[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as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for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: Gig WAN on 68Mbps VDSL?

My ISP is sky fibre upto 68mbps d/l speed.

I have a tplink W9770 operating in bridge mode with everything router wise turned ooff. It has 10/100 connection to my router , an ax6600XT8. My ISP is sky fibre VDSL 68Mbps.

Is there any benefit of connecting another modem that has a Gig port using a cat6 cable to the Gig port on my XT8. My ISP speed means i wont see any speed benefit but would throughput/bandwidth, quality change...sorry i dont know much about these things so apolin advance if dumb.

?

[Assistant]
Generally the simpler you can keep things the better. If you need physical ports, adding a network switch to your XT8 could be useful. If you need more WiFi bandwidth, adding an access point connected via ethernet some distance from the XT8 might help. A WiFi extender or Wireless Mesh unit could be helpful in some circumstances. It all depends on what the problem you have is!
So let us know what issues you are seeing and maybe someone here can help a little more!

Is the TP-L provided by your ISP? Can you ask them for a newer/better model?

Does the Fibre connection offer an Ethernet Port (ONT), or is a VDSL modem required?

I do not doubt that the old TP-L equipment you have installed is negatively impacting your online experience. But I don't believe a newer VDSL modem (if one is necessary) will make an appreciable difference for the cost involved (if you're considering buying one yourself).

As long as you are plugging all your wired devices into your XT8, your LAN network is as fast as it can be, as is the WiFi from the XT8. And the WAN connection to the TP-L at 100Mbps is higher than your paid-for ISP speeds too, so there should be no bottleneck there either.

As the poster above suggests, let us know what issues you may be trying to solve. If you're just playing 'what if' right now, without any real reasons to need a hardware change, then I suggest you save your money or look for alternate ISPs with true Fibre connections if they're available in your area for a substantial upgrade to your online experience.

sounds like I may have worded the question in a difficult way. let me try agian please.

1. I have no issue/problem,just a query,a question

2. question is whether a gigabit wan port on the vdsl modem makes any difference to the local network performance when mutliple WIFI cliients are accessing the internet, as opposed to having a modem with 100mbps .port.

3. to frame the context:
- all clients are WIFI6 AX and connect at around 2Gpbs go the router.
- the router connects to the modem with a cat6 quality cable.
- the broadbamd vdsl link.dowload speed is 68mpbs


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

[User]
Title: Can't ping or RDP locally but CAN from OpenVPN

Note I had this working before but inexplicable this stopped working. I'm blaming Windows 10 update.

Anyways, I have a router with 7 devices in it's LAN. One is a windows 7 file server. The rest are all windows 10.

SETTINGS
The router (ASUS, running Merlin) is running an OpenVPN server for me to remote admin the network.
Firewall settings are identical between the clients and the server.

BEHAVIOR:
Router can ping all clients by IP AND by Local DNS names.
When logged into OpenVPN from an external connection, I can ping or RDP into any client (I've made the necessary IP exceptions in each client's firewall to accept 10.0.8.0/24)
Clients can ping and RDP the file server
Clients' network mounted drive (to the server) continue to work
Clients cannot ping OR RDP each other

What hidden settings am I missing here? This worked I think in spring 2023. I never noticed because I'm almost never on site to admin this network and remote access has been stable and working fine....

[Assistant]
felixdd said:
Note I had this working before but inexplicable this stopped working. I'm blaming Windows 10 update.

Anyways, I have a router with 7 devices in it's LAN. One is a windows 7 file server. The rest are all windows 10.

SETTINGS

:

What hidden settings am I missing here? This worked I think in spring 2023. I never noticed because I'm almost never on site to admin this network and remote access has been stable and working fine....
Click to expand...

Do they work if you try by IP instead of hostname? If so need to look at DNS and what hostname you're using on the router, and whether it is incorrectly resolving to an external IP etc.

Are any of the clients that don't work wireless, if so make sure you haven't enabled AP isolation.

Problem is resolved. Something router-related. AP Isolation toggle on the 5GHz radio didn't seem to work no matter whether it was toggled on or off. Disabled 5Ghz and things seem to work now.

felixdd said:
Problem is no longer present. Clients can now now ping each other by IP and hostname. I can now RDP between clients as well, both by IP and hostname.

I think the problem is Windows Firewall. I did change the inbound Echo Request rule for ICMPv4 to allow for remote IPs of 192.168.0.0/24, on top of the pre-existing Local Subnet rule. I deleted it though as it didn't do anything.

Next I literally disabled the firewalls on both ends. Ping'd and they worked. This led me to think it's a Windows Firewall problem.

I re-enabled the firewalls on each device. Ping continues to work and RDP works.

So literally was a "did you try to turn it off and on again" fix. Which is disconcerting when that's needed at a software level....
Click to expand...

Yeah when on the local subnet it is just passing through the switch, not much the router could be blocking there (assuming you're not using a guest network).

I haven't toyed with Windows 11 firewall however you most likely need to go in and designate the network as "private" or it will block just about everything. Once your current connections time out, it will probably start blocking them again. If you're set to private, it should allow ping, and probably RDP as well (not positive on that one, you may have to add a rule for RDP but I think it has it built in).


[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: Trying to monitor websites visited but VPN being used.

I have CenturyLink for internet and using their modem which is a Zyxel C4000LZ. I’m not looking to block content I’m just wanting to see websites are visited. I enabled website history but VPN’s are being used by the device I assume because what’s listed as sites visited aren’t actual websites. So I need some help. I don't know much about this sort of thing but do know how to navigate the router page. I guess I need to figure out a way to redirect the devices using VPN's to something like OpenDNS or NextDNS? The picture is showing the settings it appears I have access to. The reason I need to be able to see what sites are being visited undetected is personal but I'm willing to disclose why because it's that important for me to achieve this. My ex and I have a child together and own a residence together. He's in a different dwelling than my child and I on the property but it's the same internet. The reason I need to see what's going on is that I've been given information from a reputable source that he may flee with my child. I'd track him by phone if I could but that's not legal. Local law enforcement can't do anything till a crime is committed. I'm just trying to do what I can to stay ahead of him. I know this is off the wall crazy but as a mother of a small child I have to do something about. He has no custodial rights and has little to nothing to do with our child.

[Assistant]
If they are using VPN software (e.g. NordVPN, etc.) that's installed on their devices then there's nothing you can do (apart from possibly blocking all VPN traffic). You cannot intercept or monitor their DNS traffic because it, along with all their other traffic, will be encrypted and encapsulated on their device. There is no way for the router to see "inside" this encrypted traffic. That's the whole point of using a VPN, to prevent other people monitoring your traffic. Sorry.

That's what I was worried about . I'm not 100% sure he is but most likely.

You said "what’s listed as sites visited aren’t actual websites". Can you show us some examples of what you're seeing? It might prompt some other ideas.


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

[User]
Title: Help with Designing Network (noob)

Hi everyone. I'm pretty new to home networking. A while ago I setup an OpenWRT WiFi Router and that was quite complicated but I got it working. I'm now trying to better understand networking as a whole and design my own home network. I have been planning to build a NAS for file sharing, etc. and install surviellance cameras while using the software Frigate and since I just got Fiber I figured now would be a good time to recreate my network and do it properly. I uploaded an image down below in the spoiler with a few ideas of how I could create my network and would love to hear your expert thoughts on them. Are they decent ideas or completely missing the point? Do you have a better idea? I think #4 is my favorite as it uses a 4 port Vault which is cheaper than a 6 port and it eliminates a switch which also keeps the price lower. My only holdup is that I don't know if I can connect the switch with PoE cameras to the second ethernet port on my future NAS and expect it to work.

PS. All appliances in the image are wired together.

Extra information on devices I might use:
Protectli Vault w/ coreboot and PFSense for firewall and routing with a mostly system wide VPN
x1 WiFi router in AP mode not on VPN (or maybe dedicated IP VPN in future) for Streaming TV using Gl iNET Beryl AX
x1 WiFi router in AP mode on VPN for all other devices using GL iNET Flint 2
NAS will be an Odroid H3+ (has two 2.5GbE ports) running OpenMediaVault with two Docker containers. One with NextCloud and the other running Frigate, the surveillance camera software.
Printer
Up to x10 PoE surveillance cameras
A managed PoE switch for all of the cameras
All other electronics will be connected over WiFi

Spoiler: Network Layout Ideas Image

[Assistant]
Well, it all depends on what you have on hand already or if you need to purchase everything to make it work.

Rebuilding from the ground up and planning makes a big difference in cost and managing things.

Rule #1 don't use a router as an AP - get a real AP. Cheaper and more effective WIFI coverage

Instead of the PCLI you could just reuse a PC and add a couple of NICs to it for the port density. Choose an OS you're comfortable with and supports the NIC you want to use.
-- using a PC will allow more features though the PCLI will do the same things if you configure them.
-- PC will offer expansion options
-- PC can also house your "NAS" by just putting the drives inside and turning on samba

Consolidating things ~$600 gets you a powerful solution and simplifies things from the base networking / NAS foundation

POE is the expensive part as port density and power budget are pricey compared to powering with an AC adapter but, managing them with POE is easier for monitoring. Putting them all on the same switch and then uplink from there to the main connection keeps it simple and cos effective.

Another perk of the PC setup is it can grow with you or you can add higher speed ports via NIC in another slot for higher priority data w/o replacing the whole device. Adding a 10GE port $90 vs replacing the box for $350 or if you want dual 10GE ~$200. Depends on if you think you'll want to upgrade the ISP connection or need more data to the drives and so on.

