Setup for AR300 as a Router

Peter · 2018-07-30T17:08:16.346Z

Happy owner of 3 AR300M-16s. Successfully run one as a wireless repeater, another one as a NAS with separate SSID. Both work well for their application.

I have a linksys WRT54GL with standard firmware. It is connected with a Speedstar DSL modem, via Ethernet cable.

I tried to use an AR300M-16 as a replacement for my linksys router. I connected the DSL modem ethernet cable as the WAN input to factory AR300M. I booted the AR, entered new password, timezone, and language. In GUi, I setup WAN as PPPoe, entered my credentials and the router connected, I saw it get the WAN IP address, dns settings, etc.

My router is still using default SSID for wifi. I connect wirelessly to its Wifi network. I then launch a browser and I can NOT get to internet. I go to Advanced settings and run ping and traceroute tests successfully. This tells me the router can get out to the internet.

So my first question is - 1) should I expect the router to start routing (out of the box), similarly to how AP and Repeater started working with minimal settings?

Question 2, if I need to add or change any settings - please advise the steps or let me know which doc or posts I failed to read. I spent a lot of time before posting here… Once again, clean setup. Tried this with both 2.26 and 2.27. All 3 AR300M gave the same result.

Thanks in advance for reading this.

Johnex · 2018-07-30T20:07:22.902Z

Try setting a fixed DNS and see if that fixes your issue?
Set for example 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 to use Cloudflare, or 8.8.8.8 to use google dns.

Peter · 2018-07-31T04:30:40.242Z

Yes, I had been issued 2 DNS addresses by my ISP after my pppoe signon was accepted. I also tried my own DNS settings from my Linksys router and I tried the ones you listed. It appears the DNS lookup is taking very long and times out. Browser sits at ‘connecting’.

I reboot after config changes and also tried using the switch in router mode. I was even worried that my upgrading to 2.27 was causing the issue, so the last time I tried it with a new device still at 2.26.

alzhao · 2018-07-31T14:22:25.614Z

It should just router after set up pppoe.

Now sure what is the problem. As you said the router itself can access the Internet, then it should just router.

General the problem with modems, is that, when you change router, you need to turn off the modem, change the router, then turn the modem on again. The modem could remember the mac address of the router. But not sure if this is your case. You can just have a try to turn off your modem for 30 seconds and turn on again.

Peter · 2018-07-31T17:17:24.404Z

I repeated the setup again from a factory default 2.27 setup. Connected to default wireless network, selected language, time zone,and pwd. Connected wan cable from dsl modem to router wan port. filled in pppoe info and it connected. Got ip address and dns settings.

Rebooted dsl modem, off for minimum of 30 sec. Back in router interface everything shows connected. Log out of browser and close window. Open new browser window and go to Google, reply is Google took too long to respond. ERR connection timed out.

Log into router again, right click on gl.inet and open in new tab, part of webpage loads and then times out. Advanced settings, ping test gives 185ms,with 0% loss. Traceroute result looks different - lines 1-6 only have *. Line 7 has 75.11.245.208, 67ms.

Please let me know if there is any info from router i can send you.

Under advanced settings, network, firewall traffic rules - all rules are “from any hosts in wan”. I wondered since I did not see any rules to let any hosts in lan out to the wan - if that was an issue.

alzhao · 2018-08-01T04:37:45.746Z

Can you ssh to the router and get logs? I.e. the output of the following command.

logread
dmesg
ifconfig
ping 8.8.8.8
ping google.com

Peter · 2018-08-01T15:26:42.692Z

AR300inRouterMode.zip (16.5 KB)

I have attached the files in a zip. Thank you.

Peter · 2018-08-01T16:58:00.888Z

I also have a AR300M Nand, and I tried the same setup with it as I did with the 3 AR300M16s. Factory Defaults, 2.27. Only added PPPOE setting after initial bootup and configuration. I unfortunately got the same results. I have attached the same logs for it. Router is able to ping out to internet. Anything connected to it does not get to the internet. AR300M.zip (16.8 KB)

alzhao · 2018-08-02T05:58:58.716Z

@kyson-lok can you have a check why pppoe doesn’t router traffic?

kyson-lok · 2018-08-02T07:05:50.929Z

I see you can reach google.com on router. It should be work for pppoe. But I can’t found any testing info from you PC, like ping www.google.com or ping 8.8.8.8 from PC. Do you have a try connect ar300m with different device.

