Connectivity issues in WAN-to-LAN setup

nakulkd · Mar 4, 2016

Hey guys,

So I have my main internet connection on the first floor which is plugged in to a d-link dsl-2750u modem/router combo (primary router).

I have a PS4 on the ground floor which I wanted to wire up and expand my wireless range so I picked up a tp-link ac750 router (slave router).

So I opted for a wan-to-lan connection since the tp-link has a USB port which I plan to use for data storage and I have read that this can work only if a wan port connection is detected by the router.

So the slave router IP is 192.168.0.1 by default and 192.168.1.1 on the primary so I didn't change anything when connecting them in wan-to-lan setup.

Once the setup was done I added the slave router to a dhcp reservation list on the primary router.

On the slave router, I setup the WiFi connectivity and assigned a static IP for the PS4 and put that in DMZ.

After the initial setup I could run multiplayer on the PS without any issues for a few hours and then it refused to connect to PSN despite having a type 2 nat connection.

After a bit of googling for a solution I came across one which asked me to change the MTU on the PS to 1472 and then it worked perfectly.

But now after about 1-2hrs of gaming, I see frequent disconnections from multiplayer.

I have disabled firewall in both the routers and considering the PS is in DMZ there shouldn't ideally be any port troubles either. So that leaves me with potential problem in either my setup of the wan-to-lan connection or in the setup of the primary router which might be timing out the connection to the slave for some reason.

I need your assistance in trying to identify if my network profile is the problem here.

I have listed the specifics of my settings below -

Primary Router:
IP: 192.168.1.1
DHCP: X.X.X.2 - X.X.X.50
Slave Router IP Reservation: 192.168.1.2

Slave Router:
Internet Settings: Dynamic IP (auto-detect)
DHCP: X.X.X.100 - X.X.X.199
PS4 Reservation: 192.168.0.115

Firewall turned off on both. However, the slave router has some options under security for VPN (PPTP, L2TP, IP Sec) and ALG (FTP, TFTP, H323, etc...) that I have not disabled since I didn't see how this could affect my connectivity.

My ISP is Airtel India.

Note: I have not made any changes such as the gateway or DNS settings on either router.

Regards,
Nakul Kishore Dumblekar

Ralston18 · Mar 4, 2016

If I follow your description and requirements correctly there are some configuration changes needed:

Let only the Primary Router assign the DHCP addresses. Your current range includes the static IP you assigned to the Slave Router so the available DHCP range shoud be changed. Maybe 192.168.1.10 - 192.168.1.50 (Did note the reservation but I still would not overlap.)

Should be wired: Primary Router LAN port -------> Slave Router LAN Port.

Set the Slave Router to 192.168.1.2 and turn off DHCP.

Let the PS4 obtain its IP address via DHCP from the Primary Router.

Both the Slave Router and PS4 DNS Gateway should be set for the Primary Router (192.168.1.1).

All subnet masks = 255.255.255.0

Leave firewalls and VPN alone for now. Return to default values.

Please post any further questions and watch for other postings here in case I have gone astray...

yimmi · Mar 4, 2016

How did it work did you hook up the ethernet cable from d link to tp link wan port? If yes then you should do it on static ip or configure tp link in bridge mode and hook the ethernet on a lan port and not to the wan of tp link

nakulkd · Mar 8, 2016

While I am aware than a lan-to-lan connection will be the simpler alternative here but I want to make use of the USB port on the slave router which, from what I've read on the internet, cannot work unless the router detects a wan input.

And to answer your question yimmi, I have assigned a static IP to the TP link on the primary router and left the TP link itself on auto-detect for wan because it will invariably get assigned the static IP from the d-link.

So I gave this setup a few days (as you can see since the OP) and the connection works perfectly fine right now.

But there's a different problem now :/

The WiFi connection, from both main and slave routers, connects different mobile devices and even assigns IP and shows as connected on the devices itself. Everything is good on that front.
But the devices themselves face connectivity issues with certain apps at random points of times... WhatsApp would fail to deliver texts at one instance and in another instance, WhatsApp would be perfectly fine but Facebook refuses to load images.

I have seen the issue replicated on a PC hardwired to the dlink. Unable to load images or video on Facebook on the PC.

So I'm certain the problem lies in the primary router and is being driven onto the slave as well. But I'm not sure what the problem is.

I have never had this kind of issue before. I don't even know where to begin looking.
Any assistance on this is much appreciated

Regards,
Nakul Kishore Dumblekar

Ralston18 · Mar 8, 2016

Do you see any error messages in the router's logs?

Or any error messages on the devices?

Look at the devices involved when the problem occurs: see what IP addresses have been assigned. I think there is still some IP conflict occuring.

Also, I wondered about your comment "but I want to make use of the USB port on the slave router which, from what I've read on the internet, cannot work unless the router detects a wan input."

I think you just need to provide a WAN IP and not necessarily a WAN port. Will concede that I do not have a full grasp of your network and plans regarding FTP access to the shared USB etc.. but felt that you may want to double check the matter.

