Bridging the wired and wifi networks (xe75)

Bridging the wired and wifi networks (xe75)

Bridging the wired and wifi networks (xe75)
Bridging the wired and wifi networks (xe75)
2024-07-24 22:35:09
Model: Deco XE75  
Hardware Version:
Firmware Version:

Here is the current setup:

[cable modem] --- [Cisco Firewall] --- [XE75] --- [ethernet switch]

 

On the main floor of my house it's all wifi.  Everything connects to the XE75 fine.

In the basement everything is ethernet - Static IPs because I need them to be - and an ethernet line runs up to a switch on the main floor, and that switch connects to an open ethernet port on the XE75.

 

I assume that the XE75 autodetects the ethernet switch, and it can route the wired to ethernet, etc.  But I can't get anything to connect and don't see anywhere to set stuff up.

 

In the past I've just connected the ethernet to a separate port on the firewall, and routed between the ethernet and wifi networks there (they each had their own subnet).  That presents it's own set of complications, and is why I want to connect the ethernet network right to the XE75.  I want to be able to route between my wireless and wired networks with ease.

 

So, I assume that the XE75 puts both the wireless and wired networks on the same subnet?  Is that correct?  In the past I had:

wireless at 192.168.68.x and

wired at 192.168.16.x

 

SO I assume I should take all my ethernet devices (not that many, but critically my NAS) and re-ip it to 192.168.68.x?

 

What about keeping my static IPs?  Will it essentially build a table of discovered MACs and IPs so that when a new wireless device pops up (WiFi is dynamic IPs) it will avoid IP collisions?  Or is it a crapshoot, and I just have to hope that there are no collisions between a DHCP'ed out  wifi IP and an existing static Ethernet IP?

 

Thanks!

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#1
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4 Reply
Re:Bridging the wired and wifi networks (xe75)
2024-07-25 04:22:43

  @Brain21 

 

To partially answer my own question:

Yes, the XE75 acts like a layer 2 bridge between the WiFi and the Ethernet LAN.  All devices - Wifi and wired - are on the same subnet.

 

So I need to change the 3rd octet on all my wired devices from .16 to .68.

 

I verified that this works.  I can ping wired devices from my wireless device and vice-versa.  Infuse on my AppleTV on the wifi netwk can access my NAS on the wired network, connect to shares, etc.

 

I set up my NAS for a static IP, so I guess only time will tell if the XE75 tries to serve out that IP to another device

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#2
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Re:Bridging the wired and wifi networks (xe75)
2024-07-25 11:42:32

  @Brain21 Somewhat recently I learned that in router mode our BE95 has a subnet mask of 255.255.252.0 and a massive DHCP range spanning three third triplets.

 

So for example 192.168.68.1 to 192.168.71.254.

 

I could not get IP Passthrough to work from my AT&T BGW320-500 gateway so I eventually set it back to Access Point Mode.  I would assume all three third triplets could access each other....

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#3
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Re:Bridging the wired and wifi networks (xe75)
2024-07-26 10:02:04

  @Brain21 

There are two ways to avoid conflicts in IP addresses:

  1. modifying the range of IP addresses assigned by the Deco, to exclude the IP addresses manually assigned to your wired devices (more / advanced / DHCP server)
  2. reserving, on the Deco, IP addresses for those wired devices.  (more / advanced / address reservation) By doing that, you may as well, if you wish, change those devices to use DHCP, and obtain info about subnet mask, gateway, and DNS, via DHCP
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#4
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Re:Bridging the wired and wifi networks (xe75)
2024-07-26 10:10:00

  @jzchen 

Given the subnet mask, the four third triplet are, indeed, in the same subnet, so they can access each other.

 

This subnet mask specifies that only the first 22 bits of the local IP address are used to determine if two IP addresses are in the same local subnet, the last 10 bits are not taken into consideration.

 

If you want, to can change the subnet mask, as well as the DHCP range.

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