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Re: Hot Linksys RE4000W's front lights are blinking. Can't seem to fix. Need new extenders?

Cross-posted to 4 groups.

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On Mon, 17 Jul 2017 18:45:38 -0500, ANTant@zimage.com (Ant) wrote:

>In alt.comp.networking.routers Char Jackson <none@none.invalid> wrote:
>> On Sun, 16 Jul 2017 20:46:24 -0500, ANTant@zimage.com (Ant) wrote:
>
>> >In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.networking Char Jackson <none@none.invalid> wrote:
>> >
>> >> >This new wifi range extender seems a lot better than Linksys'. Even 
>> >> >online ratings and comments show more positives. I also forgot to 
>> >> >mention that my Debian/Linux box's arpwatchd show lots of IP address 
>> >> >fights with these Linksys wifi range extenders. With Netgear's, none! :)
>> >
>> >> I'm guessing the IP conflicts on the Linksys units were a simple
>> >> misconfiguration issue. It's possible that both Linksys units were being
>> >> used with their default IP addresses, which would show up as conflicts
>> >> but wouldn't/shouldn't have affected performance* because range
>> >> extenders operate at OSI Layer 2 and IP addresses live at Layer 3, so
>> >> IPs are only used for admin access.
>> >
>> >I doubt it. I did notice the issue got worse and over as the time went 
>> >on. It even tried to take 192.168.1.1 IP address own by the router. No 
>> >disconnections though.
>
>> I think it's a safe guess to say that the LAN uses the 192.168.1.0/24
>> subnet, (right?), otherwise you wouldn't care if the RE's use
>> 192.168.1.1, and the conflict you mentioned above is exactly what I
>> suspected. You could have fixed that by logging into each RE and giving
>> it a unique IP address. I'm still not sure why you didn't do that, or if
>> you tried, where and how it failed. 
>
>Yes, all IP addresses use 192.168.1.x. Netgear R6300 v1 uses 
>192.168.1.1. What is weird that when Linksys REs were working, they kept 
>changing their own IP addresses with Netgear R6300 router's DHCP. I am 
>assuming they are getting disconnected and reconnected due to signal 
>issues. The Nighhawk wifi range extender doesn't do this.

Many people configure their router to hand out the same IP every time to
devices that are recognized. I would definitely recommend that for
things like range extenders.

For the Linksys units, when a DHCP server is available they simply
request an address via DHCP. When they lose contact with the DHCP
server, they default back to 192.168.1.1. Since you already have a
device on the network with that IP address, there's a conflict. You
could always change the LAN IP address of the router to something else
to avoid the conflict, such as 192.168.1.254. Still, the two REs might
sometimes conflict with each other, but if they're losing contact with
the router that often then something's wrong. Try moving them to a
different location, possibly closer to the router or in such a way that
they don't have to travel through so many walls or floors.


>> >> Regarding performance, since they're range extenders, performance is
>> >> expected to be pretty bad, but if it's what the folks are used to
>> >> they'll never know.
>> >
>> >> It sort of bothers me that you were never able to access the Linksys
>> >> units to reset or configure them, even after I provided step by step
>> >> directions, but all's well that ends well. Now that you've removed them
>> >> from service, maybe you'll take a minute or two and log into them to see
>> >> what their problem was, just out of curiosity.
>> >
>> >I think I finally resetted them with their holes and their lights 
>> >finally stopped flashing.
>
>> I thought you had done a reset to defaults, maybe even more than one,
>> earlier in this process. What was different about your reset procedure
>> this time?
>
>Not earlier before yesterday (Sunday) with one RE. It kept getting stuck 
>with blinking lights in a loop and never connecting (not even showing 
>its default SSID). After I powered them off for many hours and retrying, 
>then they could be resetted and show me their default SSIDs. Now, I just 
>need to be able to connect to them. I will deal with them later. :/
>
>
>> >I can see their SSIDs, but MacBook Pro refuses 
>> >to connect to it. Same for their network cables.
>
>> What does that mean? What IP address did you assign to your Mac? How did
>> you connect the cables? Did ping work? I thought you were going to
>> disable WiFi while you connect to the Linksys units with Ethernet cables
>> (thru a switch)?
>
>Nothing worked. I don't have a switch. I just connect from MBP to a RE 
>directly.

