I am experiencing this problem too, and thanks to this forum have now discovered the conundrum which keeps wireless devices from connecting to the Internet in my Household.
HOWEVER, I checked the firmware revision on the two devices I own, and sad to say they are both already 1.0.0.26 -- I even downloaded and re-applied the firmware to each, just to make sure.
Despite this, if either device is turned on, they are likely to respond to wireless devices requesting DHCP, and though they usually end up with a valid IP address, the gateway is 192.168.1.251 -- which is one or other of the WNCE2001 devices 😞
Turning off both WNCE2001 devices guarantees the wireless devices will get the correct DHCP details from my Netgear WNR1000v3.
Any further advice -- will try to call Netgear as this renders the WNCE2001 devices practically useless 😞
Oooh... just read about the different states of the lights, which could explain the "random" nature I have experienced; I'll check the status of the lights too -- but still, can others confirm they are NOT seeing this behaviour with firmware 1.0.0.26?
I am really interested to see if any solutions appear to this. I have continuously experienced the same problem. I did get hold of Netgear support immediately only to be told:
"Regarding the concern, I would like to inform that WNCE2001 is just a universal adapter which does not have any settings of its own. It receives the signal and ip from the router. So the adapter should not be assigning the connection and ips to your other devices. I would request you to kindly check with the settings of the existing wireless router and if possible, kindly reconfigure the wireless router. ... I believe this answers your query. If you need any further help, please email us back so that we can continue to work on a solution."
Clearly, this is untrue and this thread proves that something is definitely going on that Netgear didn't intend. Imagine if there was an engineer in Netgear who decided to get to the bottom of the problem, found the cause and implemented a fix to the cause!! :rolleyes:
After a few exchanges where the support person blamed my router and then claimed that they do not provide support for third party products I was then told:
"Regarding the concern, it may be appropriate for me to seek additional resources. I recommend escalating your case to the next level for further review and response. I strongly believe that you will be contacted at the earliest. This message is for your information only. There is no additional action needed from you at this time. The next level support engineer will update the case and you will be notified."
That was over a month ago. :mad:
I have since upgraded the firmware and haven't experienced too many problems, but I'm not comfortable that this is fixed.
In my case I was also trying to run my satellite receiver (Vu+ Duo) and TV off the same WNCE2001 using a Netgear FS605v3 5 Port Fast Ethernet Switch. Seems such a configuration is not possible and have bought a second WNCE2001. It arrived today so I am about to install. Reason I ended up on the Forum is that I noticed the AP/Client/RT writing on the back and also assumed there was a switch underneath. I wondered if this was the answer to my problems changing the setting.
Anyway, I post any success or words of wisdom I come across.
P.S. I have to agree that jmizoguchi's initial responses were just like what you get from a call centre.
The default IP address of the device appears to be 192.168.1.251. This address is outside the DHCP range of my router. So how did it get that address when it is set to get the address via DHCP?
I wonder if that is part of the problem. Usually, I would have thought that one would want to stay within the DHCP range even if you are applying static IP addresses on your network. So now I have set the IP address of the unit to a static address within the DHCP range and set this same address on the router.
For whatever it is worth I have purchased two of these devices in 2011 and have had the same issues with DHCP that others have experienced. Both have been upgraded to the latest firmware 1.0.0.26 and both are still acting as DHCP servers on wireless. The specific use is as a wirless bridge for blu-ray players. It is now necessary to turn them off when I am not using them with the blu-ray players.
It would be nice if someone from Netgear could provide more information on a fix for this issue such as potential firmware upgrades to fix the problem, or hardware replacements for customers.
We've got the same problem here. Did anyone found a solution for this behaviour already ? We have two of this devices (one for our TV and one for our NAS) and we can't use them and paid them for nothing...
