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Forum Discussion
Orbi in AP mode with wired backhaul showing weird behavior
I recently set up an Orbi RBK53 system in AP mode (I don't need the orbi's router capabilities, as I'm using pfsense). The main orbi router is connected into a gigabit switch and one of the satellit...
What the? I just posted a response to this thread and was going to reference it on another thread and my response is gone. Did it get deleted somehow?
Not sure...
Didn't see any posts from you. Unless your link was bad or something. :smileyfrustrated:
dopey1620 wrote:
What the? I just posted a response to this thread and was going to reference it on another thread and my response is gone. Did it get deleted somehow?
FURRYe38 wrote:
Not sure...
Didn't see any posts from you. Unless your link was bad or something. :smileyfrustrated:
I definitely posted something. I even edited it because I had typoes in it after it posted. Oh well.
To answer your question I have a Zyxel GS1900-24 switch. I actually did some more digging. I did some tcp packet captures and it does look like the hub is intercepting DNS requests and then sending back entries for www.orbilogin.com. If I connect the satellite directly into my switch and not into the hub, the DNS request makes it to my DNS server/router (pfsense) and it sends back the public DNS record for www.orbilogin.com. If I have the wired backhaul connected directly into the orbi hub (or use the wireless connected satellite) the request doesn't even make it to my pfsense router/dns server. So the orbi hub is definitely responsible for intercepting it.
I'm guessing when the satellite is configured in wired backhaul it's basically just acting as an access point and doesn't have the logic for intercepting the DNS request for www.orbilogin.com. That actually makes sense. In this mode, the satellite may not even definitively know the IP address of the hub.
It'd be nice if the orbi app just let you specify the IP address of the orbi hub. But the solution of wiring the satellite directly into the hub works fine for me for now.