Network routing issues

leaskovski · 15 May 2018 at 10:36

Hi people,

So this is my topology of my home network:

I have this weird issue, which i think is down to the Ethernet over Powerline converters, where if I am connected to the WiFi of the Sky router, for some reason I cannot access the HTTP management page for the AV500 WiFi extender, nor can I connect to the Raspberry Pi. If I am connected to the WiFi of the extender, then I am usually able to connect to the Pi.

I know the EoP devices tend to have annoying power saving modes that can cause drop outs, so I have got the Raspberry Pi pinging the Sky Router and the AV500 WiFi device ever minute to try and stop that power saving from kicking in.

The Sky Router acts as a DHCP for the network, and when I am connected to it, it spits the following config out for IP:
Wireless LAN adapter WiFi:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Home
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

The Sky router is on 192.168.0.1 and the Wifi Extender is on 192.168.0.2.

I think it is down to the Sky router just not knowing where things are on the network, so it doesn't know where to route packets.

Should I just use a DHCP server running on my Pi to be able to get more control over the IP config that devices get?

ChrisD. · 15 May 2018 at 11:14

Is everything on the same subnet, eg 192.168.0.0/24? If so, there's no routing, it's switching only.

What default gateway are the devices on the TP link getting?

BigT · 15 May 2018 at 12:50

My guess would be something else acting as a DHCP server or hard coded IP on a device incompatible with your subnet range.

I would get a really long ethernet cable and temporarily use it to take out of the equation each of the powerline adapters in turn to see if it works. You can remove the wifi homeplug without effect and test I think the way you've drawn it. Then run the long cable from Sky to your switch to try and isolate the problem to the powerline adapters or not.

What default gateway doe the Pi report currently?

leaskovski · 15 May 2018 at 13:48

So I ahve just moved into the lounge where my laptop has now started using the WiFi extender (has better coverage than the sky router!), and the gateway that my laptop has got is 192.168.0.1. The WiFi extender isnt doing anything special, just acts as a WAP to the network... it doesn't do any DHCP, just takes WiFi and pumps it on to the LAN which is extended by the Ethernet over Power component of the device. Subnet of everything is 255.255.255.0.

What I don't understand is if I am connected to the Sky Router, why it cannot route to 192.168.0.2 which is the IP of the Extender, also cannot route to the PI which is at the end of another EoP extender into the lounge on the end of a cable.

The TV in the kitchen, which is directly connected by cable to the Sky Router, can see the Raspberry Pi though, so it looks as though it is all related to the WiFi of the sky box, and the fact that if you are connected to that, it won't route to other devices not directly connected to it.

Edit: Routing table of the sky router:
Destination Mask Gateway Metric Active
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 176.27.108.1 0 Yes
176.27.108.0 255.255.252.0 0.0.0.0 0 Yes
192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0 0.0.0.0 0 Yes

BigT · 15 May 2018 at 15:32

Can you route to the Pi when connected via wifi to the extender?

You really need to try and take each powerline out of the equation with a cable to isolate the problem. Powerline has been known to hop across power circuits to neighbours. Could be something on their network confusing things when you're on Sky. Have you got encryption enabled between your powerline adapters to create a secure circuit?

ChrisD. · 15 May 2018 at 15:36

ChrisD. said:
Is everything on the same subnet, eg 192.168.0.0/24? If so, there's no routing, it's switching only.

leaskovski said:
Edit: Routing table of the sky router:

Can you post the IP config of all devices including their default gateways and subnet masks? Also try and do a trace route between problematic devices and post results.

Caged · 16 May 2018 at 00:34

Follow the instructions in your powerline kits to reset them, generate new keys and then re-pair the devices.

bledd · 16 May 2018 at 07:33

Show the network pages for router and av500.

leaskovski · 16 May 2018 at 22:08

BigT said:
Can you route to the Pi when connected via wifi to the extender?

You really need to try and take each powerline out of the equation with a cable to isolate the problem. Powerline has been known to hop across power circuits to neighbours. Could be something on their network confusing things when you're on Sky. Have you got encryption enabled between your powerline adapters to create a secure circuit?

Yes, if I am connected to the Extender, I can connect to the Pi fine, hence why I think it is down to the Sky Router.

ChrisD. said:
Can you post the IP config of all devices including their default gateways and subnet masks? Also try and do a trace route between problematic devices and post results.

All devices that I have checked, have an IP of 192.168.0.x, have a DNS server of 192.168.0.1 and a gateway of 192.168.0.1. IIRC the tracert basically fails and doesnt show the hopes it goes through. Pings fail as well.

bledd said:
Show the network pages for router and av500.

I can try and grab a screen shot. One noticeable thing is that the connected devices on the sky router does show the Wifi Extender device on the network, i.e. 192.168.0.2. Any specific page to grab from these? The Wifi extender network page doesn't give much detail.