How does Asus or Asus Merlin source the device name under the System Log, Wireless Log Tab?

[jksmurf]

I am struggling to understand how Asus / Asus Merlin sources its name in the Wireless Log (under the System Log Tab), vs those displayed in the Network Tab "Client Status" and "View List" Tables of what is connected.

I ask as I recently added some Shelly IoT (1 PM) devices to my Guest Network 2 (intranet disabled) and:

1. Originally, when the devices connected via DHCP I could see these in the Wireless Log as the original names Shelly gave them; then
2. When I set a DHCP Reservation I could also see them in the Wireless Log with the reserved IP and the new name I gave them (and in the Network Tab Client Tables); then
3. When (due to connectivity issues), I was recommended to set a STATIC IP in the Devices themselves, I set these (it fixed the issues) and whilst the Network Tab "Client Status" and "View List" Tables still showed the name in the DHCP reservation, the WIRELESS Log now shows a <not found> entry; this despite the correct names being shown in the Network Tab (even after a reboot)?

Notes:

When I set a static IP in the Shelley Device Admin Pages (see pic 5), I also added a 2nd Wifi (as a backup) and I set the same Static IP Address as for the Primary Wifi (Wifi1), on the basis that if it defaulted to the 2nd Wifi (due to a poor or weak signal), then it would simply use the same Static IP (which is unique anyway) and is in any case reserved. I checked (by removing it and rebooting) if this was the issue but it does not seem to be.

When I set the Static IP in the Shelly Admn I did NOT put in a DNS; I use Cloudflare on 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1, should I maybe set this in the Shelly Admin, would that help with the naming?

What I have not done (yet) is rebooting the Shelly Devices after renaming them under "Device Name" in the Shelly Admin; I am not sure whether this name is passed to e.g. the Router or just used for the Shelly Admin itself.

As an aside, my double use of the Static IP is probably not good practice (although I thought if it goes to Wifi 2, it does not matter anwyay) and happy to be advised if anyone sees an issue with this, I can just let the backup Wifi default to DHCP (or set a unique STATIC IP for the Backup Wifi and setup another (unique) DHCP Reservation for it, although I wanted to avoid doing this).

I attach screenshots to hopefully show what I mean:

thanks!

 

[sfx2000]

you really should not have to set static IP's (or DHCP reservations) for IOT devices - give them an SSID, and they should just work...

Don't over complicate things - the devices are designed to work with DHCP and dynamic IP addressing, so why make it hard?

On some of the Asus Routers - airtime fairness can be a problem for ongoing connectivity, so it's good to see what it does there...

 

[ColinTaylor]

Please don't obscure the private IP addresses (e.g. 192.168.x.y) in your screenshots as it serves no purpose other than making diagnosing the problem more difficult.

 

[drinkingbird]

I am struggling to understand how Asus / Asus Merlin sources its name in the Wireless Log (under the System Log Tab), vs those displayed in the Network Tab "Client Status" and "View List" Tables of what is connected.

I ask as I recently added some Shelly IoT (1 PM) devices to my Guest Network 2 (intranet disabled) and:

1. Originally, when the devices connected via DHCP I could see these in the Wireless Log as the original names Shelly gave them; then
2. When I set a DHCP Reservation I could also see them in the Wireless Log with the reserved IP and the new name I gave them (and in the Network Tab Client Tables); then
3. When (due to connectivity issues), I was recommended to set a STATIC IP in the Devices themselves, I set these (it fixed the issues) and whilst the Network Tab "Client Status" and "View List" Tables still showed the name in the DHCP reservation, the WIRELESS Log now shows a <not found> entry; this despite the correct names being shown in the Network Tab (even after a reboot)?

Notes:

When I set a static IP in the Shelley Device Admin Pages (see pic 5), I also added a 2nd Wifi (as a backup) and I set the same Static IP Address as for the Primary Wifi (Wifi1), on the basis that if it defaulted to the 2nd Wifi (due to a poor or weak signal), then it would simply use the same Static IP (which is unique anyway) and is in any case reserved. I checked (by removing it and rebooting) if this was the issue but it does not seem to be.