While Linksys shows a laptop being connected directly to a range
extender via Ethernet cable,
(http://www.linksys.com/us/support-article?articleNum=140923), I have
serious doubts that that will work because the RE ports are only Fast
Ethernet, so they don't know how to handle MDI/MDIX. You need Gigabit
ports for that, so the solution is to either use an Ethernet _crossover_
cable, or connect a switch in between the laptop and the RE. You do have
a switch; it's incorporated into the Netgear R6300 router. You have 4
switch ports there, plus a WAN port that you'd ignore for this step.

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Thread

Hot Linksys RE4000W's front lights are blinking. Can't seem to fix. Need new extenders? Ant <ant@zimage.comANT> - 2017-07-14 21:05 -0700
  Re: Hot Linksys RE4000W's front lights are blinking. Can't seem to fix. Need new extenders? Char Jackson <none@none.invalid> - 2017-07-15 01:06 -0500
    Re: Hot Linksys RE4000W's front lights are blinking. Can't seem to fix. Need new extenders? Ant <ant@zimage.comANT> - 2017-07-15 07:07 -0700
      Re: Hot Linksys RE4000W's front lights are blinking. Can't seem to fix. Need new extenders? Char Jackson <none@none.invalid> - 2017-07-15 11:03 -0500
        Re: Hot Linksys RE4000W's front lights are blinking. Can't seem to fix. Need new extenders? Ant <ant@zimage.comANT> - 2017-07-15 10:22 -0700
          Re: Hot Linksys RE4000W's front lights are blinking. Can't seem to fix. Need new extenders? Char Jackson <none@none.invalid> - 2017-07-15 13:35 -0500
  Re: Hot Linksys RE4000W's front lights are blinking. Can't seem to fix. Need new extenders? Ant <ant@zimage.comANT> - 2017-07-16 10:28 -0700
    Re: Hot Linksys RE4000W's front lights are blinking. Can't seem to fix. Need new extenders? Char Jackson <none@none.invalid> - 2017-07-16 12:48 -0500
      Re: Hot Linksys RE4000W's front lights are blinking. Can't seem to fix. Need new extenders? ANTant@zimage.com (Ant) - 2017-07-16 16:32 -0500
        Re: Hot Linksys RE4000W's front lights are blinking. Can't seem to fix. Need new extenders? Char Jackson <none@none.invalid> - 2017-07-16 18:37 -0500
          Re: Hot Linksys RE4000W's front lights are blinking. Can't seem to fix. Need new extenders? ANTant@zimage.com (Ant) - 2017-07-16 20:46 -0500
            Re: Hot Linksys RE4000W's front lights are blinking. Can't seem to fix. Need new extenders? Char Jackson <none@none.invalid> - 2017-07-16 23:11 -0500
              Re: Hot Linksys RE4000W's front lights are blinking. Can't seem to fix. Need new extenders? ANTant@zimage.com (Ant) - 2017-07-17 18:45 -0500
                Re: Hot Linksys RE4000W's front lights are blinking. Can't seem to fix. Need new extenders? Char Jackson <none@none.invalid> - 2017-07-18 02:24 -0500
                Re: Hot Linksys RE4000W's front lights are blinking. Can't seem to fix. Need new extenders? Christopher A. Lee <c.lee@fairpoint.net> - 2017-07-18 11:30 -0500
    Re: Hot Linksys RE4000W's front lights are blinking. Can't seem to fix. Need new extenders? Ant <ant@zimage.comANT> - 2017-07-22 15:08 -0700

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