Linksys WRT1900AC - no route between 2,4 Ghz and 5 Ghz Wifi

[larscph]

Hi - anyone else with this issue - or anyone who can confirm that it is just me who has it?

I just bought and installed a Linksys WRT1900AC and it all works very fine apart from one minor detail. If I have a device connected on the 2.4 Ghz wifi that device cannot ping a device connected on the 5 Ghz wifi and vice versa.

If I try from my laptop - I connect it to the 5 Ghz band and can then ping my media centre just fine. If I switch it to the 2.4 Ghz band ping times out.

It seems to be just the connection between the two bands that does not work.

I am using firmware 1.1.8.161917


I just spoke with support and they never heard about the problem. They suggested doing a hardware reset and trying to reconfigure the router. If that does not work they thought the router could be faulty and in need of a replace.

But before doing that I wanted to hear from any of you who have a WRT1900AC if this is a problem for just me?

 

[thiggins]

Many routers implement wireless client isolation for security reasons. They usually provide an enable/disable, however.

I'll check with Linksys to see if they implement client isolation.

 

[larscph]

Thanks for your input. And yes - but that is not the case here.

I have worked a bit more with the case - and it seems to be client OS related somehow.

My media centre is running on a Mac Mini (OS/X) and when I try to access it from my Macbook connected on 2.4 Ghz it fails. If I switch the Macbook til 5 Ghz it works.

However, I then tried from a Thinkpad running Windows 7. From there the problem cannot be reproduced and I can ping from 2.4 Ghz as well as 5 Ghz.

My real problem is actually my SqueezeBox devices, they cannot run 5 Ghz - and I have my Squeezeserver on the Media Centre and would like to have it in 5 Ghz to perform better throughput when streaming media from my NAS.

I will try to get a USB wifi stick and see if that might fix the problem.

 

[azazel1024]

These are different SSIDs aren't they?

If so, have you checked whatever networking properties the Mac has? I am not very OSX conversant, but with Windows, I'd check under the network properties and ensure I had network discovery turned ON for that network.

If it is turned off, you won't be able to ping the machine or connect to it, even if you have network sharing turned on.

I am guessing you might have something similar going on. Network discovery turned on for the 2.4GHz SSID/network, but turned off on the 5GHz.

 

[htismaqe]

There's no "network discovery" in OS X. The firewall is applied globally, not on a per-interface or per-network (e.g. home, public, etc.) basis. That's my experience anyway, I'm not an expert. I've only been using OS X for about 3 years.

 

[larscph]

They are different SSID's (I have the 5 GHz network) suffixed with "_5Ghz" in the SSID name.

If I start a ping in a terminal window (command prompt) and let it run and switch between the to SSID's i begin getting timeouts when my computer is connected to "the other" SSID than the computer I am trying to ping.

There are no obvious settings, really. I have an external wifi usb stick waiting for me a the post office - I will pick that up tomorrow and then test using that rather than the build-in NIC in the Mac Mini. Fingers crossed and hope that it will do the trick.

Apart from that the 1900AC is very nice indeed - significantly better coverage and throughput than my old E4200 was able to provide.

 

[sfx2000]

Apple Devices (MacOS/iOS) look at different SSID's as being different networks, so your mileage may vary depending on Router/AP vendor...

For the most part though, services like Bonjour work within the same subnets - check "filter multi-cast" settings, and if possible toggle them, as some AP vendors have the setting reversed (e.g. on is actually off).

sfx

 

[larscph]

It was related to "something" in the build-in wifi adapter - I now bought an Edimax EW-7822UAC USB wifi dongle (it seems to be the only ac one with OS/X support) and installed that in my media computer. It works perfect and my old sqeueezebox devices can connect to the server too.

Also, before when doing a speed test on my internet connection which is officially 60/10 mbit I got around 20-22 mbit downstream on the new router to the Mac Mini. Now I get the full 60 mbit