Reference (per the user manual):

http://www.manualguru.com/tp-link/ac750/users-manual/page-78

(Actual manual page number regarding storage sharing begins on page 68 - move on to actual page 70.

nakulkd · Mar 10, 2016

Hello Ralston,

Thanks for pointing me towards the system log. I did find something interesting there although I don't know what to make of it.

So the d-link system logs are empty for some reason and only firewall logs show any entries.

But on the tp-link, I see an entry where the device receives "offer" of IP 192.168.1.2 from 192.168.1.1 which is perfect considering dhcp reservation on the dlink. But after an hour or two I see this entry -- "Unicasting a release of 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.1" and the next "requests" from connected devices results in this message "Server id not found and request an invalid ip" followed by a "send NAK" message.

Post this I see a few entries for "Send DISCOVER with request ip 0.0.0.0 and unicast flag 0" and sometimes with flag value 1.

Finally it goes to this message "Recv no OFFER, DHCP Service unavailable" which I believe is when the internet connection goes down.

Then after a period it says this "Recv OFFER from server 192.168.1.1 with ip 192.168.1.2" post which all connections are acknowledged and Internet works fine.

Looking at this log I think the 0.0.0.0 it tries to connect to is the DNS because I've left it at default value which is at 0.0.0.0.
Maybe assigning a fixed value or the gateway of the dlink will resolve this?

But I still don't know what "unicasting a release" means and why it's happening. If this is about dhcp lease being expired then that cannot happen coz I've set to it to 1440mins (24hrs) on the tp-link and left the dlink on default value of 43200sec (12hrs). And since this issue is happening at least twice in a 3hr period I think dhcp lease time is out of the potential issues.

And as for the USB device, I intend it to be just for LAN use, no FTP. And the post I had read about wan port connection requirement was in another post in this forum regarding a lan-wan connection. I was reading up on posts before I bought the tp-link actually and was under that impression which is the whole basis of this network mode.
But I will try out a lan-lan connection later this weekend and test it out to see if connection issues are sorted and the USB device works.

In the meantime, any ideas about what the log could mean?

Regards,
Nakul Kishore Dumblekar

Ralston18 · Mar 10, 2016

Not sure about the lack of D-Link logs. You may need to enable them - check through the admin screens.

With respect to unicasting:

https://www.techopedia.com/definition/2464/unicast-address

(I prefer a direct link to a reference vs some para-phrasing or other rehash on my part. Easy to find more information if you desire or need to do so.)

The TP-Link is giving up its IP for some reason that I honestly admit to not understanding the "why" part.

Set the slave router to a static IP of 192.168.1.2 versus reserving that address via MAC for DHCP assignment. And set the range of available DHCP addresses to not include 192.168.1.2.

Leave the DNS Server 0.0.0.0 as is for now. Do not want to change too much at one time.

See what happens and keep an eye on the logs.

nakulkd · Mar 10, 2016

So I checked the wan status on dynamic setting and have set it up in static IP settings as follows -

IP: 192.168.1.2
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.1
Primary DNS: 192.168.1.1 (Found this to be the primary DNS in dynamic settings)
Secondary DNS: 0.0.0.0

Just restarted the router and everything is fine so far. I'll update findings in the next 24hrs.

Regards,
Nakul Kishore Dumblekar

nakulkd · Mar 12, 2016

Alright and it's update time -

I have it connected up lan-to-lan with lan2 on dlink running to lan1 on the tp-link. Mac reservation of 192.168.1.2 on the dlink and dhcp from x.x.x.3-x.x.x.50.

Dhcp, firewall, upnp are all off on the tp-link. Upnp active on the dlink, firewall off.

Still facing that issue with media not loading over the Internet.. Be it Facebook or Instagram. WhatsApp works fine. Webpages open OK but only media seems to be affected.Tested on the 2.4ghz and 5ghz channel of the tp-link as well as the WiFi on the dlink.

I turned on system logging on the dlink but when I just tried to connect to the dlink's router page I kept getting a connection timed out error on both wifi and wired connectivity. I had to restart the modem and obviously the logs were gone. I ran a diagnostic test on it and I get a fail on ping primary DNS. Is this of any concern?

In my previous lan-to-lan connection with a dsl-2730 primary and an old refurbished Cisco wrgs I never faced any issues. I'm suspecting the current dlink 2750u to be defective.

I'll swap it back for the old modem/router and try and let you'll know the results. But I the meantime, did any of the above make any sense about what could be wrong in this current setup?

Regards,
Nakul Kishore Dumblekar

yimmi · Mar 14, 2016

Ok you still have the tp link connected to wan or lan? You confused me.also what is the ip range of tp link if it is connected to wan try 192.168.0.x and if it is connected to lan turn the dhcp from tp link if that does not do the job I would look into d link and changed it

yimmi · Mar 14, 2016

Turn dhcp off*

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