Some questions Network Map behavior

[bnadji]

I recently moved to Merlin FW starting with 270.24. it has been working fine and it appears to have solved the wireless performance issues I had with the factory 270. So thank you for this enhanced FW. I have couple of questions regarding network map and name resolution behavior. My environment primarily consists of an ASUS RT-AC66U with two of its ports connect to two 24 port Netgear Gigabit Ethernet switches. All wired devices hang from these two switches:

1- The refresh button on network map client list screen does not always force a name resolution. It sometimes appears to refresh the list instantly from a built-in cache. In such cases, the only solution appears to be rebooting the router to force the name resolution again. Is this the normal behavior?

2- Is the network map client list dynamic? I have noticed that as I add and/or disconnect devices from the network (wired or wireless), the list is not always updated dynamically to reflect the changes. Do I need to force a refresh (see also 1 above)?

3- Some devices never appear on the client list. I have a Samsung TV that acquires IP through DHCP on the wired network. I can use the TV to do NetFlix and such. Yet the TV name or its MAC never appear on the client list.

4- Some devices change name after a while on the client list. I have an HP LaserJet 400 printer that I have named HPLJT400. Initially, upon reboot, it appears as HPLJT400 on the client list as it should. After a while, the name changes to "__MSBROWSE__". Running nbtstat on the printer shows the following:

C> nbtstat -n -A 192.168.1.223

NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table

Name Type Status
---------------------------------------------
..__MSBROWSE__.<01> GROUP Registered
WORKGROUP <00> GROUP Registered
HPLJT400 <00> UNIQUE Registered

Apparently the printer is trying to be the Master Browser for whatever reason. I found no way of disabling that on the printer. I understand that in the new Merlin firmware, ASUS can be the Master Browser. But regardless, is there a way to get the client list to stick with the original name HPLJT400?

5- Sometimes, when the refresh is pressed on the client list screen and the router tries to resolve names, some names stay indefinitely unresolved displaying just the MAC address. However when I go to the Tools->Other Settings and press Apply without any changes, when I return to the client list page all names are resolved correctly. Is this a bug?


Regards,
Brad

 

[huotg01]

I recently moved to Merlin FW starting with 270.24. it has been working fine and it appears to have solved the wireless performance issues I had with the factory 270. So thank you for this enhanced FW. I have couple of questions regarding network map and name resolution behavior. My environment primarily consists of an ASUS RT-AC66U with two of its ports connect to two 24 port Netgear Gigabit Ethernet switches. All wired devices hang from these two switches:

1- ...
Regards,
Brad

Personally I don't have any problem with the list, except that it is a fact that it takes some time after asking for a refresh. Not a big deal. Don't forget that the list could cover more than one page...

I also gave a name and reserved an IP address for most of my devices on the network (DHCP page).

That said you are not the first one to report some problems with the Client status list (please see some previous posts on this thread).

GH

 

[RMerlin]

Clicking on the Refresh button doesn't instantaneously return the whole list. It starts a background process which can take a few seconds to complete - names/resolved name might start appearing then.

There were also a few issues specific to IE with the name resolution that are fixed for the next build.

 

[bnadji]

Thanks. I am using fixed IP for devices that dont show correctly on the list but other problems persist. I looked at similar previous posts and they are along the same lines. It is interesting that devices that come to the router for DHCP dont show on occasions on the list.

I am aware of the multi-page list. Thanks for the heads up.

Brad

 

[bnadji]

Thanks for the quick response. Clicking the refresh button shows two different behaviors for me:

- It restarts the list with fixed IP device names quickly resolving and then other devices gradually appearing and their MAC address getting resolved to system names gradually. This is what you are referring to and what I understood should happen every time.

- On occasions, Refresh just redraws the list (nearly instantly) with all devices and their names exactly the same as they were as if the list gui is refreshed from a cache.

I use Chrome most of the time but tried it with IE as well.

Thanks,
Brad

 

[M3Rocket]

Brad--that's a really good distillation of the Network Map behavior I've been experiencing since the beta's of this new Merlin firmware version.