When I set the Static IP in the Shelly Admn I did NOT put in a DNS; I use Cloudflare on 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1, should I maybe set this in the Shelly Admin, would that help with the naming?

What I have not done (yet) is rebooting the Shelly Devices after renaming them under "Device Name" in the Shelly Admin; I am not sure whether this name is passed to e.g. the Router or just used for the Shelly Admin itself.

As an aside, my double use of the Static IP is probably not good practice (although I thought if it goes to Wifi 2, it does not matter anwyay) and happy to be advised if anyone sees an issue with this, I can just let the backup Wifi default to DHCP (or set a unique STATIC IP for the Backup Wifi and setup another (unique) DHCP Reservation for it, although I wanted to avoid doing this).

I attach screenshots to hopefully show what I mean:

thanks!

The vast majority of pages throughout the Asus will use DNS name (which is either what the client has reported when it obtains an IP, or the hostname you assigned when you created a DHCP reservation for it). When neither of those exists, you'll either see a generic vendor name, or "not found" or similar. So if you've set a static IP on something, you're going to see "not found" most likely.

You want all of your LAN devices pointing to the router as your DNS server. The router is the only thing that should point to cloudflare.

If you must have static IPs for anything, only use DHCP reservations, leave all of the devices set to DHCP and let them learn their settings from what you've configured in the router. By setting a static IP on the device it never goes to DHCP thus the router has no way of putting its hostname into DNS.

I'm not following by what you're trying to say with primary and backup wifi, are you saying you have two routers each with separate DHCP servers? That's going to be a problem on your entire LAN if so. You should have one and only one router and DHCP server and if you need additional wifi coverage just add an AP to that (or setup AiMesh).

 

[RMerlin]

On the Wireless Log page, I extract it from the dnsmasq lease list, by matching the MAC.

For the Networkmap, Asus can extract it from various sources, be it NETBIOS or DNS. The details of which methods they use are closed source.

 

[drinkingbird]

On the Wireless Log page, I extract it from the dnsmasq lease list, by matching the MAC.

For the Networkmap, Asus can extract it from various sources, be it NETBIOS or DNS. The details of which methods they use are closed source.

At some point in 386 they started ARP scanning the entire subnet every few mins when you have the client list open. That's when I noticed the client list to be more reliable as far as having all devices listed. Of course that doesn't populate hostname, in my case it is always populated from DNS or custom name. But I've never tried setting a static IP on a NETBIOS compatible device to see if it grabs that (anything NETBIOS compatible should report its hostname when grabbing a DHCP lease).

Actually wireless log must look at the custom name NVRAM variable too as my blu ray player shows up as the name I gave it in client list and not blank (hostname in DHCP leases) or "Hon Hai" which is the default it shows in client list.

 

[jksmurf]

you really should not have to set static IP's (or DHCP reservations) for IOT devices - give them an SSID, and they should just work...

Don't over complicate things - the devices are designed to work with DHCP and dynamic IP addressing, so why make it hard?

On some of the Asus Routers - airtime fairness can be a problem for ongoing connectivity, so it's good to see what it does there...

Thanks, actually there are a couple of reasons for setting the Static IP (but not necessarily DHCP reservation):

1. Shelly themselves recommend it - https://kb.shelly.cloud/knowledge-base/shelly-plus-1pm-web-interface-guide
2. I had problems with them staying connected without it.
3. Searching for the issue strongly suggested I do this first, e.g. https://www.snbforums.com/threads/s...ly-on-guest-network-but-not-on-regular.86709/

k.

 

[jksmurf]

Please don't obscure the private IP addresses (e.g. 192.168.x.y) in your screenshots as it serves no purpose other than making diagnosing the problem more difficult.

I'm sorry Colin, if it helps I can recapture and reattach them without this obscured (I deleted the originals sorry).

