Travel router doesn’t have internet access in repeater mode

Technical Support for Routers
1

Hi. I’ll start off by saying I don’t understand much about networks in general so thanks in advance for the patience.

I just bought a Slate 7 to use as a travel router in hotels. I want to test it and learn how to use it so as a first step I wanted to connect it to the main router I have at home, a Flint 2, and see if I can get the Slate 7 working.

For context: I’m not using VPN on either of the devices. My Flint 2 has Access Control enabled in allowlist mode. I checked my Slate 7 MAC, put it in the allowlist and confirmed in the Admin Panel of my Flint 2 that the Slate 7 shows up as connected and, as far as I can tell, has access to the internet just like every other client.

I set up my Slate 7 to work in repeater mode and was able to wirelessly connect it to the network being broadcasted by my Flint 2. That’s as far as I got. My Slate 7 is connected to the Flint 2, but it doesn’t have internet access.

When checking the Admin Panel → Network → Internet → Repeater on the GL.iNet app, there’s this legend at the bottom:

LAN subnet is in conflict with the WAN subnet, please Change LAN IP to a different IP address.
Connected to the parent network, but the inerface cannot access the internet.

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If I click “Change LAN IP” I go into a section where there is a “Router IP Address” that I can edit but I don’t know if this is safe to do and, even if I did, I don’t understand what should I change it to. Surely I shouldn’t just change random numbers, right?

To make things more weird, every like 5 minutes the Slate 7 will connect to the internet and for a brief second the “LAN subnet is in conflict with the WAN subnet, please…” legend will disappear and immediately come back again. I can also confirm that the Slate 7 very briefly does have internet access on the Admin Panel of my Flint 2 because on the client list I will see that the Slate 7 was a few KB of traffic. Crucially it’s only upload but 0 download.

My questions:

  • Would anyone care to explain in the most basic language possible why this is happening?
  • Anyone know of a solution?
  • Do you think this would also happen if I actually tried to connect to a hotel network?

Many thanks in advance for helping me and have a great day.

2

Your Slate 7 has to be on a different subnet. I always change to 192.168.10.1. Then I know my master router is 8.1, my guest network is 9.1 and my additional router is 10.1 .

You will be able to managed your Slate on 192.168.10.1 once properly connected.

Hope this helps.

1 Like
3

Oops, missed this one. The only timeyou'll get this sort of "issue" on a hotel network is if you left your Slate as 192.168.8.1 or 192.168.10.1 and the hotel is using the same subnet on their network.

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4

Correct as limbot said.

In repeater mode, the router still acts as the NAT (Network Address Translation) firewall. Thus the WAN and LAN side shall be in different subnet. The router works as the translator.

You can modify the number to any random one, except the 192.168.8.1 (the default one, which is your current main router's IP subnet) and 192.168.9.1 (the default guest subnet).
Either modify the IP of your main router Flint 2 router, or this travel router Slate 7 is OK.

The possibility to come acorss this issue in a hotel network is low, unless they use GL routers as well, hah. Since as I know other manufactors don't use 192.168.8.x as their default subnet.
But in case you come across it, just modify the IP subnet to another different one and it shall work without proble,.

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5

Aaaargh that confusing terminology ... repeater/extender

Repeater mode does not exist!

Using "repeater" in GL.inet is using wifi as upstream Internet provider. (WAN ethernet, USB modem and USB thether are the other possible uplink interfaces besides wifi)

Repeater is not a network mode, it is a way/method to connect . Working Network Modes are "router", "access point" and "extender". All Network modes can be selected for most connection methods.

Network mode "Router" creates it's own network, and that LAN IP range must be different from the uplink network IP range.
Network modes "Access point" and "Extender" bridge their network to the uplink network. That is the network is in the same IP range, and all devices get their IP address from the uplink router. That is your case "connect it to the network being broadcasted by my Flint 2" you wanted. But you are in router mode!

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6

You all are the MVPs! Thank you limbot, rain and bpwl1 for taking the time to reply.

The explanations were super clear. I went ahead and changed the IP on my Slate 7, and is now working fantastically. I’m excited to put it to good use in the real world now.

Have a great rest of your day!