Administrative page won't show up - ReadyNAS 314

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Dyllo wrote:

 

 

-> The IP address of the PC is: 192.168.1.100 ;

-> The IP address of the switch we use is: 192.168.1.20 ;

-> The IP address of the receiver we get data from is: 192.168.1.70 ;

 

-> The IP address of the RN 314 is: 169.254.201.55.

 

I have reconnected the Wi-Fi card and can now access the admin page when the Wi-Fi is off and I have checked: I can save some data to the RN 314.

 

Still, I wonder why I can access the admin page only when the Wi-Fi is off? Should I consider changing the IP address of the RN 314 to something like 192.168.1.xxx?

 

 

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It sounds like you have an unusual and perhaps somewhat broken network setup.

Can you sketch out what network equipment you have (routers, switches, wifi access points) and what the two connection paths (Wifi and ethernet) are between the NAS and the PC?  Maybe also the receiver->NAS path.

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for your answer.

This is the network path/equipment we use:

A Local Network for our hydrophones, connected to our PC:

Two hydrophones are connected to their respective station: IP - 192.168.1.31 and 192.168.1.41.

The data reaches a switch (ThoughPoE), and they both have an access point there;  IP 192.168.1.72 and 192.168.1.73.
The entire data then goes to another switch (ThoughPoE); IP 192.168.1.70 ; with an access point IP 192.168.1.71
We receive the data from 192.168.1.71 with a receiver that send the data to a switch (ThoughPoE) in which our computer is also connected by an Ethernet cable.
The IP address of the last switch we use is 192.168.1.20 ; the computer IP is 192.168.1.100, subnet 255.255.255.0 and no gateway.

-> The IP address of the RN 314 is now (after being upgraded): 169.254.71.1 

 For our internet connection we use a RadioLab router. wifi access points?

There is no direct link between the receiver and the NAS.
But the data goes back from the computer to the switch 192.168.1.20 where the NAS is plugged in with an Ethernet cable.

Wi-Fi:

The PC is not connected to the Wi-Fi, but they would be no static IP address used anyway.

I hope that is is clear and it helps anyhow and if anything seems "unusual and perhaps somewhat broken".

Please find attached two printscreen of the ipconfig/all command in cmd.

Let me know if I can be more precise.

Thanks a lot,

Dyllo

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Dyllo wrote:

 

The data reaches a switch (ThoughPoE), and they both have an access point there;  IP 192.168.1.72 and 192.168.1.73.
The entire data then goes to another switch (ThoughPoE); IP 192.168.1.70 ; with an access point IP 192.168.1.71

I understand that the hydrophones transmit their data to base stations (.31 and .41) but I am a confused by what you mean when you talk about the "access points" above. In normal network-talk, and "access point" would mean a WiFi access point.  But I don't think that's what you are talking about.

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Dyllo wrote:

 

 For our internet connection we use a RadioLab router.

The RadioLAB looks like a NAT router, meaning that it has an external IP address (for the WAN port) and an internal IP address (used to reach the router over wifi or ethernet).

Is one of the LAN ports of the router connected to one of your switches?  If so, you can configure your network so any of the devices can access the internet.

Either way, if you have devices that have WiFi on while accessing the local devices, we should follow up on the router configuration.

Do you know what LAN address your router is using?  WiFi is off in your screen shots, so I can't tell.

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Dyllo wrote:

 

-> The IP address of the RN 314 is now (after being upgraded): 169.254.71.1 

 

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This really should also be assigned a 192.168.1.x address.

Here's an explanation: The subnet mask (255.255.255.0) is used by all your devices to determine whether the device they are trying to reach is local (on the same subnet) or remote (not on the subnet).  A better name for "remote" is "off-net".

The IP addresses and masks are all 4 bytes - 255 therefore is all ones.

So when the PC tries to reach 169.254.71.1,

it "ands" that value with the subnet mask -> resulting in 169.254.71.0.

It then similarly "ands" its own address with the subnet mask -> resulting in 192.168.1.0

If then compares the two results.  If they match, the destination is on the subnet, so the PC then finds the ethernet MAC address for the NAS using a protocol called ARP.  IT then constructs packets with the destination MAC ethernet address and the destination IP address. Your switches then know how to route the data to the NAS (layer-1 switches just use MAC addresses and totally ignore the IP addresses).

In your case they don't match, so the NAS is off-net.  In an IP network, all off-net traffic is sent to the gateway - and you don't have a gateway configured.  You are a bit lucky that you can reach the NAS at all this way.

Figuring out exactly what happens when WiFi is on requires a bit more information (asked for above).  But I suspect the PC is trying to directing the NAS data to the WiFi link, which is then unable to deliver it to the NAS. 

Hi Stephen,

Thank for your quick answers.

The "access points" I am talking about are NanoBeam M5 (https://dl.ubnt.com/datasheets/nanobeam/NanoBeam_DS.pdf) that works has bridge (or relay?) for the data to reach our computer.

"Is one of the LAN ports of the router connected to one of your switches?" No, there is no direct connection via ethernet cables between the router and the hydrophone/switches network.

"Do you know what LAN address your router is using?" On IPv4 it is set to "Using DHCP" and Router has an IP of 192.168.1.1.

"This really should also be assigned a 192.168.1.x address." I have assigned the IP of the ReadyNAS 314 to 192.168.1.150  and it is working (I can access the admin page).

Thank you for taking some of your time to study this case, even though it was not very clear at first!

Best regards,

Dyllo

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StephenB wrote:

 

If you are connecting some PCs to both networks simultaneously, you could try setting the LAN IP address range to 10.0.0.x.  That might get more consistent behavior when WiFi is turned on.

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Well we only have one PC, the rest are Macs. The PC is the only one connected to the "hydrophone network" and is normally not connected to the internet. I did try to connect the PC to the internet this morning and I could still reach the admin page of the netgear so everything is working!

As I am leaving the research station tomorrow I might not change the IP address range to 10.0.0.x. as I don't know what it would change on the hydrophone network..(I didn't get what to change really haha)

Thanks a lot Stephen,

Dyllo

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Dyllo wrote:

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Well we only have one PC, the rest are Macs. The PC is the only one connected to the "hydrophone network" and is normally not connected to the internet. I did try to connect the PC to the internet this morning and I could still reach the admin page of the netgear so everything is working!

 

 

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FWIW "PC" was meant to be generic (windows, mac, linux, chromebook, ...)

But if everything is working, then leave well enough alone.

I am a bit curious on where you are located.  Is this cetacean research or something else?

Hey Stephen,

"FWIW "PC" was meant to be generic (windows, mac, linux, chromebook, ...)" Oh I see, my bad!

"But if everything is working, then leave well enough alone." Yeap, I'm just going to leave this like that I think, thanks for the help, it is much appreciated!

"I am a bit curious on where you are located.  Is this cetacean research or something else?" Yes, it is a whale research station amoung the coast of British Columbia.

Acoustic and visual data are combined in order to study fin whales, orcas and humpback whales!

Thanks for everything,

Dyllo