 

[drinkingbird]

Thanks, actually there are a couple of reasons for setting the Static IP (but not necessarily DHCP reservation):

1. Shelly themselves recomend it - https://kb.shelly.cloud/knowledge-base/shelly-plus-1pm-web-interface-guide
2. I had problems with them staying conencted without it.
3. Searching for the issue strongly suggested I do this first.

k.

Then if you want them to show up by hostname in the Asus, you're going to need to do a dnsmasq.conf.add or dnsmasq.postconf script to add their hostnames to DNS.

However any device that isn't able to do DHCP reliably has major problems.

 

[jksmurf]

The vast majority of pages throughout the Asus will use DNS name (which is either what the client has reported when it obtains an IP, or the hostname you assigned when you created a DHCP reservation for it). When neither of those exists, you'll either see a generic vendor name, or "not found" or similar. So if you've set a static IP on something, you're going to see "not found" most likely.

Thank you for the reply on this. When you wrote " or the hostname you assigned when you created a DHCP reservation for it", that is what I thought it would populate it with, so one of those does exist, which is why I was confused as to why it reported no name.

You want all of your LAN devices pointing to the router as your DNS server. The router is the only thing that should point to cloudflare.

OK, I will remove the DNS from the Shelly Admin.

If you must have static IPs for anything, only use DHCP reservations, leave all of the devices set to DHCP and let them learn their settings from what you've configured in the router. By setting a static IP on the device it never goes to DHCP thus the router has no way of putting its hostname into DNS.

OK, but this is where it gets tricky. I had DHCP reservations, but the devices were constantly disconnecting. With STATIC IP set up on the device, that behaviour stopped (but the naming issue cropped up). I will probably need to choose stability over the name.

I'm not following by what you're trying to say with primary and backup wifi, are you saying you have two routers each with separate DHCP servers? That's going to be a problem on your entire LAN if so. You should have one and only one router and DHCP server and if you need additional wifi coverage just add an AP to that (or setup AiMesh).

This is the terminology in picture #5, from Shelly Admin page. I assume they allow you to provide two Wifi SSIDs, so I have my 2.4GHz IoT Guest 2 as Wifi1 one and my Private main Wifi (non-guest ) as Wifi2. Hope that explains it ok.

 

[jksmurf]

On the Wireless Log page, I extract it from the dnsmasq lease list, by matching the MAC.

For the Networkmap, Asus can extract it from various sources, be it NETBIOS or DNS. The details of which methods they use are closed source.

OK, so somehow as drinkingbird said, I need to find a way to get it into the dnsmasq lease list manually; although oddly, WITHOUT the Static IP, it was correct and the same as the Network Map names, which I assume followed what I put into the DHCP List.

 

[jksmurf]

Then if you want them to show up by hostname in the Asus, you're going to need to do a dnsmasq.conf.add or dnsmasq.postconf script to add their hostnames to DNS.

However any device that isn't able to do DHCP reliably has major problems.

Hmmm. The former sounds like a bit outside my lane; is the second comment in reference to the Router or the Shelly devices please?

 

[drinkingbird]

Thank you for the reply on this. When you wrote " or the hostname you assigned when you created a DHCP reservation for it", that is what I thought it would populate it with, so one of those does exist, which is why I was confused as to why it reported no name.

Because that hostname you've specified only gets put into DNS when the device requests a lease. If you have a static IP, your device never request a lease, and that DHCP reservation is not "active". You can confirm this by looking at the DHCP leases screen. If it isn't there, it isn't in DNS.

OK, but this is where it gets tricky. I had DHCP reservations, but the devices were constantly disconnecting. With STATIC IP set up on the dveice, that behaaviour stopped (but the naming issue cropped up). I will probably need to choose stability over the name.

Well, those devices have some major issues then.

This is the terminology in picture #5, from Shelly Admin page. I assume they allow you to provide two Wifi SSIDs, so I have my 2.4GHz IoT Guest 2 as Wifi1 one and my Private main Wifi (non-guest ) as Wifi2. Hope that explains it ok.

