subnet Phone to PC connection issue

[TeeKaay]

I am TERRIBLE with networking, please excuse my stupidity in advance.

I have a router, PC and a phone.

If my PC is connected to the router via ethernet, the PC's ip is 192.168.1.X

If my PC is connected to the router via wifi, the PC's ip is 192.168.2.X

My phone is always connected to the PC via wifi, so the ip is 192.168.2.X

Now here is my issue, when my PC is connected via ethernet, my phone is not able to "talk" to my computer.

How do I know this? I have a web server on my PC, set up on port 3000. When the pc and phone are on the same subnet (i am really not sure what to call it tbh, but im basically talking about the third digit in the ip), they can talk to each other normally, I can access the webpage on 192.168.2.66:3000 and I can even ping my pc. When pc and phone are on another subnet, I cannot access the webpage.

What the hell am i trying to do? Basically I am a devlopper and I have an android mobile app that should be talking to the server that is obviously hosted on my pc.

Can I force my computer to connect to the router via 192.168.2.X on ethernet? Or even better yet make my phone and ALL other devices connect via 192.168.1.X? I would prefer to the second option so that I can access my router login page that is on 192.168.1.1 and I cannot access that when my pc is connected via wifi and is on the 192.168.2.X subnet.

Ask as many question as you want, I will happily answer.

Please help? And thanks in advance

 

P.S. I posted this on reddit and we had a huge discussion and could not find an answer to this problem

Im not sure if it's against the rules to post a link to a reddit thread but I am going to cause there is a huge amount of data there (check the comments) that could help you help me with my problem, there are screenshots of my router's configurations and stuff

 

[Windows7ge]

Most consumer routers put both the wired & wireless clients on the same network/subnet by default. The only reason I can think of for yours to be doing this may be it's configured for a Guest network. The fact you can't reach the Routers WebUI from this wireless network further tells me your Wi-Fi network is setup as a Guest network. You should be able to disable this you just need to find the right buttons in the menus. Run the Default configuration and both your wired & wireless clients should return to the same Network/Subnet.

 

I'll take a look at your screenshots in a bit and see if there's anything that indicates a Guest network configuration. Under normal circumstances when you have a Guest Network configured your Router broadcasts 2 or more SSIDs (for 2.4GHz, 5GHz, then your Guest network(s)).

[TeeKaay]

12 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Most consumer routers put both the wired & wireless clients on the same network/subnet by default. The only reason I can think of for yours to be doing this may be it's configured for a Guest network. The fact you can't reach the Routers WebUI from this wireless network further tells me your Wi-Fi network is setup as a Guest network. You should be able to disable this you just need to find the right buttons in the menus. Run the Default configuration and both your wired & wireless clients should return to the same Network/Subnet.

 

I'll take a look at your screenshots in a bit and see if there's anything that indicates a Guest network configuration. Under normal circumstances when you have a Guest Network configured your Router broadcasts 2 or more SSIDs (for 2.4GHz, 5GHz, then your Guest network(s)).

This was suggested in the reddit threat, and I went through all the settings (advanced) and did not find anything related to a "Guest Network"

[Windows7ge]

7 minutes ago, TeeKaay said:

This was suggested in the reddit threat, and I went through all the settings (advanced) and did not find anything related to a "Guest Network"

I figured. Did you mention over there what model router this this? I'll look-up its manual and see if it indicates anything.

[TeeKaay]

2 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

I figured. Did you mention over there what model router this this? I'll look-up its manual and see if it indicates anything.

Yes I did mention it, its the "tg582n v2", and I already checked this manual: https://setuprouter.com/router/technicolor/tg582n-v2-mediaaccess/manual-2305.pdf

 

Note: the images shown are (I presume) from an old version so it's not that beneficial I guess?

[Windows7ge]

22 minutes ago, TeeKaay said:

Yes I did mention it, its the "tg582n v2", and I already checked this manual: https://setuprouter.com/router/technicolor/tg582n-v2-mediaaccess/manual-2305.pdf

 

Note: the images shown are (I presume) from an old version so it's not that beneficial I guess?

So this is a DSL modem/router all-in-one. Kind of explains why the Wi-Fi is on a different network. Most people don't need their devices to talk to each other just the Internet so this may be locked down to where you can't fix this. I skimmed over the manual trying to find keywords for what we're looking to change and nothing popped up. I think you're SOL you'll need a different router. Preferably one that isn't also a modem (buy separate ones).

 

If this is something you can't afford right now as you mentioned you tried connecting your computer via Wi-FI. In theory if you connect the computer both wired and wirelessly the computer should behave file it'll just have access to both networks. Directing your phone to the new IP for the wireless NIC should allow you to connect. Not the best solution but it's likely the cheapest. If it doesn't let you connect I can only assume the Wi-Fi doesn't allow you to communicate between clients.

 

You could try buying an AP. Do some research on that before buying anything though. Being connected to the wired network the wireless signal it broadcasts should allow you to connect to the same network as your PC. Not the best solution but again a cheaper workaround. 

[Michael Ducharme]

I haven't seen any DSL modem/router combos that would split the regular wifi network from the local network like this.

 

I think you have another DHCP server on your network somewhere, possibly running on one of those other routers that you have, which is handing out IPs on that other subnet.

