MAC Address of all devices connected to range extender showing as range extender MAC on modem
I have a Netgear cable modem/router. I have the TPLINK RE550 setup in "Range Extender Mode" When I connect my laptop to the range extender and then access the admin pages for the Netgear cable modem, I see that both the IP address assigned to the RE550 AND the IP address assigned to my laptop both have the same MAC Address (that of the RE550). When I connect my laptop directly to the cable modem (router), I see my laptop's MAC addr. correctly.
It seems that the RE550 is not correctly passing the MAC address of connected devices. This is causing IP conflicts and disconnects on more sensitive SSH connections. Any idea on how to fix this?
Thank you.
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I believe that this is an indicator that the RE was not setup correctly and that the connected devices are still using the DHCP server provided by the Range Extender, rather than the router. I would recommend resetting the Range Extender and retrying the setup, if it still fails, try using another method such as WPS and checking that you have not set static IP addresses for the RE or clients.
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I think its some sort of negotiation during the setup that may cause this, not necessarily something you configured.
Also, as it technically is the same network to the PC, make sure you forget the network for the RE and maybe even the router, so that your network adapter has a chance to receive a different IP address.
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Is it the full MAC address that is listed for each IP? The Virtualized IP addresses assigned by the RE should only change the first half of the MAC address, the second half of the MAC address should be the same as the second half of your devices MAC address. This is how IP reservations can be configured for devices connected to the RE, as the MAC address' should still be different from each other and can be used in your router's settings.
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Unfortunately, it is the full mac, which is the problem. An example:
9a:a2:f4:2b:b4:5b -> 192.168.0.3
9a:a2:f4:2b:b4:5b -> 192.168.0.8
9a:a2:f4:2b:b4:5b -> 192.168.0.15
My laptop is assigned to 192.168.0.8 The RE550 is assigned to 192.168.0.3 The MAC address I list is the RE550 MAC. This is what I am seeing when looking at my gateway's connected devices table. I should say, only one of the listings above appears at a time, but if I refresh the table, they all eventually appear. They are conflicting as far as I can tell. When I connect to a sever via SSH, I get booted off quickly when connected through the RE550. I suspect this is happening because of this MAC conflict causing odd DHCP behavior.
I rolled back to the previous firmware on the RE550 and seeing the same issue.
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I got a response back from tech support saying that the RE550 operates in "Universal Mode (3-address mode)" only. In this mode (the only one supported by the RE550 or at least its firmware, according to tech support) - all device MAC addresses are converted to the RE550 MAC before sending to the router.
This has lead to my problem - with IP address conflicts and disconnecting SSH sessions. How is this supposed to possibly be configured to be stable? For example, if you want to assign a static IP on the router, the typical solution is to assign an IP <-> MAC address combination, so that when the router sees that MAC, its server assigns the static IP. But, if multiple devices connect to the router with the same MAC address, which gets the static IP??
Other scenarios exist too where unique MAC addresses are important. Is there a way to configure these two devices to work properly? What am I missing here? Is there any fix someone can recommend?
Thank you.
Adam
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We are still looking into this to find a possible solution; we know about the universal mode, but we do not have too much documentation on how this mode affects the overall network.
Saying that one of our team members has suggested that a workaround may have been provided previously by setting a Static IP address on the device itself, rather than creating an IP reservation on the network. If you can, try to set the static IP to be outside of the DHCP range of your router/RE so that there will be no conflicts in the future.
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@Riley_S Hi.. Thank you very much for the follow-up. I believe I tried the static IP, but I will try again and report back.
It is really too bad the RE550 can't be set to either Universal (3-Address) mode or Proxy mode. To be clear, I can connect to the internet through the RE550 to my AP/Modem, but the connection is unstable and not suitable for SSH connections or certain video meeting formats that require a more constant connection.
I have separately been in touch directly with Tech support - and been a bit frustrated that there's only one mode available - so appologies to tech support for my frustration.
I will try out the static IP (and report back) and also am going to fully read the 802.11 spec on 3 and 4 address to better understand the requirements.
I will follow up. This RE550 could be a great peice of hardware if it had some mode flexibility!
Thank you.
-Adam
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I am trying to find out why the 3-Address mode is the only available option for this model, but it appears as though the Universal Mode is an "older" implementation, and options are given on higher-end models to use proxy mode in order to improve the compatibility of devices.
Is the connection unstable for all clients, such as a laptop also? This could indicate that the settings may not be in their ideal configuration, such as a DHCP conflict existing. While REs suffer from latency and speed reduction because of how they repeat a signal, it should still provide a usable and stable connection to clients. Also, as an FYI, I have access to many of the documents that our support team uses, so feel free to reach out if you need any details about the implementation, and I will do my best to find the info.
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