And it's the same issue here too. I have this hooked up to an ethernet HP laserjet 2450 printer so that it acts as a wireless device thru my FIOS Actiontec router. It definitely hijacks my wireless devices by issuing DHCP addresses to them and they cannot connect to the internet either. I have to unplug the WNCE when not in use so that my laptops use DHCP thru the Actiontec router. The WNCE has been set up as with a static ip address of 192.168.1.251 and it works fine for the HP printer when it is in use. However, when the HP is not being used, the WNCE takes over my home network and assigns its own DHCP addresses.
I thought I was crazy until I ran into this problem this week. Normally my wnce2001 is off except for a few hours a day, but recently I've been leaving it on 24/7 and it is giving out an address to my Wife's laptop. The address is completely out of the range that my DHCP server uses and my WiFi access point does not give out addresses.
I'm at the latest version of the firmware and I don't know what else to do.
The odd thing is that the device that is physically connected to the wnce2001 still gets a valid IP from my _real_ dhcp server and works correctly. The LAN settings in the wnce2001 show that the DHCP server is ON and it has a 192.168.1.251 address.
It does seem to be that if the LAN port is down for a length of time it will revert to its setup mode and start acting as a dhcp server. After a power cycle the dhcp server will be off.
The device is not really fit for purpose while it has this fault.
After one week of running smoothly with 1 device we had the same error again. All (DHCP-)clients in the network are provided with 192.168.1.251 as the standard gateway and are therefor not able to access the internet because a different IP range is configured.
It seems like the WNCE2001 lost the WLAN-connection somehow or did a reset. Because when I try to access the internet with a client with the wrong standard gateway I am forwarded to the setup assistant of the WNCE2001. So it fits the description by wires76.
Firmware V1.0.0.26 - so no chance of updating the firmware version.
The device(s) are not really worth the money with this fault behaviour.
I am having exactly this issue with the WNCE2001 (firmware V1.0.0.26) and have to leave it switched off when I'm not using the TV it's plugged into. Which is rather a pain, to say the least. Did anyone ever get a fix for this?
Sounds like no one has a solution. A shame, as I've always trusted Netgear products up to this point. However, I can only agree with...
wires76 wrote:
The device is not really fit for purpose while it has this fault.
Thakira wrote:
The device(s) are not really worth the money with this fault behaviour.
...and conclude there is a fundamental flaw with this product that not so much renders it useless, as every other machine on the network! I think I will have to get in touch with Netgear directly.
I have found a possible answer why but not a solution:
see this link http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/3659/netgear_wnce2001_universal_wifi_internet_adapter/index3.html
and could it be that Netgear has not removed the setting switch properly from the hardware?? I do not believe that one can access the switch without opening the case!
I visited the other product website and they show the user manual and one can set the box to router or client and AP modes! Behaviour just as you described!!
I have a Netgear one but it works fine for me!
Hi! Got my little box a week ago and it still is working. Have not set it to full use yet. It will run 24/7 so we will se how that works out
Made som observations that might help someone.
The box does for suse contain a DHCP server that serves 192.168.1.0/24 network. It is from my understanding only in use during initial setup. Aftre that it will be off. When box is setup and connected it will acuire a ip for itself from your standard DHCP server so you can access the advanced config interface/webserver in the box. You can access this from anywhere in you local network if you now the ip. The www.mywifiext.net can only be used from the connected computer which means that the box does some sort of DNS intervention for this to work. The connected computer gets the dns server info from the DHCP setup and that does for sure not contain any info on the URL 🙂
Furthermore i tested to disconnect the computer and after a couple of minutes the box disonnects from my AP and the red lamp lights up on the box. When reconnecting the cable it reconnects to my AP and we have green lights again and ok connections.
Hi! Got my little box a week ago and it still is working. Have not set it to full use yet. It will run 24/7 so we will se how that works out
Made som observations that might help someone.
The box does for suse contain a DHCP server that serves 192.168.1.0/24 network. It is from my understanding only in use during initial setup. Aftre that it will be off. When box is setup and connected it will acuire a ip for itself from your standard DHCP server so you can access the advanced config interface/webserver in the box. You can access this from anywhere in you local network if you now the ip. The www.mywifiext.net can only be used from the connected computer which means that the box does some sort of DNS intervention for this to work. The connected computer gets the dns server info from the DHCP setup and that does for sure not contain any info on the URL 🙂
Furthermore i tested to disconnect the computer and after a couple of minutes the box disonnects from my AP and the red lamp lights up on the box. When reconnecting the cable it reconnects to my AP and we have green lights again and ok connections.