OK, understood, but guest and main SSID are very different. That could very well be part of your problem (or the entire problem). Especially if you are using Guest Network 1 which uses totally different IP ranges. It lets you set a totally different static IP for each one?

I suspect this may be your source of your disconnect issue, when it was connecting to one SSID it could not communicate with the other devices (which is how guest works) and thus kept disconnecting and reconnecting to retry.

I would try setting them with only your main SSID and DHCP. If it is stable that way, then it is related to that dual SSID setup and the fact that one SSID is completely different network architecture (with firewall blocking and inter-device communication blocked, which is typically not compatible with IOT devices).

Two different SSIDs on the same router is not providing you any sort of redundancy anyway, if the router or radio fails, both will go down.

 

[drinkingbird]

Hmmm. The former sounds like a bit outside my lane; is the second comment in reference to the Router or the Shelly devices please?

Those are scripts run on the router to manually add hosts into DNS. The shelly devices not working right with DHCP is in reference to those devices, but I suspect it is more related to the dual SSID stuff and not DHCP itself.

 

[drinkingbird]

OK, so somehow as drinkingbird said, I need to find a way to get it into the dnsmasq lease list manually; although oddly, WITHOUT the Static IP, it was correct and the same as the Network Map names, which I assume follwoed what I put into the DHCP List.

From my observation if you have set a name in client list manually, that will also show up in the wireless log screen. Another explanation is until your lease expires or is released (or you reboot the router), the hostname will remain in DNS, so you may have been looking after you changed to static but before you rebooted.

So if you want to see the correct names in client list and wireless log page, just set a manual name in the client list. That will not update DNS so some stuff still won't show a host name, but those two screens should.

 

[jksmurf]

Because that hostname you've specified only gets put into DNS when the device requests a lease. If you have a static IP, your device never request a lease, and that DHCP reservation is not "active". You can confirm this by looking at the DHCP leases screen. If it isn't there, it isn't in DNS.

That's very good information thanks. I checked and the Shelly Devices do not show on that DHCP leases page. This would explain no name from DHCP.

Well, those devices have some major issues then.

They work OK, just quite a lot to set up.

OK, understood, but guest and main SSID are very different. That could very well be part of your problem (or the entire problem). Especially if you are using Guest Network 1 which uses totally different IP ranges. It lets you set a totally different static IP for each one?

As above I am using Guest Network 2 for my 2.4GHz IoT Devices. These all show up in Guest2 as 192.168.47.xxx subnet, the same as my main Router (hence my question in a separate thread on assigning them DHCPs). Yes Shelly allows a siddferent Static IP for each device (and for both Wifi1 and Wifi2 on each device).

I suspect this may be your source of your disconnect issue, when it was connecting to one SSID it could not communicate with the other devices (which is how guest works) and thus kept disconnecting and reconnecting to retry.

OK. I put it on Guest Network 2 as (i) the subnet was the same as my main router (ii) before setting a Static IP, it showed up as a name OK in the Wireless Log and (iii) I read on snbforums that a lot of folks put IoT devices on the 2.4GHz Guest Network 2.

I would try setting them with only your main SSID and DHCP. If it is stable that way, then it is related to that dual SSID setup and the fact that one SSID is completely different network architecture (with firewall blocking and inter-device communication blocked, which is typically not compatible with IOT devices).

OK, I will try that, Might need a few days though sorry, I am not at the address of the devices, just using Tailscale to VPN in.

Two different SSIDs on the same router is not providing you any sort of redundancy anyway, if the router or radio fails, both will go down.

That is indeed true, however there was one reason for choosing the main Wifi as a backup Wifi and that is that I get a better signal due to having an AIMESH Node closer to the Shelly Device. I understood that AIMESH works on the main Wifi and on Guest 1, (but not on Guest Network 2 or 3). Guest 1 has different subnets so that is why I did not set that as the Wifi2 (Backup). Backup Wifi seemed like a good idea in principle from this perspective.

