Advanced networking

[kaundere]

On thing that is bugging me is that i cant access the fiber optic to ethernet converter(ONU) because it is outside my local network (for the purposes of monitoring the signal strength)

This is a map of the networking:

IPS->ONU->Router->my PC

Only way to access the ONU that i know of is to connect my PC directly to it and set the PC to the ONU's local IP.

Is there a way to connect to it without needing to disconnect everything every time?

[Acedia]

Depending on your router you can set an additional IP address on the ONU/WAN facing interface and route between them.

[kaundere]

Seems the router does not have the option to add an additional IP to the WAN interface, thus there is no possible way with this current router and from my experience any other consumer routers that don't have advanced routing options.

It just seems so close and intuitive to be able to do this but seems not.

[Acedia]

2 minutes ago, kaundere said:

Seems the router does not have the option to add an additional IP to the WAN interface, thus there is no possible way with this current router and from my experience any other consumer routers that don't have advanced routing options.

It just seems so close and intuitive to be able to do this but seems not.

Uhm... well... if there is a normal ethernet connection between the router and the media converter you might simply add a switch?

[kaundere]

2 hours ago, Acedia said:

Uhm... well... if there is a normal ethernet connection between the router and the media converter you might simply add a switch?

Heyy that will actually work and i have one lying around....

 

Still wish there was a simple software solution to this ( without enterprise level hardware )

[Acedia]

31 minutes ago, kaundere said:

Heyy that will actually work and i have one lying around....

 

Still wish there was a simple software solution to this ( without enterprise level hardware )

Well, here is the issue if I understand it correctly:

The media converter has a management IP, probably something like 192.168.0.1/24.

Your router has a wan and a lan interface at least. The wan interface probably has a publicly routable address, let's say 55.66.77.88. The lan interface has a private IP like 192.168.1.1/24.

The router needs to know where to find the 192.168.0.0/24 subnet, if not it will forward it to it's default gateway (your ISP).

The media converter will (if it acts like a normal IP device) any packet from another subnet to it's default gateway, which is probably not set.

 

If you could add an additional IP to the wan interface the router, like 192.168.0.2/24, would know where to find 192.168.0.1 and talk to it. If egress NAT is enabled you will also recieve replies and the TCP connection can be established. If NAT is not enabled you'd have to add your lan subnet to the media converters routing table or set the default gateway to the router.

I guess pfsense could do it.

 

If your router gets it's wan IP address by a static configuration or DHCP and has at least a /29 subnet (allowing 6 hosts) you could try setting the media converter to another IP within the subnet. Your ISP might not like this. Depending on your ISPs setup you might expose the converter to the internet AND disrupt the service of another person.

If your router gets it's wan IP address from a PPPoE dial in connection you are pretty much out of luck.

 

You could try simply using an existing switch (even the build in one of your router) and resetting the management IP to your own private network.

If you manage to hook it up to your regular network but can't change the mangement IP you could give your computer an additional IP in the management subnet, but only if you also use a static IP for your primary network (at least in Windows).

[kaundere]

Today, while trying to just login to it i discovered that i cant seem to reach it ( directly pc to the onu) most likely i am doing something wrong, with nmap i cant seem to find it's ip tried 192.168.0.1 and 1.1, didn't work.

BTW i found on my router there is a option Static Route that is exactly what you were talking about.

 

The onu is a Hioso ha401g and i cant find any documentation or a simple user manual for it. only found some manual for a telnet login, but that was a dead end for me.

[kaundere]

14 hours ago, Acedia said:

Well, here is the issue if I understand it correctly:

The media converter has a management IP, probably something like 192.168.0.1/24.

Your router has a wan and a lan interface at least. The wan interface probably has a publicly routable address, let's say 55.66.77.88. The lan interface has a private IP like 192.168.1.1/24.

The router needs to know where to find the 192.168.0.0/24 subnet, if not it will forward it to it's default gateway (your ISP).

The media converter will (if it acts like a normal IP device) any packet from another subnet to it's default gateway, which is probably not set.

 

If you could add an additional IP to the wan interface the router, like 192.168.0.2/24, would know where to find 192.168.0.1 and talk to it. If egress NAT is enabled you will also recieve replies and the TCP connection can be established. If NAT is not enabled you'd have to add your lan subnet to the media converters routing table or set the default gateway to the router.

I guess pfsense could do it.

 

If your router gets it's wan IP address by a static configuration or DHCP and has at least a /29 subnet (allowing 6 hosts) you could try setting the media converter to another IP within the subnet. Your ISP might not like this. Depending on your ISPs setup you might expose the converter to the internet AND disrupt the service of another person.

If your router gets it's wan IP address from a PPPoE dial in connection you are pretty much out of luck.

 

You could try simply using an existing switch (even the build in one of your router) and resetting the management IP to your own private network.

If you manage to hook it up to your regular network but can't change the mangement IP you could give your computer an additional IP in the management subnet, but only if you also use a static IP for your primary network (at least in Windows).

would you please recommend me some good reading material so i can better understand networking. would love to learn more! Funny thing is i worked at a IPS, but never got the opportunity to explore the software side more.

[Acedia]

7 hours ago, kaundere said:

would you please recommend me some good reading material so i can better understand networking. would love to learn more! Funny thing is i worked at a IPS, but never got the opportunity to explore the software side more.

I don't know if I can recommend any material outside of the CCNA stuff for that.

[dalekphalm]

I'm not sure if this applies to ONU's, but with traditional "modems" (Cable and DSL), you can often still connect to the management interface of the modem using a different IP - for Cable Modems and the like, it's usually 192.168.100.1. Basically the router forwards that IP to the modem to access the UI interface.

 

You could try that IP, and see if it works. You could also just contact your ISP and see if there's a particular method that would work.

[kaundere]

6 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

I'm not sure if this applies to ONU's, but with traditional "modems" (Cable and DSL), you can often still connect to the management interface of the modem using a different IP - for Cable Modems and the like, it's usually 192.168.100.1. Basically the router forwards that IP to the modem to access the UI interface.

 

You could try that IP, and see if it works. You could also just contact your ISP and see if there's a particular method that would work.

From what i spoke with the IPS, this particular ONU is a old model and even they cant see the signal strength. I recall i have logged into it a couple of times when i plug in directly a computer and disconnect the fiber optic cable. (the interface would suddenly disappear) (also set the network settings on the PC to similar to the ONU)  

By default the ONU acts like a switch, it will not show up on a tracert for example.

[dalekphalm]

15 hours ago, kaundere said:

From what i spoke with the IPS, this particular ONU is a old model and even they cant see the signal strength. I recall i have logged into it a couple of times when i plug in directly a computer and disconnect the fiber optic cable. (the interface would suddenly disappear) (also set the network settings on the PC to similar to the ONU)  

By default the ONU acts like a switch, it will not show up on a tracert for example.

You could probably allow direct access to the management interface if you setup a Managed Switch in between the ONU and your actual router.

 

Connect the ONU to the switch. Then, connect one cable from the switch to the WAN port on the router. Connect another cable from the switch to one of the LAN ports on the router.

 

You'd have to setup a static route so that your regular LAN can then get routed to 192.168.0.1. The end result should be that you can type in the IP and access the UI.

 

Granted, this is an odd setup so I cannot guarantee it would work.