Question Wireless AP Ethernet Has Internet but WiFi Does NOT

[fkitletsgobowling]

Hi all I've setup another AP in my apt due to the plaster walls and strength issues with the wifi.

The second router is setup with ip 192.168.0.2 and the DHCP is taken care of by the main router(192.160.0.10-99). They also have the same 255.255.255.0 setup. They are connected by their LAN ports only. The second router is a DIR 625 if that makes any difference.

The ethernet connected devices on the second router work great. However the wifi connected devices have internet for about 1-5 seconds and then it's gone. As far as I can tell they're still active on the main router. After they lose internet I cannot connect to either router using their LAN IP addresses.

Looking for any kind of solution/troubleshooting!

 

[jsmithepa]

Using different SSID I hope?

 

[fkitletsgobowling]

Using different SSID I hope?

Yes the slave SSID I added -EXT to know what one I'm connected to and also they're on different channels not set to auto.

I'll also add that the master router is a CGN3 and was supplied by my ISP.

One interesting thing is that router requires a domain suffix. So I copied that to the slave. With and without the suffix I get the same issue.

 

[AtkinsFriendly]

So normally, a router shouldn't be used as an access point behind another router. Although in some instances and the right configuration, it can work, it's just not best practice and can be more of a pain then not.

A couple things we need straighten out:

Is DHCP enabled on the second router? It should be disabled on secondary router if DHCP is being handled by the first router.

From the Wifi, can you ping router 1? What IP address are you receiving from the Wifi?

If you're determined to use the secondary router, as an access point, you might be easier enabling DHCP for a 192.168.2.0/24 network on router 2, and running the cable from router 1 to the internet port on router 2 and create a whole new network. You might be double natting and have two firewalls, but it might be an easier setup not knowing exactly how the internals of these routers work.

 

[fkitletsgobowling]

So normally, a router shouldn't be used as an access point behind another router. Although in some instances and the right configuration, it can work, it's just not best practice and can be more of a pain then not.

A couple things we need straighten out:

Is DHCP enabled on the second router? It should be disabled on secondary router if DHCP is being handled by the first router.

From the Wifi, can you ping router 1? What IP address are you receiving from the Wifi?

If you're determined to use the secondary router, as an access point, you might be easier enabling DHCP for a 192.168.2.0/24 network on router 2, and running the cable from router 1 to the internet port on router 2 and create a whole new network. You might be double natting and have two firewalls, but it might be an easier setup not knowing exactly how the internals of these routers work.

I can ping the first router from the second and DHCP is disabled too. Only the first router handles DHCP. I also disabled UPnP on the second. The reason I need them both is my apartment has plaster walls and requires two wireless access points so I can have internet in all the rooms.

I'm receiving valid IPs on the same subnet for the devices when initially connected. Eg 192.168.0.11

I used the guide on the forms to set this up.

Very bizarre that my ethernet connections have internet but the wifi do not!

 

[fkitletsgobowling]

Just noticed my laptop after sleeping lost connection. Could it be that when a device sleeps or phones designed to sleep wifi are losing their connection to the main router?

 

[bill001g]

You have set the second device up in the correct way. It is extremely strange that the lan ports work but the wifi doesn't. The first router does not actually know that the devices are wifi. The only difference would be that the ethernet port on the second router does not pass the cpu chip it stays in the switch that runs the lan ports. Wifi technically passes via the main cpu but in most code implementation it is bypassing the vast majority of the router firmware. Most function that make the device a router only happen when traffic goes wan-lan and wifi is consider LAN so ethernet to wifi is lan-lan.

It depends what you mean it goes down. I would first try a static IP address, something like 192.168.0.200 is outside your dhcp scope. This would show you if the problem is related to the DHCP server function.

If you are actually losing the wifi connectivity itself then I would suspect a defective device. The event monitor on your pc may give you a clue if the radio connection is going down or if it is still connected but you can not pass data for some reason.

Now I was checking the specs on that router and if it is the one I found it says it is 802.11n (draft). These were put out before the standard was set. Many had issues with compatibility with the final standard. Some you can fix with a firmware patch others the radio chips were incompatible and certain function did not work. I would make sure you have the latest firmware for that router.

What you are doing should be as simple as you setup and it should just work.

 

[fkitletsgobowling]

Thanks for the insight on how the router passes info via wifi. That just might be the issue. Both routers are up-to-date in regards to firmware.

I tried setting a static IP with the same issue. I'm mostly trying to get my two phones to connect via wifi. This might just be one of those unknowns that goes unsolved.

What device were you referring to that you had looked up?

I will try setting up a lan-wan network since I don't need all devices to communicate. Just the devices in the same room. Is there a tutorial on here somewhere? I did have this running on a seperate network earlier and it worked fine. I just can't seem to figure out how I did it before lol.