 

[drinkingbird]

That's very good information thanks. I checked and the Shelly Devices do not show on that DHCP leases page. This would explain no name from DHCP.

They work OK, just quite a lot to set up.

As above I am using Guest Network 2 for my 24GHz Iot Devices. These all show up in Guest2 as 192.168.47.xxx subnet, the same as my main Router (hence my question in a separate thread on assigning them DHCPs). Yes Shelly allows a siddferent Static IP for each device (and each of Wifi1 and Wifi2 on each device).

OK. I put it on Guest Network 2 as (i) the subnet was the same as my main router (ii) before Static IP setting it showed up as a name OK and (iii) I read on snbforums that a lot of folks out IoT devices on the 2.4GHz Guest Network 2.

OK, I will try that, Might need a few days though sorry, I am not at the address of the devices, just using Tailscale to VPN in.

That is indeed true, however there was one reason for choosing the main Wifi as a backup Wifi and that is that I get a better signal due to having an AIMESH Node closer to the Shelly Device. I understood that AIMESH works on the main Wifi and on Guest 1, (but not on Guest Network 2 or 3). Guest 1 has different subnets so that is why I did not set that as the Wifi2 (Backup). Backup Wifi seemed like a good idea in principle from this perspective.

Yes Guest 2 and 3 use your main subnet but will not propagate to aimesh nodes. However if you set access intranet = disable, even though they're on the same subnet, communcation between the two SSIDs is blocked and that could very well be causing problems for those devices. Communication between devices is also blocked when they are both on the guest network with intranet disabled, which also can be an issue for IOTs. You can set DHCP reservations for guest 2 and 3, but that may be moot if the devices don't work when isolated.

Separating IOTs onto a guest is a good idea but it is not compatible with all IOTs, at least not without using yazfi or scripting to be able to enable certain communication that may be needed (and even then there can be issues).

I suspect some or all of your issues are related to required communication being blocked when they connnect to the guest SSID.

All that aside, if you want the static IP devices to show up with a "friendly" name in wireless log, go into the client list and name them something there, in my experience that will be used by wireless log also.

If the Shelly devices are able to work on different subnets (not sure if they can or not, depends if they need L2 discovery ability and/or MDNS) then GW1 may work better for you as it will propagate to the nodes. But again if you have isolation enabled, that still won't work. If you don't have isolation enabled, there really isn't any reason to put them on a guest network at all, and using your main network which is propagated to all nodes is going to be your best solution. Guest without isolation has very limited usefulness, mostly for people who have a ton of devices where they want to reduce the amount of MDNS and broadcast traffic, or where they want to be able to change the password frequently without having to update their main LAN devices, but doesn't sound like you're in those situations.

 

[jksmurf]

Yes Guest 2 and 3 use your main subnet but will not propagate to aimesh nodes.

OK. I only use GN2, but good to know.

However if you set access intranet = disable, even though they're on the same subnet, communcation between the two SSIDs is blocked and that could very well be causing problems for those devices. Communication between devices is also blocked when they are both on the guest network with intranet disabled, which also can be an issue for IOTs. You can set DHCP reservations for guest 2 and 3, but that may be moot if the devices don't work when isolated.

OK. got it. I might try 'intranet enabled' on GN2 and see what effect it has.

Separating IOTs onto a guest is a good idea but it is not compatible with all IOTs, at least not without using yazfi or scripting to be able to enable certain communication that may be needed (and even then there can be issues).

I suspect some or all of your issues are related to required communication being blocked when they connnect to the guest SSID.

OK

All that aside, if you want the static IP devices to show up with a "friendly" name in wireless log, go into the client list and name them something there, in my experience that will be used by wireless log also.

Here is where I am confuised as all getup; the names IN the current client list are actually already correct. Whether this is due to a lease that has not been relinquished (I find the Network and Client Lists tend to hold onto leases longer?) or not I do not know, the reason I was looking at Wireless Log is I thought it was updated every 3 seconds so was always up to date.

