ISP router and router setup

[Ares Leo]

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

So I am in an apartment that has 2 bedrooms separately and the ISP router is in Bedroom 1 and it cannot be moved. Bedroom 2 wifi is really delayed even for watching youtube. So I want to set up a router A in Bedroom 2 so I will have stronger wifi and also LAN ports for my PC and other devices. I tried to plug and play but ran into some problems.

I keep getting connections lost on devices connect to router A even when I set the router A to access point mode. Checking some forums they said to change ISP router to bridge mode and set router A a static IP. Problem is my ISP is UPC (Vodafone) in Hungary and they said on website my ISP router has IPv6 so the bridge mode is hidden, only contact customer service is possible to enable it (but their cs is bad), and some posts mentioned enabling bridge mode only give me IPv4 and no IPv6. So 3 questions, what's up with this IPv6 and bridge mode thing, why they cannot coexist, I don't seem to find any answer to this on the net (sorry for my stupidity but it's so hard to understand)? And do I need IPv6 on my ISP router or I can sacrifice it for bridge mode and use only IPv4? and last one is whether the setup is correct, ISP router in bridge mode and router A do all the work or there is alternatives since I still want wifi in Bedroom 1 and ISP router wifi in Bedroom 1 is good enough.

Thank you and best regards.

 

[BetteBalterZen]

I was in a similar situations when I helped setting up the network at my parents place and the ISP guy told me that these kind of setups usually run into issues when the 2nd router have DHCP enabled. Not entirely sure how a 2nd DHCP server will cause issues, I'm not that much into networking but maybe you could try disabling DHCP on the 2nd router and see how it goes. 

Maybe someone else here can explain how a 2nd router with DHCP enabled can be an issue? (not to hijack the thread)

[tkitch]

you don't need IPV6.  It's pointless for home use, all you need is IPV4.  (You don't need more than 250 devices on your local network, and even if you did, your router probably couldn't handle that traffic.)

 

So by putting the ISP Router in Bridge Mode, you're basically turning it into a Modem, and letting your purchased router do all the work.

 

I highly suggest this.  You can use a good router instead of the crap the ISPs give you.  

[Lurick]

Just now, tkitch said:

you don't need IPV6.  It's pointless for home use, all you need is IPV4.  (You don't need more than 250 devices on your local network, and even if you did, your router probably couldn't handle that traffic.)

 

So by putting the ISP Router in Bridge Mode, you're basically turning it into a Modem, and letting your purchased router do all the work.

 

I highly suggest this.  You can use a good router instead of the crap the ISPs give you.  

Yes, you do need IPv6. CGNAT is a huge deal and causes tons of problems that IPv6 gets around. It has NOTHING to do with number of devices for home users.

[tkitch]

15 minutes ago, BetteBalterZen said:

Maybe someone else here can explain how a 2nd router with DHCP enabled can be an issue? (not to hijack the thread)

 

Dueling DHCP Servers on a network is a fucking nightmare for IT.  

 

Basically you have 2 different devices telling computers on the network how to deal with the network traffic, and they're saying different things.  

 

It's even worse if they're trying to use the same IP Range, and you get conflicting addresses.

[BetteBalterZen]

Just now, tkitch said:

 

Dueling DHCP Servers on a network is a fucking nightmare for IT.  

 

Basically you have 2 different devices telling computers on the network how to deal with the network traffic, and they're saying different things.  

 

It's even worse if they're trying to use the same IP Range, and you get conflicting addresses.

That makes sense. Thanks for explaining.

[Ares Leo]

50 minutes ago, BetteBalterZen said:

I was in a similar situations when I helped setting up the network at my parents place and the ISP guy told me that these kind of setups usually run into issues when the 2nd router have DHCP enabled. Not entirely sure how a 2nd DHCP server will cause issues, I'm not that much into networking but maybe you could try disabling DHCP on the 2nd router and see how it goes. 

Maybe someone else here can explain how a 2nd router with DHCP enabled can be an issue? (not to hijack the thread)

To be specific, my router A is TP-Link Archer A6 and in Access point mode, DHCP is disabled due to the website, I cannot find it in the router settings neither (in access point mode settings).

 

43 minutes ago, tkitch said:

you don't need IPV6.  It's pointless for home use, all you need is IPV4.  (You don't need more than 250 devices on your local network, and even if you did, your router probably couldn't handle that traffic.)

