesigning my network and running some Ethernet cable throughout the house. I have my fiber coming in to the ONT and it originally went to an 8 port Linksys wireless router.

What I’m going to be doing is hard wiring a couple WiFi access points in the areas of the house that need WiFi. The AP’s and hard wired connections are going to a 2.5g unmanaged switch. However I’m wonder what is the best device to put between the ONT and the switch.

Since the WiFi is coming for the AP’s I don’t want to buy some expensive 2.5g lan WiFi router to connect the ONT to just to disable the WiFi. However I haven’t found a decently priced no wifi 2.5g lan/wan router that has the latest hardware and features that seem to only come with the latest WiFi routers.

Anyone have a similar setup?

[Assistant]
RLD said:
Hi all, so I’m redesigning my network and running some Ethernet cable throughout the house. I have my fiber coming in to the ONT and it originally went to an 8 port Linksys wireless router.

What I’m going to be doing is hard wiring a couple WiFi access points in the areas of the house that need WiFi. The AP’s and hard wired connections are going to a 2.5g unmanaged switch. However I’m wonder what is the best device to put between the ONT and the switch.

Since the WiFi is coming for the AP’s I don’t want to buy some expensive 2.5g lan WiFi router to connect the ONT to just to disable the WiFi. However I haven’t found a decently priced no wifi 2.5g lan/wan router that has the latest hardware and features that seem to only come with the latest WiFi routers.

Anyone have a similar setup?
Click to expand...
The issue is the 2.5 Gbps LAN/WAN, as GL.inet has this thing, with one 2.5 Gbps port...
GL-MT2500 / Brume 2
Brume 2 (GL-MT2500/GL-MT2500A) is an industrial security gateway for a network to run add-on programs and act as a VPN client or server before data is transmitted out of the network premise.
www.gl-inet.com

It's the closest I've seen as a fully featured solution for your needs.

However, if you don't mind a bit of DIY there might be some options for you out there.

$85+ NanoPi R6C 2.5GbE router and SBC gets M.2 NVMe SSD socket - CNX Software
FriendlyElec has come up with a low-cost version of the NanoPi R6S with the NanoPi R6C router/SBC based on the same Rockchip RK3588S octa-core
www.cnx-software.com
Banana Pi BPI-R3 Mini - A low-profile 2.5GbE router board powered by MediaTek Filogic 830 SoC - CNX Software
Banana Pi BPI-R3 Mini router board is powered by MediaTek MT7986 (Filogic 830) quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor with 2GB DDR4, an 8GB eMMC flash, two
www.cnx-software.com
NanoPi R6S - A Rockchip RK3588S router and mini PC with dual 2.5GbE, GbE, and... HDMI 2.1 - CNX Software
FriendlyELEC has launched its sixth generation router with the NanoPi R6S equipped with a Rockchip RK3588S processor, two 2.5GbE ports, one Gigabit
www.cnx-software.com
NanoPi R5C mini router features two 2.5GbE ports, supports M.2 wireless modules - CNX Software
FriendlyElec NanoPi R5C is a smaller version of the NanoPi R5S router with the same Rockchip RK3568 processor, but only two 2.5GbE ports and support for
www.cnx-software.com

In as much as BananaPi has a so so reputation, their board has an SoC that's fully supported by OpenWRT at this point.

Then there's of course a wide range of Intel powered boxes that come with two or more 2.5 Gbps ports as well.
Serve the Home has a bunch of reviews of those.
ServeTheHome Server Storage and Networking Reviews
ServeTheHome, founded in 2009, is the place to learn more about servers, storage, and networking gear
www.servethehome.com

So do most people just use a wireless router and either disable the WiFi or integrate it into the AP mesh if they have them.

@TheLostSwede I have a FriendlyElec NanoPc-T6 running 24/7, but not as a router. While it's stable now, I don't think I trust the FriendlyElec Images enough to run it as a router!
Tip for our OP, you'll often see wireless consumer-grade routers marketed as hardware firewalls!


