I’ve been too consumed on other issues to work on this for a while and meantime PN are still making an utter mess of my ADSL migration and so I am still not migrated (hey, I only ordered the connection on 1-Oct!), but migration is threatened for this coming Fri, meaning I need to get the … router working, so starting from a complete fresh slate and hard resetting the router I…
1. Connected the router to my laptop and was assigned 192.168.1.64
2. Could see the laptop WiFi also on the connected devices
3. Could connect my Android phone to the WiFi
Then via the router GUI I:
1. Added an internal interface 10.10.10.1 okay
2. Added a dhcp_pool_1 using the pool I wanted (10.10.10.100 --> .254).
In this configuration I could ping 10.10.10.1, so the new interface was there and responding. An attempt to refresh my DHCP settings left everything unchanged on 192.168.1.64 and a restart of the router had no impact either, and so I downloaded the router and config and compared what had been created from my GUI ‘fiddling’ with the information very kindly provided by @machare (so many thanks by the way
🙂 ). What I then found was:
[ ip.ini ] identical except:
ipadd intf=LocalNetwork addr=10.10.10.1/24 addroute=enabled
The only difference is the address as @machare was working from 10.0.0.139.
My ip.ini has two additional lines missing from @machare’s config:
ipadd intf=LocalNetwork addr=192.168.1.254/24 addroute=enabled
ipconfig addr=192.168.1.254 preferred=enabled primary=enabled
So these are also adding the default 192.168.1.254 interface and also (in the second line) marking it as preferred. This therefore explains why I continue to get 192.168 addresses via DHCP. So my options were:
1. Delete both of these two additional lines
2. Keep the lines, but change the ‘preferred=enabled’ line to quote my desired and new 10.10.10.1 interface
3. Delete just the first line adding the default 192.168 interface and change the second line to mark my preferred range as being preferred
Given I’d killed the router on previous ‘hacks’ of the config file, I opted for option 2 and so ended up with:
ipadd intf=LocalNetwork addr=10.10.10.1/24 addroute=enabled
ipadd intf=LocalNetwork addr=192.168.1.254/24 addroute=enabled
ipconfig addr=10.10.10.1 preferred=enabled primary=enabled
Obviously the adding of the default 192.168 should be redundant and not used, but is left in to keep the router ‘happy’.
Now, going on and comparing the [ dhcs.ini ] sections I have three differences (plus the actual device leases). So I have:
pool config name=LAN_private state=enabled allocation=dynamic intf=LocalNetwork poolstart=192.168.1.64 poolend=192.168.1.252 netmask=24 gateway=192.168.1.254 server=192.168.1.254 leasetime=86400 lockouttime=180
pool config name=LAN_VIRT state=enabled allocation=dynamic intf=LocalNetwork poolstart=192.168.1.253 poolend=192.168.1.253 netmask=24 gateway=192.168.1.254 server=192.168.1.254 leasetime=86400 lockouttime=180
pool config name=dhcp_pool_1 state=enabled allocation=automatic intf=LocalNetwork poolstart=10.10.10.100 poolend=10.10.10.254 netmask=24 gateway=10.10.10.1 primdns=212.159.13.49 secdns=212.159.13.50 lockouttime=180
Picking these apart;
First line:
I show: allocation=dynamic
@machare shows: allocation=automatic
- maybe a difference in the .i to .j firmware levels? Probably not worth changing and dynamic/automatic might be synonymous, but there’s no documentation to this level and seems to be no expertise within PN
Second line:
Identical excepting ‘my line’ includes: server=192.168.1.254 which is probably insignificant
Third line:
This is my new pool which I added and so obviously doesn’t match an equivalent line, but comparing this with @machare’s equivalent line configuring the default LAN_private pool the two lines are identical (other than quoting different poolstart/end and gateway addresses) excepting ‘my line’ also includes:
primdns=212.159.13.49
secdns=212.159.13.50
So I see no real issue/conflict here
So my thinking is:
1. Simply alter the ip.ini to quote my desired internal interface as preferred=enabled
2. Leave the dhcs.ini section in the hope that the router will be bright enough to use the new dhcp_pool_1 pool to match the preferred internal interface rather than use the LAN_private pool
So here goes with ‘Change set 1’…
Well, the router restarts (which is good), but:
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.64(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Which is bad.
