[SOLVED] Changed Subnet Mask to 255.255.255.192 Now I Cannot Connect To My Router or AP - WHY?????

[tburke89]

I have an ASUS RT-AC87U router connected to a Motorola Surfboard modem. That has a Netgear router behind it in access point mode, with my wired network behind that.
I had to do a factory reset this morning which was a huge pain in the ass, I wound up having to reset both the access point and the router to get my internet connection back up and running on my wired network since I needed my desktop online ASAP for work access.
I was reconfiguring the Asus router and I clicked on the LAN configuration tab, and changed my Subnet Mask from 255.255.255.0 to 255.255.255.192 in order to limit the total number of IP addresses available on the network to 64. I read online that this is common for home office networks. I clicked apply, and that is all she wrote.
Now, when I try to connect to the router I get an ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED message in my browser. WHY?! I have already lost so much time troubleshooting this router over the last 24 hours and have gotten no other work done. After all of this and setting my network back up, now I am back almost at square 1 and I have already passed my last nerve. Any help for how I can reconnect back to my router would be so greatly appreciated. Ipconfig still shows that my default gateway is 192.168.1.1 which is what times out.
THANK YOU! 🙏

 

[kanewolf]

I have an ASUS RT-AC87U router connected to a Motorola Surfboard modem. That has a Netgear router behind it in access point mode, with my wired network behind that.
I had to do a factory reset this morning which was a huge pain in the ass, I wound up having to reset both the access point and the router to get my internet connection back up and running on my wired network since I needed my desktop online ASAP for work access.
I was reconfiguring the Asus router and I clicked on the LAN configuration tab, and changed my Subnet Mask from 255.255.255.0 to 255.255.255.192 in order to limit the total number of IP addresses available on the network to 64. I read online that this is common for home office networks. I clicked apply, and that is all she wrote.
Now, when I try to connect to the router I get an ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED message in my browser. WHY?! I have already lost so much time troubleshooting this router over the last 24 hours and have gotten no other work done. After all of this and setting my network back up, now I am back almost at square 1 and I have already passed my last nerve. Any help for how I can reconnect back to my router would be so greatly appreciated. Ipconfig still shows that my default gateway is 192.168.1.1 which is what times out.
THANK YOU! 🙏

What do you believe the benefit of limiting the IP range to 64 ?

 

[tburke89]

What do you believe the benefit of limiting the IP range to 64 ?

Apparently there is less than zero benefit. Apparently if you change the subnet mask at the router level to 255.255.255.192 you will no longer be able to log in to the router via 192.168.1.1. The benefit that I thought of is that there are never going to be more than 64 different devices on my network that would necessitate more than 64 IP addresses. I usually assign static IP addresses to my network devices and I thought things would look more neat. Initially I was planning on setting a range of IP addresses via the DHCP settings but when I was on the Asus help site anyways reading an article and I read the phrase, "Home office users commonly use the subnet 255.255.255.192 ..." and I thought "that makes sense." At no point was there any indication given to me anywhere that me making this change would screw me completely out of being able to access the router.

 

[rgd1101]

Can't reset the router and start over?

 

[kanewolf]

I don't know why the connection refused response. Is your PC IP address in the 1 to 63 range ? Does the PC mask match the router mask ?
Could it be an HTTP vs HTTPS issue ? Have you tried SSH or Telnet ?
Does PING work correctly ?

 

[SamirD]

Apparently there is less than zero benefit. Apparently if you change the subnet mask at the router level to 255.255.255.192 you will no longer be able to log in to the router via 192.168.1.1. The benefit that I thought of is that there are never going to be more than 64 different devices on my network that would necessitate more than 64 IP addresses. I usually assign static IP addresses to my network devices and I thought things would look more neat. Initially I was planning on setting a range of IP addresses via the DHCP settings but when I was on the Asus help site anyways reading an article and I read the phrase, "Home office users commonly use the subnet 255.255.255.192 ..." and I thought "that makes sense." At no point was there any indication given to me anywhere that me making this change would screw me completely out of being able to access the router.

There's no technical reason why this shouldn't work. The only thing I can think of is that your system got an IP that's out of the range. I would simply release the IP and renew it and you should get a new one within range.

 

[Ralston18]

In the spirit of Posts #4, #5, and #6:

Reset the router to factory defaults - 192.168.1.1 and 255.255.255.0

Then control or limit the number of network devices by either a direct numeric entry and/or the allowed DHCP IP address range.

With any necessary Static IP's set outside of the allowed DHCP IP address range and with the Static IP reserved for the device via the device's MAC.

Versus manipulating the subnet mask from /24 to /26.

True that manipulation can be be done but I think that that just makes overall network management a bit more difficult.

More room for error and not really necessary.

Just my thoughts.

 

[cyrill5]

i dont think it is 64 workstation that 255.255.255.192 .its a lot