Can't access my router configuration (Configured as an AP)

[kiicki]

I have had a Dlink 868L for a while now, and it's running like an AP. It doesn't actually have a specific AP configuration setting, but I disabled DHCP and gave it an IP address. The Ethernet cable is going from the ISP router to the LAN port on my Dlink 868L.

 

Yesterday I got a new router (Asus RT-AC51U) which is also configured as an AP. This actually has a specific AP setting. I configured it as an AP and gave it an IP address. There's a cable going from my Dlink 868L LAN port to my Asus RT-AC51U.

 

After I configured it as an AP and gave it an AP address, I could never enter the configuration page again.

 

So now this is happening with both my routers running as an AP. Clearly I'm doing something wrong. How can I access the configuration page? 

 

My ISP router is 192.168.0.1 which I can always access. My Dlink 868L is 192.168.100.1 I believe. My Asus RT-AC51U is configured as 192.168.2.1, or at least it should be.

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, kiicki said:

My ISP router is 192.168.0.1 which I can always access. My Dlink 868L is 192.168.100.1 I believe. My Asus RT-AC51U is configured as 192.168.2.1, or at least it should be.

You should have configured them all in the same IP-range, like 192.168.0.x instead of giving every device a different subnet. Use the reset-button on your devices to reset their settings to default and give them IP-addresses in the same range as your ISP-router. (You could also go into your PC's settings, disable DHCP and set your IP-address manually with a netmask of 255.255.0.0 instead of the typical 255.255.255.0, but I figure it's just easier to reset the routers.)

[Timotheus2]

The ISP router still tries to give the APs IP adresses, so you should probably set a IP there and configure the APs as DHCP clients instead of using static IPs.

[WereCatf]

28 minutes ago, Timotheus2 said:

The ISP router still tries to give the APs IP adresses

A DHCP-server doesn't push addresses to other devices, the devices have to ask for an IP-address, so no, the ISP-router can't be trying to give them IP-addresses if they've been set to use static ones.

29 minutes ago, Timotheus2 said:

so you should probably set a IP there and configure the APs as DHCP clients instead of using static IPs.

That would just do what I just said above: it'd assign them IP-addresses in the correct range. It doesn't matter if the devices use static addresses or dynamic ones, as long as they're in the right range.

[kiicki]

1 hour ago, WereCatf said:

You should have configured them all in the same IP-range, like 192.168.0.x instead of giving every device a different subnet. Use the reset-button on your devices to reset their settings to default and give them IP-addresses in the same range as your ISP-router. (You could also go into your PC's settings, disable DHCP and set your IP-address manually with a netmask of 255.255.0.0 instead of the typical 255.255.255.0, but I figure it's just easier to reset the routers.)

So I should do?
ISP router = 192.168.0.1
Dlink (AP) = 192.168.0.2
Asus (AP) = 192.168.0.3

 

Should I change the netmask for each router to 255.255.0.0, or does 255.255.255.0 work? 

[kiicki]

1 hour ago, Timotheus2 said:

The ISP router still tries to give the APs IP adresses, so you should probably set a IP there and configure the APs as DHCP clients instead of using static IPs.

I heard that DHCP should be disabled for AP routers? Isn't that what makes them AP's? If that is enabled, wouldn't it just work as a router and not as an AP?

Source: 

 

[WereCatf]

2 minutes ago, kiicki said:

So I should do?
ISP router = 192.168.0.1
Dlink (AP) = 192.168.0.2
Asus (AP) = 192.168.0.3

 

Should I change the netmask for each router to 255.255.0.0, or does 255.255.255.0 work? 

If they're all in the same 192.168.0.x - range, then yes, 255.255.255.0 will work.

1 minute ago, kiicki said:

I heard that DHCP should be disabled for AP routers? Isn't that what makes them AP's? If that is enabled, wouldn't it just work as a router and not as an AP?

They were talking about letting the APs get their IP-addresses via DHCP, not act as DHCP-servers. You can perfectly well let them obtain their IP-addresses via DHCP, if you wish, but you should disable DHCP-server on them.

[kiicki]

1 minute ago, WereCatf said:

If they're all in the same 192.168.0.x - range, then yes, 255.255.255.0 will work.

They were talking about letting the APs get their IP-addresses via DHCP, not act as DHCP-servers. You can perfectly well let them obtain their IP-addresses via DHCP, if you wish, but you should disable DHCP-server on them.

