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Forum Discussion
More info on efforts to get orbi RBR750 working for wifi and ethernet.
This is basically a summary of a few weeks of trying to get an Orbi RBR750 to add a wifi hotspot to our household's collection of computers and other gadgets. I've got some interesting data on succes...
WiFi security options control how WiFi devices connect to the network. They have nothing to do with Ethernet (wired) connections.
If forwarding port 80 to the Linux box does not work, I would look at the Firewall settings on the Linux machine. Windows Firewall, for example, clearly has different rules for 'private' (local LAN) and 'public' (internet) access. Just because a web server can be accessed from the LAN does not guarantee that it can be accessed from the internet.
True, the 750 may be 'different', but I forward port 80 to a wired computer on my ancient RBR50 all the time.
... and posting that last message got a page saying that content from earlier was saved, and did I want to reload it? I hit the Reload choice and it showed me the first sentence of my earlier reply:
Hmmm ... On the linux (web serer) box the "ufw status" says the firewall is "inactive", which seems to mean it's not blocking anything.
(The forum introduces new topics every day... Thanks for bringing up ufw.)
Linux is a bit of a mystery (to me). Do the results from sudo ufw status match the results from sudo iptables -S ?
On the topic of WiFi security: leaving the primary WiFi on "None" invites anyone to use your WiFi to access the internet. Probably not what you want in the long run. The recommended security setting is WPA-PSK. The other option is for when there are old WiFi devices which do not support WPA-PSK.
When port 80 is forwarded to the IP address of the Linux server, what does ShieldsUp! show for your network?
Here's the results of those commands on the (wired) linux server:
kendy:/home/jc: sudo ufw status
[sudo] password for jc:
Status: inactive
kendy:/home/jc: sudo iptables -S
-P INPUT ACCEPT
-P FORWARD ACCEPT
-P OUTPUT ACCEPT
kendy:/home/jc:
(And I wonder why all this is double spaced.;-) Anyway, right now the ShieldsUp! link shows me: "###-###-###-###.c3-0.wth-ubr1.sbo-wth.ma.static.cable.rcn.com, which doesn't seem to say anything about internal settings, since it lacks port numbers and/or identifying information about internal gadgets. But I'll try editing the appropriage port-forwarding item ... Yep; changing port 80 to point to the (wired) linux box causes a handy browser to report that the server isn't responding. Changing it back to forward port 80 to the (unwired) Macbook gets an instant reply, and its apache2 log shows the request. The above ShieldsUp! string stays unchanged during all this.
One problem I see is that I don't think I understand those two commands above, or their replies. I can't quite tell f(rom the docs I found) what they're telling me. They seem to say that some things are accepted, but not by who, but the "inactive" would seem to say that something isn't accepting anything. Is there a doc around that might clarify this?