Peter · 2018-08-02T12:47:12.221Z

Hi, I am sure what. You mean by connect with different device. Each time I take a factory defaulted device and connect it alone to the DSL Modem Ethernet output. I have then connected to the routers via wifi with three different devices, as well as ethernet connection with all 3 devices. I have used the same appeoach to setup your routers for other configquestions such as repeater, bridge, and so on.

As for using a different device to connect to the Dsl modem,I have successfully connected 2 linksys and 1 netgear router there.

Peter · 2018-08-02T21:30:28.924Z

So today, I connected with various devices to the AR300M16, some by wifi, some ethernet, some both. Logged into router

with each connection. Initiate ping test from router. Then opened separate tab and attemtped to connect to same IP

address or website. I had enabled DNS requests to be written to syslog.

When I open a new tab or a new browser, it takes over 3 minutes before the homepage shows up. (Google.com)

One example was amazon. I pinged them from router and then tried to go in new tab and enter amazon.com in tab. Log

shows ping from router, but not browser amazon.com, possibly lookinng for a DNS server. Not sure if that would show up in log. So Pings are forwarded.

Thu Aug 2 14:07:28 2018 daemon.info dnsmasq[5900]: 98 127.0.0.1/54703 query[A] amazon.com from 127.0.0.1
Thu Aug 2 14:07:28 2018 daemon.info dnsmasq[5900]: 98 127.0.0.1/54703 forwarded amazon.com to 8.8.4.4
Thu Aug 2 14:07:28 2018 daemon.info dnsmasq[5900]: 98 127.0.0.1/54703 forwarded amazon.com to 8.8.8.8
Thu Aug 2 14:07:28 2018 daemon.info dnsmasq[5900]: 98 127.0.0.1/54703 forwarded amazon.com to 65.68.49.50
Thu Aug 2 14:07:28 2018 daemon.info dnsmasq[5900]: 98 127.0.0.1/54703 forwarded amazon.com to 65.68.49.51
Thu Aug 2 14:07:28 2018 daemon.info dnsmasq[5900]: 99 127.0.0.1/54703 query[AAAA] amazon.com from 127.0.0.1
Thu Aug 2 14:07:28 2018 daemon.info dnsmasq[5900]: 99 127.0.0.1/54703 forwarded amazon.com to 8.8.4.4
Thu Aug 2 14:07:28 2018 daemon.info dnsmasq[5900]: 98 127.0.0.1/54703 reply amazon.com is 176.32.103.205
Thu Aug 2 14:07:28 2018 daemon.info dnsmasq[5900]: 98 127.0.0.1/54703 reply amazon.com is 176.32.98.166
Thu Aug 2 14:07:28 2018 daemon.info dnsmasq[5900]: 98 127.0.0.1/54703 reply amazon.com is 205.251.242.103
Thu Aug 2 14:07:28 2018 daemon.info dnsmasq[5900]: 99 127.0.0.1/54703 reply amazon.com is NODATA-IPv6
Thu Aug 2 14:07:29 2018 daemon.info dnsmasq[5900]: 100 192.168.8.157/54428 query[A] ipcast1.dynupdate.noip.com

from 192.168.8.157
Thu Aug 2 14:07:29 2018 daemon.info dnsmasq[5900]: 100 192.168.8.157/54428 forwarded ipcast1.dynupdate.noip.com

to 8.8.4.4
Thu Aug 2 14:07:29 2018 daemon.info dnsmasq[5900]: 100 192.168.8.157/54428 reply ipcast1.dynupdate.noip.com is

50.31.169.34
Thu Aug 2 14:07:29 2018 daemon.info dnsmasq[5900]: 101 192.168.8.157/61036 query[AAAA]

ipcast1.dynupdate.noip.com from 192.168.8.157
Thu Aug 2 14:07:29 2018 daemon.info dnsmasq[5900]: 101 192.168.8.157/61036 forwarded ipcast1.dynupdate.noip.com

to 8.8.4.4
Thu Aug 2 14:07:29 2018 daemon.info dnsmasq[5900]: 101 192.168.8.157/61036 reply ipcast1.dynupdate.noip.com is

