UPnP and MI-424WR Router

So the lower half of my house is hardwired for GigE and and connected with a Linksys GigE Switch (EW008).

On this network I have two (primary and backup) Western Digital (WD) network hard drives. I also have a laptop

cabled in. I have some WD software installed on laptop that communicates with the WD net drives and gives me status. I am fairly certain it is using UPnP. I have the drives mapped to say Q: and P: in Windows XP and get full access to my files. Accesses between the laptop and the net drives do not have to transit the MI-424WR router.

Now, I have another PC upstairs. At this PC is the Verizon MI-424WR Router connected to the home's coax network and ultimately to the ONT.

The only cabling I have from lower level to upstairs is the coax. So to connect my lower level cat5 network to the Router I use another product from Actiontec, a HME220 which is a Ethernet-to-Coax/MOCA converter. Essentially I connect lower floor across the coax's MOCA network (just like STB boxes).

On my upstairs PC, I can map the WD network drives in Windows XP and access the files just fine. So essentially

my upstairs PC goes cat5 to Verizon Router, across coax/Moca, to converter, back to cat5, thru GigE switches to the WD net drives. Data movement, file transfer, all works fine and is extremely reliable( more reliable than wireless... )

The MOCA network on the coax seems to work just like a wired cat5 network, except different physical media....

The one and only problem is that the WD utility that monitors the WD net drives and uses UPnP does not communicate from the upstairs PC to the downstairs network. If a run a 100' cat5 cable from PC to downstairs switch it sees the net drive status just fine. Something is blocking UPnP access and my guess is the Actiontec MI424WR Router.

The way I see it my upstairs PC initiates UPnP packets to MI-4242WR that then blocks them from going out onto the WAN coax and ultimately getting thru to the downstairs network.

There appear to be a couple network.router gurus floating around....is there something I need to do to the MI-424WR to open up the UPnP traffic... Thanks.

Accepted answers

wraujr1

Well I was reluctant, but then googled and saw that UPnP uses multicast addressing and that IGMP controls multicast addressing so there did seem to be a relationship.

I DISABLED the IGMP Proxy in my MI-424WR GEN2, HW Ver E which is 2.5 years old so has older firmware.

Immediately the WestDig Utility on my desktop found the WD NetDrives on my downstairs Cat5e networks.

Not sure why IGMP "proxy" was the problem and I am no networking expert but an experienced user.

From a Linksys doc:

"IGMP (Internet Group Membership Protocol) Proxy can facilitate the communication between IGMP clients and IGMP routers. Enable this feature if you are using IP multicast services in your network"

From this it would appear that "Enabled" is good, but we know its not.

So it now appears that I can transit the MI-424WR onto the MOCA LAN and on to my lower level network and discover my UPnP devices.

But, I have to ask: is there a downside?? is something happening say out onto the MOCA WAN that outsiders can see my internal network devices??? I have I opened up a security issue??

Any technical insight appreciated..

All comments

Anti-Phish1

What hardware revision and firmware level of the Actiontec do you have?

VZ recently pushed out a firmware revision for the GEN3 routers (rev. G & I) that broke the IGMP proxy.

Check under Advanced options to see if you have a link for IGMP proxy. If so, disable it.

BTW, UPnP packets don't go out the WAN coax. They utilize the MOCA LAN connection which is separate from the MOCA WAN connection.

wraujr1

There is only one coax on router and I mispoke by referring to it as WAN Coax.

On the coax there are two frequencies/channels for MOCA.

MOCA WAN which connects to ONT and then there is MOCA LAN.

It is MOCA LAN frequency that my MOCA bridge (ECB2200) is picking up on the lower level.

But I'm wonder if the UPnP packets are passing from my PC, through the MI424WR and onto the MOCA LAN (on the coax)? and if there is a setting to control this??

Obviously since my upstairs PC can access files on the lower network... packets are passing from my PC thru MI424WR

and onto MOCA LAN........

Oh... my MI424WR is 2.5 years old so I expect it to be older version...

wraujr1

Well I was reluctant, but then googled and saw that UPnP uses multicast addressing and that IGMP controls multicast addressing so there did seem to be a relationship.

I DISABLED the IGMP Proxy in my MI-424WR GEN2, HW Ver E which is 2.5 years old so has older firmware.

Immediately the WestDig Utility on my desktop found the WD NetDrives on my downstairs Cat5e networks.

Not sure why IGMP "proxy" was the problem and I am no networking expert but an experienced user.

From a Linksys doc:

"IGMP (Internet Group Membership Protocol) Proxy can facilitate the communication between IGMP clients and IGMP routers. Enable this feature if you are using IP multicast services in your network"

From this it would appear that "Enabled" is good, but we know its not.

So it now appears that I can transit the MI-424WR onto the MOCA LAN and on to my lower level network and discover my UPnP devices.

But, I have to ask: is there a downside?? is something happening say out onto the MOCA WAN that outsiders can see my internal network devices??? I have I opened up a security issue??

Any technical insight appreciated..

wraujr1

FWIW, here is a pictorial of my network.

It is dictated by three things:

(a) Existing home wiring and where I could readily access and add Cat5e cabling.

(b) Location of hardware

ONT (in basement)

| (coax)

8:1 Split (in basement)

| (home coax RG-6QS wiring)

|------------|---------|------------|------------|--------------|------|---

MI424WR STB STB Samsung TV Recorder |

Router QIP-7216 QIP-7100 (local chnls) (local chnls) Actiontec

| HME2200

| (cat5e) Coax to RJ-45

|-----------| |

| | | (cat5e)

Dell Linksys Linksys

PC WRT54G GigE Switch

(wireless) |

| (cat5e)

|------------|------|

| | |

Linksys Dell Samsung

GigE Switch PC IP TV

| (cat5e)

|-------|---------|

| | |

Linksys WD WD

WRT54G Network Network

(wireless) Hard Drive Drive

tns

Found a actiontec video on youtube talking about setting UPnP for devices like the Xbox. Was able to make at that the page is 900 so try

http://192.168.1.1/index.cgi?active%5fpage=900