Archer C3150 does not list wireless clients connected through RE450 extender

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Archer C3150 does not list wireless clients connected through RE450 extender

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Archer C3150 does not list wireless clients connected through RE450 extender
Archer C3150 does not list wireless clients connected through RE450 extender
2020-01-30 12:39:41
Model: Archer C3150  
Hardware Version: V2
Firmware Version: 2.1.0 0.9.1 v005f.0 Build 170927 Rel.57074n

Hello.

 

Has anyone else come across this? Have you found a solution?

 

I have a number of clients (a couple of NAS boxes and a printer) connected to the Ethernet port of a Tp-link RE450 Extender. The main router is an Archer C3150.

(Please don't try to explain to me why this is not the best way to access a NAS. For various reasons due to the layout of the house and poor electricity mains wiring, I am stuck with this configuration. It works well enough for my purposes. This is not the subject of my question.)

 

For some reason, these clients do not show up in the list of wireless clients on the Basic management page of the router.

Even more curiously, they connect to the network successfully. The router clearly knows about them: It has managed to detect them, and allocated them the IP addresses reserved for them in the DHCP settings. They are also correctly listed under Advanced->Network->DHCP Server->Client List.

 

So, why is there a discrepancy between the basic client list and the DHCP client list?

 

I would let it go as a quirk of the router, but the HP drivers on my PC also have trouble with the printer connected through the extender. It works only when it is directly connected to the router itself, either wirelessly or via ethernet. I suspect the two issues are related.

 

Any help or hint would be much appreciated.

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Re:Archer C3150 does not list wireless clients connected through RE450 extender
2020-01-30 17:53:13

@Karabash 

 

The Clients MAC IDs change as they are transmitted by the RE450.  The Last 3 octets remain that of the device, but the 1st 3 are changed to the Header from the Range Extender. This due to the type of communication our range extenders use.  This allows for better compatiblity with Range Extenders and routers.  Look to see if the devices are there but the 1st 3 octets are different. 

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Re:Archer C3150 does not list wireless clients connected through RE450 extender
2020-01-31 09:52:02

@Carl 

 

Thanks, Carl.

 

Unfortunately, something deeper must be going on:

The clients do not appear at all in the client list on the basic management page, not even with the altered MAC addresses. The only ones I can see are the extender itself and the devices directly connected the router. Yet, the DHCP page lists all the clients with the correct MAC addresses, rather than the ones substituted by the extender.

 

All I can tell from that is that the part of the router that deals with DHCP can actually query the MAC address directly from the client and make use of it, whereas the part that deals with listing the clients doesn't even know that the device is there. It's almost as if the router is treating those clients the same way as it treats the network devices that set their own IP addresses: it passes the packets through but otherwise ignores them.

 

Before you ask:

All addresses are allocated by the router via DHCP;

All the devices are set to obtain their IP address from the gateway;

and the extender has DHCP turned off.

 

And here is a curious thing: my previous Netgear R7000 router was doing the same thing. That was one of the reasons I decided that it was time to replace it after four years of mostly trouble free use.

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Re:Archer C3150 does not list wireless clients connected through RE450 extender
2020-01-31 15:39:12

@Karabash 

 

Because the same issue happened on two different routers it is likely going to be something to do with how the range extender communicates with the router, as that is the only constant we have.  Two things left to try.  

 

1.  Check the DHCP server on the RE450.  If it is set to auto, try to disable it and let us know the results. 

2.  Just to see if its a simple naming issue, ping the gateway address of the router from one of the clients on the range extender.  Let us know if that shows up.  

 

 

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Re:Archer C3150 does not list wireless clients connected through RE450 extender
2020-01-31 16:42:20

@Carl 

 

I suspected that the range extender might have a hand in it, but I'm not sure what that would be, since the router seems to be allocating the IP addresses correctly.

 

I have double-checked the RE450's management interface. DHCP is definitely set to Off.

 

I have also pinged the router's address from one of the NASes, and it's all fine; the router replies within a few milliseconds.

 

 

As to why the same thing should happen with both routers, I would not be surprised if both Netgear and Tp-link use the same underlying libraries, which probably has the flaw.

 

 

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Re:Archer C3150 does not list wireless clients connected through RE450 extender
2020-01-31 19:36:47

@Karabash 

 

So after you pinged the router gateway from the NAS did the NAS show up in the client list.  Sorry if i wasn't clear on that part of the test.

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Re:Archer C3150 does not list wireless clients connected through RE450 extender
2020-02-01 10:44:02

@Carl 

 

No, still doesn't show up, I'm afraid.

 

I wonder if being connected via the extender's ethernet port has something to do with this. I can't connect the NAS via wireless, but I will try with a wireless device connected via the extender. Let's see how that behaves.

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Re:Archer C3150 does not list wireless clients connected through RE450 extender
2020-02-03 18:02:03

@Karabash 

 

It shouldn't be please let me know if you have a similar issue with a wireless device.  I can take this back to our testing team and see if they have any thoughts too.

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Re:Archer C3150 does not list wireless clients connected through RE450 extender
2020-02-04 11:51:08

@Carl 

 

Thanks, Carl.

 

I have tested it. Just as you had expected, the behaviour is the same with the wired and wireless connections to the RE450 extender:

The device gets on the network, and the router allocates an IP address using the correct MAC address of the device, but the device doesn't appear in the clients lists on the front page of the management interface. Same with the Tether app. But the device is listed with the correct MAC address in the DHCP clients list in the Advanced tab.

 

Ironically, I bought the RE450 when a Netgear extender failed to work with my Netgear R7000 router. The RE450 worked more or less straightaway, but the same quirk happened with that router. So, I thought, "If the Tp-link extender works better with another brand router than their own extenders, using a Tp-link router should make everything work perfectly." I clearly thought wrong. On the plus side, C3150 is faster than the R7000.

 

 

If it is any help, here is my setup:

 

* Archer C3150 router with wired and wireless clients;

* RE450 extender. Connects to the router with the 2.4 GHz link and serves clients on the 5 GHz link;

* Two Synology NAS boxes connect to the wired port of the RE450 through a Tp-link TL-SG108S switch;

* The router allocates all IP addresses. Most clients get fixed addresses through DHCP address reservation; guests get allocated addresses from a small pool.

 

The quirky behaviour is the same whether a NAS uses the RE450's ethernet port directly, the Tp-link switch or a Netgear GS108 switch.

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Re:Archer C3150 does not list wireless clients connected through RE450 extender
2020-02-04 17:46:56

@Karabash 

 

I'll see if my local test team can provide any light, but there is another possible, unlikely, but posisble factor.  That being a regional firmware bug.  I notice you are in the UK and the firmware can sometime be a bit different based on the local region and how wireless is regulated.  In the US for instance the maximum channel for 2.4GHz is channel 11.  I will have him review and if we can't provide an answer i may need to transfer this thread to our global community that actually supports the UK region, so your region's experts and take a crack at this, but I'll let you know before that happens. 

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Re:Archer C3150 does not list wireless clients connected through RE450 extender
2020-02-04 18:46:38

@Carl 

 

Thank you very much for chasing this, Carl. Very kind of you.

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