Oyster1286 said:
Hi everyone. I'm pretty new to home networking. A while ago I setup an OpenWRT WiFi Router and that was quite complicated but I got it working. I'm now trying to better understand networking as a whole and design my own home network.

Welcome to the forums! There are other people around here with a lot more experience than I, but there are a few points I feel comfortable commenting on.

Oyster1286 said:
Extra information on devices I might use:
Protectli Vault w/ coreboot and PFSense for firewall and routing with a mostly system wide VPN
x1 WiFi router in AP mode not on VPN (or maybe dedicated IP VPN in future) for Streaming TV using Gl iNET Beryl AX
x1 WiFi router in AP mode on VPN for all other devices using GL iNET Flint 2
Click to expand...

The hardware and software you're choosing here are not much discussed on snbforums, as far as I've seen. Maybe they're perfectly fine gear, but you might get better advice about using this stuff elsewhere.

Independently of brand choices, I don't buy using one AP for a streaming TV and a second one for all else. TVs don't really eat that much bandwidth by modern standards --- I believe even 4K streams are only 20 or 25 Mbps. You should be buying APs according to how much space you need to cover, rather than pre-judging what connects to what.

Also, if you are setting things up with a separate router (which I do approve of) then buying a WiFi router and using it as merely an AP is throwing money away on hardware you don't need. Get something that's intended as a plain AP. There's not much of that in the consumer space but SMB-oriented lines have plenty of it. I've had good results with Zyxel's APs, and other people speak highly of Cisco, Omada, and Ubiquiti APs.
Oyster1286 said:
All other electronics will be connected over WiFi

Is none of your other gear particularly network-performance-critical? You will always get better throughput from devices that are wired not wireless, so this is something to be cautious about.

Also, you might want to think about whether your design supports segregating different WiFi devices into separate VLANs, so that you can put low-trust devices (like cheap IoT junk) onto a separate firewalled SSID. For this you will need VLAN-aware APs and VLAN-aware (i.e. managed) switches, as well as a router that can control connections between the VLAN subnet and the outside world. You don't necessarily need to set that up on day one, but you should buy gear that's able to handle it.

Tech Junky said:
Rule #1 don't use a router as an AP - get a real AP. Cheaper and more effective WIFI coverage

Agreed. For same price you will get better RF gear.

Tech Junky said:
POE is the expensive part as port density and power budget are pricey compared to powering with an AC adapter but, managing them with POE is easier for monitoring.

I think the value of POE is only having to run one cable rather than two (for power and signal) to a camera or AP that's located out of easy reach. This is definitely worth something, but as @Tech Junky says, switches with lots of available POE power are expensive. Also problematic in a home environment is that they likely have noisy fans. You might be better off with a couple of smaller switches with lower power budgets.


[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: Cloudflare Security bypass

This is the second time I have seen this posted.

MSN

[Assistant]
coxhaus said:
This is the second time I have seen this posted.
Why not post the original source rather than a reprint by a news aggregator site? I assume the first instance you saw was the Bleeping Computer article. I see that article has been updated with a response from Cloudflare.

Update 10/4 - A Cloudflare spokesperson has sent BleepingComputer the following comment regarding Certitude's report:

In our analysis, we found that the firm's findings would have required a customer to disable certain default security configurations on their Cloudflare account and their origin.
Even in this instance, any such abuse can be prevented through the use of custom certificates to manage the communications between Cloudflare and their origin server (e.g. website), or by utilizing Cloudflare Tunnels to communicate from the origin to Cloudflare.
Click to expand...

"Even in this instance, any such abuse can be prevented through the use of ..."

I don't know how to take that. It sounds like they are giving an excuse of 'well, you could do this or that, but only if you know about it, and it may cost extra $$ ... we have bugs but there are ways to work around them'.

Justinh said:
"Even in this instance, any such abuse can be prevented through the use of ..."

I don't know how to take that. It sounds like they are giving an excuse of 'well, you could do this or that, but only if you know about it, and it may cost extra $$ ... we have bugs but there are ways to work around them'.
I think the preceding sentence is the important part, "would have required a customer to disable certain default security configurations on their Cloudflare account and their origin". Which sounds to me like "If you're stupid enough to do this then...". But I'm not one of their customers so what do I know.


[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: Customer owned issues caused by Xfinity

So I’ve done a deep dive into an issue I’m having and discovered Xfinity line upgrades for their 10G network are causing major issues for customer owned modems.

What I found is the same story posted online many times by different people all having the same exact issues. Xfinity will notify you they are UPGRADING the line so your service will be down. Then when the service goes back up you will only have half of your advertised speed (half was 600mbps for me). The basic breakdown I found is they are sending the signal on new frequencies after line upgrades. If the modem you are using isn’t approved for those frequencies BY XFINITY then your speed will drop. Apparently they are not approving the modems to receive the signals.

I tried 3 Arris S33’s & a Netgear nighthawk 2050 and got the same results. Xfinity wouldn’t even allow me to install the last 2 Arris saying it’s not compatible for me anymore. Today I noticed they added 2 Gig availability to my home (oddly not any of my neighbors). So I upgraded with their equipment. After a quick install and putting their equipment into bridge mode I’m getting full speed on ipv4. IPv6 is clearly capped at 1200 on this tier. Upload is at 120.

Hopefully this saves someone the hours I put in as it was frustrating.

[Assistant]
Interesting, since comcrap offers 2 gig DL/200MB UL in Northern California, with s33 still on authorized list, but limited to 100 upload.
Are you using the XB10? What is the cost of modem rental? We ditched all comcrap equipment, and bought the s33, and it took the tech 30+ mins to get the modem to authorize with their fw, unlike the video/app that states a few minutes and you are up and surfing the web

Clark Griswald said:
Interesting, since comcrap offers 2 gig DL/200MB UL in Northern California, with s33 still on authorized list, but limited to 100 upload.
Are you using the XB10? What is the cost of modem rental? We ditched all comcrap equipment, and bought the s33, and it took the tech 30+ mins to get the modem to authorize with their fw, unlike the video/app that states a few minutes and you are up and surfing the web
The S33 is definitely still on the list. I was trying to explain this to tech support as they insisted it wasn’t allowed. I went through multi tiers of support each call. Finally I gave up. Then today I walked into the store and just got their equipment.

The XB10 isn’t even announced so you must be in the trial area. We only have the XB8 available locally. The split here is 2000/120. Modem/router is only $15 monthly. The overall jump in price was only $25 so it was worth removing the headache while tripling my upload while getting another 800 on the DL. The XB8 isn’t to bad. It’s got the 6G band that I run my tv off. I threw it into bridge mode though. I’m saving my Netgear 2050 for when things get worked 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: Help needed to configure access 2 different routers from 1 PC at same time ?

Hello,
I had an old router and had difficulty with local lan transfers on my PC.. its different issue in this topic:
Recently bought a NEW Router and connect same to Internet using PPPOE.
Check my Network Diagram..

Everything is working as required, But cannot access both router configuration at one time from my Windows 10 PC.

NEW ROUTER = A
IP range = 192.168.0.1
SSID 2.4ghz = TEST2.4 (Works Perfect)
SSID 5ghz = TEST5 (Works Perfect)

Wireless Settings on NEW router:

Network/Lan Interface on NEW Router:

OLD ROUTER = B
Using latest openwrt Firmware
IP range = 192.168.1.1
SSID 2.4ghz = 2.4 OLD ROUTER (Works Perfect)
SSID 5ghz = 5 OLD ROUTER (Works Perfect)

Wireless Settings on OLD router:

Network/Lan Interface on OLD Router:

To connect to OLD router when everything is running fine and make some SSID changes:
(have to turn off NEW router do a network adapter RESET, then OLD router works fine, but internet does not works as IP range gets changed/updated from OLD Router and cannot access NEW router interface)

To connect back to NEW router:
(have to turn off OLD router do a network adapter RESET, then NEW router works fine, Everything starts working perfectly, but cannot access OLD router Interface)

Old Router SSID Settings in 2.4ghz and 5ghz mode:
https://imgur.com/a/5dxg2H1

Can someone direct to a proper solution please ?
I am not sure how to configure openwrt settings, was done by someone else.

Thanks.

[Assistant]
You can't have the two routers connected by LAN port. They both have different LAN IP and run DHCP servers. Convert the second router to Access Point and use it for Wi-Fi and switch only, whatever you need there. Connect the second router's WAN port to your new router's LAN port*. Both routers will be on the same subnet and with one DHCP server from your new router. You'll have access to both UI and will avoid not needed double NAT situation.

* - may be WAN-LAN or LAN-LAN depending on what this old router has in settings. If there is Access Point mode available - WAN (works on LAN too, but may not get time from NTP, model specific). If you do it manually with disabling NAT, DHCP and assigning IPs - LAN.

Internet -> (WAN) New router, Router mode (LAN) -> (WAN/LAN, see above) Old router, AP mode (LAN) -> PC

If you want to use the old router as Wi-Fi extension - set it to the same SSIDs like your new router. Your clients will connect to the best AP they see.

Or just remove the older router/AP device....

MIght be the best course of action here...

Thanks @Tech9 and @sfx2000
At Present New Router Lan Port is connected to Old Router Lan Port
I require WIFI (2.4 ghz and 5 ghz) on both routers running fine, as distance between both routers is very lengthy and both rooms have few old devices which require 2.4ghz as well.
Need LAN on PC connected to old router for faster file transfers to laptop..