 

So by putting the ISP Router in Bridge Mode, you're basically turning it into a Modem, and letting your purchased router do all the work.

 

I highly suggest this.  You can use a good router instead of the crap the ISPs give you.  

So if I need wifi in bedroom 1, can I plug another router B to the ISP now modem? (but I don't know if the wifi of router A in bedroom 2 is good enough for bedroom 1 too, I have to check that) because if I left router A outside for wifi coverage, cable routing  will be a mess.

 

47 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Yes, you do need IPv6. CGNAT is a huge deal and causes tons of problems that IPv6 gets around. It has NOTHING to do with number of devices for home users.

So can my ISP router on bridge mode work on IPv4 then my router A has IPv6 and it will work, or it's more complicated than that? if it's not the case, what can I do for my setup?

 

[mtz_federico]

I would leave the ISP router as default (make sure it is not in bridge mode and the DHCP server is on) is and setup the second router (Router A) in AP mode. You mentioned that it is a TP-Link router in AP Mode, AP mode should disable the DHCP server (that's probably why you can't see it). I have only used old TP-Link routers that don't have AP Mode and have had to do it manually but from what I've seen, it should just work. Just make sure that the connection from the ISP router is connected to the "WAN" port (it is usually yellow)

 

ipv4 can only be automatically assigned to devices via DHCP while ipv6 is usually assigned with Router Advertisements while can also use DHCPv6 but is rarely used (at least in home setups) because Android refuses to add support for it. Take a look at the ipv6 settings on both the ISP router and on the TP-Link, the TP-Link should not be doing anything besides letting the RA or DHCPv6 work.

 

3 hours ago, Ares Leo said:

I keep getting connections lost on devices connect to router A even when I set the router A to access point mode.

How is this happening? that is, are your devices disconnected from the wifi, does the internet just stop working, do you get an error message?

[Ares Leo]

2 hours ago, mtz_federico said:

How is this happening? that is, are your devices disconnected from the wifi, does the internet just stop working, do you get an error message?

So when I put it as 2 router setup, my wifi just going to off for sometimes then back on, this disconnect all my smart bulbs and camera but through Lan cable is normal, the Lan light is on. I reboot the router A and everything back to normal again.

When I change to AP mode then sometimes the whole internet just went off, even the Lan cable light is off. Only work again if I reboot router A, unplug and plug again, changing cable don't help.

I however in both case do not assign a static IP address for router A so I don't know if that going to cause problems

[Ares Leo]

2 hours ago, mtz_federico said:

Just make sure that the connection from the ISP router is connected to the "WAN" port (it is usually yellow)

Yes it connect to the WAN port of router A

[Ares Leo]

2 hours ago, mtz_federico said:

the TP-Link should not be doing anything besides letting the RA or DHCPv6 work

Is having a separate wifi name and password from the ISP router count? Because my phone and tablet just having weird behaviour sticking to the ISP wifi if I set it the same. The speed is so much better when I set it different.

[mtz_federico]

20 hours ago, Ares Leo said:

Is having a separate wifi name and password from the ISP router count? Because my phone and tablet just having weird behaviour sticking to the ISP wifi if I set it the same. The speed is so much better when I set it different.

Yeah that is fine.

 

20 hours ago, Ares Leo said:

So when I put it as 2 router setup, my wifi just going to off for sometimes then back on, this disconnect all my smart bulbs and camera but through Lan cable is normal, the Lan light is on. I reboot the router A and everything back to normal again.

When I change to AP mode then sometimes the whole internet just went off, even the Lan cable light is off. Only work again if I reboot router A, unplug and plug again, changing cable don't help.

I however in both case do not assign a static IP address for router A so I don't know if that going to cause problems

When it is in router mode it sounds like a wifi issue, are you using 5Ghz? if so, make sure you are not using a DFS channel and that your wifi country is correct (to make sure the allowed bands are used and there is no interference to critical infrastructure).

 

I took a look at an Archer C6 emulator and it looks like when I turn on AP Mode, the DHCP server is still on (this could be why the whole internet goes down). make sure that it is off and on the Network > LAN tab give your router an ip in the same range as your ISP router (use one of the last ones so that it doesn't interfere with another device. Something like 192.168.x.250) and set the Default Gateway to your ISP router's ip. The subnet mask should work at default (255.255.255.0)

 

When you are in AP mode and the internet goes off try switching the cable from WAN to LAN (or the other way around).