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Forum Discussion
WAX620 NAT mode is terribly unstable and unusable
WAX620 with firmware V10.6.1.1
I'm trying to set up a guest wifi using NAT configuration.
Connecting to the SSID with NAT enabled, strange network behaviour is observed.
Initial connection opening any web page or youtube app, whatever takes very long time 10 to 20 sec.
After the first connection, network flows smoothly but stuttering sometimes.
Measured throughput is as good as other bridged normal setting SSIDs.
There seems to be a mistake in firmware handling some kinds of packet like DNS or ACK? I'm not sure.
In addition, one possible misleading configuration is "DHCP Offer Broadcast to Unicast".
When this setting is "Enabled", devices that connect to the NAT SSID receive DNS nameserver configuration from the upper network. IPv6 nameserver in my case. That causes connected devices totally unusable.
So usually for a guest WiFi network, NAT and DHCP Offer disabled would be the possibly configuration. I believe.
This behavior is already acknowledged? Working to resolve in the future firmware?
Thanks
9 Replies
Reads like something is very wrong with the NAT config or the WAX6xx config in general.
Have defined an IP subnet not in use on any other local LAN or VLAN? Overlapping IP subnets probably?
An IPv6 DNS server must be able to resolve IPv6 and IPv4, including the fallback from IPv6 to IPv4. Check using https://ipv6-test.com/ for example FMI - from both a direct SSID as well as for the NATed SSID connection.
When using the NATed SSID, only IPv4 can be available, as the many-2-one NAT in place does support IPv4 only, using the WAX6xx LAN IP as the target for the NAT address.
The DHCP Offer Broadcast to Unicast is available to reduce the burden of massive broadcast traffic on the wireless. Unclear why and how this should make a difference in the way the DNS is used from the NATed SSID - essentially the same DNS config is in use either way.
Thanks for replying.
My another attempt to make a guest network with wax620 is:
setting a bridged SSID with VLAN=2, DHCP offer disabled, and install a OpenWrt Hyper-V virtual machine as a router
between VLAN=2 and untagged LAN.
Under this condition, everything works fine.
As for IPv6. When NAT and DHCP both are enabled, connected client PC gets IPv6 nameserver address of
the upper network but doesn't get IPv6 address assigned to the PC. Ipv6 address advertisement seems not working to NAT network. I think that's why.
So far, for me, just NAT setting does not work well.
JakeJ wrote:
As for IPv6. When NAT and DHCP both are enabled, connected client PC gets IPv6 nameserver address of
the upper network but doesn't get IPv6 address assigned to the PC. Ipv6 address advertisement seems not working to NAT network. I think that's why.
So far, for me, just NAT setting does not work well.
Would you mind to show how a common system on this NATed SSID does announce an IPv6 DNS address? Here what I get (while connected to a full dual-stack IPv6/IPv4 network, but only connecting to the NATed SSID) e.g. Windows shows, including which DNS server is accessed:
Z:\Users\xxxxxxx\> ipconfig /all
Drahtlos-LAN-Adapter WiFi 2:
Verbindungsspezifisches DNS-Suffix: local
Beschreibung. . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX210 160MHz
Physische Adresse . . . . . . . . : <<snip>>
DHCP aktiviert. . . . . . . . . . : Ja
Autokonfiguration aktiviert . . . : Ja
Verbindungslokale IPv6-Adresse . : fe80::fc5:eea3:4fdf:7275%11(Bevorzugt)
IPv4-Adresse . . . . . . . . . . : 172.20.20.30(Bevorzugt)
Subnetzmaske . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease erhalten. . . . . . . . . . : Mittwoch, 1. November 2023 17:08:05
Lease läuft ab. . . . . . . . . . : Donnerstag, 2. November 2023 17:08:05
Standardgateway . . . . . . . . . : 172.20.20.1
DHCP-Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 172.20.20.1
DHCPv6-IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 557109238
DHCPv6-Client-DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx
DNS-Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 8.8.8.8
NetBIOS über TCP/IP . . . . . . . : AktiviertZ:\Users\xxxxxxx\> nslookup
Standardserver: dns.google
Address: 8.8.8.8>
All relevant IPv6 details I see here is the link-local IPv6 address, and the DHCPv6-Client-DUID.
Can't see on how any IPv6 config should come to the client....
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