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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...
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.
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...