Vodafone router with Velop mesh for WiFi

[bruce_miranda]

I have the following set and something recently has changed which is causing me grief.

This is the connection chain.

OR FTTP Modem - Vodafone Router - Unmanaged Switch - Velop Nodes.

The Vodafone router is plugged into an Unmanaged switch using one of the Ethernet ports. WiFi on the Vodafone router has been switched off. 

The Velop nodes are all plugged into the Unmanaged switch via ethernet cables. This means that the Velop Nodes are operating with a wired backhaul. 

What is happening now is that if any client connects via the main WiFi connection on the Velop, they are connected to WiFi but without Internet. e.g. the client gets an IP address of 192.168.168.100

But if any client connects to the Guest WiFi they get Internet but then they are on another subnet range. e.g. IP address is 192.168.3.158

What I think is happening is that the Guest Network NATs the clients to the Node IP address. The Node is sitting on the LAN and hence has Internet access. All my other wired devices have Internet access.

So what is stopping my WiFi clients from getting Internet access and being put into the same Subnet as the Vodafone router and getting an IP from the DHCP pool? e.g. 192.168.1.x

[bruce_miranda]

I think DHCP is broken and I don't know why.

I have 2 Unmanaged switches and neither appear to be passing the DHCP requests back to the Router (DHCP server). This is why my Guest WiFi works but the main WiFi doesn't. The Guest WiFi clients get a DHCP address from the mesh node, rather than the Router. The Mesh node has a static IP and so continues to work via the switch. Infact any client works if I specify a Static IP in the Router's DHCP range. But none of the clients are able to request an IP for themselves. 

I have 2 switches and both are doing the same thing! What are the chances of them both going bad together?

[Jayach]

Have you rebooted the Vodafone router?

[bruce_miranda]

No VF Router in the chain now. WAN to TP DECO to switch to TP DECO nodes. 

Any wired client from the switch gets no DHCP address. All static IP clients work absolutely fine and get Internet as normal.

[Jayach]

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@bruce_miranda wrote:

No VF Router in the chain now. WAN to TP DECO to switch to TP DECO nodes. 

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Oh, I though you had taken the Deco's out as they had the "not working as an unmanaged switch" problem.

[bruce_miranda]

It's the Unmanaged switch that sits in between the main node or router and the other nodes that is the issue. 

Any clients that connect to the main node get their WiFI connection and hence DHCP address directly from the main node. Any clients that connect via the child nodes need to get their DHCP IP from the Master which is on the other side of the switch and hence don't get Internet. But any clients that use the Guest WiFi network, get their DHCP address from the child node. And hence Guest WiFi gets Internet. For some strange reason both my switches are no longer relaying a DHCP request through them. But they are both Unmanaged switches, and have worked before.

[Jayach]

I think it's time to go back to basics.

Start with just the Vodafone router and one Velop node. Make sure that works as expected, and then start adding things in, one at a time, until you find what breaks it

Oops, jumped your post.

[bruce_miranda]

I've done that. And each time it points to the switch because its the only thing in between the Router and the nodes. But to have an issue on two switches at the same time is quite odd indeed.

[Jayach]

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@bruce_miranda wrote:

But to have an issue on two switches at the same time is quite odd indeed.

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When the issue is that they both allows access to everything but DHCP requests, it's more than odd it's unbelievable.

[bruce_miranda]

Yup I too am not convinced I have a double hardware issue. This is surely some ip conflict that is causing this.

Something new, some DHCP clients get an IP address of 192.168.168.100 from a gateway 192.168.168.1, Absolutely no idea where that is coming from. 

[Cynric]

@bruce_miranda  Can I suggest you get an IP scanner, I use one from angryip.org, and set it to scan your LAN from 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.168.255.

It's a GNU Public Licence product, so no cost. It's for Windows, Mac and *nix on their download page.