Here comes the most difficult part, configuring OLD router with openwrt
(openwrt was setup over stock tplink firmware few years ago from a technician, no idea)

Not sure how to do this on old router openwrt.
== Convert the second router to Access Point and use it for Wi-Fi and switch only, whatever you need there
== You'll have access to both UI and will avoid not needed double NAT situation.
What would be the IP address of old router in this case ?

== may be WAN-LAN or LAN-LAN depending on what this old router has in settings. If there is Access Point mode available - WAN (works on LAN too, but may not get time from NTP, model specific). If you do it manually with disabling NAT, DHCP and assigning IPs - LAN.
Again trouble doing this on old router

== Or just remove the older router/AP device....
Did you meant to physically remove the old router ? or something else ?

Pardon my knowledge about this stuff, still trying to do it myself as technician wont be available for 2 days (Saturday/Sunday)


[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: Improve file transfer speeds between my PC (used as a hotspot) with other devices ? Do I need a 2nd router between PC and main router ?

I have a PC connected via Ethernet to my MAIN router Archer C2600 on openwrt (it has End of Life) (with 3 walls and distance of 20 meters+ between MAIN router and PC)

PC motherboard supports onboard wifi hotspot features, so I use PC as a router/hotspot to connect my Tv/smartphones/laptops to connect to WIFI without long distance and breaking internet speeds to MAIN router)

My motherboard:
TUF GAMING B660M-PLUS WIFI D4｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global
TUF Gaming series distills essential elements of the latest AMD and Intel® platforms, and combines them with game-ready features and proven durability. Engineered with military-grade components, an upgraded power solution and a comprehensive set of cooling options, this motherboard delivers...
www.asus.com

Ethernet
TUF LANGuard
1 x Realtek 2.5Gb Ethernet

Wireless & Bluetooth
Intel® Wi-Fi 6
2x2 Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Supports 2.4/5GHz frequency band
Bluetooth v5.2*
*Bluetooth v5.2 function will be ready in Windows 11 or later

When trying to copy lot of data from PC to laptop and vice-versa, using Windows Network sharing, i am getting a maximum of 14 mbps TRANSFER rate, which is not feasible to transfer 100 GBs of data every week. (Using Windows 10 on PC AND USING Connectify as hotspot software)

Can someone guide what could be wrong here or help fix ?
If I need a new router, please suggest something around 6000 Rupees from www.amazon.in

Thanks.

[Assistant]
Here's is another screenshot between my mobile and PC (working as a router/Hotspot on windows 10 OS via Connectify software.

Note the connection speed, my internet on main router is faster then this.

It is connected on 2.4 ghz band, add tv only supports this.
Connectify software can only work on one band at a time.

Another screenshot when mobile connected to PC on 5 GHz band, only 3x speed difference.

NetorkinghelpSan said:
Another screenshot when mobile connected to PC on 5 GHz band, only 3x speed difference.

You're attempting to use your wifi (2.4ghz wifi at that) for both client and AP/server at the same time. You're just asking too much of your PC's wifi card. Your router should be your wifi AP, not your PC.

You're showing a 433 link rate, which is good for around 300mbit or 37.5 MBYTE per sec. But when using the PC's nic in that way you're cutting that in half, so MAX is going to be about 18 MBYTE/sec transfer rate.


[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! Network discovery won't stay on / can't start DNS Client service (Windows 11 Home)

I am unable to access LAN resources on my computer since the last Windows update (could be a coincidence, as uninstalling the update does not fix it). I have found it happens because "Network discovery: in "Advanced sharing settings" won't stay on, which I have traced to the "DNS Client" service which I am unable to start, getting the error "System error 1058 has occurred. The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it." I have tried resetting the network (From "Advanced network settings" - "Network reset"), I have updated the network adapter driver, I switched (from the Realtek 2.5GbE) to the other network adapter (Intel I211) - nothing helped, this seems to be a Windows issue and not network adapter. Everything works fine on other computers in the network (also Windows 11), so the network is configured properly. Scouring the internet hasn't helped me find any solution.

Does anyone here have any ideas that could work, has anyone encountered this problem before? I really hate the idea of having to reinstall Windows just to get network sharing working...

[Assistant]
%%&^& Microsoft $##W$$ Windows 10 updates! The hours I have spent fixing the broken results! Network discover was broken so many times I just ran out of time & patience. I now find the device in the File Explore search window, for example \\MACYCLARK-HP and then pin it to Quick Access.

See Also: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/problems-with-windows-network-discovery.81273/

I wish it was that easy. I can't connect to a network resource even by LAN IP, never mind names (otherwise my mapped network drives would have worked).

SSovets said:
I wish it was that easy. I can't connect to a network resource even by LAN IP, never mind names (otherwise my mapped network drives would have worked).

Have you tried sfc?

Using System File Checker in Windows - Microsoft Support
Learn how to run System File Checker in Windows to check if your computer has problems with files.
support.microsoft.com

You could also try uninstalling both NIC drivers (keep uninstalling until all drivers are gone, and select to delete the files), reboot, and reinstall the latest of each, see if that rebinds them.


[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: 2.5g home network design query

Hello,

I want to upgrade to a 2.5g wifi 6e network. I’ve currently got an old asus router running merlin and two switches.

Current setup is

Router > switch > switch > poe injector > ubiquiti ap.

This works great all cat6.

I want to replace the switches for 2.5g ones, then i’ll replace the ubi with the enterprise 6e one but there are no routers with 2.5g lan ports that I can find, so my question is, can I get 2.5g speeds for enabled devices on the network when everything is essentially running through the 1gb ports on the router? I cant really re-cable anything so the switches will have to stay “in sequence”

[Assistant]
Well, everything on the lan will be faster. Unless you upgrade your ISP plan I wouldn't worry about the router.

2.5 switches are cheap at $100-150/ea

I use a nwa210ax for an AP and get great speed from it hitting a max of 1.4gbps using an ax411 card and 160mhz.

6e just adds 6ghz and nothing more but, 7 will double the speed with 320mhz bandwidth. Might be worth waiting for unless you need 6ghz because of your neighbors and congestion.

squidgy said:
but there are no routers with 2.5g lan ports that I can find
What are you talking about?
Most recent (ASUS and other brand names) routers have 2.5 or 10 g ports and even more than 2 (WAN + LAN)...

Tech Junky said:
Well, everything on the lan will be faster. Unless you upgrade your ISP plan I wouldn't worry about the router.
Yeah, that. Until your internet connection is better-than-1Gb, there's not a lot of point in upgrading the router. The point of a switch upgrade such as you're describing is mainly to make connections inside your LAN faster. (However, if you're using multiple 1Gb LAN ports on your router, you might want to move all those connections to your higher-speed switch, so that the router isn't bottlenecking local connections.)

BTW, it's worth thinking about exactly what it is you need to make faster. I've had good results using several Netgear GS110MX switches, which have 2 up-to-10G ports and 8 1G ports. By daisy-chaining their 10G ports, I have a bunch of 1G ports in multiple locations and a 10G trunk connection between them, which is pretty nice for my use-case. (I have a lot of 1G clients and just a couple machines capable of more, which I was able to stick at the ends of the daisy chain.) If you actually have several machines with 2.5G ports, then that solution won't do what you want --- but in a scenario like that, a 2.5G trunk connection between the switches seems likely to be a bottleneck. So I'm still not convinced that all-2.5G-port switches are what you want 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: Testing firewalls, WireGuard VPN via pfSense, and other

Hello and good day!
I'm testing and comparing features between SkyNet and pfSense firewalls. After favorable testing and marking notes, I've uninstalled SkyNet ... are there residentual files I should clear? Should I flush iptables?

During the SkyNet testing, I configured WireGuard VPN access directly to ASUS ... shoud I disable or delete this configuration?

After bringing pfSense online for testing/notes, ASUS LAN (x.x.51.x) clients have Internet access via ASUS WAN (x.x.50.5) gateway, pfSense LAN (x.x.50.1), and pfSense WAN (68.x.x.x). I'm having a problem with WireGuard VPN access to ASUS LAN via pfSense ... VPN access works for pfSense but not ASUS; previously worked for both.

pfSense shows ASUS WAN gateway offlineand pings to ASUS WAN and ASUS LAN are not returned ... should I activate ping (1st step in troubleshooting?) via the ASUS GUI and add ASUS iptable settings:

Code:
iptables -A INPUT -s 68.x.x.x -p ICMP --icmp-type 8 -j ACCEPT # Specific pfSense WAN address
iptables -A INPUT -s x.x.50.1 -p ICMP --icmp-type 8 -j ACCEPT # Specific pfSense LAN address
iptables -A INPUT -s x.x.51.1 -p ICMP --icmp-type 8 -j ACCEPT # Specific ASUS LAN address
iptables -A INPUT -p ICMP --icmp-type 8 -j DROP # Drop other external and internal ping attemps

Am I missing anything to re-enable VPN access to ASUS LAN? In advance, thanks for your expertise, consideration, and guidance!

Thanks. Danny.
Model: ZenWiFi AX6600/XT8; Firmware: AX95Q_388.2_2_0_puresqubi (gnuton1)

[Assistant]
deveals said:
I'm testing and comparing features between SkyNet and pfSense firewalls

Skynet is an IP-blocker script. pfBlocker NG package does this in pfSense. Not a firewall.