[TeeKaay]

3 hours ago, Michael Ducharme said:

I haven't seen any DSL modem/router combos that would split the regular wifi network from the local network like this.

 

I think you have another DHCP server on your network somewhere, possibly running on one of those other routers that you have, which is handing out IPs on that other subnet.

This was brought up in the reddit thread, and to test this I did disconnect both routers and only kept router 1 up and running, connected only my phone and my computer to the network and nothing else, and both my phone and my pc were on different subnets so definitely the two dhcp servers are on this main router.

 

Honestly I might end up just buying a router and use this one as a modem just to pass the connection and setup everything on the new router. This issue has been going on for a year, tried several times to fix it but then I give up and just live with it.

[Michael Ducharme]

I'm not convinced of that. Some devices will simply continue their existing lease without bothering to check in with the DHCP server to see if it is still valid, if they know they are reconnecting to the same network they had the lease on before. So your device could still "hang on" to the lease given by the disconnected router until expiry (often 24 hours later) unless you can manually release and renew.

 

You say your computer has multiple network interfaces - is it possible that it has a DHCP server on it, or it might be on some other device, maybe not even one of the other routers.

 

You can determine which device is acting as the DHCP server by checking the MAC address of the host that has the IP of the DHCP server. You can check it by doing the following:

 

1. at a command prompt, run ipconfig /all and note the IP address that is listed as the DHCP server for that interface (the one that has a 192.168.2.x IP)

2. ping that address from the command line (ping 192.168.2.whatever)

2. run "arp -a" from the command prompt to check the mac address for the DHCP server IP

 

If the MAC address is that of a specific device where you know the MAC address (ex. if it is printed on the modem/router) then you know which device is acting as the DHCP server. If you do not recognize the MAC, check the vendor: https://macvendors.com/

 

[TeeKaay]

10 hours ago, Michael Ducharme said:

I'm not convinced of that. Some devices will simply continue their existing lease without bothering to check in with the DHCP server to see if it is still valid, if they know they are reconnecting to the same network they had the lease on before. So your device could still "hang on" to the lease given by the disconnected router until expiry (often 24 hours later) unless you can manually release and renew.

 

You say your computer has multiple network interfaces - is it possible that it has a DHCP server on it, or it might be on some other device, maybe not even one of the other routers.

 

You can determine which device is acting as the DHCP server by checking the MAC address of the host that has the IP of the DHCP server. You can check it by doing the following:

 

1. at a command prompt, run ipconfig /all and note the IP address that is listed as the DHCP server for that interface (the one that has a 192.168.2.x IP)

2. ping that address from the command line (ping 192.168.2.whatever)

2. run "arp -a" from the command prompt to check the mac address for the DHCP server IP

 

If the MAC address is that of a specific device where you know the MAC address (ex. if it is printed on the modem/router) then you know which device is acting as the DHCP server. If you do not recognize the MAC, check the vendor: https://macvendors.com/

 

Currently not home, will try what you said when I get back.

 

But check this (taken from the reddit thread): 

 

 

[Michael Ducharme]

OK - that screenshot is helpful and shows that both IP's are on the router itself. This device is set up in a very unusual way. I wonder if there is a firewall where you can add a rule to allow traffic between the br-lan (your wired network) and wl0 (the wireless)?

[TeeKaay]

2 minutes ago, Michael Ducharme said:

OK - that screenshot is helpful and shows that both IP's are on the router itself. This device is set up in a very unusual way. I wonder if there is a firewall where you can add a rule to allow traffic between the br-lan (your wired network) and wl0 (the wireless)?

This is everything in the firewall section.

 

Maybe this would help?

 

[Michael Ducharme]

The route configuration won't help, your router already has routes to those networks because it has IPs on those networks. You can in fact see the routes it already has for those networks in the screenshot you gave before. I'm wondering what the firewall "level" settings are. It is explaining normal mode but I don't know what the other options are.

[TeeKaay]

Alright so changing the firewall setting to user defined gave me this:

 

If you thing adding a new firewall rule would help, please let me know what info I should be adding, im really bad at this.

[Michael Ducharme]

Try adding a new firewall rule, I guess action would be accept, protocol all, src ip would be 192.168.1.0/24 and dst ip would be 192.168.2.0/24 and src port and dst port would be all (not sure how that is specified in your UI). Then you would do another rule in the other direction (src 192.168.2.0/24 and dst 192.168.1.0/24).

[TeeKaay]

8 minutes ago, Michael Ducharme said:

Try adding a new firewall rule, I guess action would be accept, protocol all, src ip would be 192.168.1.0/24 and dst ip would be 192.168.2.0/24 and src port and dst port would be all (not sure how that is specified in your UI). Then you would do another rule in the other direction (src 192.168.2.0/24 and dst 192.168.1.0/24).

I tried doing what you said and got this:

[Michael Ducharme]

Hmm.. That error doesn't even make sense. The gateway has IPs on both networks, so that should not error out. Your src port and dst port are not correct (you'd have to allow all, not just 24). The /24 goes in the IP field immediately after the IP, it is a CIDR address format used to refer to an entire subnet instead of just one address. But I have a feeling if this thing isn't smart enough to allow you to create the rule (because the router does have another IP in that subnet).

 

At this point I would recommend just putting the thing in bridge mode if possible and using a third party router.