[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: Assistance Needed for Network Configuration: Removing ISP Router

Hello,

I recently switched from a coaxial connection to fiber optic. During the transition, my ISP provided me with two devices: one is an ONT (Innbox G23 NT GPON) and the other is a router (Zyxel VMG8623-T50B). The fiber optic cable connects to the ONT, and then the LAN output goes into the Zyxel VMG8623-T50B router, which then connects to my Zyxel USG Flex 500.

Initially, the ISP's router (Zyxel VMG8623-T50B) was in "router" mode, so I requested the ISP to switch it to "bridge mode." Their support team set the VMG router to bridge mode and provided me with a username/password for establishing a PPPoE connection, but it didn't work. I monitored the network packets (using Wireshark), and only the initial PADI packet was sent.

After multiple contacts with support, I encountered an employee who surprisingly gave me completely different instructions - I had to provide the MAC address of my Zyxel Flex 500 (which is likely registered on the ISP's side) and set up automatic IP (DHCP). There was no mention of a PPPoE connection.

This setup works now, but I want to completely eliminate the VMG8623-T50B router. When I connect to the VMG8623-T50B, I can only see basic settings (others are apparently hidden or locked). Among these settings, I see "WAN information" with the following connections listed:

ETHWAN_VLAN3907 (IPoE)
ETHWAN_VLAN3906 (PPPoE): not connected
ETHWAN_VLAN1101 (IPoE)
ETHWAN VLAN1201 (IPoE): Bridged, this is apparently used for the internet
ETHWAN_VLAN1401 (IPoE)
Two of these connections are used for IP telephony (which I do not use).
I am now wondering where the PPPoE connection is established, as it is not established on the Zyxel VMG8623-T50B (since it uses IPoE). Is it possible that the PPPoE connection is established on the ONT (Innbox G23 NT GPON)? Or could it be that the PPPoE connection is established somewhere on the ISP's side?

Would it be possible to completely remove the VMG8623-T50B router and connect the output from the ONT (Innbox G23 NT GPON) directly to my USG Flex 500?

I would appreciate any advice and assistance with the configuration. Screenshots are attached.

Devices:

Innbox G23 NT GPON (ONT): datasheet attached
Zyxel VMG8623-T50B: User Guide
Zyxel USG Flex 500: Product Page
Thank you!

[Assistant]
Yes.

Remove the ISP router and connect your router directly to the ONT.

L&LD said:
Yes.

Remove the ISP router and connect your router directly to the ONT.
That was the first thing I tried - I set my router to DHCP and connected the cable from the ONT to the WAN port. However, I did not receive an IP address.

Could it be that I need to configure a specific VLAN for this to work?

I don't know what you've done to your router, nor am I familiar with that model.

I would power down the ONT (minimum 10 minutes). Reset the router, and power everything up, and try again.

An ONT is just an Ethernet WAN connection. Otherwise, it isn't an ONT.

If that doesn't work, you may need to contact the manufacturer of the USG Flex 500 for help in setting that up properly.

At this point, it just seems you've really messed up the router settings for no reason (and toggling settings isn't ideal for getting the router to do what the GUI is showing, sometimes).


[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: PC getting 1mbs connected directly to router on 100mbs line

I've been struggling with a few different network problems - lots of small things broken, and I'm trying to fix them all. I have a WIN10 PC with an intel onboard ethernet. It is only getting ~ 1mbs when using various speed tests. The router it is connected to is getting 80mbs+. I believe the cable is fine - I plugged in another PC and was able to get 50mbs using that cable.

I have deleted/reinstalled the driver. I'm not sure what to do next. Is there some software throttling I might not be aware of? I'm at a bit of a loss.

[Assistant]
Issue resolved. Windows was throttling my connection.

Solution here:

How Windows is Killing Internet Download Speeds

No such issues like this are generally reported on the forums here.

You must be running a very old version of Windows if an article from 2014 is relevant to your setup.

I still run Windows 10 on an old Lenovo T400 laptop which i dust off maybe once every other year if i need a windows-based device for some tests or trials as all other portable devices in the house are Apple. This old coffee mill still reaches 150 Mbps on speedtest.