Tech9 said:
Skynet is an IP-blocker script. pfBlocker NG package does this in pfSense. Not a firewall.
Recieved and clarification appreciated!


[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: Advice on VLAN organization

Hi all,

In my educational journey, I am trying to conceptually (for now) explore how I could better organize my internal home network using VLANs.

The ultimate purpose is to allow me to monitor and increase the security of my network, while keeping a user friendly environment.

I was therefore thinking to create something along those lines:

- 192.168.1.1 router
- 192.168.1.x (internal network: NAS + Omada environnement + smart TVs + SIP phone + main WiFi + game console + laptops + smartphones + tablet + raspberry pi with reverse proxy and pihole)
- 192.168.2.x (smart speakers)
- 192.168.3.x Internet connected home alarm
- 192.168.4.x Internet connected video cameras
- 192.168.5.x Guest network + all unrecognized (wired or wifi)
Click to expand...

Given the above, I wanted to grant the following access rights:

- 1.x outgoing connection allow all - incoming connection deny all
- 2.x outgoing connection deny all - incoming connection allow only from 1.x and 2.x
- 3.x outgoing connection deny all - incoming connection allow only from 1.x and 3.x
- 4.x outgoing connection deny all - incoming connection allow only from 1.x and 4.x
- 5.x outgoing connection deny all - incoming connection allow only from 1.x and 5.x
Click to expand...

As I have no experience with VLAN, I would really appreciate your comments/advices.

Thanks for your precious input!

[Assistant]
giopas said:
Hi all,

In my educational journey, I am trying to conceptually (for now) explore how I could better organize my internal home network using VLANs.

The ultimate purpose is to allow me to monitor and increase the security of my network, while keeping a user friendly environment.

I was therefore thinking to create something along those lines:

Given the above, I wanted to grant the following access rights:

As I have no experience with VLAN, I would really appreciate your comments/advices.

Thanks for your precious input!
Click to expand...

What devices are you using? That will determine how you go about doing it.

I'm curious why you want your alarm and other stuff not to be able to communicate out, doesn't that defeat the purpose? They will have no internet access.

I forgot to mention that is course every VLAN would have internet access

The router is not decided yet (current one is not VLAN capable), but I want to understand - when I will get one - how to take advantage of it.

giopas said:
I forgot to mention that is course every VLAN would have internet access

The router is not decided yet (current one is not VLAN capable), but I want to understand - when I will get one - how to take advantage of it.

To do what you're looking for, you'll need a router with VLAN and firewall, omada, edgerouter or mikrotik. Or you'll need to do some somewhat heavy scripting in Merlin. APs will likely need vlan support as well unless you're going to dedicate an AP for each VLAN that needs wireless.

If you're willing to get into scripting with Merlin firmware, what you want is doable on Asus routers. Freshtomato offers VLAN support via the GUI on some models of asus routers, but not sure how much firewall ability it has for inter-vlan routing and filtering.

In reality what you're looking to do probably warrants the proper gear rather than trying to script something on a cheap home router. You might want to consider a whole TP Link Omada setup (router, switch, and APs) or Ubiquiti ER-X, switch, and APs. Mikrotik can do it too but their OS has a steeper learning curve.

Really any VLAN aware switch (8 port ones are in the $25 range) will work with any of those brands above if you want to skip their branded switch (but you lose the ability to manage everything from one tool). You also have the option of going with PFSense or OpnSense for your router, you can buy prebuilt setups or use any x86 based PC. But for small size and low power consumption, one of the ones above is a nice fit as an "out of the box ready" solution with easy management.

Once you VLAN stuff off any of these solutions can be very flexible with what can talk where. Can filter on IPs, ports, interfaces, 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: Custom Router Box hardware freeze issue

I was not sure what name to give the headline. I am currently running into an issue with my network. I built and upgraded my hardware (from one consumer platform to another) to an Asus B550M Tuf WiFi Plus motherboard, Ryzen 1700 8C/16T CPU, and 16GB DDR4-3200Mhz memory downclocked currently to 1866Mhz. Installed Opnsense 23.7.1_3 on a SATA SSD. The NICS are now an Intel X540 Dual 10G card and an Intel i350-T4 Quad 1G NIC card. The board also has a Realtek 8125 powered 2.5G NIC that is now not being used. The problem I am experiencing seems to be random as the Network will work perfectly and at some point, go completely down to the point that I cannot access the router remotely and have to do a hard reset to gain access again. It does not happen at all times either. I have been banging my tech brain on this one and cannot seem to find a resolution. Now a search online looking at that Asus board seems to show there may have been earlier issues with it including the system freezing at Idle periods, and I am wondering if I may be seeing that even after an update to the latest Bios.

I have ruled out just about everything else and ready to purchase a replacement board that has enough similar features to do a swap and see if that works but reaching out to the community to see if anyone else has experienced similar issues either with that board or similar hardware/OS. With that said, I did recently install the Intel X540-T2 10G card and have the cable modem connected to one of the ports and the other connections going off the I350-T4 card and after the initial hickup since the installation, I have not run into the freeze or any issues. I am not sure if that was due to the Realtek onboard card or the dual Realtek 8125 2.5G card I pulled out of the firewall server. If it has no issues for the next couple of weeks I will update the post, but just trying to get ahead of it and maybe someone else has a good suggestion.....Also I know I am using consumer parts for the board/processor, but it was budget friendly and if done correctly should not have this kind of issue creeping up. I am also thinking the Asus B550 board may be the issue if it happens again as it was an Openbox board I picked up on impulse buy and missing everything. Just wrapped in bubble wrap lol. At least I bought a 2yr warranty with Microcenter due to everything missing and was not sure....

Update: I have removed a Dual Realtek 8125b 2.5G NIC and installed an X540-T2 NIC with the cable modem connected directly to one of the 10G ports. So far no freezing but I am seeing some errors on the "in" of the WAN interface. I will need to keep an eye on it but this may be easier to resolve now. The Realtek card looks like the metal around one of the connectors was damaged and may of been shorting out the system. Will continue to monitor, but seems to be progress.

Update#2: It finally happened today. Was watching a video on Youtube and internet went down. I unfortunately don't have time today to look at it, and will take a look by this weekend. I also checked the log and I think I may of found part of the issue as I saw this in the logs -usr/local/etc/rc.newwanipv6: The command '/usr/sbin/daemon -f -p '/var/run/updaterrd.pid' '/var/db/rrd/updaterrd.sh'' returned exit code '3', the output was 'daemon: process already running, pid: 28960'. Looks like something to do with IPV6? Just a crazy pain in the butt situation.

Update#3: Well for a fast and simple solution, I purchased a new board and just for the sake of making sure was not a compatibility error, I also purchased a new CPU. My updated Opnsense box is now running an AMD Ryzen 5700G (Great price on Amazon for $177) paired with an Asrock B550M Steel Legend Motherboard. I do prefer the overall Bios and some additional features on the Asus B550M Tuf, but if I figure out it was board related, I do have a warranty from Microcenter on it since it was openbox and missing all other hardware. I will use it most likely for another project. I also took the time to get a 512GB M.2 NVMe 3D Nand SSD (it was only $22) to move the OS too. So far the updated router seems to be working and I definitely have not had any freezing even after saturating bandwidth. I am monitoring some Error In faults on the WAN and LAN connected to the X540-T2 card. I think it all stopped after hard resets to all switches and the modem. Progress made, even if a tad expensive one, but I need a stable network as I do work from home on occasion and kids have school projects.

[Assistant]
I run my own setup as well but I opted to use Ubuntu instead of any specific router overlay.

RTL ports can soe times be an issue. On one board I had to blacklist the driver it was trying to use I order for it to pick up the working one instead.
.
I never had any issues with the T4 cards I used initially but upgraded to a qnap quad 5ge card to max out my storage bandwidth. It's aquantia based but have had few issues with it. Usually it's RC kernels missing the modules and just rollback and works fine.

It could just be a quirk with the os halting the network stack for some reason but without looking at the logs you won't know for sure.

Maverick009 said:
Asus B550M Tuf WiFi Plus motherboard, Ryzen 1700 8C/16T CPU, and 16GB DDR4-3200Mhz memory downclocked currently to 1866Mhz. Installed Opnsense 23.7.1_3 on a SATA SSD.

Checking various forums...

There is/was an issue with FreeBSD and Ryzen C6 handling...

It was a BIOS/UEFI setting, I changed AMD CBS > Zen Common Options > Power Supply Idle Control set to "Typical current idle" (instead of auto).

Maverick009 said:
I was not sure what name to give the headline. I am currently running into an issue with my network. I built and upgraded my hardware (from one consumer platform to another) to an Asus B550M Tuf WiFi Plus motherboard, Ryzen 1700 8C/16T CPU, and 16GB DDR4-3200Mhz memory downclocked currently to 1866Mhz. Installed Opnsense 23.7.1_3 on a SATA SSD. The NICS are now an Intel X540 Dual 10G card and an Intel i350-T4 Quad 1G NIC card. The board also has a Realtek 8125 powered 2.5G NIC that is now not being used. The problem I am experiencing seems to be random as the Network will work perfectly and at some point, go completely down to the point that I cannot access the router remotely and have to do a hard reset to gain access again. It does not happen at all times either. I have been banging my tech brain on this one and cannot seem to find a resolution. Now a search online looking at that Asus board seems to show there may have been earlier issues with it including the system freezing at Idle periods, and I am wondering if I may be seeing that even after an update to the latest Bios.

