Network Question - There's probably an obvious answer to this...

[JohnnyBuchan]

Hiya,
Hope you guys can explain this to me... its frying my head!
I run a mesh wifi around the house if I connect my ISP Router (in Modem mode) into the Switch and then connect everything else into the switch, all works just fine except for Kazoo/ASH that can't find the system.
However, if I connect the IPS Router directly into the mesh base station and connect the mesh to the switch, Kazoo/ASH works as you would expect.
Could someone explain why one way works and one doesn't please??
Thanks
JB

 

[Coalboy68]

Nothing networky is ever easy if you have a problem but what is your switch as these can be managed or unmanaged etc

 

[Ben Webster]

Change network cable
Change ports of the switch
Change switch to an unmanaged one
Switch off/on all gears

Is the ASH visible in the net via ping (use FRING) and Kazoo on the same tablet.

Let us know.

 

[Nestor Turton]

If you connect something else to the switch with the same cable in the same socket does it work? Wondering if port is enabled or you have dodgy cable/port.

Are you using any audiophile cables such as AQ Vodka (worst cable I’ve tried)? If so try swapping them out for a higher quality cable (Fluke test) such as a Connectix Cat 5e Magic Patch Lead (these cost about £1).

I use HP switches and Connectix and Blue Jeans Cables and do not experience these problems so it should work. If we know more about your network setup we may be able to help.

 

[peter@57m]

Hiya,
Hope you guys can explain this to me... its frying my head!
I run a mesh wifi around the house if I connect my ISP Router (in Modem mode) into the Switch and then connect everything else into the switch, all works just fine except for Kazoo/ASH that can't find the system.
However, if I connect the IPS Router directly into the mesh base station and connect the mesh to the switch, Kazoo/ASH works as you would expect.
Could someone explain why one way works and one doesn't please??
Thanks
JB

Just wondering what is performing the router function in your network?
You have the ISP router set to Modem mode so its not that.
The switch I assume is just a switch.
So is your mesh base station providing the router function.
When you say everything else works - are all these things using the mesh network and your ASH is wired to the switch?
This would explain what is happening as the ASH would probably be unable to get an address from the mesh hub.

Just my uneducated guess

 

[JohnnyBuchan]

I suspect you have hit the nail on the head, in that its the mesh hub that's doing the job of the router. Although even before switching the ISP to modem mode I still had to route the internet connection to the switch via the mesh hub so the ASH could see the common household network.

 

[akamatsu]

I think I had the same thing going on in my network. I use an eero mesh system. My memory is a little vague, but connecting the network switch directly to the ISP provided modem/router and connecting the eero base to the switch didn’t work. The solution was to go ISP modem to eero base to switch to DSM.

 

[rabski]

I'm far from a networking guy, but if the ISP device is being used in modem mode, then you'd normally have a standalone router wired to the modem, then the switch wired to that. As I see it, if the mesh hub is acting as the router (or can act as a router) then it needs to be the 'hub' so connected directly to the modem and everything then connected through it (modem -> mesh hub -> switch).

We have a somewhat more complex setup here, but the fundamental aspect of it is using the ISP device as a pure modem but adding a router directly connected to the modem and everything else fed from that.

 

[peter@57m]

What may have been happing for @JohnnyBuchan and @akamatsu when you had your ISP box as both modem/router and the mesh box is that you had two routers in your network creating two separate networks.
When the switch is before the mesh box, the switch and AKSH are on the ISP network and everything else would be on the mesh network with each router assigning different sets of IP addresses. In this environment devices on the different networks cannot communicate (I believe it is possible but needs special settings in the routers).
If they happened to assign the same set of IP address then different devices could end up with the same IP address and all bets as to what will happen are off.
Even if they are both acting as routers when you connect the mesh box first, then all other devices are on the mesh network and can all see each other.

Again I am not a network expert and am happy to be corrected

 

[Ben Webster]

What may have been happing for @JohnnyBuchan and @akamatsu when you had your ISP box as both modem/router and the mesh box is that you had two routers in your network creating two separate networks.
When the switch is before the mesh box, the switch and AKSH are on the ISP network and everything else would be on the mesh network with each router assigning different sets of IP addresses. In this environment devices on the different networks cannot communicate (I believe it is possible but needs special settings in the routers).
If they happened to assign the same set of IP address then different devices could end up with the same IP address and all bets as to what will happen are off.
Even if they are both acting as routers when you connect the mesh box first, then all other devices are on the mesh network and can all see each other.

Again I am not a network expert and am happy to be corrected

Yes! It‘s key to know what‘s going on in your home network. So I would always check with IPCONFIG and PING (on Windows) or with FING (on iOS) the IP addresses and make sure, that all required parts are in the same network.