NODATA-IPv6
Thu Aug 2 14:07:56 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: AP Ok=1
Thu Aug 2 14:07:56 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: network(caIfnames) = wan wan6
Thu Aug 2 14:07:56 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: STA Ok=1
Thu Aug 2 14:07:56 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: Everthing is OK!!!
Thu Aug 2 14:07:56 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: check wpa runing =
Thu Aug 2 14:08:26 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: AP Ok=1
Thu Aug 2 14:08:26 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: network(caIfnames) = wan wan6
Thu Aug 2 14:08:26 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: STA Ok=1
Thu Aug 2 14:08:26 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: Everthing is OK!!!
Thu Aug 2 14:08:26 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: check wpa runing =
Thu Aug 2 14:08:56 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: AP Ok=1
Thu Aug 2 14:08:56 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: network(caIfnames) = wan wan6
Thu Aug 2 14:08:56 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: STA Ok=1
Thu Aug 2 14:08:56 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: Everthing is OK!!!
Thu Aug 2 14:08:56 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: check wpa runing =
Thu Aug 2 14:09:19 2018 daemon.info odhcpd[1617]: Using a RA lifetime of 0 seconds on br-lan
Thu Aug 2 14:09:26 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: AP Ok=1
Thu Aug 2 14:09:26 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: network(caIfnames) = wan wan6
Thu Aug 2 14:09:26 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: STA Ok=1
Thu Aug 2 14:09:26 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: Everthing is OK!!!
Thu Aug 2 14:09:26 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: check wpa runing =
Thu Aug 2 14:09:56 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: AP Ok=1
Thu Aug 2 14:09:56 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: network(caIfnames) = wan wan6
Thu Aug 2 14:09:56 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: STA Ok=1
Thu Aug 2 14:09:56 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: Everthing is OK!!!
Thu Aug 2 14:09:56 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: check wpa runing =

Above, there were 6 attempts at entering Amazon.com into a new browser tab!!!
All I see in log is this. for EACH attempt:
Thu Aug 2 14:09:56 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: AP Ok=1
Thu Aug 2 14:07:56 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: network(caIfnames) = wan wan6
Thu Aug 2 14:07:56 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: STA Ok=1
Thu Aug 2 14:07:56 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: Everthing is OK!!!
Thu Aug 2 14:07:56 2018 daemon.info gl-health>>: check wpa runing =

No DNS lookup request to anywhere?

complete log is in separate file

ping tests work from the workstations:

Yet browser homepage loads in 3 minutes
I thought maybe firewall, so ran windows machine without firewall. Then thought, no, all machines have one common

problem, android devices, chromebooks, windows, raspberry Pi, noone can get out. Even NO-IP.com DUC utility on windows machine can’t phone home.

Ran Chrome Connectivity Diagnostics and Captive Portal and DNS passed.

The results showed that Internet traffic is blocked on Port 443
I went into Router and opened Port 443 for Wan traffic but it had no effect on my browser loading webpages…

I suspect my ISP blocks port 443 as I had opened it on my windows machine. Also I checked my other linksys router and port 443 is blocked as well there. Just thought it was a DNS hint to investigate.

I am at a loss, not sure what to do next. I can understand one machine, but all machines have the same symptoms on Mini Router but not same issue on the two other routers, linksys and Netgear. So mini Router is still common to accessing the internet.

I am going to load DDNS on it so my lookup works. After that I can open port 83 and you can log in remotely. Please contact me privately regarding this.

Peter · 2018-08-02T23:35:46.581Z

I have installed and got Dynamic DDNS working on AR300M16 with NoIP.com. There was error in the NOIP Script so I used a solution I found on the web, to just use Custom script and then I pasted “http://[USERNAME]:[PASSWORD]@DYNUPDATE.NOIP.COM/nic/update?hostname=[DOMAIN]&myip=[ip]” into the command field below it. No more Uclient errors.

So now the router ‘that does not route for me’ can be accessed remotely since my dns address updates automatically.

Please advise next steps.