Question Access Point Wireless Connections Not Making It To The Network?

[PowerEngineer]

Comcast internet comes through a Motorola cable modem to a Linksys EA8300 router. All wired and wireless connections through it work fine. For extended wireless coverage I added a second router configured as an access point on the other side of my house. I swear that wireless connections to the access point also worked well for a couple of years, but recently I noticed that they stopped working.

The access point is in an attic space and so I assumed the heat had just fired it internals. I recently acquired a Netgear R6700AX, configured it as an access point, and installed it in place of the old AP. Frustratingly, this new AP point is having the same problems as the old one!

The wireless signals from the AP are strong and wireless devices have no trouble connecting to the AP. But there is no access to the internet or to the network printer. Both routers seem to agree that the Linksys is the one assigning IP addresses using its subnet – even for the devices connecting through the AP wireless connections.

What is even more baffling is that my desktop PC is connected by ethernet to the AP point and it does have access to the internet and the network printer.

I have reset and rebooted everything several times already without any luck.

I am obviously out of my depth here! What am I missing?

Thanks!

 

[JackMDS]

I do not know how the "Lame Duck" Wireless gets its IP.

Make sure that the IPs that are Assigned to is of the are based on the same sub-net as the one it assigned to devices that are on the Main Router.

 

[Tech Junky]

gets its IP.

Typically you assign one rather than DHCP.

 

[PowerEngineer]

Thank you for the replies.

Yes, the IPs that are being assigned are all in the subnet for the Linksys router.

I just tried setting a static IP on the router for the AP, but that didn't change anything.

😖

 

[Tech Junky]

setting a static IP on the router

You pick an IP and put it on the AP.

On the router the only thing to verify is the DHCP range to make sure the IP you choose doesn't get handed out to some other device later on and cause an IP conflict and drop your traffic.

 

[mxnerd]

Check if device's gateway IP is set correctly. Only main router's DHCP should be running. Turn off the one on AP

 

[PowerEngineer]

What I should have said is that I set a static IP for the AP on the router. I think that is what you are suggesting. No luck...

The AP gateway IP is that of the router which seems right to me. It also shows the router IP as the domain server IP.

The "for dummies" (like me) Netgear firmware supposedly handles the setting details when you select the router, access point, or bridge configuration. The firmware confirms that it is AP configuration, and devices connecting through the AP (like this desktop) are getting IP addresses consistent with the router's subnet (confirmed by firmware on both router and AP).

🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[mxnerd]

There should be only one DHCP server running on your whole network, usually the main router, that's what I'm trying to say.

If secondary router in AP mode also has a DHCP server running, the devices on the same network very likely will get a dynamic IP from it and will point the gateway to secondary router's IP, not the the main router's IP, that makes devices won't reach the internet.

 

[JackMDS]

May be this can help.

Using Wireless Routers (or Modem/Wireless Router) as a Switch with an Access Point.

http://www.ezlan.net/router_AP.html

 

[PowerEngineer]

There appears to be only one DHCP server running on the network and it is the router. All the connected devices are being assigned IP addresses in its subnet.

Thank you for the link. I read through it and the only new idea I picked up was about leaving the WAN port on the AP empty. I had the AP connecting back through the WAN port to the router. Crawled back into the attic to switch the wired connections around and then reset both router and AP. Sadly, no apparent change in behavior.

Starting to wonder if this the the result of some hidden incompatibility between Linksys and Netgear. I suppose I could try swapping the two routers and making Linksys the AP point. I'm going to sleep on that one....

 

[mxnerd]

Did you check device's gateway IP? IP in the same subnet range doesn't mean your device's gateway IP (usually same as main router WAN IP) is set correctly. Also check device's DNS settings.

 

[PowerEngineer]

Yes, the AP gateway IP is set to the router IP.

I also looked more carefully at the IP addresses of the wireless devices I have been trying to switch from router wireless connections to AP wireless connections. Had a thought that perhaps the shift in wireless connection points wasn't being noticed by the router, but I see that the wireless devices are getting different IP addresses assigned to them when they are switched (but all still within the subnet range of the router).

Still no smoking gun. Just a smoking brain...

 

[mxnerd]

Yes, the AP gateway IP is set to the router IP.

Again and the last one from me, I'm talking about the gateway IP of the device that's connected to the AP, not the gateway IP of AP itself.

 

[PowerEngineer]

Sorry for misunderstanding the question. I am in over my head on this networking stuff.

Unfortunately, the firmware interfaces I am working through on the Linksys router and Netgear AP only allow me to see the IP addresses being assigned to the devices being connected through them. Only the Netgear AP show a gateway IP for itself and that is the router's IP.

Thank you for trying to help. 👍🏻

 

[JackMDS]

Routers, switches, APs, etc, are all only "semi smart' devices you have to learn how to do the Quest from a computer/s.

 

[PowerEngineer]

Okay... Wading in deeper and so further in over my head.

And it seems the problem I am having is a bit different that what I thought. Devices connected via wireless through the AP still do not have working internet connections, but I see now that some sort of intermittent connection does exist. Pinging (www.google.com) through a direct router connection results in reliable transmission of all four test packets. Pinging through a wireless connection to the AP shows occasional successful transmissions but most packets get timed out.

