Asus EA-AC87 Question about wireless clients

[Robert Jones]

Here's something that has me confused about my wireless AP and how it lists out connected devices.

I have an EA-AC87 in the living room with wired connections to Apple TV, Roku, Xbox, network-connected stereo, etc. It's set as an AP to my Asus RT-AC88U and the connection is fine. Generally no problems. However, when I look at the list of connected devices, it does NOT show ONLY the devices connected via cable but also shows Wi-Fi devices that connect to the router wirelessly - items such as my wife's iPhone, a Honeywell Wi-Fi thermostat in another room, a second Roku and Vizio display in another room, etc.

While I am certain this is not a problem, it's both interesting and confusing that they show up in the AP's "Client status" listing as if they were clients of the AP. They should not be; they should only be connecting directly to the router. So maybe I have something configured incorrectly or I'm misunderstanding the operation of the AP in conjunction with the router.

Since the AP connects to the router on the same SSID that all our devices do, does this mean these devices can connect to the network through the AP *also* and that's why they show up in the list?

The EA-AC87 interface is pretty minimal so there's not much to configure there so I'm not sure what I can change if changes are necessary.

Can anyone educate me on why this is?

Thanks and sorry for the ignorant question.

Robert

 

[OzarkEdge]

Here's something that has me confused about my wireless AP and how it lists out connected devices.

I have an EA-AC87 in the living room with wired connections to Apple TV, Roku, Xbox, network-connected stereo, etc. It's set as an AP to my Asus RT-AC88U and the connection is fine. Generally no problems. However, when I look at the list of connected devices, it does NOT show ONLY the devices connected via cable but also shows Wi-Fi devices that connect to the router wirelessly - items such as my wife's iPhone, a Honeywell Wi-Fi thermostat in another room, a second Roku and Vizio display in another room, etc.

While I am certain this is not a problem, it's both interesting and confusing that they show up in the AP's "Client status" listing as if they were clients of the AP. They should not be; they should only be connecting directly to the router. So maybe I have something configured incorrectly or I'm misunderstanding the operation of the AP in conjunction with the router.

Since the AP connects to the router on the same SSID that all our devices do, does this mean these devices can connect to the network through the AP *also* and that's why they show up in the list?

The EA-AC87 interface is pretty minimal so there's not much to configure there so I'm not sure what I can change if changes are necessary.

Can anyone educate me on why this is?

Thanks and sorry for the ignorant question.

Robert

It appears that the EA-AC87 can be i) wired to the router as an AP with wireless clients, or ii) wireless to the router as a media bridge with wired clients. Perhaps yours is configured as ii) a media bridge, and all of your wireless clients are connecting to the router.

OE

 

[roadwrenchtech]

Anything connecting through your access point be it wired or wireless will show as being a connected device of the access point and a client of the main router so long as dhcp is disabled in the access point and all addresses are handed out by main router which would be typical arrangement. This also makes it handy to tell where your wireless devices are connected if main router and access point ssid is the same. At least that's how mine work.

 

[Robert Jones]

It appears that the EA-AC87 can be i) wired to the router as an AP with wireless clients, or ii) wireless to the router as a media bridge with wired clients. Perhaps yours is configured as ii) a media bridge, and all of your wireless clients are connecting to the router.

Yes, you are correct, I misspoke. The EA-AC87 is set as a Media Bridge, not an Access Point and has 4 items hard-wired to it. The EA-AC87 is then connected to the RT-AC88U wirelessly. So you have it correct. Wireless devices should only be connecting to the router (AC88U), not the bridge (AC87) yet they are listed in the bridge interface as clients.

Anything connecting through your access point be it wired or wireless will show as being a connected device of the access point and a client of the main router so long as dhcp is disabled in the access point and all addresses are handed out by main router which would be typical arrangement. This also makes it handy to tell where your wireless devices are connected if main router and access point ssid is the same. At least that's how mine work.

Again, you too are correct. DHCP is off on the bridge since it's just a bridge. IPs are handed out by the router. SSIDs on both router and bridge are the same which I believe is correct for the bridge to connect to the router.

