Archer VR 600 as an AP

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Archer VR 600 as an AP

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Archer VR 600 as an AP
Archer VR 600 as an AP
2022-03-19 17:09:15 - last edited 2022-03-21 01:08:38
Model: Archer VR600v  
Hardware Version: V2
Firmware Version: latest

A bit long so bare with me .

Had a great VR600 V2 router connectec to my DSL , worked great , no bugs, no Errors, Great Internet.

I just swapped to Optical Fiber , which doesn't fit , so the ISP provided me with his own Router. 

I will not name the name of the other company's router , because it is very fast but sucks at the management level , which the VR600 Gave me.

 

I wanted to connect the VR600 as one of the static IPs of the Fiber router . here is the data :

Fiber router : IP range : 10.0.0.1-10.0.0.100 , gateway 10.0.0.138 ( Which is the main IP address and I can't change it )

 

I have reserved IP Address 10.0.0.90 statically for the VR 600 

 

VR600 : defined from ranges : 192.168.0.101-192.168.0.200 . this range is because when I tried to define an address at the same subnet mask of the Fiber-router, the archer did not let me specify a static IP address for the connection which is from the same subnet mask , so I reverted to this range.

Internet connection is defined as "Static" , I set the IP address to 10.0.0.90 ,subnet 255.0.0.0  GW to 10.0.0.138 , primary DNS to 1.1.1.1 secondary to 8.8.8.8 connected a cable to LAN4/WAN and from thereon to the Fiber router. I also created an exeception for the MAC address of the static connection on the Fiber router.

 

This is V2 router , it does not have an AP mode, so I set the mode manually to connect to the internet (not DSL, 3g/4g model , just the third one to wired/wirelessly) 

 

rebooted the router. Wifi works , Internet does not work 

no pings from the fiber-router to  10.0.0.90

 

I also attempted the "bridge" connection which failed to work.

My questions are thus :

1. Since this is a V2 router and it does not support AP mode , am I barking up the wrong tree?

2. suppose 1 is false , do I need to make any further changes ? what am I doing wrong ? Do I need to add some static route ?

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#1
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9 Reply
Re:Archer VR 600 as an AP
2022-03-21 09:28:42

  @Ebarlev 

Hi, Archer VR600 v2 does not have a separate Access Point mode but it could be manually turned off the DHCP server and worked like an Access point mode.

Based on your description, VR600 V2 is working as a wireless router and the configuration is what it is supposed to be. No further changes are required.

Currently, you have chosen static IP as the internet connection type, and could you please change it to dynamic IP to see whether VR600 is able to get a correct IP address from the new Fiber router automatically?

Thank you very much and wait for your reply.

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#2
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Re:Archer VR 600 as an AP
2022-03-21 10:42:03 - last edited 2022-03-21 11:00:32

  @Ebarlev 

 

As David-TP posted you've configured VR600 in 'wireless router mode'.

While this should work you'll introduce a double NAT in your network.

If you want to avoid that leave the VR600 in 'DSL modem router mode' and use this guide to configure it as an access point.

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Re:Archer VR 600 as an AP
2022-03-24 06:03:40

  @David-TP 

Thank you very much for your response, I tried both static as well as dynamic in this mode and nothing works .

I will summarize as there is another response in this thread which I tried ( I will pick it up after this response )  :

Two routers :

One is a fiber - router , very fast , lousy at management , connected directly to an optical fiber, the base address is 10.0.0.38 . DHCP allocates addresses within range of 10.0.0.1-10.0.0.99 subnet is 8 bits for that

 

The second is tp-link vr600 ( the great , if I might add ) set to a wireless router mode ( not DSL , not 3G/4G) , defined with the base address of 192.168.0.100 subnet of 24 bits , DHCP allocates 192.168.0.1-192.168.0.99 . The router works fine on its own and I access the WifiNetworks and am able to config the router as I see fit. 

 

VR600 LAN4/WAN is connected to the fiber-router via a straight ethernet cable ( Since the LAN is 1Gbps I trust it can detect straight ethernet connection or a crossed one ) . At one point I changed the ethernet connection to LAN1 , still nothing works . I defined a static IP address of 10.0.0.90 , also tried dynamic. defined the gateway as 10.0.0.138 and the DNS as the global one 1.1.1.1 and 8.8.8.8 Nothing works.

 

Anoher reply talked about going through double NAT , I will respond below.

 

Thank you .

