WAP not working over powerline

[seglare86]

Hello all,

I have a rather strange problem that I have not been able to understand the cause of.

My setup is exactly as described in the "The best way to get whole house wireless network" article www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wi...best-way-to-get-whole-house-wireless-coverage

I have one Engenious ESR9850 with firmware 2.1 and one Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH with DD-WRT firmware. I am using 2 Aztec HL280E with original firmware for the powerline networking http://www.aztech.com/sg/homeplug_hl280e.html.

The problem I have is that when I connect to the "second" router by Wifi, I am not getting an internet connection and I can only see the computers in the network that are connected to the "second" router and not the ones connected to the "first" router. Computers that are connected to the "second" router by cat-cable to a LAN port gets good internet connection and can see the computers connected to the "first" router. Computers connected to the "first" router wither through Wifi or LAN gets good connection

Some more info:
I have tried switching places on the routers with same result.
I disable DHCP and NAT and Firewall on the "second" router and assign a static IP address outside the "first" routers DHCP range.
If I connect a computer directly to the homeplug instead of the "second" router, it works perfect.
I have tried with 2 different laptops connected to the "second" router with same results.
If I connect the "second" router directly to the "first" router via a CAT cable, wifi on "second" router works fine.
Clients connected by wifi to the "second" router gets a valid IP address from the DHCP server on the "first' router.

It seems weird to me that the wifi connected clients would not get internet when the LAN cable connected clients does. How can the router/homeplugs decide to forward traffic to certain computers but not to others just because they have different types of connections?

Anyone seen anything similar before or got any ideas?

 

[stevech]

2nd router - WAN port unused, right? A LAN port goes to HPNA power line adapter?

 

[seglare86]

2nd router - WAN port unused, right? A LAN port goes to HPNA power line adapter?

Yes, connecting homeplug to a LAN port. Wan port not connected to anything

 

[thiggins]

When testing some of the first powerline adapters (I'm talking first generation) I ran into some units that would not bridge multiple MAC addresses. This means that only one device could connect via the powerline connection.

Try hard-connecting two computers to switch ports on the second (far end) router/AP and see if that works.

 

[seglare86]

When testing some of the first powerline adapters (I'm talking first generation) I ran into some units that would not bridge multiple MAC addresses. This means that only one device could connect via the powerline connection.

Try hard-connecting two computers to switch ports on the second (far end) router/AP and see if that works.

That works fine.

Surprise, when I got home from work tonight, my old eeePC connected to the second AP fine over Wifi and got internet access. It did not do it yesterday so maybe the system had a good night sleep and decided to work now .

Have to try with my normal laptop tomorrow as I left it at work.

Thanks for your help. Will let you know if I continue to have problems or if it fixed itself.

 

[thiggins]

Thanks for the update.

If there are any wireless separation features on the router/AP, you should disable them. Some routers keep wireless and wired traffic separated for security reasons, but allow both Internet access. But since you are not using the WAN port on the router-turned-AP, wireless clients would not be able to get Internet access via an Ethernet LAN port.

 

[IMGrant]

I just registered on the forums to post the exact same problem!
I have done a bit more investigation and have narrowed it down thus:

When everything is first turned on, the wireless client can connect to either access point and access the internet and whole network fine. However, if it moves to the other room/access point, then internet traffic is not routed properly and nothing works.

To fix it, I simply turn off and on again the homeplug that is connected to the access point the client has just come from (i.e. move from room 1 to room 2, no internet. Turn homeplug in room 1 off and on again, internet!).

At first I thought it was the router/AP(s) - I too tested by replacing the homeplugs with a simple ethernet cable, and the problem didn't occur.
It must be the homeplugs - could be something to do with the MAC table the home plugs build up?

 

[stevech]

Should not be a MAC/layer 2 issue with Homeplug. No difference that with ethernet switches.

When the client device moves to the other room, it must associate to the access point/wifi router in that area. Some WiFi client devices fail to drop the old association and scan/choose the new one. It may just keep trying to use the prior one, especially if the new one has the same SSID. Some don't do so depending on the encryption mode.

You could try giving a different SSID to the access point and put both that SSID and the WiFi router's SSID in the client's list of acceptable SSIDs. And the encryption mode/key for each SSID in the client.

I've seem some client devices with crappy firmware that just would not re-associate to a different access device unless you power cycled the WiFi device on the client side.

 

[IMGrant]

When the client device moves to the other room, it must associate to the access point/wifi router in that area. Some WiFi client devices fail to drop the old association and scan/choose the new one. It may just keep trying to use the prior one, especially if the new one has the same SSID. Some don't do so depending on the encryption mode.

You could try giving a different SSID to the access point and put both that SSID and the WiFi router's SSID in the client's list of acceptable SSIDs. And the encryption mode/key for each SSID in the client.

Thanks for the reply, although I do not think it is what you describe in this case, as I have tried using different SSIDs as you say and also manually disconnecting and reconnecting to switch between the APs - it was repeatable.

Switching the router off and on again also seemed to fix the problem, but since I determined that switching just the homeplug(s) off and on again also fixes it, I have been doing that instead (when I move between rooms), since they're faster to come online than the router rebooting.