I have ruled out just about everything else and ready to purchase a replacement board that has enough similar features to do a swap and see if that works but reaching out to the community to see if anyone else has experienced similar issues either with that board or similar hardware/OS. With that said, I did recently install the Intel X540-T2 10G card and have the cable modem connected to one of the ports and the other connections going off the I350-T4 card and after the initial hickup since the installation, I have not run into the freeze or any issues. I am not sure if that was due to the Realtek onboard card or the dual Realtek 8125 2.5G card I pulled out of the firewall server. If it has no issues for the next couple of weeks I will update the post, but just trying to get ahead of it and maybe someone else has a good suggestion.....Also I know I am using consumer parts for the board/processor, but it was budget friendly and if done correctly should not have this kind of issue creeping up. I am also thinking the Asus B550 board may be the issue if it happens again as it was an Openbox board I picked up on impulse buy and missing everything. Just wrapped in bubble wrap lol. At least I bought a 2yr warranty with Microcenter due to everything missing and was not sure....
Click to expand...
I have some TUF GAMING B550 and B550M Series including TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (WI-FI) and TUF GAMING B550M-PLUS (WI-FI).
Just try it. I'm not sure it works or not for you.

Clue 1:
memory downclocked
It can be the problem under certain conditions like Undervolting a CPU, Changing Memory Voltage. This is well known issue. So many overclockers know about this issue very well. This is not only for ASUS but also other brands.
Solution(ASUS menu): Power Supply Idle Control > Configuration options > Typical Current Idle.
The problem is not only for Linux but also Windows.

Clue 2:
Realtek onboard card
Intel 2.5GB and Realtek 2.5GB have a lot of issues. New chips are same. So I recommend someone who wants more than 1GB speed buy 10GB NIC instead of 2.5GB. 2.5GB chipsets are failed chipsets.

Clue 3:
1. OS setting issue.
2. NIC setting issue.
3. Something else.


[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: New Asus XT9, Synology Backupblaze not working. Firewall issue?

I just switched over from Netgear to Asus XT9. I see that my hyperbackup jobs on my synology NAS are not working.

The error says the connection to BackBlaze is timing out. Nothing else has changed other than the router and all has worked for a long time.

Do I need to add an exclusion to the ASUS firewall settings to allow Backupblaze to work?

Thx!

[Assistant]
I've never heard of BackupBlaze (is that something to do with BackBlaze?) so don't know how it works. But is it linked to your public IP address in any way? When you changed your router your public IP address probably changed.

yes, I meant BackBlaze. AFAIK, BackBlaze relies on HyperBackup reaching out to it not vice versa. So I don't think my Spectrum assigned IP matters and it's probably changed before. And I've never made my Nas visible to the internet such as with remote access.

billrouter said:
AFAIK, BackBlaze relies on HyperBackup reaching out to it not vice versa. So I don't think my Spectrum assigned IP matters and it's probably changed before.
I can't see this being a firewall issue as all outgoing connections are allowed. The only excerption I can think of is if you have enabled AiProtection and it thinks there's something malicious happening. That would show up in the AIProtection logs. Does HyperBackup have any detailed logs that might provide more information?


[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: PS5 Wired LAN - Best Merlin game settings

Hello,

I have an ai Mesh setup with 2 AX86U, and have a PS5 that is connected via LAN. My ISP connection is 1.5gbit/1gbit
I am running Merlin 388.2_2.
I am curious what the best settings would be for the PS5 when looking at the Game menu (photo attached).

Any opinion would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

Andrew

[Assistant] Leave all those settings alone and just make sure that UPnP is enabled in the WAN - Internet Connection settings. That's it. No need to overcomplicate things, especially with such a fast internet connection.


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

[User]
Title: Help to diagnose a problem

I am a self taught complete network novice. So forgive me if this is a stupid set up! All advice gratefully received.

I am in UK and use 4G LTE for internet. I have a TP-Link TL-MR6400 with sim card. Ethernet cable from LAN output to an Orbi RBR50 Internet port input. This then has 3 satellites. Running Voxel firmware. TP Link is 10.0.0.1 and Orbi is 192.168.1.1 with 255.255.255.0 subnet. I also have a TPLink Archer C50 set as a wireless extender for the Orbi wireless network too. Usually 30-35 devices attached to the Orbi network (mix of wired & wireless).
All works well, EXCEPT that periodically (once every day or couple of days) the Orbi loses internet access partially.
By that I mean I can Ping out OK. A weather station that feeds Wunderground continues OK. An ADSB receiver feeding data remains connected. But I cannot browse the internet either using IP address or http(s) and IOT devices lose connection.

I've spent ages trying to figure out what is going wrong and what I need to do to prevent it happening. But to no avail.
I simply don't have the necessary knowledge - and despite google, I cant turn up anything similar for advice.
So I post here in desperation!

I have the Orbi set as the TPLink DMZ Host IP and I've tried both fixed IP for the Orbi and using TPLink DHCP to issue a reserved address to Orbi. Neither makes any difference.

To restore a working connection I dont need to reboot anything (although rebooting either the Orbi or TPLink will restore things) I simply go to the Orbi Internet Setup page, change nothing but just click "Apply". I dont know what that actually does, but connection is usually restored.

So anyone any ideas as to what is going on and/or suggestions to improve th setup?

Thanks

David

[Assistant]
DCS17 said:
I am a self taught complete network novice. So forgive me if this is a stupid set up! All advice gratefully received.

I am in UK and use 4G LTE for internet. I have a TP-Link TL-MR6400 with sim card. Ethernet cable from LAN output to an Orbi RBR50 Internet port input. This then has 3 satellites. Running Voxel firmware. TP Link is 10.0.0.1 and Orbi is 192.168.1.1 with 255.255.255.0 subnet. I also have a TPLink Archer C50 set as a wireless extender for the Orbi wireless network too. Usually 30-35 devices attached to the Orbi network (mix of wired & wireless).
All works well, EXCEPT that periodically (once every day or couple of days) the Orbi loses internet access partially.
By that I mean I can Ping out OK. A weather station that feeds Wunderground continues OK. An ADSB receiver feeding data remains connected. But I cannot browse the internet either using IP address or http(s) and IOT devices lose connection.

I've spent ages trying to figure out what is going wrong and what I need to do to prevent it happening. But to no avail.
I simply don't have the necessary knowledge - and despite google, I cant turn up anything similar for advice.
So I post here in desperation!

I have the Orbi set as the TPLink DMZ Host IP and I've tried both fixed IP for the Orbi and using TPLink DHCP to issue a reserved address to Orbi. Neither makes any difference.

To restore a working connection I dont need to reboot anything (although rebooting either the Orbi or TPLink will restore things) I simply go to the Orbi Internet Setup page, change nothing but just click "Apply". I dont know what that actually does, but connection is usually restored.

So anyone any ideas as to what is going on and/or suggestions to improve th setup?

Thanks

David
Click to expand...

Your setup is kinda messy, but based on the symptoms it sounds like the Orbi stops accepting new connections, existing keep working but new are dropped. Could be memory, could be a limitation of the number of sessions that system supports. Is it running latest firmware? You may just have too much for it to handle especially with the repeater coming off it.

It could be the TP Link 4G router too, and hitting apply on Orbi just bounces the WAN and resets the connections making room for more. So I'd make sure everything has the latest firmware and see if you can monitor memory utilization and logs on all the network devices.

Thanks for your help.
I think messy is an excellent description I stems from me being self taught and not really knowing what I'm doing!
I'll look to see if I can manage without the repeater altogether. Maybe reposition the satellites to try to get wifi coverage to where I need it.

DCS17 said:
Thanks for your help.
I think messy is an excellent description I stems from me being self taught and not really knowing what I'm doing!
I'll look to see if I can manage without the repeater altogether. Maybe reposition the satellites to try to get wifi coverage to where I need it.

Or perhaps hardwire the TP Link repeater to the ISP router and change it to router or AP mode, and have some devices use that to offload from the Orbi system. Another thought is if the Orbi supports scheduled reboot do that overnight every night, maybe it has a memory leak or is not clearing out stale connections.

Without seeing memory utilization or other logs (if the Orbi even lets you see that) it is mostly guess work though. It could be that all your stuff is fine and the 4G router is the one having too many connections.

Can you run the orbi in wireless only (AP) mode, no router, and have the ISP router handle all your DHCP etc? Cleaner setup that way but not sure if the Orbi system supports that. Or alternatively see if the 4G router supports bridge mode.

If you don't want to get into all that, since hitting apply on the Orbi seems to fix it, a scheduled reboot (or smart plug set to bounce over night) may be the easiest fix, should have the same effect.


[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 achieve xfinity multi-gig "Gigabit extra" 1200mbps connection

TL;DR:

If you have a router with a 2.5g wan port, and a modem with a 2.5g port, and you go into asus router settings and run a speed test from the router directly to modem, and you aren't seeing the full speeds your ISP says you're capable of, then you can:
1. Call your ISP, be a karen, schedule a tech to come out to diagnose
2. If your ISP calls trying to explain you don't need a tech to come out, hold firm

Speed test really late at night/really early in the morning. Retest after 24 and 48 hours (excluding weekend).

You don't need link aggregation to achieve 1444mbps downlink, granted your modem and router both have 2.5g ports, and you are using a good ethernet cable (I'm using cat8)

=====

So.. I just bought an asus ax11000 pro, which supports wan aggregation.

