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calgarychris

Occasional Visitor
Hi,

I have built my network as per the attached diagram. Unfortunately, as it is multi-level, I have had to bridge the D-Link DAP-1522 to the Billion 7800N wireless router. The devices connected directly to the Billion are upstairs, the devices connected to the DAP-1522 are downstairs. The transfer speeds are pitiful, but I manage. The devices are bridged wirelessly with WPA2-PSK on the same subnet 192.168.1.xxx. Every piece of equipment is assigned fixed IPs for simplicity.

I have two problems with this arrangement and one question:

1) Devices that are connected to the DAP-1522 can be accessed across the network by the iMac or wirelessly from the Asus laptop but cannot be seen by other devices connected to the DAP. The workaround was to purchase the GS105 switch and connect the media player (Boxee Box) to the media server (FreeNAS server). Transfer speeds between the two are sufficient to play HD with no stutter, and the lights on the GS105 suggest they are connected at GigE. While the setup works, if someone could shed any light on why the switch was required, I would appreciate it

2) I was recently trying to test the FreeNAS system using iperf, by connecting the Asus laptop via the GS105, however it would only connect at 100Mbps (as reported by device manager). The laptop is GigE capable and when connected to the DAP directly, reports as such under device manager but then cannot see the FreeNAS server (the problem above). While I originally was using cat5e, I purchased cat6 but this did not solve the issue - it still connects to the GS105 at 100Mbps.

The laptop is GigE, the switch and the router are both GigE. The cables to the server and to the laptop are cat6...Can anyone shed some light on the two issues above?

As for the question, the Billion 7800N provides wifi and is protected with a 30 character, complex password. Am I correct in assuming that the network would therefore be reasonably secure from outside intrusion and that any passwords on the LAN side could therefore be less secure without compromising its integrity? I am not concerned with physical access/security as a break-in would be covered by insurance :). Final bonus question - any suggestion on how to improve transfer speed between the Billion and DAP would be greatly appreciated - currently I get ~8Mbps.

Thanks very much for any help or advice!
Chris
 

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Confirming a few things:

- Which devices can be connected directly to the DAP1522 and be accessed by devices connected to the Billion router?

- Which cannot?

Some network interface cards (NICS) have problems auto-negotiating connection speed and mode with some switches. Could be that is what you ran into. Throwing another switch in between (as you did) typically solves the problem.

A 30 character complex ("strong") WPA2/AES password should be sufficiently safe. But what encryption are you running across the Billion/DAP1522 bridge and which band and mode?
 
Best to leave the NIC in Auto to match what the Switch is in your case unmanaged If you had a managed switch you could then change port settings to match the NIC to 1GBps intead of Auto. In the Managed Switch you could change it to 1000mFD (1GBps Full Duplex) If you have Flow Control and Jumbo Frames as options on your NIC via software configuration you could then set Jumbo to 4K to 9K if your managed switch had supported that. If your unmanage switch support jumbo frames you could do the same.

But the rule of thumb not a good idea to daisy chain switches if you don't have too. Have dedicated drops (lines to them instead for your nodes (devices on network).
 
You tell us the cables to the server and laptop are Cat6. Prefinished or terminated by hand?

What are the other cables in the network and are they prefinished or hand terminated? I would get a cable tester and confirm all pairs are correct for all cables. I've seen it b4 where terminating was not done correctly, but when adding a switch in between it "works around" the problem.
 
Thanks for all the replies and queries...and so quickly! In answer to the questions:

Tim,

any device that is connected directly to the DAP-1522 can be seen upstairs via my iMac (connected to the Billion). I can stream movies, see my Xbox, etc...Although I cannot connect (or moreover, have never tried) to my Panasonic TV, I presume I can, since DHCP is handled via the Billion and it is assigning all of the static IPs. I don't think there are any devices that cannot be seen from the Billion.

In terms of connection - I originally set up the Billion to use WPA2-PSK AES and when I purchased the DAP I just put it in Bridge mode, turned off its DHCP, assigned it a static IP on the same subnet and set it to connect to the Billion using the same WPA2-PSK security. The Billion is transmitting on Channel 1 20/40Mhz, on 2.4GHz, with G+n selected for compatibility. The DAP is configured with 2.4GHz/5GHz ticked, mixed abgn, wireless channel 36 - all of these options are greyed out but ticked, meaning I don't think I can change them (except perhaps by clicking the site survey button?)

Tipster - thanks - unfortunately for me my wife will kill me if I purchase "yet another little black box" so a managed switch is out of the question! :p The setup works, albeit transfers to and from the FreeNAS server are slow and I really don't understand the two issues I am having. I have not explored JF because when I investigated the iMac didn't appear to support them (I was choked, as it's a late '09 model, I expected better). Everything else I have supports JF I believe, but I think it creates problems if one of the devices can't handle them, correct?