Aah, thanks. For now I will just reset my Dlink and Asus and just change the IP addresses. I will let the netmask be as it is if they all are the same. Would that be good enough? I will also look for the DHCP-server option and disable it on my Dlink and Asus if I find that option

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, kiicki said:

Would that be good enough?

Aye

[kiicki]

3 hours ago, WereCatf said:

Aye

Is it "wrong" to connect one access point to another with Ethernet cable? Can I do: ISP router -> Dlink (AP) -> Asus (AP)?

 

Or do I need to do:

ISP router -> Dlink (AP)

ISP router -> Asus (AP)

[Kalm_Traveler]

2 hours ago, kiicki said:

Is it "wrong" to connect one access point to another with Ethernet cable? Can I do: ISP router -> Dlink (AP) -> Asus (AP)?

 

Or do I need to do:

ISP router -> Dlink (AP)

ISP router -> Asus (AP)

that should work. If the DLink is set up in AP mode it is literally just a switch (which happens to have a wifi interface to connect wifi clients in addition to ethernet clients). You can go switch -> switch -> switch all day if you really wanted to.

[kiicki]

2 hours ago, Kalm_Traveler1 said:

that should work. If the DLink is set up in AP mode it is literally just a switch (which happens to have a wifi interface to connect wifi clients in addition to ethernet clients). You can go switch -> switch -> switch all day if you really wanted to.

After a lot of back and forth, I got everything working. I can now access all my routers web interface. Some issues I had but everything works now is:

After Dlink reset, I changed the IP address and disabled DHCP server at the same time. This just didn't work out, and I couldn't access the web interface. I had to first change the IP address and apply, to then disable the DHCP server. This wasn't a big problem.

 

My Asus router was a big hassle though. After a reset, it will ask me to either configure it as a router, or as an AP. When I selected AP and assigned an IP address, I just couldn't access the web interface. I tried many things including setting it up as a router to then later select AP. Didn't work. Then I just gave up and went back to my couch with my laptop. Suddenly I could access the web interface from my laptop using wifi. I went back to my desktop and I could do it here too. Not sure what happened. I have done the same thing over and over again. Maybe it's really slow to configure and it needed a lot of time.

 

Also when I said disabling DHCP earlier, I did actually mean disabling DHCP server. I looked into the name when I logged into the Dlink web interface. Disabling DHCP is something I have never done, but only the DHCP server. I guess I did mostly right before, just that I messed up assigning IP addresses.

It was:
ISP router =  192.168.0.1
Dlink router (AP) = 192.168.1.1

Asus router (AP) = 192.168.2.1

 

Now it is:

ISP router =  192.168.0.1
Dlink router (AP) = 192.168.0.2

Asus router (AP) = 192.168.0.3

[Kalm_Traveler]

6 minutes ago, kiicki said:

It was:
ISP router =  192.168.0.1
Dlink router (AP) = 192.168.1.1

Asus router (AP) = 192.168.2.1

 

Now it is:

ISP router =  192.168.0.1
Dlink router (AP) = 192.168.0.2

Asus router (AP) = 192.168.0.3

that makes sense, before you had the routers on different subnets so they couldn't communicate (192.168.1.x vs 192.168.2.x are completely different networks unless your subnet mask included them both like 255.255.0.0)

 

Glad you got it all sorted out!

[GuruOfNothing]

Something that should be noted here is that consumer grade routers/AP's are very stupid devices. Even though you CAN change settings on them, sometimes they are just difficult to make those changes on. I have found that they need to be located in places where you can poke the reset button easily if you plan to do any re-configuring because its pretty common to have to do that when they go non-response and seemingly drop off your network... such as yours did. It's also better to KISS your network and not go with complicated network arrangements on consumer grade gear. Don't get me wrong... it can and is being done. But it requires some networking knowledge to keep it stable. If you are not running a few dozen pieces of equipment or have specific need for separated subnets, keep them all in the same network string range.

[paddy-stone]

Just a question, but did you change the DHCP IP range on the router, to exclude those static addresses for the APs and anything else you may want to have a static address on? for example, you now have Ip ranges up to 3 as static, so should really change the DHCP range from eg 4-254 to exclude them from being given out to other devices and cause problems. I have mine set to 100-254 to give myself plenty of static addresses I can use (1-99).