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R7000 in Bridge mode, DHCP not working

nhinkle
Apprentice

R7000 in Bridge mode, DHCP not working

I have an R7000p as my internet router with an R7000 connected to it in bridge mode. 

 

The R7000P is running firmware:V1.3.1.44_10.1.23

The R7000 is running firmware: V1.0.9.64_10.2.64

 

The worst problem I am experiencing is my laptop is wired to the R7000 - when the R7000 has been freshly booted, it gets an IP address from the R7000p.  However, if the laptop shuts down, it will not get a DHCP address.  If I try an IPCONFIG /release followed by IPCONFIG /renew, the DHCP call times out.  Reboot the R7000 and it can then get a DHCP address.

 

The second problem is on the R7000p.  The attached devices screen is wrong.  When I was unable to get the DHCP address, I checked attached devices on the R7000p and it showed the laptop as attached with a DHCP address and it showed the R7000 router as attached.  No amount of refreshing this screen changed that.  I then shut down the R7000 and refreshed the attached devices on the R7000P and both the R7000 and the R7000p were showing as still attached.  I also have an ex8000 hard wired to the R7000p and what is attached to that shows up only sporadically on the R7000p (the attached devices screen of the EX8000 has its own issues - have to refresh it to see any devices).

 

Anyone else with this issue?  Solutions?

Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router,R7000P|Nighthawk AC2300 Smart WiFi Router with MU-MIMO
Message 1 of 3

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nhinkle
Apprentice

Re: R7000 in Bridge mode, DHCP not working

Thank you for the reply antinode.

 

I figured out the problem in my network configuration.  To understand it takes a bit more information than I supplied in my original post.

 

Originally, my home network was two R7000 with one as a router and one as an access point (AP).  When I moved to a larger house, I replaced this configuration with an R7000p as the internet router in the basement on one end of the house and an EX8000 as an AP with a wired backhaul on the first floor on the other end of the house.

 

After a while,  I wanted to get better throughput in my home office, so I bridged on of the old R7000 to the R7000p (my office is on the second floor directly above the R7000p).  At this point, all was working well (DHCP and attached devices on the router) and I had great throughput. 

 

My wife had constantly complained about the wifi signal in her office, so I decided to use the other old R7000 in her office as a bridge to the EX8000 (her office is on second floor over the EX8000).  I set it up and all was initially well.  It was the next day that DHCP stopped working on the bridged networks and attached devices was off,

 

The hint for the problem is the addition of the second R7000 bridge and attached devices being off (DNS).  The real problem was that the first bridged R7000 was named "R7000 - N" and the second was named "R7000 - C".  Spaces are not supported in DNS network names (doh!). 

 

During the troubleshooting process, I went back to basics and one by one factory reset all the devices, turned them off, and rebuilt the network documenting what I configured and testing DHCP and attached devices after each network device was added. 

 

When I started at the R7000p, I was configuring the DHCP reserved addresses for the access point, bridges, servers, and shared devices (I always do this before setting the wireless network names and no wired connections so I don't have the DHCP addresses interfering) when I noticed the spaces in the name.  So, I changed them to the acceptable "R7000-N" and "R7000-P".  Then when I configured the R7000s, I made sure the names matched and had no spaces.  Everything now works again.  DHCP works, throughput is great, attached devices works on the R7000p, both R7000s, and almost on the EX8000 (its' attached devices is a bit of a problem child).

 

Long windedand TMI, but hopefully this helps someone else someday. 

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Message 3 of 3

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antinode
Guru

Re: R7000 in Bridge mode, DHCP not working

> The R7000 is running firmware: V1.0.9.64_10.2.64

 

   Complaints about the ".64" and ".60" versions seem to have been
pretty common.  Try ".42"?

 

> [...] The attached devices screen is wrong. [...]

 

   These devices are not omniscient.  If some client device is connected
to one segment of your LAN, but never talks to anyone in some other LAN
segment, then the router/extender/WAP in that other segment might never
know about that (distant) client device.

 

   More bad firmware is always another potential explanation, of course.

Message 2 of 3
nhinkle
Apprentice

Re: R7000 in Bridge mode, DHCP not working

Thank you for the reply antinode.

 

I figured out the problem in my network configuration.  To understand it takes a bit more information than I supplied in my original post.

 

Originally, my home network was two R7000 with one as a router and one as an access point (AP).  When I moved to a larger house, I replaced this configuration with an R7000p as the internet router in the basement on one end of the house and an EX8000 as an AP with a wired backhaul on the first floor on the other end of the house.

 

After a while,  I wanted to get better throughput in my home office, so I bridged on of the old R7000 to the R7000p (my office is on the second floor directly above the R7000p).  At this point, all was working well (DHCP and attached devices on the router) and I had great throughput. 

 

My wife had constantly complained about the wifi signal in her office, so I decided to use the other old R7000 in her office as a bridge to the EX8000 (her office is on second floor over the EX8000).  I set it up and all was initially well.  It was the next day that DHCP stopped working on the bridged networks and attached devices was off,

 

The hint for the problem is the addition of the second R7000 bridge and attached devices being off (DNS).  The real problem was that the first bridged R7000 was named "R7000 - N" and the second was named "R7000 - C".  Spaces are not supported in DNS network names (doh!). 

 

During the troubleshooting process, I went back to basics and one by one factory reset all the devices, turned them off, and rebuilt the network documenting what I configured and testing DHCP and attached devices after each network device was added. 

 

When I started at the R7000p, I was configuring the DHCP reserved addresses for the access point, bridges, servers, and shared devices (I always do this before setting the wireless network names and no wired connections so I don't have the DHCP addresses interfering) when I noticed the spaces in the name.  So, I changed them to the acceptable "R7000-N" and "R7000-P".  Then when I configured the R7000s, I made sure the names matched and had no spaces.  Everything now works again.  DHCP works, throughput is great, attached devices works on the R7000p, both R7000s, and almost on the EX8000 (its' attached devices is a bit of a problem child).

 

Long windedand TMI, but hopefully this helps someone else someday. 

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