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[AC86U] Strange information in network map entry

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Patrick9876

Regular Contributor
In my RT-AC86U network map, one device - a QNAP NAS - has very strange information.
  1. First, the device comes and goes from the display even though it is always on.
  2. The icon for the device has a small "2" in it, and hovering the cursor over the "2" displays the message "2 clients are connecting to the RT-AC86U through this device".
  3. The displayed IP address is 169.254.5.254 - an IPv4 link local address
  4. The address is labeled "Static" on the detailed information display.
  5. The displayed device name is "QNAP Systems Inc"
The NAS actually has a dynamic IP address - currently 192.168.1.31 - provided by the router. It's host name is OF-Pub-NAS1.

The NAS did take a very long time to initialize and probably was presenting that name and address for a while but eventually the it got used the DHCP-provided address and told the router its name in the exchange. I don't know what happened during that slow initialization, but after it's done the device cannot be reached link local address, just the DHCP provided address. Unfortunately the network display does not show either the dynamic address or the host name.

I recently (yesterday) switched from an AC87U running stock ASUS code to the AC86U running Merlin 384.14.2. I don't remember seeing this on the AC87U but I don't look at the network map very often so I might have missed it.

Is there any way to tell the router to forget the old (and now incorrect) information?
 
Well, the message is certainly the same, and both that reported problem and mine involve both a static and a dynamic IP address. But there are some significant differences.
  1. I'm not doing anything to set a static IP address. The device seems to be doing it all on its own.
  2. The static IP address is an IPv4 link-local address. If I understand correctly, these are set prior to the DHCP handshake (so a device without a predefined static IP address can function in a non-DHCP environment.
Another oddity: once my configuration settle down and the device becomes reachable, nslookup for the device name returns an IPv6 address. A reverse lookup of either the IPv4 or IP v6 address returns the device name.

I will see if I can disable IPv6 on the NAS. I don't need it in this environment. It may also be causing some trouble for a VPN connection I'm trying to set up.

Update: Disabling IPv6 on the NAS removed IPv6 from the picture - no big surprise there - but did not change "2 clients" problem. I suspect that all would be well if I rebooted the routed, but this is too minor a problem to do that.
 
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Today I added a domain name to my router which probably broke and reestablished the connection between router and the NAS. The router now shows only one client and shows the DHCP-provided IP address.
 
+1 on your follow up. Setting a domain name on the 86u worked for me the same way to 'reset' the stubborn counter.

I had a similar, but slightly different context to my issue. I was somewhere in-between your situation, and the OP in the post that was linked in this thead already ( https://www.snbforums.com/threads/2-clients-are-connecting-through-this-device.60841/ )

Rather than a NAS, I just had a desktop with an ASUS USB AC56 wifi stick, on the same router.
Desktop normally gets a DHCP assigned address for day to day stuff.
For fiddling unrelated reasons, I assigned a static IP on the adapter config through windows.
I finished with that playtime, removed that static config, and now went back to DHCP.
At this point, my desktop IP was back to a 192.168.x.x range.
However, on the router and very similar to you - now showed "2 clients connected" through this device:

1. The displayed IP address was 169.254.154.182 - also an IPv4 link local address
2. The address was labeled "Static" on the detailed information display (so the UI wasn't showing the 'latest' state for that desktop/wifi adapter as I could confirm my IP was actually in 192.168.x.x, and the link local address shown in the UI had nothing to do with the static address I set earlier).
3. The displayed device name is "ASUS" etc etc

All in all, the conclusion that the code may not decrement the counter that tallies the number of IPs assigned to a MAC even after the DHCP lease expires holds water - a similar situation to a DHCP expiry can take place if you assign a static IP, and then go back to a dynamic address relatively soon after.

That is referenced in the thread mentioned above, as well as here ( https://www.snbforums.com/threads/2-clients-are-connecting-to-rt-ac87u-through-this-device.35934/ ) where a Samsung tablet connected through DHCP first, then later got assigned a static IP and started showing 2 clients connected on the ASUS router.

Hopefully this is helpful for someone having vaguely similar experience later.

Cheers

EDIT: To anyone who tries, rebooting the router unfortunately won't reset this (or didn't for me). The issue seems sticky and revolves around the way the network map page shows information, rather than a networking problem per se. Someone mentioned issuing a 'killall networkmap' (through SSH) worked for them. But this workaround seems easier.
 
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