So the differences now between my config and @machare’s are:
1. I have added a second DHCP pool via the GUI and tried to point the router to use that
2. @machare’s config changes the start and endpool addresses on the default LAN_private pool
So the obvious thing is to match more closely @machare’s config and so change:
pool config name=LAN_private state=enabled allocation=dynamic intf=LocalNetwork poolstart=192.168.1.64 poolend=192.168.1.252 netmask=24 gateway=192.168.1.254 server=192.168.1.254 leasetime=86400 lockouttime=180
pool config name=LAN_VIRT state=enabled allocation=dynamic intf=LocalNetwork poolstart=192.168.1.253 poolend=192.168.1.253 netmask=24 gateway=192.168.1.254 server=192.168.1.254 leasetime=86400 lockouttime=180
pool config name=dhcp_pool_1 state=enabled allocation=automatic intf=LocalNetwork poolstart=10.10.10.100 poolend=10.10.10.254 netmask=24 gateway=10.10.10.1 primdns=212.159.13.49 secdns=212.159.13.50 lockouttime=180
to read:
pool config name=LAN_VIRT state=enabled allocation=dynamic intf=LocalNetwork poolstart=192.168.1.253 poolend=192.168.1.253 netmask=24 gateway=192.168.1.254 server=192.168.1.254 leasetime=86400 lockouttime=180
pool config name=LAN_private state=enabled allocation=automatic intf=LocalNetwork poolstart=10.10.10.100 poolend=10.10.10.254 netmask=24 gateway=10.10.10.1 primdns=212.159.13.49 secdns=212.159.13.50 lockouttime=180
So loading ‘Change set 2’, soft restarting the box and doing an ipconfig /renew I still get…
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.64(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
So my ip.ini shows:
ipadd intf=LocalNetwork addr=10.10.10.1/24 addroute=enabled
ipadd intf=LocalNetwork addr=192.168.1.254/24 addroute=enabled
ipconfig addr=10.10.10.1 preferred=enabled primary=enabled
Lines 2 and 3 are extra to @machare’s, so let’s first remove the line adding the 192.168 interface and leave the last line marking 10.10.10.1 as preferred to give myself:
ipadd intf=LocalNetwork addr=10.10.10.1/24 addroute=enabled
ipconfig addr=10.10.10.1 preferred=enabled primary=enabled
This therefore makes ‘Change set 3’. Load, soft restart and no change. What’s more looking at the LocalNetwork interface in the UI Is see:
IP Address/Mask Type
10.10.10.1/24 Static
192.168.1.254/24 Static
DHCP Pools
DHCP Pool Name Address Range Gateway
LAN_private 192.168.1.64 - 192.168.1.252 192.168.1.254
LAN_VIRT 192.168.1.253 - 192.168.1.253 192.168.1.254
dhcp_pool_1 10.10.10.100 - 10.10.10.254 10.10.10.1
Which is remarkable given the default LAN_private was overwritten with the dhcp_pool_1 settings. There is another reference the added pool in the config:
[ dhcspool.ini ]
pool add name=LAN_private
pool add name=LAN_VIRT
pool add name=dhcp_pool_1
But the actual definition of the pool has now been renamed in ‘Change set 2’ to LAN_private and the original LAN_private removed, so the updated config doesn’t seem to be in place. Maybe hard restart is required, but before that, let’s redownload the running config to see what’s in there…
Well, the running config still includes in ip.ini:
ipadd intf=LocalNetwork addr=192.168.1.254/24 addroute=enabled
ipconfig addr=192.168.1.254 preferred=enabled primary=enabled
These are the lines removed in ‘Change set 3’ and so it seems ‘Change set 2’ is in place, but not ‘Change set 3’, so let’s reapply ‘Change set 3’, soft restart, check the running config and then hard restart and check the running config.
So after a soft restart the running config says:
ipadd intf=LocalNetwork addr=10.10.10.1/24 addroute=enabled
ipadd intf=LocalNetwork addr=192.168.1.254/24 addroute=enabled
ipconfig addr=192.168.1.254 preferred=enabled primary=enabled
while the config uploaded twice now reads:
ipadd intf=LocalNetwork addr=10.10.10.1/24 addroute=enabled
ipconfig addr=10.10.10.1 preferred=enabled primary=enabled
So a power off, wait and restart of the router, then check of the running config shows me back on:
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.64(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
And downloading the running config and comparing to the config uploaded it shows the same additional lines, e.g.
ipadd intf=LocalNetwork addr=192.168.1.254/24 addroute=enabled
ipconfig addr=192.168.1.254 preferred=enabled primary=enabled
So it’s as if the router is simply ignoring the uploaded ‘Change set 3’ change.
So the next test was to add an extra line to the config:
[ extra ]
This creates ‘Change set 4’ which was uploaded. The intent was to see whether this section header that did nothing would come back in the running config to show whether ther config was being loaded, e.g. was the router actively altering the sections of ip.ini included in Change set 3, or was the config somehow not being loaded and saved?