I don't doubt the router and bridge are configured properly as they both work as I expect. I just don't expect to see wireless devices that connect to the network through the router to show as clients of the bridge. I don't really want wireless devices (mine or anyone else's) to connect to the network via the bridge, only the hard-wired devices, and that's why it's set as a bridge and not an AP (don't know why I said AP in my original post. Just late at night I guess!)

It's likely I'm just not understanding what I'm supposed to be seeing in the bridge GUI. Maybe it's fine. But it seems odd that my wife's iPhone would show as a client of the bridge when it should only show as a client of the router.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Yes, you are correct, I misspoke. The EA-AC87 is set as a Media Bridge, not an Access Point and has 4 items hard-wired to it. The EA-AC87 is then connected to the RT-AC88U wirelessly. So you have it correct. Wireless devices should only be connecting to the router (AC88U), not the bridge (AC87) yet they are listed in the bridge interface as clients.


Again, you too are correct. DHCP is off on the bridge since it's just a bridge. IPs are handed out by the router. SSIDs on both router and bridge are the same which I believe is correct for the bridge to connect to the router.

I don't doubt the router and bridge are configured properly as they both work as I expect. I just don't expect to see wireless devices that connect to the network through the router to show as clients of the bridge. I don't really want wireless devices (mine or anyone else's) to connect to the network via the bridge, only the hard-wired devices, and that's why it's set as a bridge and not an AP (don't know why I said AP in my original post. Just late at night I guess!)

It's likely I'm just not understanding what I'm supposed to be seeing in the bridge GUI. Maybe it's fine. But it seems odd that my wife's iPhone would show as a client of the bridge when it should only show as a client of the router.

Got it. I can't comment further without seeing what you are seeing in the GUIs. I trust you are seeing some oddness. ASUS client lists have been flaky these days, so I would be inclined to ignore them if you think things are functioning correctly otherwise.

OE

 

[Robert Jones]

Got it. I can't comment further without seeing what you are seeing in the GUIs.

First you see it's a bridge and there are 15 clients:

Then you see them listed when you click on the Clients link:

Only the Roku, AppleTV, Xbox and stereo are connected to 4 of the 5 ports in back. So I THINK I should see only 4 clients (save for my computer which is currently connected to it to take the screen shots and you see that in the 9th position from the top.)

It's possible it's communicating with the RT-AC88U and seeing what's connected to it as clients but that doesn't make sense to me. Thus the question.

 

[L&LD]

This is normal for Asus AP's. Nothing is amiss here. Just that it presents information in a confusing manner.

 

[wouterv]

As said by L&LD, this what is expected with the router and media bridge creating one TCP/IP network.
The client discovery mechanism is anyhow due to it's nature not very reliable and different firmware versions for different Asus models may give different results.

 

[OzarkEdge]

As said by L&LD, this what is expected with the router and media bridge creating one TCP/IP network.
The client discovery mechanism is anyhow due to it's nature not very reliable and different firmware versions for different Asus models may give different results.

One wonders why the DHCP function can't yield a meaningful list of DHCP client info and call it good enough...

OE

 

[RMerlin]

One wonders why the DHCP function can't yield a meaningful list of DHCP client info and call it good enough...

Because not every clients use DHCP. I have some here for instance that use a static IP. Or, a client might be using an existing lease but the router was rebooted since that lease was allocated, so it won't be known to dnsmasq until its renewal.

 

[Robert Jones]

One wonders why the DHCP function can't yield a meaningful list of DHCP client info and call it good enough...

Yeah, my Linksys router compiled a list of IPs which was presented in a static fashion until the lease expired and those IPs dropped off the list. The Asus says "15 Clients" and, when I check to see which ones (should be the same 15 as always) the GUI shows 15 then 10 then 4 then 6 then 9 as I suppose it scans the network and sees what's connected. Apparently it updates constantly every second or two?

Anyway, I still find it odd that the bridge will show clients of the router as clients in its own list. That's confusing and makes it look like the clients are accessing the network through the bridge instead of the router. I've been a Linksys person for a very long time and these two Asus devices are my first for home networking so there's a learning curve of sorts.

Thanks for the help. I'll ignore what I'm seeing.

Bob