2 questions....How does WDS client know which AP to hop on and parents+network=fail??

[redgtxdi]

A little humor, but seriously, I had my old man (who lives 4 hours from me) set up on 2 Buffalo routers running tomato in a WDS setup to cover his whole property in "the sticks" so he could get wifi anywhere. Everything was PERFECT for months......until Charter had a prob with TV/Internet. Days later they got it all fixed and now my dad can't connect to wifi. I went over the basics with him again & again. No joy.

Sooooo......I ask him to just ship me both routers and I'd figure it out. (Note: He *could* connect via ethernet directly from the modem). So I get his routers, plug them in and within seconds, I'm on and running flawlessly with any wifi device in the house. SERIOUSLY???

So, I'm confused. Routers are fine. He *can* obviously get internet from the modem. He *says* he's plugging everything in per my instructions. So what's going wrong???

****Oh ya, and P.S. ---- I love how these Buffalos switch seamlessly. I'm wondering how the clients know which router to hop on.

 

[JackMDS]

Do not know charter. But in my neck of the wood the Internet connection uses the MAC address of the main Router.

Call charter find out how they authenticate, and adjust the Router's WAN side accordingly.

Some time it just a matter of switching every thing Off. Then switching On just the Modem, then waiting few minutes and switch On the main Router.

 

[MtnMan]

Do not know charter. But in my neck of the wood the Internet connection uses the MAC address of the main Router.

Call charter find out how they authenticate, and adjust the Router's WAN side accordingly.

Some time it just a matter of switching every thing Off. Then switching On just the Modem, then waiting few minutes and switch On the main Router.

Charter uses the MAC of the modem, not the router or host connected to the modem.

If you connect a different device (router or host) to the modem, you have to power cycle the modem so it will learn the MAC of the new device. This has nothing to do with charter, but has everything to do with layer 2 addressing of Ethernet.

 

[xSauronx]

A little humor, but seriously, I had my old man (who lives 4 hours from me) set up on 2 Buffalo routers running tomato in a WDS setup to cover his whole property in "the sticks" so he could get wifi anywhere. Everything was PERFECT for months......until Charter had a prob with TV/Internet. Days later they got it all fixed and now my dad can't connect to wifi. I went over the basics with him again & again. No joy.

Sooooo......I ask him to just ship me both routers and I'd figure it out. (Note: He *could* connect via ethernet directly from the modem). So I get his routers, plug them in and within seconds, I'm on and running flawlessly with any wifi device in the house. SERIOUSLY???

So, I'm confused. Routers are fine. He *can* obviously get internet from the modem. He *says* he's plugging everything in per my instructions. So what's going wrong???

****Oh ya, and P.S. ---- I love how these Buffalos switch seamlessly. I'm wondering how the clients know which router to hop on.

if he can connect via ethernet you should have set up remote assistance software, like logmein, teamviewer or crossloop, so you could get to his pc and check the configs from there

can the buffalo routers do any kind of wireless survey on stock firmware? i use tomato and it will give a survey with a noise/signal quality reading

its possible there is some kind of interference going on. there was a large bridge construction project near my home (about half a mile away) a couple of years ago, and the whole time it was going on (and it lasted months) i had horrible wireless issues.

i thought it was my wap/routers but they are solid right now. best i could figure was that something involved in the project was causing horrible interference, because before and after the project my wireless is great.

 

[redgtxdi]

Thanks gang. I *do* have a remote access software installed on his system but I can't remember exactly what it is. It was recommended by someone here and I put it on his computer about a year ago but last time I was there I dialed him in fully and there were no probs for a long time.

He should receive his routers back today so I'll go over everything with him once again, but it sounds like this was just a fluke. Either that or he had wan, LAN and modem plugged in reverse order and it was a lost cause from there......LOL. (not funny, really cuz it's very possible that happened).

I'll post back when I get him up and running again!!

 

[redgtxdi]

Ok, well no need to remote access the old man's PC.

Let's just say that my "parent" comment is not so tongue-in-cheek as I originally thought. My old man's only 63, but sometimes I think he's tryin to act 93.

Long story short ------- Modem ethernet cable plugged into LAN port on router and cable from PC going into WAN port on router. Uuuuuhhhhh yaaaaaa........that's not gonna get it.

So all the above shipping & calling & belly-aching, etc. etc. and this whole time he'd just been in the wrong ports. (Yes, I checked a million times before but he always answered that he had it correctly).

So the lesson to be learned is.......don't trust your parents when it comes to anything other than turning on a light.........and even then, be sure nobody's hand is in the garbage disposal when they do.........LOL!!!

:facepalm:

 

[JackMDS]

@redgtxdi,I am older than your father and I am probably much more knowledgeable about Networking, and computer Engineering in general than you are.

Ergo I should Not trust you even to turn the light On. - - :sneaky:

 

[redgtxdi]

@redgtxdiErgo I should Not trust you even to turn the light On. - - :sneaky:

Not if you're hoping for the garbage disposal to come on.