This tests indeed shows that ‘Change set 4’ was NOT applied to the machine. A second upload (restore) of the config with hard restart yielded the same result, and so for some reason the config is being ignored and not applied to the router.
So I then went back to ‘Change set 3’ as the router seemed to accept that and made the sole change of adding after the [ip.ini] section:
[ change set 5 - 201311171430 ]
I then restored this config to the router, hard restarted and downloaded the running config. No-go…the added comment does not show up and so the revised config is being ignored, so try instead by altering the mock section head with a comment line:
; change set 5 – 201311171444
(making a guess here as semicolon being for a comment. Hash might be another option to try). Results: The ; comment config was not loaded and the same with # comments, so an alternative means of tracing uploaded configs was tried…altering the endpool parameter in the dhcs.ini section. So this created another change set (timed at 1500) with an endpool value of .253. Loading this and hard restarting the change file *still* was not coming back as the running config!
So I therefore took the config that had come back from the router, and so which the router presumably ‘liked’, and so made just one change…to alter the endpool address on the 10.10 pool to .253, e.g.
pool config name=dhcp_pool_1 state=enabled allocation=automatic intf=LocalNetwork poolstart=10.10.10.100 poolend=10.10.10.253 netmask=24 gateway=10.10.10.1 primdns=212.159.13.49 secdns=212.159.13.50 lockouttime=180
So loading this (1510) config, hard restarting and the downloading the running config showed that again, the config was not being applied. The config that came back still had .254 in place, meaning I have a bit of a problem in that the router isn’t accepting changed configs I am loading to it. What has also now occurred is the following:
Request:
http://192.168.1.254/
Response:
HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
Location: http://192.168.1.254/login.lp
Request:
http://192.168.1.254/login.lp
Response:
HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
Location: http://192.168.1.254/login.lp
Note that’s an endless loop, although I can communicate with the box on 10.10.10.1 without this ‘feature’ of the firmware!
I then experimented with the ‘Setup your router’ option under the GUI and ‘Configuration’. This took me to an ‘Easy wizard’, but that failed with a timeout to the router! This was because it attempts to connect to a host named <dsldevice.lan> which seems to be name created by the router for itself and which resolves to 192.168.1.254. However, attempts to login to the router via the URL
http://dsldevice.lan/login.lp using the router’s admin credentials fails and attempts to connect to 10.10.10.1 redirect to <dsldevice.lan> where the login fails. Connecting instead via the 192.168.1.254 IP address does though work. WTF! The ‘Easy wizard’ has obviously done something though as the 10.10 interface and DHCP pool are both gone. In effect it’s done a reset.
Now attempting to restore *any* config to the router is rejected – or rather it appears to work, gives no error, but when checked hasn’t been applied. So if I go back to the config I first uploaded right at the beginning of this long ‘experiment’ and upload/restore the config that was accepted and worked earlier today, even though the restore apparently completes, on restarting and then downloading the config, it’s back to the wizard-created config. It would seem I’m going to need to go for a hard reset and go right back to the beginning… I am starting to think that if I’m going to keep this … router, it would actually be easier to reconfigure every device on the network – printers, NAS, network printing ports etc. – because it seems impossible to configure this router!
So having done a hard reset of the machine and confirmed it as being reset by downloading and checking the config, I went back to Change set 3 (1418) are loaded that. This set only included the following pieces in the respective section (other settings omitted for clarity):
[ ip.ini ]
ipadd intf=LocalNetwork addr=10.10.10.1/24 addroute=enabled
ipconfig addr=10.10.10.1 preferred=enabled primary=enabled
[ dhcs.ini ]
pool config name=LAN_private state=enabled allocation=automatic intf=LocalNetwork poolstart=10.10.10.100 poolend=10.10.10.254 netmask=24 gateway=10.10.10.1 primdns=212.159.13.49 secdns=212.159.13.50 lockouttime=180
e.g. ip.ini has no reference to 192.168.1.254 and dhcs.ini redefines LAN_private with my desired range in the same was @machare’s config does.
After reloading and restarting; no change. Looking at the LocalNetwork interface in the UI Is see:
IP Address/Mask Type
10.0.0.138/24 Static
192.168.1.254/24 Static
DHCP Pools
DHCP Pool Name Address Range Gateway
LAN_private 192.168.1.64 - 192.168.1.252 192.168.1.254
LAN_VIRT 192.168.1.253 - 192.168.1.253 192.168.1.254
In others word; the default setup. The loaded/restored configuration is simply being ignored.
