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New WAX610 - Internet connectivity for laptops but not smartphones
I just installed a WAX610, hardwired to a nearby, new Netgear GS308E switch in a new office. The switch connects to the building's router, somewhere in the building. The AP has Internet connectivit...
Final Update 6 Aug 2024:
The experiment to change my WAX610 from Bridge mode to NAT mode was very brief. Although smartphones finally gained Internet connectivity, the bandwidth was excruciatingly slow so as to be unusable.
Down here in the basement where all of this has been happening, the adjacent office requested the IT folks upstairs to install WiFi for them (probably since mine was unusable to smartphones). Their new WiFi antenna (I've never seen it) provides quick, reliable connectivity both to our PCs that have never had a problem, as well as our smartphones which always had a problem with the WAX610.
I have decommissioned the WAX610.
Is it possible that my issue is not with the WAX610, but the router above it? I've found a path to success that is repeatable, but I don't understand it.
My Android smartphone has always failed to have Internet connectivity after it successfully authenticates to the WAX610 and receives an IP address from the router.
Based on that behavior, I logged into the router and reserved an IP address for my smartphone's physical MAC. That did not improve the situation - my smartphone does get that assigned IP address from the router upon authenticating to the WAX610, but still does not have Internet connectivity.
But if I then log into the router, and use the router's internal Ping Test utility to ping the IP of my smartphone that has just connected to the network, suddenly my smartphone has Internet connectivity.
Why would issuing a ping from the router to my smartphone suddenly make my phone have Internet connectivity?
And to test this behavior further, I removed the IP reservation in the router for my Android's physical MAC address, then switched my Android's WiFi connection to the WAX610 SSID from Static back to the DHCP default.
My Android reconnected to the SSID and immediately threw the typical "Connected without Internet" error that has plagued me for months. I noted the new IP address that my Android had just gotten from the router, then pinged that IP address from within the router. My Android instantly started having Internet access.
Why does my smartphone require a ping from the router to get to the Internet, but our laptops in the same office do not?
Hi stewcoarchives ,
Is the SSID to which clients are connecting is a "Guest or Captive Portal" SSID? In this case, a pop up should come up for authentication.
Are you connecting laptops and mobile devices to same SSID or different SSID?
Thanks!
Pramendra
The single SSID to which laptops and phones are connecting is not a captive-portal SSID. The SSID is unsecured. All devices (laptops and smartphones) immediately authenticate to it and receive an IP address from the router, but smartphones receive the 'Internet not available' error message while laptops have immediate Internet access.
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