Verizon G3100 Router and Extender not Allowing Devices Connected to One to see Devices Connected to

When my phone or pad is connected by WiFi to the Base G3100 router it cannot see devices connected by WiFi to the Extender (as seen with Apple Remote and VNC connections etc. The Extender and the Router are both connected by ethernet. Internet connectivity is fine everywhere by everything.

Anyone have a clue? Seems like there some internal IP filtering going on but I can't figure it out.

Accepted answers

Northwoods3

Here is what I have learned -

There is something wrong with the communications between the E3200 extender and the G3100 router related to iOS devices connected by Wi-Fi. All of my iOS devices, and they're relatively new ones, will not see target computers or other networked hardware connected by Wi-Fi to either the router or the extender if they are connected to the other access point (e.g., if one is connected to the router and the other is connected ot the extender.

For example, such devices as a home illumination router, a computer connected to the stereo, and an hp printer if connected to different access points then the iOS device, will not be seen. This is reproducible and a factory reset fixes nothing.

This is a result of some non-obvious packet filtration by the extender or incompatibility with protocols that iOS and other devices may be using. All connected devices can alway see the WAN, so it's almost as if the router extender combo is treating these like devices as if they were attached via the guest network (and they are most certainly not). There is nothing from the router management interface (and most certainly not from the rudimentary manual) that provides a clue to this problem.

Apple says speak to Verizon.

Verizon's response was just factory reset.

I say, if you need your phones to do anything other an browse the internet, don't buy the extender. You will be very disappointed. Instead, buy a third party access point. I hooked up an older one I had laying around and everything now works perfectly.

All comments

Cang_Household

This should not be the case. The WLAN of the E3200, of the G3100, MoCA, and ethernet ports should be in the same layer 2 network, unless your device is connected to the Guest WiFi of the extender or of the main router, which is like a VLAN, isolated from the rest of the network. The device can still have Internet connectivity via the layer 3 routing of the extender. I think the Guest WiFi of the extender and of the main router are also isolated from each other, unless E3200 and G3100 support 802.3q VLAN tagging., which is barely probable.

You can try to scan all the device on your network by using the free software nmap, which can ping every subnet address.

Northwoods3

Thanks Craig for your reply. I agree that it shouldn’t be happening.

I am struggling to diagnose and correct this problem. It even sometimes seems to disappear, which makes me think it might be related to the management of the wi-fi since this is the only part that should dynamically change.

As I mentioned I am basically trying to reach a computer by VNC over SSH that is associated by Wi-Fi with the extender from another computer or a device associated by Wi-Fi with the router. All units show up as correctly associated with the base not the guest network when monitored at the router.

I get time outs and device not found errors. Additionally, when this problem arises one of our Wi-Fi printers cannot be seen from devices trying to print to it connected to the router. The printer is also associated with the extender as is strangely, the computer trying to access it is close by but prefers to connect to the router.

An error does appear in the firewall log of the router but I cannot interpret it. This seems frequent:

kernel warning

FW] IPTABLES [Pkt_Illegal] IN=eth4.untag0 OUT= MAC=b8:f8:53:68:3a:70:40:a6:77:69:1f:c0:08:00:45:00:00:2c:6b:be:00:00:36:06:f0:69:5f:d9:68:38 src=95.217.104.56 DST=173.76.179.70 LEN=44 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=54 ID=27582 PROTO=TCP SPT=443 DPT=22002 WINDOW=16384 RES=0x00 ACK SYN URGP=0 MARK=0x8000000

appDev

THis might be a redundant question, but they're all on the same network (and hopefully you have the same SSID)?

Are the i/p addresses for these devices all similar except the last devices? Do you have any VLANs setup that could cause issues?

Also, how many total devices do you have? Are many of them assigned static i/p addresses? I remember there was something about the G3100 firmware (forget which version) having issues with assigning fixed i/ps to more than 9 or 10 devices.

Cang_Household

@Northwoods wrote:
All units show up as correctly associated with the base not the guest network when monitored at the router.

Can you ping the IP addresses of the devices you are trying to connect from G3100? If it is fine there, then something maybe wrong with the client device.

Let me interpret the Log for you as well.

This is a WAN packet, so has nothing to do with your LAN access.

From the incoming interface, I am surprised to see "eth4.untag0." "Untag" is referring to 802.1Q VLAN tagging is not enabled. Seems like the impossible has happened, G3100 and E3200 knows about advanced VLAN features.

Northwoods3

Thanks appDev for your reply.

All devices are on the same network 192.168.1.XXX

IP addresses span throughout the range. The device that I cannot reach has an ip address in the middle of the range 192.168.1.50 (I have made this static to see if it helps, but it makes no difference whatsoever). This is the only device with a static IP on the network. There are no VLANs. All devices are connected to the same SSID (which is the sole reason I bought the extender!). The SSID pw is entirely alphanumeric, there are no special characters.

There are a total of 14 attached devices.

Ethernet backbone: 7

Router: 1 2.4G Wi-Fi

Extender: 4 5G Wi-Fi, 2 2.4G Wi-Fi

So I think you might agree that it should be working. But it is not.

I’d like to operate the extender only as an access point but I don’t know how to configure it to do so. It seems to auto configure upon powerup. The manual is useless here.

Northwoods3

Thanks Cang_Household.

I have factory reset both devices multiple times. Does this VLAN tagging not enabled indicate some problem with the router? I don't have any explict VLANs running on my network. Is this perhaps a virus on one of my machines?

Northwoods3

Here is what I have learned -

Apple says speak to Verizon.

Verizon's response was just factory reset.

Cang_Household

Hold on a second. You can buy E3200's elder brother WCB6200Q, or their eldest brother WCB3000N (175Mbps). This one is tested for sure by many other users.

A third party access point cannot guarantee to be happy with Verizon equipment. If you uplinked your extender with coax, you need a MoCA to Ethernet adapter for a third party access point.

Again, (I am not advertising for Verizon or Actiontec), my experience is that Verizon equipment works better than a third party equipment at the same price level.

Northwoods3

I beg to differ. The E3200 Network Extender is flawed and doesn't perform properly as a simple access point. It is filtering Wi-Fi data inappropriately.

Under no circumstances, would I recommend purchasing this device.

I'm not sure what you mean by your reference to coax, my network is entirely Cat5 or wireless.

Cang_Household

I need you to check one thing for me. Are your IOS devices names contain space bars and special characters?

If they do, that might be the reason of your problem. Device names containing space bars and special characters are illegitimate in pursuant to IETF RFC 952. Please cross reference this post .

G3100 and E3200 seem to enforce this rule more strictly than G1100 and WCB6200Q, which are lenient with this rule.

matt139

Absolutely correct. I have the exact same issue. Been playing around with networks and routers for 25 years... this is most certainly an issue between iOS devices and the implementation of the extender. iOS devices can't see Rokus or wireless printers or NAS when not connected to same router; and you can't even directly connect by entering IP addresses. The Extender is not actually "extending" the network; it merely enables internet access via a second router with the same SSID. A simple, but flawed, solution. A shame... other than this, FIOS is generally great.

[Deleted User]

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