Path: csiph.com!weretis.net!feeder6.news.weretis.net!feeder.usenetexpress.com!feeder1.iad1.usenetexpress.com!border1.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!buffer1.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!news.giganews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2017 11:30:56 -0500 From: Christopher A. Lee Newsgroups: alt.comp.networking.routers,alt.comp.networking.connectivity,comp.networks,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.networking Subject: Re: Hot Linksys RE4000W's front lights are blinking. Can't seem to fix. Need new extenders? Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2017 11:30:52 -0500 Message-ID: References: <27ydnccoWvuuP_bEnZ2dnUU7-RfNnZ2d@earthlink.com> <4l9nmcpua0o97f53eikpk37cvq7aca0auh@4ax.com> <00drmcpm9otuqh5f54ds5f4gj7p8r1rakd@4ax.com> User-Agent: ForteAgent/7.20.32.1218 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 121 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com X-Trace: sv3-kWgWY1aDCCbK56UQvOIdQ/k4C/1LhWo1FK3yMKEgovbneAWhaf/P14ve9ql4/aepLlJlwBie4ZLoidQ!bqpKzz3zKTAJqO1ADSHwQtvEkx7aBVUL2my05nOXX5v9pKX3pIuPrEanwXIW9sVTrWunUplWAg== X-Complaints-To: abuse@giganews.com X-DMCA-Notifications: http://www.giganews.com/info/dmca.html X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 X-Original-Bytes: 7836 Xref: csiph.com alt.comp.networking.routers:2142 alt.comp.networking.connectivity:92 comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.networking:156 On Tue, 18 Jul 2017 02:24:21 -0500, Char Jackson wrote: >On Mon, 17 Jul 2017 18:45:38 -0500, ANTant@zimage.com (Ant) wrote: > >>In alt.comp.networking.routers Char Jackson wrote: >>> On Sun, 16 Jul 2017 20:46:24 -0500, ANTant@zimage.com (Ant) wrote: >> >>> >In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.networking Char Jackson 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. Yes. For historical reasons, I drive two Ethernet-attached printers (laser and photo) through a wireless extender - I already had it and had no spare ports on the router (desktop, two RAID boxes and Vonage) I initially had difficulties until I set a static IP address using address reservation at the router. In fact, I've found that everything generally runs better with static IP addresses, eg the Win7 wizard configures network-attached printers by IP address, not by ID, so after a power outage they come back up with whatever IP address Windows decides and they need to be detached and reconfigured so it picks up the new address - on each of three computers. My RAID boxes have the same problem. So I gave everything fixed IP addresses, except visiting wireless laptops. I even have a second desktop in another room, connected via an N900 adapter so it can access the RAID boxes at an acceptable speed, and this also has a static IP address. >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.