Looking for a solution on my home network

Megamoz

Hello,

I'm looking for a solution regarding an issue on my small home network. Let me try to explain:

My home network is composed of  one modem/wireless (fiber optic 1 Gigabit connection) router provided by the ISP, one additional wireless router (ASUS RT AC-3200), and TP Link Powerline Adapters with wireless and Ethernet connections.

TV, network streamer, console, PC, laptop, wireless devices are the clients. TV, network streamer, laptop are on different floor and use TP Link powerline adapters through Ethernet and wireless connections.

In the current setup, ISP router is acting as bridge (actually there's no such mode, through WAN out port, it's connected to ASUS through WAN in port; UPnP and DHCP are turned on, Port Mapping, DMZ, DLNA and wireless are turned off).

On ASUS DHCP, NAT, UPnP, Network Sharing (Samba) and wireless turned on, DMZ is turned off.

Powerline is connected to ASUS. Also there are two usb drives with media content attached to ASUS.

ISP router's IP address address ranges from [192.168.1.50](https://192.168.1.50) to 192.168.1.250, while ASUS' IP addresses range from [192.168.2.1](https://192.168.2.1) to [192.168.2.254](https://192.168.2.254)

Since ASUS needs to handle everything under this setup, it causes overall  low connection speeds.

What I want to do is to let the ISP router handle Powerline connection and ASUS to carry out wireless and DLNA tasks.

However, when I  connect powerline adapter into the ISP router, TV, for example will not access ASUS router USB drives as they are on different subnet (sorry if I use wrong terminology).

So, is it possible to create one network/subnet/IP address set, using both routers so that any device access anywhere (USB drives etc) on the network, if yes,  how would be the configuration of the routers?

Thank you in advance for your suggestions and help.

mickevh

You cannot turn as SOHO router into a "bridge" or "modem mode" just by "saying so" - it must offer such functionality in it's settings to achieve such and not all SOHO routers do so.

As described, you have partitioned your network into two separate subnets (this is what routers do - they are the boundary between subnets) and as you have observed, devices connected upstream of your ASUS router's WAN port cannot access devices connected to or downstream of the ASUS as the ASUS firewall will prevent them doing so (that's the firewall's job.)

To achieve what you desire, you need to reconfigure the ASUS and modify how it is physically connected. How to achieve this is described in detail in the "Using Two Routers Together" FAQ pinned in this forum, but in brief, you need to reconfigure the ASUS to use a (LAN) IP address in the same subnet as your ISP router, disable the ASUS DHCP Server (note "Server" not "Client" - it will have both) and connect the ASUS to the rest of the network using a LAN not a WAN/Internet port.

This essentially turns the ASUS into a combination Wi-Fi Access Point and ethernet switch and leaves the ISP router handling all the routing, firewall and IP address management and gives you a single IP Subnet. After you make the changes, you may notice all the devices (currently) downstream of the ASUS loosing their current 192.168.2.X IP addresses and gaining new ones in the 192.168.1.X range (if they don't either wait 24 hours and they will sort themselves out automatically, or give them a restart which might cause them to refresh sooner.)

ChuckMountain

Step back a second.

What is your actual Internet speed?  Is it a 1Gbps connection or something slower?

Powerlines are going to be severely limiting any throughput fast Internet or otherwise.

Their advertised speed is duplex so even a theoretical one at 2000Mbps should be compared to a 1000Mbps network switch.  A 1200 one 600 and so forth.

Even then unless you have some magic wiring mosts real world tests you are lucky to hit 200Mbps on a lot of the 1200 ones which sometimes outperform the supposedly faster ones.

Draw a simple network diagram and indicate where it is slow and how you have tested it.

maf1970

What is the make and model of router supplied by the isp ?

Megamoz

Huge thanks, finally I managed to do it , and the solution was so easy to implement. Now everything works flawlessly. Thanks again.

Well, the problem was, when ASUS was busy with DLNA, etc, I noticed that overall internet speed was getting slow. At least this was what Speedtest results said when I checked it on my PC which was connected through Ethernet to the ASUS.

According to the test results, Fiber optic connection speed (downstream) is around 700-800 Mbps ad powerline speed is around 600-800 Mbps.

The ISP modem is MediaAccess DGA4131FWB by Technicolor.

ChuckMountain

Reported speed in their management software or actual speedtest?  If the latter then you may well have the worlds fastest powerlines.

Whilst I wouldn't normally recommend running DNLA on a router and quick connection powerlines won't help either.  They can cause various contention issues.

Megamoz

Its management software and app.

Greg Hook

There’s no way you are getting that speed in actual use.

From the ones I used to test, rule of thumb was that 500Mbps powerline adaptors would get around 100Mbps, 600Mbps around 150 and the 1200 ones 250-300Mbps.

As Chuck said, the speed is duplex, so halve it would be the theoretical max anyway.

ChuckMountain

So as @Greg Hook said you won't get those speeds indicated by the management software and this will be the bottleneck for anything routing through those powerline adaptors.  A big like WiFi only one thing can talk at once so it can cause congestion (or rather lower the overall speed)

Whilst you may well have solved the problem I would certainly look at your network further to see if you can make any improvements.

mickevh

"Full-Duplex" == transmit from A-to-B AND B-to-A at the same time. A road with a lane of traffic flowing in each direction. Modern Ethernet over UTP - in olden day ethernet also used to be "Half-Duplex..."

"Half-Duplex" == transmit from A-to-B OR B-to-A but not at the same time. A single track road with traffic lights controlling which way traffic flows at any given time. Wi-Fi, Powerline, "olden days ethernet."

Don't let the "Half" in the term "Half-Duplex" fool you into thinking it means "divided by two," - it doesn't. If there is more demand to transmit B-to-A than A-to-B then that's just fine: Over your 500 fiddly-de-diddle link, if there's demand for 400 one way and 10 the other, then there's no requirement that B-to-A is curtailed to 250 because its "half" duplex.

Incidentally, it's also not a requirement that speeds have to be symmetrical (same speed both directions.) Ethernet is, but Wi-Fi, HomePlugs and DSL for example often have different speeds B-to-A and A-to-B.


Data networking technologies usually cite something called "Link Rate" which data networking professionals often call "speed" out of laziness. "Link Rate" is a measure of periodicity not quantity: Link Rate tells you how long (the duration) it takes to transmit one bit, not how many bits can be transmitted in some arbitrarily choosen time period and/or time frame.

It is somewhat similar to the difference between the speedometer and odometer (or "trip computer") in a motor vehicle. Both may express values using the metric of "miles per hour" but the instantaneous "speed" reading on the speedometer and the "average speed" computed (over time) by the trip computer are not at all the same "thing." Context is everything.

Similar in data networking; many confund "Link Rate" and "Throughput" and expect both to be the same, but they very rarely are. When (lay) people "talk" about "speed" they mean "Throughput" (trip computer reading) but the kit and management platforms cites "Link Rate" (speedometer reading.)

"Speed test" sites and tools measure "Throughput" - they transmit a measured amount of data over some arbitrarily selected time period an compute and average (trip computer reading.) Such tools cannot measure the actual "speed" (Link Rate) of anything as it is technically impossible for them to do so. As I am fond of saying "speed test site don't actually test the speed of anything."

Rest assured, if your HomePlug cockpit tools is saying plug X is working at speed (as in "Link Rate") Y, then it is. But don't expect a "speed test" site to come up with the same number, the "speed test" is measuring something completely different.