trying to get unifi controller to detect unifi APs connected via a dd-wrt router

dtronicsuk · February 23, 2018

hey guys

im trying to get my pc (with the unifi controller installed) to pick up 4 unifi aps on a network.

my pc is connected to the network via a ethernet to a wireless extender which connects to one of the unifi APs. it was working fine until i flashed my extender with dd-wrt.

so my thinking is that there is some setting in dd-wrt thats not enabled that is basicly making my pc blind to all other devices connected on the entire network.

does anyone here have experience with dd-wrt and know how i can solve this issue as since im in charge of the network where i am its kinda important i am able to pick these unifi APs up with the controller.

i have made a quick network map to show you how our network is set up

cheers

damian

mtz_federico · February 23, 2018

try adding a port forwrding rule on the 2nd router and on the netgear with DD-WRT for your computer with the unifi controller

dtronicsuk · February 23, 2018

2 minutes ago, mtz_federico said:

try adding a port forwrding rule on the 2nd router and on the netgear with DD-WRT for your computer with the unifi controller

how would i go about port forwarding on dd-wrt, im new to dd-wrt

mtz_federico · February 23, 2018

here is a tutorial on how to do port forwarding on dd-wrt https://www.flashrouters.com/blog/2012/09/14/how-to-use-port-forwarding-with-dd-wrt-routers-dd-wrt-tutorial/

the basic ports you would need to open are 8080 TCP 8443 TCP and 8880 TCP the whole list of the ports is here https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/218506997-UniFi-Ports-Used

Donut417 · February 24, 2018

Heres the issue you could be having. You have 2 routers well technically 3. If the other two are running in router mode, then your essentially have two separate networks. Im just assuming your using the DDWRT box as a wireless bridge? If not then you have 3 layers of NAT. Good luck port forwarding thru all of that.

mtz_federico · February 24, 2018

5 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Heres the issue you could be having. You have 2 routers well technically 3. If the other two are running in router mode, then your essentially have two separate networks. Im just assuming your using the DDWRT box as a wireless bridge? If not then you have 3 layers of NAT. Good luck port forwarding thru all of that.

he only needs to port forward on the DD-WRT and on the second router and to make it easier he can set static IPs

Donut417 · February 24, 2018

1 minute ago, mtz_federico said:

he only needs to port forward on the DD-WRT and on the second router and to make it easier he can set static IPs

FIrstly I dont know why the OP has 2 to 3 layers not NAT. Secondly if the DDWRT box is connected via wireless to the second router, then its not in Router mode. Which means no Firewall, or NAT. I know because I ran a router in wireless bridge mode before, it essentially was my wireless adapter. Now the OP could try port forwarding on the second router to see if he can communicate with the devices connected to the 1st router. Or set up the network like a sane person and put a switch in place of the second router. Thats assuming the OP doesnt need a firewall in place between the first and second router.

mtz_federico · February 24, 2018

Just now, Donut417 said:

FIrstly I dont know why the OP has 2 to 3 layers not NAT. Secondly if the DDWRT box is connected via wireless to the second router, then its not in Router mode. Which means no Firewall, or NAT. I know because I ran a router in wireless bridge mode before, it essentially was my wireless adapter. Now the OP could try port forwarding on the second router to see if he can communicate with the devices connected to the 1st router. Or set up the network like a sane person and put a switch in place of the second router. Thats assuming the OP doesnt need a firewall in place between the first and second router.

Well, if the DD-WRT is not in router mode then he only needs to do port forwarding on the second router, remember he just needs two LAN`s to access his computer and I think he has two routers because he is sharing the internet and doesn't want to share local traffic with another network

dtronicsuk · February 24, 2018

32 minutes ago, mtz_federico said:

Well, if the DD-WRT is not in router mode then he only needs to do port forwarding on the second router, remember he just needs two LAN`s to access his computer and I think he has two routers because he is sharing the internet and doesn't want to share local traffic with another network

thanks for the tutorials i will check them out in a bit.

now i think i should explain why the network is a complicated as it is.

where i live and the people i work for (i work for the YMCA as a IT technician) we have 2 houses both of which are next door to each other.

one of the houses has a internet supply via air fibre (i believe linus did a video on this a few years back). that internet is then shared between the two houses via ethernet.

the house with the internet in gets sent to a router (thats the cisco one) which is then shared to two unifi APs in house 1 (house 1 being the one with the internet in/supply) the cisco router also has an ethernet link to house 2 (the one with the 2nd router and the house where i live). house 2's router then splits to 2 more unifi APs. connected to one of the APs is my netgear wireless extender which is running DD-WRT, my PC is then connected to the netgear router via ethernet.

now claerly the simplest option would be to connect my pc directly to the unifi AP via wifi and be done with but the reason i am using my netgear extender is because the mobo in my pc (MSI 970 GAMING) has an issue with the usb wifi card when im doing heavy network traffic on it e.g. downloading a game update etc, which apparently is down to the AMD 970 chipset.

now unifi controller was able to detect all 4 APs from both houses when the netgear router was running factory software but now doesnt when running DD-WRT.

i know its complicated but i have to make do with the equipment i have to hand since the original network switches i was provided didnt work and i had to use my own equipment for the network.

hope this clears things out a bit