So as another test, I simply replaced by ip.ini and dhcs.ini with the exact-same details as @machare’s (only omitting the DHCP leases). This might not be the ranges I want, but it a known working config from @machare’s machine. So this became the 1736 config image. The result? Absolutely nothing. The LocalNetwork interfaces look the same, the box is simply refusing any uploaded config. It doesn’t report a failure, just doesn’t alter the config.
So at this point I tried one last test. I downloaded the working config and altered:
pool config name=LAN_private state=enabled allocation=dynamic intf=LocalNetwork poolstart=192.168.1.64 poolend=192.168.1.252 netmask=24 gateway=192.168.1.254 server=192.168.1.254 leasetime=86400 lockouttime=180
To read:
pool config name=LAN_private state=enabled allocation=dynamic intf=LocalNetwork poolstart=192.168.1.64 poolend=192.168.1.250 netmask=24 gateway=192.168.1.254 server=192.168.1.254 leasetime=86400 lockouttime=180
e.g. the poolend address was altered from .252 to .250. This must *surely* be a config acceptable to the router and which it should load? The change is just to see; Can I get this router to load *any* config? So reload, hard restart and … The LAN_private range ends on .252, or in other words, the router simply does not accept a updated config.
I then went back to the GUI and by disabling DHCP managed to get myself to this happy place:
IP Addresses
IP Address/Mask Type
10.10.10.1/24 Static
192.168.1.254/24 Static
DHCP Pools
DHCP Pool Name Address Range Gateway
LAN_private 10.10.10.100 - 10.10.10.254 10.10.10.1
LAN_VIRT 192.168.1.253 - 192.168.1.253 192.168.1.254
So a soft restart and my laptop reports…
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.10.10.100(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 17 November 2013 17:57:05
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 01 December 2013 17:58:28
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.10.10.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 234890937
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-15-14-DE-45-00-26-B9-EB-BD-DF
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
212.159.13.49
212.159.13.50
Halleluiah! Somehow this seems to have worked, despite GUI configuration not working before. So I have a DHCP address starting at the beginning of the pool, the gateway is set correctly and I have DNS servers. It’s rather odd to see the DHCP and primary DNS as the default 192.168.1.254 address and not the 10.10.10.1 gateway address, but the client forwards that to the router which responds…I can ping 192.168.1.254 okay and so there’s an outside chance this might all work!
So my ip.ini and dhcs.ini sections now read:
[ ip.ini ]
ifadd intf=LocalNetwork dest=bridge
ifconfig intf=loop mtu=65535 group=local symmetric=enabled
ifconfig intf=LocalNetwork mtu=1500 group=lan linksensing=disabled primary=enabled
ifattach intf=LocalNetwork
config forwarding=enabled redirects=enabled netbroadcasts=disabled randomdatagramids=disabled ttl=64 fraglimit=64 defragmode=enabled addrcheck=dynamic mssclamping=enabled acceleration=enabled
config checkoptions=enabled
config natloopback=enabled
config arpclass=12
config arpcachetimeout=900
ipadd intf=LocalNetwork addr=10.10.10.1/24 addroute=enabled
ipadd intf=LocalNetwork addr=192.168.1.254/24 addroute=enabled
ipconfig addr=192.168.1.254 preferred=enabled primary=enabled
rtadd dst=255.255.255.255/32 gateway=127.0.0.1
[ dhcs.ini ]
debug traceconfig state=disabled
policy verifyfirst=enabled trustclient=disabled rtbehaviour=traditional ackinform=disabled
pool config name=LAN_private state=enabled allocation=dynamic intf=LocalNetwork poolstart=10.10.10.100 poolend=10.10.10.254 netmask=24 gateway=10.10.10.1 server=192.168.1.254 primdns=212.159.13.49 secdns=212.159.13.50 leasetime=1209600 lockouttime=180
pool config name=LAN_VIRT state=enabled allocation=dynamic intf=LocalNetwork poolstart=192.168.1.253 poolend=192.168.1.253 netmask=24 gateway=192.168.1.254 server=192.168.1.254 leasetime=86400 lockouttime=180
lease add clientid=01:9e:97:26:0f:b0:91 pool=LAN_VIRT addr=192.168.1.253 lifetime=0 macaddr=9e:97:26:0f:b0:91 allocation=manual
Anyway, I post all this information in the hope it might help some other poor unfortunate, looking to configure their router and similarly getting zero assistance from PN. Happy configuring!
Maybe I'll have some success to report once the ADSL line gets migrated. Here’s hoping!