I recently bought an Arris s33 modem, but, just learned that it doesn't support wan aggregation.

However, apparently an arris T25 DOES support link aggregation.

I currently pay for xfinity's "Gigabit extra" plan at 1200mbps..

And I'm really curious.. should I just call xfinity and say I'm not getting the full speeds?

My modem has a 2.5g port which is meant to support +1gbps speeds... but idk... WHY does the arris s33 have 2 ethernet ports if not for link aggregation...???

Here's the (rather impressive) documentation from asus on wan aggregation. I found this by clicking "WAN Aggregation faq" inside my new routers settings.. https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1039053

All my speed tests (done inside qos settings) show the speed hovers around 800-940mbps

[Assistant]
I used a mb8600 and turned on lacp and plugged in two cables and worked great for years.

If you have a 2.5 port on the Asus look at the mb8611 which has one as well

devinrhode2 said:
So.. I just bought an asus ax11000 pro, which supports wan aggregation.

I recently bought an Arris s33 modem, but, just learned that it doesn't support wan aggregation.

However, apparently an arris T25 DOES support link aggregation.

I currently pay for xfinity's "Gigabit extra" plan at 1200mbps..

And I'm really curious.. should I just call xfinity and say I'm not getting the full speeds?

My modem has a 2.5g port which is meant to support +1gbps speeds... but idk... WHY does the arris s33 have 2 ethernet ports if not for link aggregation...???

Here's the (rather impressive) documentation from asus on wan aggregation. I found this by clicking "WAN Aggregation faq" inside my new routers settings..

All my speed tests (done inside qos settings) show the speed hovers around 800-940mbps
Click to expand...
Did you go into the modem's firmware and activate LAG if that is an option? I am using an mb8600 with LAG activated and it works fine on that modem. After activating you need to reboot both the modem and router.

Don't bother calling xfinity since you own both the modem and router it is your problem.

CaptainSTX said:
Don't bother calling xfinity since you own both the modem and router it is your problem.
Sadly, if you use anything but their equipment, then xfinity will always blame your equipment.
Our 2-year contract ended, but I don't have enough "positive mojo" to deal with xfinity to work a deal. I would enjoy having the speeds of gigabit pro, but zoinks $300/month for internet, would clearly wipe-out the home entertainment budget for Casa Griswald.


[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: Bridge or not bridge?

Actually I connect internet through a zte mc801a 5g modem in bridge mode in input to Asus rt-ax86s router for wifi.
It works, but when my isp every for hour change my public ip clients lost internet access. Switching to a not bridged Configuration could more speedier the reconfiguration to a new external ip?

Thanks to all
Olindo

[Assistant]
Olndo Pindaro said:
Switching to a not bridged Configuration could more speedier the reconfiguration to a new external ip?
We cannot answer that. This is something only you can test for yourself.

Which is securely true if I need to open a port I need setup two firewall if I don't bridge...

Olndo Pindaro said:
Which is securely true if I need to open a port I need setup two firewall if I don't bridge...

Not necessarily, if the ISP router supports DMZ you can put the Asus in the DMZ that way PPPoE and port fowarding on the Asus will work.


[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: Minecraft port forward RT-AX82U

I am unable to port forward, i have also allowed the firewall so i would like some help, this is a new router and worked before

[Assistant]
Koishukaze said:
this is a new router and worked before
If it's a new router connected to a cable modem it's likely that your WAN IP address has changed. Maybe that's the problem. How are you testing this?

ColinTaylor said:
If it's a new router connected to a cable modem it's likely that your WAN IP address has changed. Maybe that's the problem. How are you testing this?
I am testing via a laptop on the same network, i have 3 instances, one with local ip, public ip, and a custom ddns (lower priority), both public ip and custom ddns do not work, so it seems to issue is with the port forwarding

Testing internally can sometimes be misleading because it relies on NAT loopback. Try doing a port scan from the internet.

Open Port Check Tool -- Verify Port Forwarding on Your Router
A free open port check tool used to detect open ports on your connection. Test if port forwarding is correctly setup or if your port is being blocked by your firewall or ISP.
canyouseeme.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: Solved Double NAT Problem — Verizon 5g Home Internet Gateway (LVSKIHP)

Is anyone familiar with the “new” Verizon 5g home internet gateway (LVSKIHP)??

They seemed to have gone to great lengths to limit user access on the device’s web GUI. There’s no option to put the device into bridge mode. There’s no pass through. DMZ seems only to bypass certain router functions (maybe the firewall?), but not NAT itself. And though I’ve yet to try my luck with port forwarding, (I’m not well versed enough in that arena and I’m exhausted from trial and error in other areas only to figure out that what limited customization we’re given access to doesn’t end up behaving in ways that comport to our expectations )

Does anyone have a good resource you can point me to that explains the basics of port fwding or provides instructions on port forwarding to resolve double NAT issues?

or does anyone know how to SSH into this gateway who could tell me what I need to do to force the thing into bridge mode?

or other suggestions? (Are there other Verizon 5g mmW modems that allow you to switch to bridge mode? Customer service is useless. Their big suggestion is to google answers to my issues. Or call the sales people if I want to compare modem tech specs. Yikes.)

Apparently, an earlier version of this gateway’s firmware had allowed you to switch to bridge mode. But then they locked that ish down in the latest updates. (?)

I’m in my 30 day free trial period right now. And I’d love to be able to keep this, because it’s blazing fast and plans are cheap (especially if you have a Verizon cell phone too) and right now my rate is locked in for 10 YEARS if I keep it.

thank you!!

[Assistant]
The 5G gateways don't have a bridge mode and the providers are moving away from the GUI in favor of forcing the app for making changes. Besides this they're also using cgnat or ipv6 and not giving ipv4.

You won't be able to use the sim with your own modem. I tested my TMobile one with my phone using the same apn info of the gateway and it seems they're binding them to the IMEI of the gateways.

SSH isn't an option but, I haven't explored using a console cable for access. There's a 2nd USBC port on the TMobile gateway that seems to possibly be a way into sit but I haven't seen any programming sequence to get it to pick up a signal from the port. Since the updates come from ota there might be some tool that's used to program them or trigger a configuration mode.

Tech Junky said:
The 5G gateways don't have a bridge mode and the providers are moving away from the GUI in favor of forcing the app for making changes. Besides this they're also using cgnat or ipv6 and not giving ipv4.

You won't be able to use the sim with your own modem. I tested my TMobile one with my phone using the same apn info of the gateway and it seems they're binding them to the IMEI of the gateways.

SSH isn't an option but, I haven't explored using a console cable for access. There's a 2nd USBC port on the TMobile gateway that seems to possibly be a way into sit but I haven't seen any programming sequence to get it to pick up a signal from the port. Since the updates come from ota there might be some tool that's used to program them or trigger a configuration mode.
Click to expand...
This one apparently USED to have a bridge mode. But it was removed in a firmware update.

Allegedly, there’s a PoE port concealed under the outer cover, but I haven’t gotten a strong enough confirmation to dare risk opening it up. Also, I’m haven’t gotten solid confirmation that the gateway will function in “mode #2” (like a bridge — modem only) if connected to PoE.

this is crazy. Especially with so many people working from home and needing various forms of network segregation, I can’t understand how they can be SO INFLEXIBLE.

Also, i came across this: https://tifan.net/blog/2021/04/01/enable-bridge-mode-on-verizon-5g-home-router-lv55-lvskisp/

not sure if anyone on here is willing to make sense of it for me

Enable Bridge Mode on Verizon 5G Home Router (model LV55 / LVSKIHP)
Thu 01 April 2021
Just Use IPv6
This is the most simple solution. Log in to the router, use the following code to enable IPv6, and call it a day. Trust me, you don't want to spend more time on it.
WNC.DM.set({
args: {
"Object":"Device.DHCPv6.Server.",
"Operation": "Modify",
"X_WNC_RA_management":"Stateless",
"Enable": 1,
},
success: function s(objs, status) {
console.log("success: ", status, objs)
},
error: function s(objs, status) {
console.log("error: ", status, objs)
},
})

Even if you're still behind NAT, having a public IPv6 address is still much better than nothing. Also, you'll get an extra Wi-Fi hotspot for guests. The built-in Wi-Fi is actually quite good.

Click to expand...


[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: Ethernet basics

Just a quick question on Ethernet transmission

When Ethernet goes by 2.5 gb and then by 1 gbe, to devices that could be even 100 mbps,

Is there a buffer in the ASUS router switch, to hassle the speed differences.

I get it, the importance of network setup, so that your not bottle necking and Ethernet line.

Is there a site to general I formation on Ethernet transmission?

[Assistant]
I'm sure there are many sites offering general info on Ethernet. "Google it", as they say.

There is no buffering. The slowest node limits data flow across the path from sender to receiver.

Nas.CloudBusinessPortal said:
Just a quick question on Ethernet transmission

When Ethernet goes by 2.5 gb and then by 1 gbe, to devices that could be even 100 mbps,

Is there a buffer in the ASUS router switch, to hassle the speed differences.

I get it, the importance of network setup, so that your not bottle necking and Ethernet line.

Is there a site to general I formation on Ethernet transmission?
Click to expand...

If two devices are directly connected, they will negotiate to the lowest supported speed by the two of them.