It appears that the router connections always get IPv6 addresses for the destination node while the wireless connections get IPv4 addresses? This makes some twisted sense to me as Netgear states that IPv6 is disabled in AP mode. I'm starting to wonder if this might point to differences in the way Comcast handles IPv4 node addresses?

Right now I'm having trouble finding time to dig into this more, but I will soon. 🤞🏻 In the meantime, I'm open to ideas...

Thanks!

 

[Tech Junky]

@PowerEngineer

Ipv4/6 doesn't really make a difference here. That's mostly moot since all websites have a V4 address and on rare occasion will something onyl have a V6.

If the main Router + Ethernet to a PC works fine and isn't dropping packets then you ruled that out.

So, the issue is WIFI connected devices. Assuming you're not using any additional WIFI AP/repeater besides the EA you mentioned in the OP then it's possible the radios are just slowly dying out for the WIFI portion. Linksys isn't known for being durable beyond warranty.

The other possibility is you have it crammed into a location that isn't well ventilated and its over heating causing the packet drops. The other issue that comes to mind would be possible DFS triggering a rescan of the 5ghz airspace.

If you want a solution then get an AP / disable the WIFI on the EA and plug in the AP to one of the LAN ports. For ~$150 you can upgrade to AX/-E and not have to deal with the underlying issue of the Linksys starting to die.

 

[fkoehler]

1. Pull that router-ap (R2) out of the attic and let it cool down for a while.
2. Connect it to R1 where it can not be roasting.
3. I would hard reset to defaults, and reconfigure the WAN as a static ip, with mask and default router of R1. Insure DHCP server is disabled.
Check if you get an IP, and can you ping google.org, can you surf?
4. Ping -n 1000 (R1 ip) to R2, and let it run for a while to see if you get any dropped packets at its completion.
5. Change the R2 SSID's to something different than your normal wifi network/s, and then do the Step 4 again. Might want to put R2 wifi on different channel than the one R1 is using.

If you have more than 1-2 dropped packets on the ethernet connection, might be a problem with R2 or the cable.
Similar for the wireless connection, it might aging out.
Check if you get an IP, and can you ping google.org, can you surf?

I generally assign all my network router, switches, AP, printers, VOIP stuff as statics at the beginning or end of the /24.

Steps above are kind of basic, like turn it off and on, however its good to start at the beginning, especially out of the heat. Wondering if you've done an extended ping on that cable to the attic?

 

[PowerEngineer]

Thank you for the helpful ideas. I have been out of town this week but hope to get back into troubleshooting soon.

The Linksys router (EA) is the router and appears to be working well for devices connected directly to it. I am trying to use the Netgear (AX) as the AP; I purchased it from the Amazon warehouse to replace the old AP that I thought had burned itself up - but both exhibit the same bad behavior. I'm starting to think they are not the problem either.

I do have a MoCa leg in the ethernet connection from the AP to the router which might be a problem? Strange that the desktop (I am using now) that is connected via ethernet cable to the AP does not seem to have no connectivity problems.

I will pull the AP out of the attic and direct wire it to the router for more testing. I will post what I find out.

Thanks again for the help!

 

[PowerEngineer]

Well, it's taken a while for my frustration level to lower sufficiently for another attempt at solving this mystery...

While I was stewing over this, I did continue checking the Netgear AP for wireless internet connectivity just to see if there was any obvious correlation with outdoor temperature. Seems not as packets continued to be lost regardless of temperature and time of day.

Finally... I retrieved the Netgear AP from the attic space and used a female-to-female ethernet adapter to connect the MoCa ethernet line from my router directly to the ethernet line to my desktop. As expected, my desktop still has internet connectivity and pings show no lost packets.

I then connected the Netgear AP (without any setting changes) to the Linksys router using a 5-foot ethernet cable. Now devices connecting by wireless to the AP have internet service. Pings show no lost packets.

This seems to suggest that the AP has a problem with the MoCa line to the router, but if that line is the problem then I'd expect that my desktop now directly connected to the router using the MoCa line would also have an internet problem.

Given that my desktop has not had any connectivity problems with or without the AP in between, I am wondering if ethernet wired connections to an AP are just pass-troughs rather than actually going through the AP circuitry?

More to stew over...

 

[PowerEngineer]

Finally got back to troubleshooting my AP issue this morning. With suspicion now focused on the MoCa connection I decided to see if my Comcast services were interfering (or using) the same frequency range as the MoCa adapters.

I powered down the two cable and one VOIP boxes one at a time and saw no change in the behavior of the wireless AP connections (still many lost packets when pinging).

I then powered down both MoCa adapters, waited a minute, and then powered both back up. That seems to have cleared the problem. No more lost packets and working internet through wireless AP connections.

Powered the three Comcast boxes back up one at a time. Wireless AP connections still working.

So it seems that my AP problem is fixed - at least for the moment. 😏 And I know how to fix it again if the AP stops connecting again.

If the problem returns frequently then I will try to isolate the coaxial cable legs used by MoCa from those used by the Comcast boxes.

I am still puzzled why this MoCa problem did not seem to affect the wired connections to the AP, but I will be happy to live with that mystery. 😊