AX86U and client LAN ports in bridged mode

[jsmiddleton4]

I know, not exactly a router issue. Don't know where to ask and it ties in with my mini-rant about 2.5g capable routers only having one 2.5gb port.

I've switched to the 2.5gb port being a LAN port. I have a new NUC with 2-2.5gb ports. I've connected one to the router's 2.5gb port. The other to a Netgear 1gbs switch. I do not have any 2.5gb clients beyond this one NUC.

I've configured the 2 ports in bridge mode.

I have it working. I'm on the NUC at the moment so obviously connected to the internet. I had trouble with clients connected to the switch that is connected to the bridged 2.5gb ports.

I have them working now but I'm not exactly sure why.

For the IPV4 settings for the network bridge I had to manually enter IPV4 IP, gateway and DNS. The bridged port can't actually see the DHCP server in the AX86U.

I was not able to see the NAS, printer, networked media device attached to the switch though.

After banging on it awhile thought to myself, well if the LAN bridged port requires manual config for IPV4, no idea why IPV6 works, I bet all down stream devices, those attached to the switch, need to be told the same thing. Added manual IP/DNS/Gateway information into the printer, NAS, etc., and bingo, all working and network is quite snappy.

Edit: One thing I've learned is do anything you want or need to do for the network before creating the bridge. Things like mapping drives, etc., after the bridge didn't work. Remove bridge, map drive, create bridge, mapped drives work perfectly.

Tried to install wireless drivers for my Canon printer after bridge in place. Didn't work. The bridged computer couldn't find the wireless device. Take bridge down, installed wireless driver for the printer without issue. Recreate bridge, printer connection just fine.

Whatever the extra layer of information Windows uses/needs to create the bridge makes it blind to other stuff.

Do all the other stuff before the bridge, make the bridge, everything hunky dory.....

I searched on the matter, Windows network bridge mode and attached clients, but didn't find anything beyond how to setup Windows multiple LANs into bridge mode.

Folks here know WAY more than I about these things. If anyone wanted to do the same to take advantage of the 2.5gb port they might want to know as well how to set this up.

2.5gb switches still too expensive. This was a nice middle ground.

 

[airgap]

To be honest I didn't figure out what you are trying to achieve. What is your goal by connecting one port of the NUC to the 2.5G LAN Port of the AX86U and the other to a 1G Switch?

 

[jsmiddleton4]

I keep 2.5gb to the client that is bridged. Its not a huge performance increase. Not as if the AX86U had 2-2.5gb ports. But it is a bit. Wouldn't be something to play with if Asus had done so. They did on the 89X.

I pulled the switch out and am bridged now to just my NAS. Its throttled as its only 1gb. Perception is access is snappier. Could be the Hawthorne effect though.

Plus I get to play with Windows LAN port bridge mode. Obviously have not before.

 

[airgap]

why not connect the switch to the 2.5G of the AX86U and use both ports of the NUC to connect to Port 1+2 of the AX86U and make a "bond" which would result approx. 2G LAN - but I have to admint I never did something like that on windows. But there are enough how-to on the internet.

But besides that is your NAS able to make read/write about 1G/sec? If not imho it is waste of time and the 1G LAN is more than enough.

 

[airgap]

I don't know why I said to connect the switch to the 2.5G port totaly nonsense... I wanted to say that you should connect the NAS to the 2.5G port of the router and make a nic teaming (bond) between the NUC and the router.

But my opinion regarding the write/readspeed of your NAS stays. If your NAS doesn't exceed over 1G/s then it's waste of preciouse lifetime and you should just stick to 1G LAN and enjoy whatever you can get out of it. If it's HDD max 150-200Mb/s and normal SATA SSD would be around 200-500Mb/s (depending on SSD) and if you have a very fancy m.2 NVME SSD NAS (which I don't know even exist) you could reach 1.5-3.5Gb/s but don't get too excited because if your NAS has only a 1G-LAN port then your bottleneck even in the fancy setup is obvious.

In your case the best outcome would be IF:
You drives would make over 1GB/s read+write AND the LAN-port of the NAS is 2G or higher.

I just read my post and thought that I had to clarify a bit more.