If they are connected to a switch (or any other device with differing port speeds) with one device at 2.5 and one at 1G, then there are several buffers in the path that may get used, one on each client, one on each switch port, if a router is involved, one on each router port. Depending on the scenario, some or all of these buffers may get used (sometimes it will just be one or two of them, depending where in the path the bottleneck is). But those buffers are relatively small, it is TCP that will detect the bottleneck and throttle back once those buffers start dropping packets. However it is not a "pretty" throttling, it will keep ramping up, detecting the packet loss, throttling back, repeat over and over. For UDP, there is no throttling back, if you attempt to exceed the slowest link speed it will heavily drop packets and your stream will get very glitchy. This is why apps that use UDP often also have a TCP connection between them to request retransmissions of missed messages. But that only helps for occasional loss for the most part unless the app is designed specifically to deal with heavy drops, essentially it must delay/pre-buffer the stream enough so that it can "fill in the gaps" without you ever noticing. Note application buffering is totally different, that uses RAM on the client machine where the app is installed, not network/hardware port buffers.

There will be packet drops and retransmissions if you attempt to exceed the speed of the slower device no matter what. That is a normal part of ethernet (or really any data) communications. Even if both devices are the same speed, saturating the connection will result in buffer hits and eventually packet drops and TCP throttling back. The application layer (and most of the layers until you hit the network/data link layer) have no idea what the physical link speed is. Certain apps you can set a max speed/tell it what the link speed is and it will shape and throttle traffic to try and stay within that. Not very common on typical consumer oriented applications though.

It isn't something to be overly concerned with, it is a normal part of data communications. The buffers in the asus are likely pretty small, but larger ones wouldn't make much difference with that kind of mismatch (2.5 and 1 or even 2.5 and 100M). Too large of a buffer can also cause problems.

AS was stated above, Google is your friend. for basics see: https://computer.howstuffworks.com/ethernet.htm

However, you will glaze quickly. What is important is to use the right hardware especially cables. For up to 1 GB use CAT5 cables at a minimum. Up to 2.5 GB use CAT5e at a minimum. Some may say to use CAT5e for 1 GB and CAT6 for up to 2.5 GB and neither is wrong. There are other considerations you can learn or look up in time.
One standard for cables determines how the wires are connected at the connector. It is recommended to use the same cable standard within a run. TIA/EIA 568a or TIA/EIA 568b.
And be kind to your cables. No kinks or sharp bends. Replace or repair damaged cables before trouble happens.


[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: Ubuquiti switches on VLAN other than default

I've been doing home and small office networks for years, but now I'm venturing into larger (but not enterprise) networks at work. I have a new Ubiquiti network I'm trying to set up to replace an existing network for one of our offices. To keep things simple (or so I thought) I'm trying to set up the new network as closely as possible to how the old network was set up. I know that Ubiquiti likes to keep all your network gear (switches, AP's, routers, etc) management IP's in the default VLAN (192.168.1.0/24. For this network I have a Ubiquiti Next Gen Gateway Pro for the firewall, and a Cloudkey Gen2 Plus for the controller. I have 11 Switch pro 24 and 48 port switches. I have created a new VLAN 50 for the network management IP's. This VLAN is 10.81.5.0/24 and just because the other network is set this way, the gateway is set at 10.81.5.100. All my firmware and network app, and Ubuquiti OS is all at the latest version since this is all new. If I try to put one of my switches management IP in that new VLAN, my Cloudkey can no longer communicate with it. Even though inter-VLAN routing rules are in place and all VLANs should be able to talk to each other at this point. Is there some way to be able to move all my network management IP's to this new VLAN without losing connection to them? I'm not sure why the Cloudkey can't talk to the switch I put in the new VLAN when the firewall rules are set by default to allow all the VLANs to communicate. Any assistance would be appreciated. I know Ubiquiti is a little strange in some ways they do things, so was hoping someone else has run into this before. Please let me know if you need any further info from my configuration.

Thank you,

[Assistant]
restockton said:
I've been doing home and small office networks for years, but now I'm venturing into larger (but not enterprise) networks at work. I have a new Ubiquiti network I'm trying to set up to replace an existing network for one of our offices. To keep things simple (or so I thought) I'm trying to set up the new network as closely as possible to how the old network was set up. I know that Ubiquiti likes to keep all your network gear (switches, AP's, routers, etc) management IP's in the default VLAN (192.168.1.0/24. For this network I have a Ubiquiti Next Gen Gateway Pro for the firewall, and a Cloudkey Gen2 Plus for the controller. I have 11 Switch pro 24 and 48 port switches. I have created a new VLAN 50 for the network management IP's. This VLAN is 10.81.5.0/24 and just because the other network is set this way, the gateway is set at 10.81.5.100. All my firmware and network app, and Ubuquiti OS is all at the latest version since this is all new. If I try to put one of my switches management IP in that new VLAN, my Cloudkey can no longer communicate with it. Even though inter-VLAN routing rules are in place and all VLANs should be able to talk to each other at this point. Is there some way to be able to move all my network management IP's to this new VLAN without losing connection to them? I'm not sure why the Cloudkey can't talk to the switch I put in the new VLAN when the firewall rules are set by default to allow all the VLANs to communicate. Any assistance would be appreciated. I know Ubiquiti is a little strange in some ways they do things, so was hoping someone else has run into this before. Please let me know if you need any further info from my configuration.

Thank you,
Click to expand...

Probably better suited to ask this in Ubiquiti's forum. I know I ran my APs in a custom VLAN for management but that was using on prem, not cloud key. There may be some limitation or special config needed for that to work. In the "default" network is there a place for you to specify the VLAN ID? Can the switch communicate out to anything (ping DNS etc)?

Sorry, I'm new here so I didn't realize there was a Ubiquiti forum. Thank you. I think I found a workaround anyway, so I think I'm gonna see if this works and may not need any more help.

restockton said:
Sorry, I'm new here so I didn't realize there was a Ubiquiti forum. Thank you. I think I found a workaround anyway, so I think I'm gonna see if this works and may not need any more help.

Not here, I mean on ubiquiti's support site.


[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: Accessing Modem from LAN when in bridging mode

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to set up a LAN at my parents house using the following gear:-
Netgear D200 ADSL Modem Router
ASUS RT-AC66U_B1 Router running latest version of Merlin
The key requirements, over and above basic access to the internet, are to:-
Run a OpenVPN server and DDNS service from the ASUS router (so that I can connect to this router / LAN from over the internet)
Run the DHCP server running from the ASUS router (so that all LAN network activity is logged in one single place)
Be able to access the Netgear control panel, when connected to the ASUS router LAN (in order to help diagnose any ADSL connectivity / speed issues)
For 1 and 2, my plan would simply be
Set up the Netgear D200 to Bridge Mode, thus making it a simple modem
Connect the Netgear LAN port to the WAN port of the ASUS Router.
Set up the ASUS in Router mode, with DHCP server, OpenVPN server, and DDNS service
However in this configuration, I don't think I have access the Netgear control panel from within the LAN.

I'm wondering what the simplest, most reliable way is to achieve all 3 requirements above?

I had considered running the Netgear D200 in modem router mode, with DHCP turned off, and placed on the same LAN as the ASUS by connecting the Netgear LAN port to the ASUS LAN port. But if I do this, won't I run into routing conflicts and with the DDNS set up?

I'm doing the research ahead of time because I will have a very tiny limited time window to experiment and get this set up when I'll have actual physical access to the Netgear D200 at my parent's house (I do however have the ASUS router with me currently). Hence, the reason for the asking for everyone's help - thanks!

[Assistant]
mbaker said:
However in this configuration, I don't think I have access the Netgear control panel from within the LAN.
Try it before you go down more convoluted paths. I know some people have problems accessing their cable modem in bridge mode (particularly in the USA), but I've never had an issue accessing my cable modem. It just works. YMMV.

The manual for the DM200 says:
IMPORTANT:
After you disable the modem’s routing features and the modem functions as
a DSL modem only, you can access the modem only through a fixed IP address,
which is 192.168.5.1. Therefore, make sure that IP address 192.168.5.1 is not
assigned to another device on your network.
Click to expand...
So just make sure your LAN is not using the 192.168.5.x subnet.

Thanks for the fantastic pointers on this - I didn't spot that line in the manual. As mentioned, I only have a small window of time to try things out when I'm at my parent's house hence, the slight pre-emptive question, but your pointer above gives me confidence on this.

One question though, I'm setting the ASUS Router and the DHCP pool to be on 192.168.10.x as a way to ensure when I connect to the OpenVPN server from an outside 192.168.1.x network, there are no clashes with the ASUS AC66U_B1 LAN (I had issues with this before when I had a Raspberry Pi OpenVPN server running inside my parent's house on an old router). Do you think I will still be able to access 192.168.5.1 from via the OpenVPN connection from outside i.e. accessing the ASUS 192.168.10.x network from a 192.168.1.x network via the ASUS OpenVPN server, in order to log into 192.168.5.1? Apologies, I'm hitting the limits of my networking knowledge and hence, don't fully understand the implications of all the above.

mbaker said:
As mentioned, I only have a small window of time to try things out when I'm at my parent's house hence, the slight pre-emptive question, but your pointer above gives me confidence on this.
It is wise to try and cover every eventuality when you only have a limited window. If it doesn't work "out of the box" then I don't know what to suggest as it's not a problem that I've personally encountered. There are some guides on the wiki about accessing modems.

The simple approach tells you to temporarily change your WAN IP address to be on the same subnet as the modem's interface. This approach won't work for you because it disconnects the link to the internet, which your VPN is coming through . Another technique involves creating a second virtual WAN interface, in your case on the 192.168.5.x network. There's an example here. I'd guess you'd need to change 192.168.100.2 to 192.168.5.2.

