Help please! i think I've created a network loop

[rjpreston]

Hi. First-time poster after being silent on the forum for quite some time. Apologies for my first post being a cheeky one asking for help.

I think I've inadvertently created a loop in my home network and I'm not sure how to fix it.

I have an RT-AC68U as primary wireless router (connected to a Zyxel operating in modem-only mode). The wifi signal from the AC68U is a bit low at one side of the house, so as I have several powerline adapters (develo dLAN 1200+ models) around the house I used the wifi function in one of these to create a new wifi zone, and another plugged into the AC68U. I gave adapter at the far side of the house the same wireless network name and passwords as the Asus. All works fine with great signal now in all areas around the house. But looking at the Asus router's wireless connected clients it shows a second "RT-AC68U" connected, and the log shows repeated DHCPDiscover and DHCPOffer logs every 3 seconds continuously. The MAC address associated with these logs is the router's own MAC.

Is the Asus connecting wirelessly with the powerline wifi and trying to give itself a DHCP address? I've obviously messed things up by giving the repeater wifi the same network credentials, but I don't know how to do it without creating two differently named networks around the house which I don't want.

Is there a way of having the repeater powerline adapter set up with the same network name, but preventing the asus from connecting wirelessly and seeing itself as a second RT-AC68U?

Many thanks for suggestions.

 

[dingo99]

There's nothing wrong with using the same Wi-Fi credentials as the Asus, as it's a very common thing to do (router + additional AP's).

It seems as if your powerline network is connected to the WAN side of the Asus. There's no reason for the router to send DHCPDiscover on its LAN side, nor to join another Wi-Fi as a client.

What's the model number of the Zyxel, and does it have built-in powerline? Or, does it have multiple Ethernet ports, and if so, do you have anything other than the Asus plugged into them?

 

[rjpreston]

The modem is a VMG1312-B10A in bridge mode. The powerline adapters are definitely on the LAN-side of the ASUS router though - one is ethernet cabled to the router and the other (the one with the replicated WiFi settings) is across the house behind the TV (on which BBC iplayer works perfectly so i know the set up is fine.) Pretty sure there is no problem with the modem.

An example of the 3 repeating Asus log entries is attached. I've confirmed that the MAC address shown in the DHCP Discover and Offer messages is indeed the Asus routers own MAC.

The router was reset to factory defaults and rebuilt recently when i installe dhte latest Merlin firmware. I will do the same with the powerline adapter (reset to factory and re-connect to powerline network) to see if the log entries go away.