[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: Please help explaining pros-cons of Bridge mode vs DMZ of second router

Hello,
I had a question a while back but no answer so I just want to have a better understanding for these setups
So I have a good router RT-AX86s and I don't want to migrate all the setting to xfi router. Initially I connected my router(wan port) to the xfi and it works fine, doesn't seem to slow down at all or noticeable.
Then I found an article that mentioned about having the xfi as a bridge or setting second router as DMZ device. I tried both and from the user experience, there were no differences.
In DMZ mode, I assigned a static ip for the Asus router as 10.0.0.x and when I went to "find my ip address" it still showed the xfi main IP so my router was not exposed at all. So what is the harm of exposing the second router thatpeople advised not doing it. thx

[Assistant]
calvin tran said:
So what is the harm of exposing the second router that people advised not doing it. thx
Do you have a link to this advice. Without knowing exactly what was said it's difficult to answer the question.

At a practical level there's usually very little difference between bridging an ISP router or putting the second router in the DMZ of the first. There may be "gotcha's" depending on your specific equipment. I have no idea what an "xfi" is.

calvin tran said:
Hello,
I had a question a while back but no answer so I just want to have a better understanding for these setups
So I have a good router RT-AX86s and I don't want to migrate all the setting to xfi router. Initially I connected my router(wan port) to the xfi and it works fine, doesn't seem to slow down at all or noticeable.
Then I found an article that mentioned about having the xfi as a bridge or setting second router as DMZ device. I tried both and from the user experience, there were no differences.
In DMZ mode, I assigned a static ip for the Asus router as 10.0.0.x and when I went to "find my ip address" it still showed the xfi main IP so my router was not exposed at all. So what is the harm of exposing the second router thatpeople advised not doing it. thx
Click to expand...

Bridge mode on the XFI is technically a bit better as you're eliminating one layer of NAT, but DMZ will accomplish the same thing and very little latency difference (imperceptible most likely).

Technically you can just run them both in full blown router mode with two layers of NAT and no DMZ, the only catch there is if you want inbound port forwarding you have to do it on both routers (uPNP also won't work if you have anything that needs that).

I'm assuming what you were reading about DMZ mode was when you're doing it to an actual device inside your network, that is a security risk. Doing it from one router to another is no risk, in fact it is what people do when their ISP router does not support bridge mode (and they need uPNP or port forwarding).

Are they charging you for their router? If so buy a DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem (heck you can even use 3.0 for now, probably a couple years before they shut those down) and plug your router into it, and get rid of their obnoxious fee. For the most part stick with Surfboard modems (one of the Arris lines, which they bought from Motorola). Refurb on amazon is cheap.

If their router is free/included then just run it in bridge mode making it effectively a modem. That will disable the wireless etc too.

Paliv said:
Xfi is Comcast’s general wifi router branding.

Yeah, use it with our new "10G" network. Great start confusing people about wireless vs wired terms (they say it "Ten G" and the average user doesn't think 10 gig, they think oh that's like my phone is 5G so this is better, which is exactly what they want now that they're competing with T-Mo and Verizon 5G internet).

Comcast has got to be the absolute worst/most confusing with all their stupid branding and naming. They seem to be as obsessed with "X" and name changes as Elon Musk.


[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: Low UL throughput over WIFI on new fiber line.. Normal?

Got fiber installed at my location couple weeks ago.

Was planning on using my own router(s) in a (single point solution). but I keep running into an issue where the upload throughput over WIFI gets significantly bottlenecked over a standard 2x2 AX connection. It's not the specific router either because I have a BE800 WIFI7, AX86 and a single ISP provided "pod" and they all seem to do the thing.

The line will do a gig (940mbps) over RJ45, but as soon as I switch to WIFI throughput down to 300mbps on weaker 2x2 connections, regardless of being full signal.

The only solutions I've found so far:

-2x2 @ 160mhz Intel AX201 connection @ 2400mbps next to router will push throughput, but any lower QAM modulation below lets say 1200mbps drops it to the 300 range....
-4x4 ROUTER (AC/AX 1733+mbps) in media bridge will also push full throughput.
-I assume the POD provided by ISP will also be "okay" since its a triband with 4x4 AX backhaul, but ill have to order them. (only have one and it works in 2x2 mode)

Weird side effect?
Running 5G AX laptop next to router will give me full throughput and ironically INCREASE throughput on other devices further away (300s>500s). Even a 5/6GHZ AX211 card, but it only increases throughput once I run a speed test on the 5g laptop close.