Do you think I will still be able to access 192.168.5.1 from via the OpenVPN connection from outside i.e. accessing the ASUS 192.168.10.x network from a 192.168.1.x network via the ASUS OpenVPN server, in order to log into 192.168.5.1?
This is something that you'll just have to try it and see. You must have the VPN client and server setup so that ALL of the client's traffic goes through the VPN. As far as the VPN client is concerned 192.168.5.1 is "on the internet somewhere" not on the remote LAN. So the OpenVPN server must have "Direct clients to redirect Internet traffic" set to yes.


[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 setup

Hi,
I need some help how to configure my routers setings including dhcp and ip addresses.
In one place I have a router with a sim card for internet. To this router using a lan cable I have connected a wireless access point Tplink cpe510. 100 meters away I have another Tplink cpe510 which receives signal from first one and this one is connected to another router using lan cable. at this place I have another router which acts as a wireless repeater.
Here is a diagram in attachment

Thank you

[Assistant]
I kinda think that "Home network setup" seems a little misleading! It would seem to me that you might want to get a professional in to perform an audit and recommend equipment that will do what you require without going through a "suck it and see" process. Genuinely think in the long run, getting professionals in will actually save you money!

Thank you for your reply but I already have all the equipment and it is working but not always as it should so I just need some help with configuration of ip addresses and on which device dhcp should be on or off

Looking at your diagram, I presume that the cpe510 pair make up a dedicated point-to-point link.

Certainly your router that is connected to the internet will serve IP addresses, unless you choose to use a DHCP reservation for the local cpe510. In the diagram you show, the IP address range allowed by the router connected to the internet can be quite small, unless there are other devices not shown.

I have not tried a PtP link such as this, but I presume that the router you have connected to the remote end of the PtP link will get its IP address (over the wireless link) from the router connected to the internet unless the PtP remote station expects to perform this function. In my network, the tp-link WAP that I use does not issue IP addresses, clients get them from the router to which the WAP is connected. (to emphasize: while I use a WAP and a wireless repeater, I don't use a PtP link so I may be making an inaccurate assumption.)

I use a wireless repeater that has its DHCP server set to ON. Initially this surprised me but it works without issue, handing out its own range of local IP addresses* to clients.

You didn't mention how your setup is configured, but I believe the answer to how many of your devices will be serving IP addresses is: 2.
Perhaps you could also elaborate on the kinds of errors or difficulties you are experiencing besides that it doesn't always work. This could potentially help us assist you.

Please let us know how things work out. I'm always interested to learn...

* range defined by me. This range is not within the range of the other. For example, the repeater issues IPs in the 192.168.35.x range, while the main router is in the 192.168.108.x range.


[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 get amount of data used by each node on network

I'd like to track how much data (like MBs per day or week) that each node consumes. I do not want to use my router.

I need recommendations on software (Windows or Linux), preferably free, that can do this.

[Assistant]
As you haven't said anything at all about what these nodes are it's impossible to say. An SNMP monitor (like PRTG) would be the obvious choice if your nodes support it.

Justinh said:
I'd like to track how much data (like MBs per day or week) that each node consumes. I do not want to use my router.

I need recommendations on software (Windows or Linux), preferably free, that can do this.

If you have a device that supports netflow (or a variant) in the path, ManageEngine used to have a free netflow collector/analyzer, not sure if they still do. That's going to be the most accurate and easiest method. There are other free ones out there too. But as @ColinTaylor mentioned, need more info.

If you just want to look at each node/device pretty much all OSes including Android/IOS have built in counters. You can't just install something on one PC on your network and have it know what other devices are using, you need a router or switch in the path capable of tracking that data. SNMP will tell you at interface levels, but if you need IP level then netflow or similar is required. Alternatively, a smart switch with mirroring ability and a PC running monitoring/sniffing software, but that is a pretty overkill solution.

I suppose if every device you want to know about supports SNMP (any modern windows and linux should) then you can poll them all directly. MRTG/PRTG and Cacti are popular for this but takes some time to get set up and the PC that is polling/collecting the data must run 24x7. SNMP total amount can be a bit glitchy too, even if you use 64 bit counters to try and minimize counter wrapping, the polling software is going to average some stuff out and give you totals based on that average, even if you poll at 10 second intervals.


[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: Notice when WAN disconnected

For any device in the LAN which is past the Modem (i.e. PC, Smartphone, Router etc.):

Is it possible to check if WAN disconnected?

The naive approach is to simply ping to a "known" address, though it doesn't sound robust.

[Assistant]
the router does it automatically.
windows and mac OS do so as well and display the "no internet" symbol.
Ping is very reliable and can be automated - pingplotter for example.
Nothing naive about it..

degrub said:
the router does it automatically.
windows and mac OS do so as well and display the "no internet" symbol.
Ping is very reliable and can be automated - pingplotter for example.
Nothing naive about it..
Then how do you choose a reliable server to ping to?
How do you know that packet won't be dropped somehow? A glitch or something

pingplotter can indicate drops/glitches, phase of the moon, etc. for the packets.
Google is generally pretty reliable at 8.8.8.8


[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: So I ordered an APC Smart-UPS C1000

I just bought an APC Smart-UPS C1000. Amazon has them for $406 with free shipping. I need to power back up my Cisco L3 switch with 3 Cisco wireless POE+ APs as well as my router and modem. I plan to add another AP to my wife's sewing room. I have an older smaller APC which is running out of power. I bought it originally to keep my modem and router hot. The replacement battery for the C1000 is only $139 every 4 years or so not bad. I could probably also add my small Synology NAS. The NAS does not matter to me much as it spends most of its time off protecting my pictures.

I still have 3 old APCs. I have an APC 1500 rack mount, a SMART-UPS 700, a SMART-UPS1500. The problem is they are at least 15 years old and need to be refurbished. The batteries for the big ones are expensive to replace.
I was thinking the newer technology would be better. Newer ones still seem to use lead acid batteries. The C1000 that I ordered has pure sign wave with over and under voltage correction.

[Assistant]
coxhaus said:
I just bought an APC Smart-UPS C1000. Amazon has them for $406 with free shipping. I need to power back up my Cisco L3 switch with 3 Cisco wireless POE+ APs as well as my router and modem. I plan to add another AP to my wife's sewing room. I have an older smaller APC which is running out of power. I bought it originally to keep my modem and router hot. The replacement battery for the C1000 is only $139 every 4 years or so not bad. I could probably also add my small Synology NAS. The NAS does not matter to me much as it spends most of its time off protecting my pictures.

I still have 3 old APCs. I have an APC 1500 rack mount, a SMART-UPS 700, a SMART-UPS1500. The problem is they are at least 15 years old and need to be refurbished. The batteries for the big ones are expensive to replace.
I was thinking the newer technology would be better. Newer ones still seem to use lead acid batteries. The C1000 that I ordered has pure sign wave with over and under voltage correction.
Click to expand...

Yeah unfortunately Lithium Ion based UPS are still very expensive.

I still run a 20 year old Smart UPS 1400 and replace the batteries every 6-8 years with good CSB ones. Unit still works fine, I did modify it to allow me to adjust the float voltage for the batteries though, makes them last longer.

We had a bad thunderstorm last Thursday with a power outage. All my network stayed up including my Cisco wireless APs. So, I call it a success.

coxhaus said:
I still have 3 old APCs. I have an APC 1500 rack mount, a SMART-UPS 700, a SMART-UPS1500. The problem is they are at least 15 years old and need to be refurbished. The batteries for the big ones are expensive to replace.
I was thinking the newer technology would be better. Newer ones still seem to use lead acid batteries. The C1000 that I ordered has pure sign wave with over and under voltage correction.
I have an APC Smart-UPS SMX750i. I bought it cheap about 4 years ago. I think about 90 USD. Batteries were toast. Rather then buying a very expensive APC replacement pack, i opened up the battery housing, removed the batteries and bought 4 new single cells. They are indeed lead/zinc and the identical ones were about 80 USD for all 4. I initially connected the UPS with my Synology via USB but afterwards bought an AP9631 network card so i could manage it through the LAN which works great and i also deployed the monitoring package in pfSense. I got my router, switch, Synology and TrueNAS server all hooked up to it. The setup works perfectly fine and after more than 3 years, battery health is still fine.


[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: Failure to connect MB Pro to Synology router.

Equipment:

• 2015 MacBook Pro running Catalina - which I just acquired

• Router - Synology RT2600ac SRM 1.3.1-9346 Update 3

I have the wifi my wife and I use set up as OurLan 2.5 and OurLan 5 ghz and guest networks set up as GuestLan 2.5 and GuestLan 5 ghz

Previously I had a 2012 MB Pro which was able to find and connect to any of these wifi networks.

No matter what I do, the 2015 MB Pro will only connect to the guest networks. It finds all four networks, but times out when I try to connect to the non-guest ones.

I have looked everywhere in the settings and I cannot see what I have done wrong.

Any suggestions are more than welcome

[Assistant]
Check and make sure your WiFi auth is set to WPA2 - non-AC Mac's do not support WPA3

I just checked the Synology's Network Center, Wi-Fi Connect, and Control Panel and could not find where to see if it is not set to WPA3. Might I trouble you for exactly where in the settings I need to go to check that?

Went to Synology > Help and found it! It is set to WPA-2 Personal