Can't Establish Connection from Device to Outside World

[Ajax]

I'm struggling to get a small internet appliance connected via my new RT-AC68U. The device is a simple Linux-based system that takes data from a weather station and relays that information to various weather sites on the Internet.

With my previous router, I simply plugged the device in and it worked so long as the device was configured correctly. On the AC68U it seems to be having difficulty connecting to the outside world.

The device is called a HauteWind and the setup guide (PDF) shows it's pretty straight forward to connect.

What I've found odd is how long it seems to connect to the wireless network. I've setup the router to have different SSIDs for the 2.4 and 5Ghz networks and this device only connects to the former. When it does connect and I look into the connection log on the router I see the IP address trying to connect to the IP addresses of the various weather sites I previously was connected to. Only instead of making the connection it says "TIME_WAIT" which I suspect isn't very good.

I'm not a complete novice when it comes to PCs, but I definitely have a knowledge gap when it comes to networking. So any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[overdrive31]

Look under the router settings for Firewall>General>Respond Ping Request from WAN - set to YES, and reboot the router. What modem do you have, and is it bridged or are you behind it's NAT also? What wireless encryption settings are you using? Try to avoid the WPA AES + TKIP setup, some devices do not like the mixed mode for encryption. Try legacy - Wireless Mode with WPA TKIP(I assume WPA2 AES isn't supported by such an old device). You could use the old router as an AP, just for connecting the device in case nothing solves your problem.

 

[Ajax]

I have to admit to being a little wary of enabling the ability to Ping the router since the old one didn't require that. I'll give it try if only briefly.

I'm on Fiber so I don't have a modem exactly. There is the equipment that transfers the fiber data to CAT5, but that hasn't changed nor do I know how to access any administrative abilities of it.

I checked the router and it's only using WPA2 AES from what I can tell. The device does support both WPA2 TKIP and AES and I had it set to mixed, so I've made it utilize AES only.

The last option you mention is one I considered and may be worth trying. It's still rather frustrating not being able to get this connected through the new router.

 

[jegesq]

I'm on Fiber so I don't have a modem exactly. There is the equipment that transfers the fiber data to CAT5, but that hasn't changed nor do I know how to access any administrative abilities of it.

What type of equipment is it (fiber network device) that provides you with the transfer from fiber data to CAT5, i.e., brand name and model number?

Who is your fiber provider? Does the fiber network device perform routing and NAT, or is the routing done by your AC68U? If the network device is doing the routing, you'll want to set up the 68U as an AP, not as a router.

Are you able to connect and gain internet access on other devices with the 68U, or is the problem only limited to this older device?

Also, what firmware version are you using on your AC68U? And what brand/model was your old router?

I like the suggestion of setting up your old router as an AP to use it just to be able to connect this older device if changing the firewall settings on your AC68U has no impact.

Edit: Also, from reading through the PDF for your HauteWind thingee, it looks like it comes with its own wifi bridge device (which allows it to connect wirelessly or via a cable to a LAN port on your router). If you're trying to connect wirelessly, it looks like it only supports the security settings noted, i.e., WEP, WPA or None. Since the only security settings on the 68U allow for WPA2-AES or AES+TPIK, it's the TPIK encryption that allows your older WPA (not WPA2) device to connect, or at least that should work. If it doesn't, then it may be that the implementation of TPIK they used on your device for WPA (which was a stop-gap form of encryption anyway, designed to temporarily plug the holes that existed with WEP, which was about a millimeter away from running "open" anyway) just may not work with the 68U (although I think that would be really odd).

Make sure that when you change the settings on the AC68U to enable TPIK that you have hit "apply" and just to be sure, turn the 68U off after the settings have changed, leave it off for a couple of minutes and then reboot it to be sure that the security settings are actually changed.

One last thing as far as isolating whether it's the security settings that may be blocking a connection: Set the AC68U to "Open" just to see if that changes things. You're clearly not going to want to run your home wireless without encryption (unless you live so far from anyone else that it just doesn't matter....and these days, I can't conceive of a setting where it doesn't matter), so if the "Open" test allows a connection, then it's time to upgrade your Haute Wind's interface device IMHO.

As far as why your device can't connect to the 5ghz band, that should be fairly obvious given the HauteWind model's vintage (circa 2007) which was long before dual band devices became common, so it's probably a good bet that the HauteWind's "connector" device (to use the terminology of the spec sheet for the device itself) only has a 2.4ghz radio.

Haute Wind does make much newer devices that should have no difficulty connecting to the 68U, so you might simply consider contacting the manufacturer to see if you can purchase a new interface module. That way you can continue to use the old sensing equipment but can upgrade the interface so it will work with your new setup without as much difficulty. If you can't reconfigure your 68U or the "connector" device for the Haute Wind successfully, or using your old router as an AP won't work, I'd give the Haute Wind people a call and speak to them directly about your options for upgrading to a more secure and up-to-date 802.11 n or ac solution. Try: +1 (805) 541-9477 or +1 (800) 541-5589

Oh, and you may be wary of allowing pings to your device, but if you were using the Haute Wind to provide data directly to Weather Underground, that's what your old router was doing anyway.

 

[Ajax]

I think I may have sorted out and the issue and it had nothing to do with the router.

Preparing to hang my head in shame in 3...2...1...

 

[Ajax]

I finally noticed that the I had put in my username where a Station ID should go in the configuration. The Station ID is given by the various weather sites when you go online and that's what you use to transmit data to. There's a secondary user ID that you then use to access the site itself.

Because I had completely failed to notice that I missed some of the strongest winds we've ever seen here before and I'm completely bummed. Also, I feel like a complete fool, but at least it's working and hopefully next time I will pay more attention to the easy things first.

Thank you all for your help, the process of looking through this caused me to re-cover some ground that finally turned up my boneheaded mistake.

 

[Ajax]

I will say one thing is still odd. Even though it's connected and transmitting data I can't seem to access the configuration pages for it. When I enter the HauteWind's IP address it comes back as unavailable in the browser.

This isn't typically necessary, but it does limit the ease of troubleshooting.

 

[jegesq]

Open a DOS command prompt and see if you can ping the device (look in the router's GUI "Network Map" get the IP; if the device is connected it should show up in the 2.4ghz Network Map-->Device listing.). Then at a command prompt, type "ping <device IP>. If it returns at least four pings, then it's connected.

That IP address *should* allow you access to the device's config pages. But maybe not. I'm not familiar with the device. Did you have it set with a static IP address in your old router? Perhaps you have to do that with the 68U as well? I have no idea.

 

[Ajax]

What's strange is that eventually I can access the config pages. As it happened, about an hour after I posted this I was able to access them. There doesn't seem to be a rational reason why I couldn't earlier because they work just fine once I'm able to get into them.

I do have the IP set to static on the current router. When access works it makes things a lot easier by not having to hunt down which IP the device was assigned.

At any rate, things are working well and I've got weather showing up again and I'm pleased. http://www.pwsweather.com/obs/NEWBERG.html