Its not interference either because I'm pretty sure I'm the only one at my location with 6ghz devices.

Is the ONT firmware just messy? my Signal is -19dBm which is in GPON normal range of -8 to -28. Doesn't really make sense to me and seems like a router sided issue.. but.... 3 different hardware solutions do the same thing.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Edit: not sure if this is a wireless issue or ONT issue.. given the fact every wireless device I have has the same results.. Only high throughput 4x4 or 160mhz bandwidth 2x2 with perfect signal "works".

[Assistant]
Welcome to the forums @jasz.

Test with different Control Channels.

L&LD said:
Welcome to the forums @jasz.

Test with different Control Channels.

Definitely doesn't seem to have anything to do with it.

Every Wireless router and even WIFI7 6ghz (no interference locally) has same issue. Prob the reason I posted here instead of the WIFI section, even though it has to do with "WIFI".

Low chance 3-4 different wireless router solutions have the same issue.

Only way wireless "works" is with high throughput 4x4 routers in bridge mode or perfect 2x2 160mhz 2400mbps 1024 QAM... which I assume are the closest "throughput" to matching the RG45 1G port.

NoLight said:
What ISP and ONT do you have?

Quantum fiber/CL and 5500XK. Which seems to be a rebranded Axon AN5500.

I don't think I can use a SFP adapter as it seems QF uses IPoE and modem/ONT authentication.

Also tried "transparent bridging mode" to BE800/AX86 and have same exact issue.

Main WL router is Wifi7 BE Qualcomm hardware, other is Broadcom AX.

Okay, so you didn't try different control channels? Or, you tried and there was no difference?


[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: WAN or LAN port to connect an Access Point (AP) router to a main router?

Hello folks,

I have two Synology RT2600ac Wi-Fi routers. One is my main router which is connected via its WAN port to my cable modem.
The second one is configured in Access Point (AP) mode and is connected to the main router via a Cat6 Ethernet cable.

I was just playing around today because I realized I could not answer the following questions for myself.
Should the AP router be connected to the main router via its WAN port or via one of the LAN ports?

I noticed that it seems to work either way. But this might be because the device is smart enough to to some internal redirection of traffic to the appropriate port.
But what is the right way to connect an AP router to a main router via Ethernet cable?

Thanks...!

[Assistant]
From the User Manual:

Wireless AP (Access Point)
Under this mode (also known as the Bridge mode), your Synology Router bridges all network interfaces (LAN, wireless LAN, and WAN) and therefore has five LAN ports (LAN 1-4 and WAN) available to wired clients.

So, any port. They all do the same thing.

https://content.etilize.com/User-Manual/1037615828.pdf

Tech9 said:
From the User Manual:

Wireless AP (Access Point)
Under this mode (also known as the Bridge mode), your Synology Router bridges all network interfaces (LAN, wireless LAN, and WAN) and therefore has five LAN ports (LAN 1-4 and WAN) available to wired clients.

So, any port. They all do the same thing.

Click to expand...
Thanks for your reply. Actually this part of the manual is precisely where I was reading and where I was confused.
I didn't want to play with my configuration as I didn't want the other working adults in my home to kill me if their network connection went down.

I guess that you first have to do the "start configuration" and specify that you want the router to operate in "Wireless AP" mode. Then you can use any of the WAN or LAN ports. But this made me wonder what are the different protocols (if any) used between devices in the different configuration scenarios:

1. Wireless AP mode (but hard-wired) router talks to main router
2. Main router talks to cable modem
3. Router function in my cable modem talks to a router at my cable company

Just curious and trying to learn about the protocol details.

Protocols? They are many. Technologies? Ethernet on your LAN and to the ISP modem, DOCSIS to your ISP.

Ethernet - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org

DOCSIS - 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: Does it make sense to change my modem?