Claykin - all cables were purchased, I can't be arsed to muck around with cables when they cost $20 :p Good thought though, I imagine that would create a mess.

Any further information I can provide that might help shed some light on the problems or improve the speed?

Thanks again very much for your help guys! Much appreciated!
 
The scenario you describe where devices on the DAP-1522 integrated switch can communicate with devices on the WLAN but not with each other warrants a closer look at the DAP-1522, especially considering that adding a switch to bypass the DAP-1522 restores communication.

Can devices on the switch ping each other?
 
The scenario you describe where devices on the DAP-1522 integrated switch can communicate with devices on the WLAN but not with each other warrants a closer look at the DAP-1522, especially considering that adding a switch to bypass the DAP-1522 restores communication.

Can devices on the switch ping each other?

When connected to the DAP, the laptop can ping any device connected to the Billion, but when i ping any device also connected to the DAP I get the results as per below.

Not really sure what that means - .4 is the laptop. How can I have 0% loss if none of the packets make it to their destination?

When connecting to the GS105 behind the DAP, I can ping all devices on the network.

---------------

C:\Users\Chris>ping 192.168.1.50

Pinging 192.168.1.50 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.4: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.4: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.4: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.4: Destination host unreachable.

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.50:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
 
Chris,
I found my Rev A DAP-1522, fired it up, reset it to defaults and just treated it as a switch, uplinked to my main LAN router.

I then plugged in two Windows PCs and got wonkiness. Windows reported a duplicate IP address and both computers came up with 169.X.X.X link local IPs.

I futzed around for awhile, then checked D-Link for newer firmware than the 1.20 that was loaded. I found and installed version 1.40 and the problems disappeared, i.e. the DAP-1522 switch functioned properly as a switch.
 
When connected to the DAP, the laptop can ping any device connected to the Billion, but when i ping any device also connected to the DAP I get the results as per below.

Not really sure what that means - .4 is the laptop. How can I have 0% loss if none of the packets make it to their destination?

When connecting to the GS105 behind the DAP, I can ping all devices on the network.

---------------

C:\Users\Chris>ping 192.168.1.50

Pinging 192.168.1.50 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.4: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.4: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.4: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.4: Destination host unreachable.

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.50:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Looks like the device you are pinging from sent out an ARP request to resolve 1.50, but did not receive a reply. This is not expected or desired behavior for a flat network. Instead of drilling down further to find out exactly how the DAP-1522 is broken, Tim's recommendation to update the firmware seems to be a better first step. Second would be to reset the config.
 
Thanks for the suggestion - I flashed 1.40, the latest firmware I could find, months ago but I didn't do a factory reset. I'll try this and report back.

Thanks
Chris
 
No dice. I have reset to factory settings, with 1.40 loaded and I still cannot connect to my NAS box when both devices are connected to the DAP-1522.

Just to confirm, I have flicked the switch to "Bridge" on the back and all devices across the entire network are on the same 192.168.1.xxx subnet - this is correct yes?

Any other thoughts as to what I have wrong here?

Thanks very much,
Chris
 
No dice. I have reset to factory settings, with 1.40 loaded and I still cannot connect to my NAS box when both devices are connected to the DAP-1522.

Just to confirm, I have flicked the switch to "Bridge" on the back and all devices across the entire network are on the same 192.168.1.xxx subnet - this is correct yes?

Any other thoughts as to what I have wrong here?

Thanks very much,
Chris

Before you flash it do the 30, 30, 30 then 30, 30, 30

30 seconds
hold the reset button
next 30 seconds
then release power then keep on holding the reset button
last 30 seconds
plugin back the power into the the device
now flash the unit
then once flash repeat the above steps

Configure your device from scratch, don't do any restore from prior settings.
If you still have issues then the device is going or has gone DUFF = bad
 
Thanks, I'll give the 30/30/30 repeat a try this weekend.

Any ideas on why or how I can get the Asus laptop working at Gb on the GS105? As I mentioned, my drivers for the laptop are up to date and there doesn't appear to be any firmware, so am I out of luck on that one as well?

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, much appreciated!

Chris
 
Thanks, I'll give the 30/30/30 repeat a try this weekend.

Any ideas on why or how I can get the Asus laptop working at Gb on the GS105? As I mentioned, my drivers for the laptop are up to date and there doesn't appear to be any firmware, so am I out of luck on that one as well?

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, much appreciated!

Chris

Yes that switch has issues with Gig ports I had the GS105 mostly because then tend to overhead causing the Network Controller Chipset to go duff by reducing the speed from 1000m to 100m. It will throttle down 100m or even 10m on you. When I had this issue Netgear just told me to send it back and they'll send me a new one at a cost of $30 bucks for s/h. I decided to go a different route.
 
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