Advice on firmware please. (RT-N66U)

[ColinTaylor]

-Hmmm, ok well first off pinging the router said "destination net unreachable"
BUT....the PCs ip address seems to be 192.168.2.1
Doesn't it need to be 192.168.1.x ?

-the bbc command gave "no internal type for both IPv4 and IPv6

-I also see that when I enter ipconfig /all the default gateway is 192.168.2.1 and the connection specific DNS suffix is "Belkin".

This Belkin router is an access point I have in another part of the house to expand wifi. Is this the problem?

OK thanks for the info. Yes your PC should be configured to use DHCP and should be getting an IP address between 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.254. You can check that range by going to LAN > DHCP Server > IP Pool Starting Address and IP Pool Ending Address.

How are you connecting your PC to the router? With a cable or wirelessly? Do you have more than one network card? The Belkin stuff sounds like a problem. Is it also connected to your ASUS router?

 

[ColinTaylor]

"Go to LAN > LAN IP and if necessary change the Device Name to RT-N66"

OK that single action seems to have solved a bunch of issues. PC is in client list now and has internet.

Excellent.

 

[smallclone]

I still cannot see the router in windows explorer or on Linux explorer. which is a problem for transferring files.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I still cannot see the router in windows explorer or on Linux explorer. which is a problem for transferring files.

OK, so we're talking about Windows (aka Samba) shares. First thing to check is that the Work Group name set in USB Application > Network Place(Samba) Share / Cloud Disk matches the one you are using for your home network. By default Microsoft PC's use "WORKGROUP".

PS I'm assuming that you're browsing the network from Windows Explorer and not using mapped drives.

 

[smallclone]

OK, so we're talking about Windows (aka Samba) shares. First thing to check is that the Work Group name set in USB Application > Network Place(Samba) Share / Cloud Disk matches the one you are using for your home network. By default Microsoft PC's use "WORKGROUP".

PS I'm assuming that you're browsing the network and not using mapped drives.

Yes, it's WORKGROUP in the asus settings,
samba share enabled
allow guest login is on

not using mapped drives

 

[smallclone]

I've managed to to it in Linux by connecting to server and typing smb://rt-n66u

But I'll be damned if I can find out how to do it in windows.

 

[ColinTaylor]

OK thanks. From the Windows command prompt can you type these 2 commands:

net view

net view rt-n66u

 

[ColinTaylor]

I've managed to to it in Linux by connecting to server and typing smb://rt-n66u

But I'll be damned if I can find out how to do it in windows.

It can take a few minutes for the share to be broadcast across the network. You sometimes have to hit refresh in Windows Explorer to pick up the changes.

UPDATE: If you don't have another "always on" Windows (or samba) server on your network then it would make sense to set USB Application > Network Place(Samba) Share / Cloud Disk > Force as Master Browser to Yes. This will stop to master browser list floating between different PC's which might slow things down a bit.

 

[smallclone]

net view gave nothing. path incorrect
net view rt-n66u gave the drive name, make, model and labelled it as a "shared resource"

 

[ColinTaylor]

Hmm. Very strange.

What version of Windows are you running?

Can you double-check the work group setting on your PC and confirm that you are connecting to a work group and not a domain.

Also, try pinging (from the PC) the router by its NetBIOS name:

ping rt-n66u

 

[smallclone]

It pings to the router fine. 4 times and I get results.

In computer system settings it says workgroup: WORKGROUP

But I'm not convinced my network is seeing it. Because this workgroup option has disappeared as an option in both Ubuntu and XBMC.

 

[ColinTaylor]

It does sound a bit weird. Change Force as Master Browser to Yes (if you haven't already), reboot the router and then the clients.

 

[smallclone]

WEll, that has enabled the router to be seen as an object in my linux laptop.

But guess what - my Windows pc isn't connecting again - and has gone back to how it was before - no network, no internet.

what a nightmare

 

[ColinTaylor]

But guess what - my Windows pc isn't connecting again - and has gone back to how it was before - no network, no internet.

Do you have more than one network interface on your PC?
Are you using a wired connection, wireless or both? It sounds like you're connecting to the Belkin again.

How is the Belkin AP connected to your network?
Is it an access point or a wireless repeater (or something else)?

 

[smallclone]

Do you have more than one network interface on your PC?
Are you using a wired connection, wireless or both? It sounds like you're connecting to the Belkin.

How is the Belkin AP connected to your network?
Is it an access point or a wireless repeater (or something else)?

PC wired to asus router.
homeplug going into asus router
homeplug going to belkin.
the belkin is an n600 router but I'm using it as an access point.

I have just switched off the belkin. rebooted pc - and it boots up perfectly seeing the rt-n66u.

So I guess the belkin is the problem. I have an idea that when I set it up as an access point the ip address was probably wrong.

 

[ColinTaylor]

It sounds very much like the Belkin is setup as a router and not an access point. In which case it will be fighting the ASUS for control of the clients. i.e running its own DHCP server and handing out its own IP addresses (192.168.2.x) to clients and redirecting their gateways to itself.

 

[smallclone]

Well thanks for all your help.

I'm going to have a lie down and attack the problem tomorrow.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Good idea.

http://www.belkin.com/us/support-article?articleNum=8067
Possibly the most convoluted instructions for turning a router into an access point I've ever come across!

 

[smallclone]

Yet another problem last night! Got upstairs and my external hard drive wasn't powering down (it normally powers down after 10 mins if nothing is using it.). There were nod evices running.

I powered the asus router down. took the usb HDD out, and powered the router up. Plugged HDD in - and same result - just an endless chugging away. So loud that I couldn't sleep! I'm really hoping that this excercise hasn't damaged it in some way.

Could this be the new firmware? If so - I'm thinking of rolling back to the previous version to be honest.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Could this be the new firmware? If so - I'm thinking of rolling back to the previous version to be honest.

It would be a shame to go back to a very old version having got this far. But now that you're an expert in updating firmware it might be an idea to install the previous version, 376.45.

The reason I say that is because you said you're running the media server (which accesses the USB drive) and there's a bug in the current version whereby it doesn't detect new files when they're added to the USB drive.

It's also possible that it's the media server the stopping your disk from spinning down. Have you checked the setting at Tools > Other Settings > Disk spindown idle time ?