My modem is ISP provided and can be changed on request. For now, it is a DOCSYS3.0 HGW with built-in router and wifi. This means my pfSense router is connected to one of the 4 LAN ports of the HGW and the WAN IP on pfSense is a LAN IP from the HGW which means in essence double NAT. The HGW wifi is completely switched off as i have my own AP's. To date, everything works perfectly fine.

However, this week i found out that my ISP now also offers a DOCSYS3.1 modem without wifi and with bridging capability which would enable me to bring my public IP directly to my pfSense box which would simply things and also eliminate double NAT. Also, i read DOCSYS3.1 can support higher speeds so maybe it will bring my 1Gbps line from 900-something to 1Gpbs.

Questions to the audience, would it be worth the hassle? There is no cost involved. Only me requesting the new modem, replace the current one and send it back.

Appreciate the insights.

[Assistant]
Pass through is ideal if hosting or VPN back to your stuff.

Speed won't change if you don't have ge+ port to plug it into.

Tech Junky said:
Speed won't change if you don't have ge+ port to plug it into.
I do have an X550-T2 in my pfSense box so the port is there.

Tech Junky said:
Pass through is ideal if hosting or VPN back to your stuff.
I do run a Nextcloud instance with its own FQDN with certs and a proxy.


[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 enable IPv4 over LAN

We are running an RT-AX88U Pro behind a Starlink (business) modem in bypass mode with a public IP.
Computers that are connected via LAN - hardwired to the router or the switch - do not receive an IPv4 address - but do receive an IPv6 address.
All devices on the network (wireless, wired, etc.) can access the hardwired devices, but the ASUS router does not show any wired connections.

How would we enable IPv4 access on hardwired LAN devices? (snips below for context)

IP config for hardwired computer:

ASUS router not seeing wired connection:

IP config of WIFI device with IPv4 connectivity:

[Assistant]
micahs said:
We are running an RT-AX88U Pro behind a Starlink (business) modem in bypass mode with a public IP.
Computers that are connected via LAN - hardwired to the router or the switch - do not receive an IPv4 address - but do receive an IPv6 address.
All devices on the network (wireless, wired, etc.) can access the hardwired devices, but the ASUS router does not show any wired connections.

Why don't you just put away the Asus device and let Space Monkey Boy manage your internet?

Seriously though - Asus doesn't have the strongest record on managing IPv6 on the WAN side...

sfx2000 said:
Why don't you just put away the Asus device and let Space Monkey Boy manage your internet?

Seriously though - Asus doesn't have the strongest record on managing IPv6 on the WAN side...

We have to VPN into the network for a large variety of reasons. The Starlink devices do not even allow port forwarding.

This seems like it should be a very simple problem to fix for those in the know, as we have a public IPv4 on the WIFI devices and have successfully set up the VPN server for all devices connected to that IP address.

Its very strange (to me, a layperson) that devices on the LAN do not have the same IP. Also that they can be seen by other devices on the WIFI (and vise versa) - but NOT via the VPN connection to the very same router.

edit to add that on top of it all, the router doesn't even see the wired connections!

Have you tried to disable IPv6? Maybe it will link to IPv4.


[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 intermittent, slow speeds over the internet?

Server A is Debian 12 and is located at my house directly plugged into an ASUS AX86U router.

Server B is Debian 12 and is located at my brother's directly plugged into an ASUS GT6 router.

I have AT&T 1 gig symmetrical and he has Comcast 1.2 down/35 up.

I recently moved my backup server to my brothers house and -sometimes- when the backup runs, we get about 45-50MB/s but MOST of the time, it's about 3MB/s. In a perfect world, we should be able to get about 90-95MB/s (maxing out my upload speed) but the internet being the internet and peering agreements sometimes being garbage, I was hoping that the 45-50MB/s would be consistent but it's not.

Even before I moved the server to his place, FTP and iperf testing would (on a great day) max out around 50MB/s but most of the time, 3MB/s.... 5MB/s..... just crummy speeds.

Since we're both residential customers, I know that trying to get AT&T or Comcast to solve this problem would be pointless but what testing can I do to 100% rule out anything within our control is causing these totally random speed fluctuations?

[Assistant]
Why don't you do a trace route? At least it will give you the path. Look for bottle necks.

