Internet/ router gurus need your help

[klx300r]

I have a system that can't connect to my local ftp server but can connect to one outside of it. My IP says to solve the problem I need to connect it my router via ethernet cable and that will solve the issue? Problem is I can't easily get an ethernet connection to this system and need to use wifi only.


Things I've already tried:


- I've went into my router settings and my system has a reserved IP so I changed it to Dynamic but same issue.

- Disabled my firewall

- Disabled my VPN

[indigolemon]

What make/model is the router you're using? It sounds rather like your WiFi is setup to only allow internet access, and not local device access.

[klx300r]

Originally Posted by indigolemon

What make/model is the router you're using? It sounds rather like your WiFi is setup to only allow internet access, and not local device access.

strange never heard of that? It's a Bell GigaHub.

[indigolemon]

Originally Posted by klx300r

strange never heard of that? It's a Bell GigaHub.

Also known as AP Isolation, useful in say a restaurant where you don't your guests being able to see each others devices but do want them all to have internet. Utterly useless in your home of course!

Googled this in relation to your router and found the following:
https://www.reddit.com/r/bell/commen...ion/?rdt=55124

Key part seems to be:

On your computer login to your router

Select manage my wifi

Youll see the toggle "Whole Home Wi-Fi. Let Bell optimize Wi-Fi throughout your home." Turn this OFF!

You will see Advance Settings now in the Manage my Wifi option. Click that

Disable 6.0 GHz option.

You should be good to go from there.

[klx300r]

@ indigolemon

tried and same issue. Then realized the router probably needed to be reset for the changes to be set and still same issue

Tried pinging the system IP from another PC on my network and get Request timed out: Reply from 10.50.44.193: Destination net unreachable. errors a few times.
then packets sent=4, Received =3, Lost =1 (25% loss)

pinged a few more times and got 0% loss.

wondering what the 10.50.44.193 is though

[giantclam]

Originally Posted by klx300r

wondering what the 10.50.44.193 is though

Likely your gateway IP (because) AP isolation points you there (no route the LAN connected machine).

You didn't provide model number of modem/router ; this may be important, as a quick search shows many users having this same issue with this Bell device, and the solutions proffered work for some, but not others... this makes me hunch at different firmware/models causing such disparate results (there's also some indication that you need use a LAN connected machine to configure these Bell devices, not wifi)...

At any rate, it seems these Bell devices don't expose the AP isolation setting..like this;


You notice I have it disabled --- this is so my LAN machine here, can connect to wifi surveillance cameras (and my wifi connected mobilephone can access the sftp server setup on this machine) .... AFAICT, the modem/router you have doesn't expose this to the user web-interface....

...now, I've read more than several posts, of owners of this Bell modem/router trying everything, not being able to get it to work, and their resolve was getting rid of the Bell device, and buying a different brand modem/router instead that DOES expose this config switch...and problem solved --- fact is they could've just bought another cheap wifi router, and connected it's WAN port to the Bell unit's LAN port, and achieved the same ends...but anyhow....

...the AP isolation function itself, is just a firewall rule in the linux firmware setup, but if unexposed you have divine whether it's a managed function, or else something that has to be done manually...

....that might look something like setting your ftp server up in a DMZ segment, assigning a static route between it and the wifi connected host machine... and to achieve that you'd need to setup IP address reservations for both the server & host machines, in the modem/router's DHCP setup... or such'n'similar. It's how I have things setup here, to be able to access my webserver from local LAN (http ports exposed to the world, sftp/ssh ports only exposed to 1 LAN machine)...

I know that seems like a workaround, but it's largely to do with how the firmware scripts parse the GUI input....ie; I've seen some that have firewall/nat rules, that only apply to the factory default BSSID value...it can drive you nuts until you release you have to change the AP name, for the management scripts to be moved out of play...

...the TPlink router we have now (VX220-G2v) is like this in places...ie; you can setup static routes that have no effect, until you either assign the host machines a static IP or setup IP reservation in DHCP... a lot of manual configurata is trumped by 'automatic' settings...ie; like 'guest' network access, 'Whole Home Wi-Fi', and the DHCP server itself....these automated (scripted) services can foil manual configuration changes.

[klx300r]

@ giantclam


ok thanks for the explanation :-) well I can't find that screen to disable the AP isolation thingy but I've got an old wifi extender that I can connect to my switch box via ethernet so I'll try connecting via the wifi extender and give er the old try eh

[giantclam]

Originally Posted by klx300r

@ giantclam


ok thanks for the explanation :-) well I can't find that screen to disable the AP isolation thingy but I've got an old wifi extender that I can connect to my switch box via ethernet so I'll try connecting via the wifi extender and give er the old try eh

Ok, you will likely need to disable DHCP services on the extended (otherwise it will conflict with the Bell modem's DHCP setup)