CPE510 configured to Client mode but no internet
CPE510 configured to Client mode but no internet
Hello All,
I have a CPE510 which I configured as Client mode, the CPE connects to a Dev AP signal and receives the signal just fine. The network is configured to DHCP so when I set my laptop to DHCP, it received the correct IP's, Gateway, and DNS information but I cannot get out to the internet.
The CPE510 IP is x.x.159.254 /24
The gateway on the CPE510 is set to x.x.159.1
No DNS on the CPE (I have also added the DNS here to troubleshoot but same result)
Laptop IP: x.x.159.166 /24
Gateway: x.x.159.1
DNS: x.x.159.201, 8.8.8.8
From the CPE510, I can ping my gateway, DNS/DHCP server, google.com, etc...
From my laptop, I can only ping the CPE510 and nothing else on the network.
I have upgraded the firmware on the CPE510, moved it closer to the AP, adjusted the CPE to receive it's IP information automatically(DHCP) but nothing helps. The laptop I'm using is a Mac but I have also tried a Windows PC and same result
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!!
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SOLVED!!
I was so focused on the networking behind the CPE510 that I completely forgot about WDS.
The WDS setting was set to auto, once I disabled this, everything worked as normal and I was able to reach the internet from any end device that was connected to the CPE510
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@J_peg, what's the distance between the CPE510 and the AP? What type of antenna does the AP have? Omni antennas? Indoor?
Can you post a screenshot of the CPE's status page (link quality is the interesting point here)?
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@R1D2 Thanks for your reply
The CPE is about 5-6ft from the root AP. I unfortunately won't have a screen shot of the CPE until Monday.
Edit: The CPE and AP are both indoors so no antenna on the CPE.
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You know that the CPE's antenna beam width is 45º only? It has been designed for directional links over very long distances, so it's almost always used outdoors. Minimum distance to not overdrive the remote receiver is about 10 meters, that's roughly 30ft.
What would you want to achieve with a CPE if used indoor over a distance of 6ft? The existing root AP should cover all clients around in the 30-45ft range already, shouldn't it? Or is the root AP a CPE, too? You need to provide more information about the topology and goal you want to achieve, so we can see what's wrong with the setup.
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The purpose of the CPE is to provide network connectivity to some devices that do not have Wifi capabilities. The CPE is connected to a switch which then connects to some of the end devices. In production, the CPE will be about 30ft from the AP but I moved it closer to troubleshoot my connection issues.
Topology
Root AP (Ubiquiti) ----> <---- CPE510 ----> Switch----> End Devices
There are no network drops in the area these end devices will go so I was hoping the CPE would sovle that problem.
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J_peg wrote
Root AP (Ubiquiti) ----> <---- CPE510 ----> Switch----> End Devices
There are no network drops in the area these end devices will go so I was hoping the CPE would sovle that problem.
This is an unusual setup for a directional link, but nevertheless it works for me. I had to test this with Test_Mode region setting, since in my country the channels used by my indoor AP are forbidden for outdoor use (your mileage may vary in your country). My root AP is a Fritz!BOX (FB), a popular SOHO dual-band WiFi router. Distance between FB and CPE is ~12ft, two big walls in between.
That's what I did set up starting from factory defaults:
- Set the CPE510 to Client mode.
- Set 802.11n-only WiFi mode.
- Limit maximum wireless speed to MCS7 to force the FB to appear in WLAN survey.
- Perform a WLAN survey, FB uses indoor-only channel 52 (5260 MHz):
- Select SSID, lock the CPE510 to the FB's BSID:
No other settings are required for initial setup of this topology.
- Check connection status, note the surprisingly good SNR despite link going through two walls:
- Change IP setting of my laptop (wired connection to the CPE) to DHCP, instantly received a lease from the FB, could surf the Internet w/o any problems:
I'm not sure what you're doing wrong or what settings you use for your router's DHCP, but it definitely is not the fault of the CPE510. Maybe a wrong setup of your DHCP service, your UBNT AP or your CPE. Just try the steps I did and check whether you will receive a DHCP lease. If not, ping the UBNT AP from a device wired to the CPE and if the ping works, but still no DHCP lease received, it's almost certainly your DHCP which fails for some reason.
Changes are that the malfunction could also be caused by a very weak WiFi signal. I once had a case where link quality was so bad but good enough for small ICMP packets, so I could ping other devices successfully, but a data transmission with larger content always failed.
Further problems I see with connecting a CPE510 to an indoor SOHO WiFi device with omnidirectional antennas:
- Indoor devices often use other frequency bands than outdoor devices. Can be a problem if their frequency ranges are not covering all channels of each other AP.
- Antenna alignment of the CPE is critical due to the small antenna beam width of a CPE510 (I mentioned this already).
- Distance between the CPE and a SOHO device is no problem at all for the CPE, but might be a problem for the SOHO device. RF energy of the SOHO device might be too weak for stable data transmissions if no free line of sight.
To summarize: connection from the CPE to a SOHO device might work, but the usual hassle-free way to connect wired devices to a network through CPEs is by using two CPEs as shown below, which will avoid all those possible problems:
If you just need a WiFi device which can be used in client mode to remotely connect to an AP indoors, I still don't understand why you did choose the CPE510. Any SOHO router could do this if using free OpenWRT firmware. For linking other devices to an indoor AP I would use another cheap indoor-only AP, which often comes with a 4-port switch built in already.
For outdoor links I would only use CPEs as shown in the diagram above even over a very short distance of 30ft – just to achieve a free line of sight for a reliable wireless link.
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Take a look at my configurations below, I have double checked my DHCP pool and all is working as it should. When I connect my laptop to the same AP and SSID I receive an IP just fine but when connecting my laptop to the TP-Link, that's when the DHCP request fails.
Status page of CPE510
Network
Wireless
Laptop
Ping from CPE to DHCP server (Ping from laptop to same IP fails)
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What IP uses your root-AP? What IP is assigned to the LAN the root AP is connected to? The gateway is set to IP 192.168.159.1.
Why is the DHCP server in another network, do you use a DHCP relay? How do you assure that the DHCP server's and root-AP's/CPE's broadcast domain is the same?
In my example I do this by using the DHCP server's network and broadcast domain also for the interface to which the root-AP is connected.
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The management LAN the root AP is assigned to is 10.10.20.x, I have inter-vlan routing configured so my management LAN can communicate w/ all other networks.
Yes, I have DHCP relay configured.
I have tried the above example w/ my management LAN and in that scenario I am able to receive an IP from my DHCP server and I see my laptop is assigned to the correct domain but I still cannot reach the internet. I only encounter this problem when putting the TP-Link inbetween my end devices and my root AP, which is what lead me to beleive it's the CPE and not my configuration.
I will try this again w/ my management LAN and post screen shots.
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See screen shots below
Setting the CPE to the same network as my root AP
Root AP
WC Settings
Laptop received IP information from AP w/ TP-Link
Cannot reach the internet
Additional status/settings on CPE
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J_peg, see SNR 13 dB. That's a very weak wireless link. Compare that with my SNR of 41 dB (that's nearly 1,000 times stronger!) albeit there were no free LoS and two walls in-between. In general, a signal with an SNR value of 20 dB (that's ~ five times stronger as yours) or more is recommended for data networks.
So I guess that small packets such as ICMP will make it over the air, but larger packets do not.
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