How to troubleshoot intermittent, slow speeds over the internet?
Server A is Debian 12 and is located at my house directly plugged into an ASUS AX86U router. Server B is Debian 12 and is located at my brother's
www.linuxquestions.org
road hazard said:
Even before I moved the server to his place, FTP and iperf testing would (on a great day) max out around 50MB/s but most of the time, 3MB/s.... 5MB/s..... just crummy speeds.

So are you saying you were getting the same poor speeds to the server when it was on your LAN?

What network protocol are you using for the backup process.

coxhaus said:
Why don't you do a trace route? At least it will give you the path. Look for bottle necks.

Traceroute doesn't show anything horrible, highest hop is 30ms.


[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: Link DOWN - Losing connection with the router

Hi Folk,
I've owned this router (RT-AC86U) for few years now running it with the merlin firmware. Recently and for a month now i've been dealing with a complete disconnect from the PC to the router via Ethernet and it always happens when you don't expect it to, in other words, randomly. Nothing changed in my setup, it just all happened randomly. I've tried another ethernet port and updated the merlin firmware but the issue persist and i can't troubleshoot something that happens randomly but not frequently. I've attached the logs at the time of the DC, please send help, absolutely losing my mind with this one.

Any help will be appreciated

[Assistant]
I'm wondering about a flaky ethernet cable --- they do go bad sometimes for no apparent reason.

tgl said:
I'm wondering about a flaky ethernet cable --- they do go bad sometimes for no apparent reason.

Considering the age, and the common issues - the AC Adapter would be a consideration here...


[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: Ping increases after couple of hours of the modem being on

I'm currently having an issue where the ping increases after the modem being on for 3 hours+.
I'm currently running VDSL (PTM) on Zyxel VMG4005-B50A PPPoE passthrough to my RT-AX86U running Asuswrt.
After a fresh reboot on my modem, I get around 5ms (pinging 1.1.1.1) but after a couple of hours it increases to 8-10ms and I can't seem to understand what the problem is.
Note that rebooting the router alone does not solve the issue, I must reboot the modem. I have an outlet cable extension beside the router/modem could that cause this issue somehow?

[Assistant]
I am not an expert when it comes to DSL service, however, are you sure that there actually is a problem? Please correct me if I am misunderstanding your post, but a jump from 5ms to 8-10ms is not a substantial jump at all and could be caused by a number of things, including how loaded down your network is? There could also be issues with your ISP, or, there could be a wide variety of things causing the increase in latency from your router to destination that is out of your control.

I have Cable internet service and if I have a ping of 30ms to a server, it is not unusual for it to jump up 5-10ms from time to time.

jetpack42 said:
I am not an expert when it comes to DSL service, however, are you sure that there actually is a problem? Please correct me if I am misunderstanding your post, but a jump from 5ms to 8-10ms is not a substantial jump at all and could be caused by a number of things, including how loaded down your network is? There could also be issues with your ISP, or, there could be a wide variety of things causing the increase in latency from your router to destination that is out of your control.

I have Cable internet service and if I have a ping of 30ms to a server, it is not unusual for it to jump up 5-10ms from time to time.
Click to expand...
Yeah definitely there's an issue. The ping jumps are permanent, I'm not talking about ping spikes, it's permanent increase and no it's not that the router is overloaded as I said rebooting the router doesn't help, the issue is within the modem as the only way to fix it is rebooting it. 5ms difference may not be significant but the game I play competitively is very ping dependent and 5ms would actually make a difference.

How long has this been going on for? If the issue persists after you restart your modem and router, may I suggest you factory reset your AX86U and re-configure from scratch? (if you haven't already done so?)

If the latency increase continues to occur, perhaps the issue is on your ISP end. As I mentioned above, there can be a mountain of factors that can be outside of your control that can cause a latency increase from your router to the destination.

I also play many "competitive" FPS/MOBA games in my spare time. I do not think that a 5ms increase is significant enough increase to really cause issues with most modern games. As you mentioned, the 5ms increase is permanent and won't be as noticeable as a larger ping spike would be, especially since most server and p2p-based games have some form of lag compensation nowadays. This is not to disqualify your experience, however. We may be playing different games, so my mileage could very well be different from yours.