Hope this can be usefull for someone.
One other thing that came up in my mind. I wonder if the box get confused if you are using the 192.168.1.0 network back home i.e the same as the internal DHCP server use? I do not. Could be interesting to know what is used when members here have problems. Due to the large number of problems there has to be some commonly used setup that triggers this nasty bug.
Yes, I have the problem that everyone else here has talked about. Mercifully, when my REAL DHCP server is active everyone gets an IP address from it and everyone is happy, but if I happen to turn off the computer running the DHCP server then everyone starts coming up with the bogus IP addresses in the 192.168.1.0 subnet with the bogus gateway at 192.168.1.251. I just gave everyone static IP addresses which is a workaround that I haven't seen mentioned here. It's not a particularly good workaround because if anyone picks up their computer and leaves they will not be able to connect to any hot-spots on the road because of their static IP. But it is a workaround that mostly works for me.
Here is my theory of what is happening, and why it is so problematical (hard for NetGear to fix):
The essential quality of the WNCE2001 that makes this such a knotty problem is the design spec that you can connect this with an ethernet cable to the Ethernet port of a computer and the computer will automatically configure itself to the subnet of the WNCE2001. That makes configuration doable for non-techies. Connect it to your computer and bingo, you see the configuration page (I'm not even sure you need to browse to the www.mywifiext.net since the WNCE2001 configures itself as the gateway.) However, this means that whenever the WNCE2001 senses the Ethernet cable being unplugged, it has to assume that what it is plugged into next will be a computer wanting to configure it and it has to turn on the internal (rogue) DHCP server. Ideally, this DHCP server would only serve to the wired connection, however, I suspect that due to the way this tries to act as a pass-through device it has trouble distinguishing between wired packets and unwired packets and it ends up responding to DHCP requests from the unwired side.
My theory doesn't explain why this problem doesn't seem to disconnect the device wired to the WNCE2001. The assumption would be that when you turn off your TV the WNCE2001 would then switch to the DHCP mode and give it an address in the 192.168.1.0 subnet. This does not seem to happen as far as I can tell.
Although I have some inclination to take this as evidence that NetGear has finally gone over to the dark side, I'm trying to see how this could be amenable to some other interpretation. It seems that they may not have designed this product. They got it from another manufacturer to fill a gap in their product line-up. This caused them to be too quick to the market place and after the product was out they uncovered this fatal flaw that firmware can't fix.
Does anyone have any indications as to whether the WNCE3001 has this problem?
I had mine powered off now for a couple of days. Connected it and it still works fine and config is correct and dhcp server in unit is off. So disconnecting / connecting lan cable is not enough to get mine to start acting dhcp server.....
We have over 40 of these devices and several have shown the handing out of DHCP described in this thread. These devices are connected 24/7 via it's ethernet port to a device which is on. So the suggestion that this issue occurs on disconnection to it's wired port would not seem accurate, at least in our experience. What I have noticed is this issue occurring when there is a prolonged interruption that this device has to the wireless network. I.E., when it cannot obtain an address. All the devices are set to DHCP an address. Someone suggested changing the static ip and changing back to DHCP. I'm going to set one of the problem devices we have to static to see if this resolves the issue.
I am having the same issue with a bit of a twist. The WNCE2001 hijacks my wired connections. the computer I am using now... Talk about frustrating. Randomly, I could access my NETGEAR router but not DNS server or the internet. Last night, the WNCE2001 config page pooped up on WIRED PC! Seriously. I thought someone was playing a game with me and that they had connected me to the WNCE2001 ..nope...Unplugged the two WNCE2001 devices which were not connected to anything, they are for the kids XBOX's and they were using an ehternet cable to connect the two xboxs and thier WNCE2001s disconnected but powered on. Once I turned off the devices(WNCE2001)..Everything works fine....CRazy problem and this thread is over a year old....IS there really no fix?
