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RAX20, issues with DHCP... some devices losing their IP after a couple of days
Hello, I'm facing an annoying issue with my RAX20 router. Once every few days, some of the devices (a Samsung TV and the three Mitsubishi air conditioning units) lose permanently their IPs and even...
Yes the ZTE is a modem/router.
The reason why I was keeping its Wifi turned on both on the modem and on the RAX is that the modem provides Wifi coverage in some areas of my house where the RAX signal is weaker (although they are positioned very close and in theory the RAX should have a better Wifi hardware with external antennas, for some reasons the ZTE deivers a cleaner signal in one of the bedrooms and a bathrom.
Anyway, what of the three options you suggested should be the best one?
I know how to disable Wifi and DHCP on the ZTE modem, but I don't know how it can be confitured to be a "transparent bridge"... its online documentation only describes the basic setup operations and although I can easily look inside each page of its web admin UI I don't know exactly which kind of option I should be looking for...
BTW: thank you in avance for your suggestions and the time you're speding on my issue. Truly appreciated.
Well it's recommended to run on wifi signal source only. However if you feel you need additional wifi coverage, you could run both, just would need to adjust the channels on each unit to be far apart. So Modem use channel 11 and 149. The RAX set channel 1 and 40.
I would probably make things simple for your needs and configure AP mode on the RAX router and use the modem router for your host router needs.
Well, maybe I can try to turn off the Wifi on the Modem and connect the RAX to the modem using a network cable (they're few feets apart).
Maybe with less Wifi interferences (although I had already set totally differen Wifi channels) the RAX will provide good coverage everywhere.
Let's try to solve the most annoying problem (device disconnections) first... if I turn off the Wifi on the modem and I connect the RAX to the cable, then what settings do you recommend?
Just the factory reset and then configure the range of addresses to be 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.255?
In the meanwhile I've already disabled the "Private Wi-Fi Address" setting on all of the Apple devices I have...
Yes lets try that first.
If you leave the RAX in router mode then you'll need to use 10.x.x.100 to .200 IP address range.
OK... yesterday evening I tried to reconfigured the RAX as an AP: some things have changed, but not for the best.
Here is what I did:
1) Reconfigured the modem and disabled its internal Wifi
2) Connected the RAX to the modem with a LAN cable
3) Factory reset of the RAX, reconfiguration from scratch as an AP
4) To simplify the reconnection to the Wify of my bunch of devices, I used the same SSID name and password I was using before.
5) The devices have reconnected to the network, and received their own IP in the 192.168.1.x subnet (it looks that the addresses are generated by the DHCP server of the modem).
The good news end up here.
Some devices devices continue to connect and disconnect from the network every couple of minutes or so (my Sony Bravia connects and disconnects), my daughter can't navigate from her iPhone, from my MacBook the Internet speed tests vary from 300mbps to 3mbps... rebooting the RAX and the modem (I did it a couple of times) does not seem to cure the problems at all.
The bottom line t seems that the AP mode is causing more problem than those it solves and I don't know exactly where to start with the troubleshooting.
I think that I'll reconfigure again the RAX from scratch, set it back to router mode, and see what happens.
THeOrbix wrote:
The bottom line t seems that the AP mode is causing more problem than those it solves and I don't know exactly where to start with the troubleshooting.
Does this explain any of the things you see?
Disabled Features on the Router when set to AP Mode | Answer | NETGEAR Support
Does this explain any of the things you see?Disabled Features on the Router when set to AP Mode | Answer | NETGEAR Support
Not at all. That post correctly lists the features that are disabled "by design" when the RAX20 is set to work in the AP Mode.
But what was happening was that the devices were frequently and randomically losing the Wifi connection and were reconnecting every two or three minutes.
In some cases once reconnected they were unable to navigate, or the connection speed was randomically very slow or working at nominal speed.
In a nutshell, the RAX20 in AP mode seemed "unstable", so this morning I've changed the configuration back to router mode and rebooted it.
The wifi instability seems to have disappeared, but then I had to leave home for a long weekend so next Monday I'll continue my troubleshooting.
For those interested, the situation is becoming even stranger.
The situation of devices losing their IPs continued to happen, so yesterday evening I tried a different setup:
1) Disabled the DHCP on the modem and kept the Wifi on the modem turned off to avoid any possible conflicts
2) Manually configured the RAX20 to connect to the modem as 192.168.1.10
3) Enabled DHCP on the RAX20 and configured it to release addresses in the 10.0.0.100-200 range
4) Created two different SSIDs on the RAX20, one for 2.4ghz and another for 5ghz
5) Connected all the devices to the 2.4ghz SSID
6) Configured the RAX20 to reserve some given addresses to the AC unites (10.0.0.150, 10.0.0.151, 10.0.0.152) and to the security camera (10.0.0.200).