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Re:Archer VR 600 as an AP
2022-03-24 06:10:55 - last edited 2022-03-24 06:11:38

@terziyski

Have to say after I though it through , this has some logic inside . I'll tell you what I did: I changed the router back to DSL mode, and then set the following for your recommended test ( This is a different test than another response I wrote below ) : I will summarize as there is another response in this thread which I tried ( I will pick it up after this response ) : Two routers : One is a fiber - router , very fast , lousy at management , connected directly to an optical fiber, the base address is 10.0.0.38 . DHCP allocates addresses within range of 10.0.0.1-10.0.0.99 subnet is 8 bits for that The second is tp-link vr600 ( the great , if I might add ) set to a DSL router mode , defined with the base address of 10.0.0.90 subnet of 8 bits , DHCP allocates 10.0.0.140-10.0.0.199 (just for the test , later I will fix addresses ) . The router works fine on its own and I access the Wifi Networks and am able to config the router as I see fit. The VR600 and the fiber-router are connected via a straight ethernet cable ( I assume a 1Gbps ethernet port can sense a straight or crossed cable ) . from the VR600 WAN/LAN4 connection to LAN1 of the fiber-router. at the first couple of seconds things seemed to have worked, but after something like 10 seconds , everything dropped and no internet again. of course the application senses there is no internet because the dsl has no carrier , but it worked through the wifi worked for like 10 seconds and then ,nope

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Re:Archer VR 600 as an AP
2022-03-24 14:42:50 - last edited 2022-03-24 15:03:35

  @Ebarlev 

 

In the first scenario, when the VR600 is in 'wireless router mode' you should use only LAN4/WAN port to connect to your fiber router LAN port.

 

In the second scenario, when VR600 is in 'DSL modem router' mode but configured as an AP you should use VR600 LAN1 port to connect to your fiber router LAN port:

  • note that in this scenario since you don't use the VR600 DSL port it's normal that VR600 reports no Internet connection, but that's OK.
  • make sure that VR600 DHCP server is OFF like instructed in the user guide I posted.

 

In both cases use a straight ethernet cable.

I presume you have your public IP address on your fiber router WAN port ?

Can you post a screenshot of your fiber router LAN settings for more clarity on the matter ?

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Re:Archer VR 600 as an AP
2022-03-24 18:59:18 - last edited 2022-03-24 19:08:30

  @terziyski 

It works ! 
I have connected the vr600 to the fiber-router from LAN1. I previously didn't turn off the dhcp and now I did and the vr600 works like a charm!

 

Some things, though : 
1. The IP I get for the first connection is always the bottom one of the address anded with the subnet mask+1, meaning with base address I set to 10.0.0.89 subnet  8 bits I get the first one 10.0.0.1 

What will happen to the second & third etc? There is no dhcp and I have tons of smart switches to connect without it.

2. Why is the dhcp causing this mayhem? ( Just for my curiosity)? 

3. The ios application always reports device offline and I can't reach the device from the application on my iphone, never mind from which network. Is there any remedy? I cab only connect via en internet browser.

4 wow!  It works! Again I am grateful!

 

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Re:Archer VR 600 as an AP
2022-03-24 20:09:06

Ebarlev wrote

  @terziyski 

It works ! 
I have connected the vr600 to the fiber-router from LAN1. I previously didn't turn off the dhcp and now I did and the vr600 works like a charm!

 

Some things, though : 
1. The IP I get for the first connection is always the bottom one of the address anded with the subnet mask+1, meaning with base address I set to 10.0.0.89 subnet  8 bits I get the first one 10.0.0.1 

What will happen to the second & third etc? There is no dhcp and I have tons of smart switches to connect without it.

2. Why is the dhcp causing this mayhem? ( Just for my curiosity)? 

3. The ios application always reports device offline and I can't reach the device from the application on my iphone, never mind from which network. Is there any remedy? I cab only connect via en internet browser.

4 wow!  It works! Again I am grateful!

 

  @Ebarlev 

1. That's normal. Your client devices are now served from your fiber router's DHCP pool - 10.0.0.1-10.0.0.100 (stated in your initial post).

2. I woulld suggest to set VR600 LAN IP address outside fiber router DHCP server pool (10.0.0.1-10.0.0.100) i.e. 10.0.0.101.

3. Use an internet browser pointer at the URL http://10.0.0.89 (or the LAN IP address you've set on VR600) to access web management - you're not using its DSL port, hence app reporting it offline.

4. This was the goal of the whole operation.

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Re:Archer VR 600 as an AP
2022-03-25 09:30:59 - last edited 2022-03-25 09:31:34

  @terziyski 

The usage of the fiber-router dhcp  is what I was afraid of.

I mentioned that the fiber router is very difficult to manage. I will also mention that it can handle up to 32 clients. Although the dhcp allows for a range of 100 addresses ( 10.0.0.1 till 100) the router's spec says no more than 32 clients. What will happen when the vr600 consumes all of these addresses? It has a much bigger capacity which I'd like to use... 

 

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Re:Archer VR 600 as an AP
2022-03-25 13:24:38 - last edited 2022-03-26 00:51:28

  @Ebarlev 

 

In this thread you can see an official answer about the VR600 wireless performance.

Since this setup is already proved working, I would test first and then re-configure if there are any performance issues.

If after all you need to re-configure the VR600 in wireless router mode you have two options:

1. If you don't have sufficient configuration rights (options) on your fiber router, you'll have to introduce a double NAT in your network.

2. If your fiber router can be set in bridge (modem only) mode you can use your VR600 as your main router and avoid the double NAT - see this story for details.

 

 

 

 

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