I'm having a port forwarding issue with one of these devices - I don't suppose anyone's managed to sort port forwarding to a device connected through one of these?
Funny, from time to time my WNCE2001 hijacks DHCP as well, assigning 192.168.1.251 as gateway for all devices on the wifi in the house - That address is the webconfig address of the WNCE2001 and has the latest firmware.... Quite annoying and renders the device useless and a bit destructive, the house NAS, servers, movie streaming devices and everything looses connection ... This device is going to the trash - I've bought Netgear before finding the specs look appealing but it just doesnt work properly - Not buying any other Netgear products ever again, seems feature wise Netgear knows what to do but implementing it poorly again and again...
Hello-What is the best set up for an XBOX 360 connection(wired) using the WNDR4500 with V1.0.1.40_1.0.68? I have it now with factory settings and I keep losing my internet connection or it's very laggy all the time. thank you for your help.
Just created an account to post what I believe resolves this problem.
First off, thanks to the folks for posting observations. Very helpful. I'll note that the lastest firmware (1.0.0.26NA), still has the problem. Fortunately, it's pretty easy to use a rogue DHCP checker to return the MAC address of the bad device, so yeah, the WNCE2001 definitely is the bad actor here.
The problem happens when you try to specify a static IP address for the device. The firmware kicks on DHCP with a very fast response time, causing any other devices to connect to it's subnet first. Fortunately, the firmware disables the internal DHCP when you have it connect out using DHCP (If that sounds confusing to you, don't worry, it's because I'm not going into details about WAN/LAN and other bits)
How do you have the device lock to a specific IP address? Most routers allow you to map MAC addresses to specific IP addresses. You can get the MAC address off the bottom of the device (it's the bottom most number).
Just created an account to post what I believe resolves this problem.
The problem happens when you try to specify a static IP address for the device. The firmware kicks on DHCP with a very fast response time, causing any other devices to connect to it's subnet first. Fortunately, the firmware disables the internal DHCP when you have it connect out using DHCP (If that sounds confusing to you, don't worry, it's because I'm not going into details about WAN/LAN and other bits)
How do you have the device lock to a specific IP address? Most routers allow you to map MAC addresses to specific IP addresses. You can get the MAC address off the bottom of the device (it's the bottom most number).
Annoying as all get out, but it works.
Okay, you NEVER said specifically HOW to solve the issue. You mention all this mumbo jumbo, and we are supposed to guess?
Please, just come out and say what needs to be done: 1) Don't specify a static IP address and just let the device get its own address 2) Something about locking IPs to MAC addresses? Are you suggesting we should do this? Should we do this for ALL devices on our LAN?
I hope you see how utterly confusing your comments are and, all that aside, it is a "workaround," not a solution; not a true 'fix.'
Also, what makes you think users are setting a static IP for the device? I don't remember EVER setting a static for the device and here it is April 28, 2014, and THE PROBLEM STILL EXISTS!
There is NO commonality of "users messing up the setup;" there is just, plain and simple, a BUG in Netgear's product, and they don't want to admit it, nor do they want to fix it.
Additionally, if I had set (or other users had set) a static IP for their device, how/why does that ip seem to be 192.168.1.251? Seems very odd that almost everyone having this problem sees THAT specific IP.
And, all the above aside, whether or not users decide to set a static IP for their Netgear device, the device SHOULD ALLOW DHCP SERVER FEATURE TO BE TURNED OFF! PERIOD. END OF STORY.
Isn't it AMAZING that this BUG IS FIVE YEARS STRONG, AND NETGEAR STILL HAS *NOT* ADDRESSED THE ISSUE? And NO FIRMWARE UPDATE HAS FIXED THE ISSUE. I haven't taken mine apart to see if there's a Client/AP switch. If so, that could be the issue, but it would be nice for NETGEAR TO TELL US.
I smell a class action lawsuit as a possibility in Netgear's future!
