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Forum Discussion
Internal Server Error when hostname used
I have configured my RBR750 as an access point with the following IP addresses set as static DHCP addresses in my OpenWRT router. router: "mesh" 192.168.49.4 satellite: "mesh1" 192.168.4...
We get different results, but there are a couple things different here.
--- router mode vs AP mode.
--- Windows wget vs ubuntu wget.
I just looked at the index.html received by my ubuntu wget. It's mostly a pile of javascript that (at least sometimes) redirects the page from the implicit index.html to start.html. wget knows nothing about javascript, so fat dumb and happy, it just stores the javascript in index.html.
If I attempt to view the some_path/index.html file with chrome, I get a message saying my file could not be accessed. What?? However the URL line now shows that chrome has been redirected to somepath/start.html. That's the file it can't access. So apparently the javascript IS redirecting to start.html. Okay, so I tried manually following the redirect.
% wget 192.168.49.4/start.html
--2023-08-30 21:24:59-- http://192.168.49.4/start.html
Connecting to 192.168.49.4:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 401 Unauthorized
Username/Password Authentication Failed.
Yup, now I get an authentication failure, just as you do. BUT that doesn't help understand the root problem because:
% wget mesh/start.html
--2023-08-30 21:29:41-- http://mesh/start.html
Resolving mesh (mesh)... 192.168.49.4
Connecting to mesh (mesh)|192.168.49.4|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 500 Internal Server Error
2023-08-30 21:29:41 ERROR 500: Internal Server Error.
So thanks for the great detective work, BUT, we are still on the wrong track.
You also mentioned that the firmware version is about 8 months old. Well it is sure possible I haven't tried accessing it by name for 8 months, or I did, and when it didn't work put in the IP Address and forgot about it. That day I might have been working on something else, and didn't want to do the context switch.
But I am absolutely sure it used to work.
I love my Orbi also.
Sorry not to be more explicit. The firmware version on this router appears to be the version that was released on 12/1/2022 and there is no newer version. i.e. this router is "up to date." i.e. if the firmware has not been updated recently, then the firmware version is not likely to be the cause of the problem.
It is really frustrating that Error 500 provides so little information:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status/500
i.e. the web server is unhappy, and cannot explain why.
Here is how to reproduce the problem in Windows without a router that supports DHCP IP assignment and DNS. You need:
- A Windows computer.
- A spare router (any type)
1) Configure your Orbi as an AP before removing it from service. You will immediately loose internet connectivity.
2) Remove your Orbi from service, and temporarily replace it with the spare router.
3) Plug in your Orbi (now configured as an AP) into the spare router.
4) Find the IP address of the Orbi on the spare router network. Most routers have a way of seeing the DHCP addresses the router assigned.
5) Enter the IP address of the Orbi AP and the name "win-mesh" in your windows file with the following name:
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
If you don't know how to do this, see the article below:
https://www.howtogeek.com/27350/beginner-geek-how-to-edit-your-hosts-file
6) Optionally do the same with the Orbi's satellites. You can get their IP addresses from the Orbi AP. Call them "win-mesh1" and "win-mesh2".
7) Now try accessing the Orbi AP (and optionally its satellites) with Edge, Chrome, Firefox, wget etc at the following URL(s).
😎 Log the results.
Note: I get the same results with Windows as I do on Linux. There are many versions of wget that run on Windows. Results vary depending on the wget program selected. With the Power Shell version I get:
PS C:\Users\gene> wget http://win-mesh
wget : 500 Internal Server Error
At line:1 char:1
+ wget http://win-mesh
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (System.Net.HttpWebRequest:HttpWebRequest) [Invoke-WebRequest], WebExc
eption
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : WebCmdletWebResponseException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.InvokeWebRequestCommandWith the RBR750 in Access Point (AP) mode, the situation remains the same:
- Opening a web browser to the IP address allows normal login.
In the test setup, the RBR750 in AP mode has IP 192.16.1.84 on my LAN.
http://192.168.1.84 opens normally. - An entry has been made in C:\Windows\System32/\drivers\etc\hosts:
192.168.1.84 Test750
This correctly resolves Test750 to the IP address 192.168.1.84. The command
ping Test750
for example, results in the RBR750 responding to ping requests. - Opening a web browser to http://Test750 results in Error 500.
I wondered if the port makes a difference (WAN vs. LAN) and it does not.
(In router mode, the RBR750 should not accept a login through the WAN port - although I believe there was a discussion about Netgear allowing connection through the WAN port by mistake in one of the beta versions. In AP mode, I expect the 750 to accept web connections from anywhere.)
Connection to http://192.168.1.84 works normally on both WAN and LAN ports in AP mode, and connection to http://Test750 gives Error 500 on both WAN and LAN port.
I do not have a 750 satellite, and thus am not able to replicate the situation with regard to satellites.
Using Wireshark to capture the HTTP get statement, the only difference I see is the host: entry, i.e.
Host: test750\r\n fails, while
Host: 192.168.1.84\r\n works.
- Opening a web browser to the IP address allows normal login.