If the Shelly devices are able to work on different subnets (not sure if they can or not, depends if they need L2 discovery ability and/or MDNS) then GW1 may work better for you as it will propagate to the nodes. But again if you have isolation enabled, that still won't work. If you don't have isolation enabled, there really isn't any reason to put them on a guest network at all, and using your main network which is propagated to all nodes is going to be your best solution. Guest without isolation has very limited usefulness, mostly for people who have a ton of devices where they want to reduce the amount of MDNS and broadcast traffic, or where they want to be able to change the password frequently without having to update their main LAN devices, but doesn't sound like you're in those situations.

I wanted Guests to be separate just for tidiness, but also to reserve GW1 for real Guests, who will walk around and need the Aimesh handoff that GW1 provides. So if possible (and coverage sans-Mesh Nodes allows) I would like to keep GW1 for Guests, GW2 for IoT Devices, Main for Admin. If GW2 can be connected (communicate) with Main via Intranet Access enabled, then that might be the trigger to solve this.

Thank you for all your patience and input, I am learning a lot (too much)!

k.

 

[drinkingbird]

OK. I only use GN2, but good to know.

OK. got it. I might try 'intranet enabled' on GN2 and see what effect it has.

OK

Here is where I am confuised as all getup; the names IN the current client list are actually already correct. Whether this is due to a lease that has not been relinquished (I find the Network and Client Lists tend to hold onto leases longer?) or not I do not know, the reason I was looking at Wireless Log is I thought it was updated every 3 seconds so was always up to date.


I wanted to Guests to be separate just for tidiness, but also to reserve GW1 for real Guests, who will walk around and need the Aimesh handoff that GW1 provides. So if possible (and coverage sans-Mesh Nodes allows) I would like to keep GW1 for Guests, GW2 for IoT Devices, Main for Admin. If GW2 can be connected (communicate) with Main via Intranet Access enabled, then that might be the trigger to solve this.

Thank you for all your patience and input, I am learning a lot (too much)!

k.

If it is just for organization, set your GW2 to intranet enabled, and everything should function fine, at that point it is just 2 SSIDs for the same network. You can theoretically set that as the primary SSID in the Shelly settings and the main as backup, but if you want organization that seems more confusing, I'd just set them to the guest SSID only.

At that point there is no reason DHCP reservations should not work and you can set the Shelly devices to DHCP. But if for some reason you need static, go into client list and overwrite whatever is in there with a manually entered name. Even if it is the same name I think it will add it to the manual client list and thus populate your wireless log as well. But you may have to make it a slightly different name (even a capital letter in place of a lowercase should do it).

May take a minute or even a reboot for wireless log to update with the client name. But if you can get DHCP working with reservations, that's the best and cleanest solution.

I suspect Shelly recommends static just so the IP doesn't ever change, and DHCP reservation accomplishes that and also lets you set a hostname to put into DNS and all the various screens in the router automatically.

 

[RMerlin]

Actually wireless log must look at the custom name NVRAM variable too as my blu ray player shows up as the name I gave it in client list and not blank (hostname in DHCP leases) or "Hon Hai" which is the default it shows in client list.

It doesn't. I wrote that code, and I never interfaced it with networkmap.

asuswrt-merlin.ng/release/src/router/httpd/sysdeps/web-broadcom-am.c at master · RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng

Third party firmware for Asus routers (newer codebase) - RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng

github.com

EDIT: I think I see where it might be coming from. I have the webui display any existing device nickname (which is defined by either Networkmap or the enduser) whenever the hostname is returned as <unknown>. This is done within the webpage itself rather than at the backend.

                        hostname = client[2];   // Name
                        if (nmapentry && (hostname == "*" || hostname == "<unknown>")) {
                                if (clientList[mac].nickName != "")
                                        hostname = clientList[mac].nickName;
                                else if (clientList[mac].name != "")
                                        hostname = clientList[mac].name;
                        }

This is only if there is no matching entry in the dnsmasq lease list.