7) Rebooted both the modem and the RAX20.... everything worked so I happily went to bed. 🙂
This morning the situation is the following:
1) NO devices (iPhone, iPad, TVs, AC units, security camera, etc) are able to connect to the 2.4ghz SSID.
2) When I try to connect a device to the network (for instance my iPhone or my iPad), I just receive a message from the device saying that it failed to connect to the Wifi, BUT in the RAX log I see that an IP has been allocated to the device:
[DHCP IP: (10.0.0.107)] to MAC address BC:09:63:AD:DA:89, Sunday, Jul 02, 2023 07:53:33
so it seems that the RAX is receiving the DHCP request, releasing an IP, but then the protocol fails to deliver it to the device requesting it.
3) Rebooting the device doesn't cure the problem
4) If I try to connect to the other SSID reserved to the 5ghz band they can successfully connect.
So it seems that there is "something wrong" in the way the DHCP server of the RAX20 (remember that the DHCP server of the modem is turned off) handles the requests coming from the 2.4ghz network.... the whole thing seems crazy.
I'm pretty sure that if I reboot the RAX20 everything will work smoothly for some time, and then the problems will restart again.
The next test will be the following:
1) Turn off the RAX20
2) Re-enable DHCP on the modem
3) Re-enable the 2.4ghz Wifi on the modem using the very same SSID name and password I used previously on the RAX20, to ensure that all devices will try to reconnect as soon as I'll reboot the modem
4) Reboot the modem and clearly keep the RAX20 turned off
With this test I want to see if the problem actually comes from the RAX20, or (unlikely, but possible) from one of the dozen or so devices connecting to the Wifi.
No behavior on your system would surprise me.
You are using things in configurations that break all of the rules in an attempt to keep using your modem/router as a wifi source. As FURRYe38 has pointed out, see message 10, that is not a good idea.
So you are playing with two routers of different brands on your network. Heaven only knows how they are going to interact. Even two Netgear devices can get confused when they go off piste.
In a simpler world, you would put the modem/router into bridge (modem only) mode and then use the Netgear router as intended, as a router. Then, if other messages on this model; are anything to go by, those DHCP problems may magically disappear.
Have you ever tried that, or one of the slightly more complicated configurations in message 8?
If nothing else. the experiment might be enlightening.
If you really do need to fill wifi gaps, find a better way to do it, and one designed for that purpose.
Might try the following on the RAX while in router mode with the ISP modem in router mode with Wifi DISABLED on the ISP modem:
Configured channels for 1 and 40.
Enable Smart Connect and use just one SSID name.
Try with 40Mhz only channel width. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings
Try a different NG router, RAX 30 or 35 something. Possible the RAX20 could be faulty.
michaelkenward wrote:You are using things in configurations that break all of the rules in an attempt to keep using your modem/router as a wifi source. As FURRYe38 has pointed out, see message 10, that is not a good idea.
So you are playing with two routers of different brands on your network. Heaven only knows how they are going to interact. Even two Netgear devices can get confused when they go off piste.
OK, from your post and the ones from FURRYe38 I've understood that:
- my problems come from having two routers (the ZTE modem/router from my ISP, and the RAX20)
- the most recommended solution should be disabling the router features of the modem and use only the RAX20 as the router and Wi-fi.
In a simpler world, you would put the modem/router into bridge (modem only) mode and then use the Netgear router as intended, as a router. Then, if other messages on this model; are anything to go by, those DHCP problems may magically disappear.
Understood. Problem is, the Fastgate (this is the commercial name that my ISP has given to the ZTE) modem comes only with some basic documentation that does not explain how to disable the router.
So now I'm browsing the online communities of Fastgate users to find other people who wee in a situation similar to mine and see what settings they applied.
As usual, lots of post with different and sometimes contradicting suggestions so it will take some time to sort them out.
Have you ever tried that, or one of the slightly more complicated configurations in message 8?
If nothing else. the experiment might be enlightening.
Yes, I tried #3 (disabled the Wifi on the Netgear modem/router and changed the RAX20 to AP mode)... as explained in message 13, it didn't work well.
So now I'll try #1 or #2...
If you really do need to fill wifi gaps, find a better way to do it, and one designed for that purpose.
Well, I first tried with a Wifi extender but it didn't work that well a couple of years it died.
That's why I bought the RAX20: it has a much better Wifi compartment (Wifi6, OFMA, MIMO...) so the plan was (and still is) to use it as the only Wifi hotspot in my home...
