No automatic IP assignement with NWA50AX and specific devices

plouf

Hi,

I installed a NWA50AX as an access point. It's connected to a small switch in a room. That switch is in turn connected to another switch which is plugged in PFsense.

In that room, all smartphones get directly a connection to the internet via the NWA50AX. Unfortunately, another device in the same room (an old squeezebox) can't get an ip automatically (error message is "no dhcp server").

If I try another access point in the house (with a less optimal signal, unfortunately), the squeezebox gets its IP directly. It's just the combination between NWA50AX and Squeezebox that doesn't work.

So to summerize:

• NWA50AX with smartphone: works seamlessly
• Linksys with smartphone: works seamlessly
• Linksys with squeezebox: works seamlessly
• NWA50AX with squeezebox: "no dhcp server found"

I would be very grateful if someone could give any direction to troubleshoot.

Regards

Plouf

mMontana

WPA2 TKIP/mixed or WPA2/AES? The latter i suppose.
And... considering this

plouf said:

Here is what I can find in the LMS settings:

Player Model: Squeezebox Classic

Player Type: squeezebox2

Firmware: 137

Player IP Address: 192.168.1.176

The squeezbox2 is 17 years old, with WPA support (but not WPA2, according with the pages i read).
NWA50AX support WPA2 and WPA3, but not WPA (user manual, page 18).
Considering this...
plouf said: And I plan to test an ethernet connection as soon as I can make a 5 or 6 m long ethernet cable to connect the squeezebox to the little switch (where I already have successfully connected the Apple TV, so I know this should work).
I personally would rather use a 6-7 meters LAN cable than downgrade from WPA2 to WPA only for... the squeezebox. You'll gain less latency and you can configure updated wireless protocols. Maybe your Linksys E4200 with DD-WRT can have a WPA/WPA2 configuration with the same passphrase. You can consider to check settings a do a small test for confirm my theory. For a bit of context... I'm eager to use soon WPA3 for get rid of some old-but-still-there WPA vulnerabilities that are not present on a lot of products but... compatibility often wins on security. So a cable IMVHO is a better solution than change a working Squeezebox.  

mMontana

I'd love to have more info, if possible.
Could you please share:

• model of Linksys (and supported wifi protocols)
• firmware version of Linksys
• model of squeezebox (firmware update available)
• cypher used for network (because it's not an open network, right?)

My personal sensation is that your squeezebox cannot successfully handshake the wLAN connection with the NWA50AX device.

plouf

Thanks for your help, mMontana!

I'm not far to share your feelings about what's happening. And I plan to test an ethernet connection as soon as I can make a 5 or 6 m long ethernet cable to connect the squeezebox to the little switch (where I already have successfully connected the Apple TV, so I know this should work).

But in the meanwhile, I'd really like to understand the problem(s) I get. Let me try to gather the information you asked for:

• Model of the linksys and wifi protocols supported:
  
  Cisco Linksys E4200 with DD-WRT as the OS. It's an old router converted as an AP.
  
  I can't yet give all the requested settings, because I just discovered something important about Pfsense that I have yet to understand (as I'm a beginner): I can access the NWA50AX interface just with a browser and it's IP address through Pfsense but I can't do the same for the Linksys. In the past, before setting pfsense, I used the same method (browser and IP) to configure this Linksys. But not it's not possible anymore.
  
  I guess it's rather a pfsense question and I shouldn't ask about this here but that's why I need some more research to give you all the info you asked for...
  

• model of squeezebox (firmware update available):
  
  It's a very old one. Here is what I can find in the LMS settings:
  

  Player Model: Squeezebox Classic

  Player Type: squeezebox2

  Firmware: 137

  Player IP Address: 192.168.1.176

• cypher used for network (because it's not an open network, right?)
  
  No no, not an open network: WPA2 is used.
  

Kind regards,

Plouf

mMontana

WPA2 TKIP/mixed or WPA2/AES? The latter i suppose.
And... considering this

plouf said:

Here is what I can find in the LMS settings:

Player Model: Squeezebox Classic

Player Type: squeezebox2

Firmware: 137

Player IP Address: 192.168.1.176

The squeezbox2 is 17 years old, with WPA support (but not WPA2, according with the pages i read).
NWA50AX support WPA2 and WPA3, but not WPA (user manual, page 18).
Considering this...
plouf said: And I plan to test an ethernet connection as soon as I can make a 5 or 6 m long ethernet cable to connect the squeezebox to the little switch (where I already have successfully connected the Apple TV, so I know this should work).
I personally would rather use a 6-7 meters LAN cable than downgrade from WPA2 to WPA only for... the squeezebox. You'll gain less latency and you can configure updated wireless protocols. Maybe your Linksys E4200 with DD-WRT can have a WPA/WPA2 configuration with the same passphrase. You can consider to check settings a do a small test for confirm my theory. For a bit of context... I'm eager to use soon WPA3 for get rid of some old-but-still-there WPA vulnerabilities that are not present on a lot of products but... compatibility often wins on security. So a cable IMVHO is a better solution than change a working Squeezebox.  

plouf

Hi mMontana,

Once again, thanks for your insightful remarks!

I will as of today implement WPA3 (never played with this cypher before) in the Zyxel and connect my fairly old Squeezebox with a long ethernet cable.

And (even if it's not related to this forum) I will check for the security settings for the Linksys/DD-WRT and try to understand a bit better the Pfsense install to see why I can access the NWA50AX with a browser through the firewall and not the Linksys.

Regards,

Plouf

Zyxel_Jay

Hi @plouf and @mMontana

Thank you for your share.

We summarize this article for the users who have the same problem.

First, because of the security problem, all of our AP in Nebula mode do not support the WEP security type. 

Second, if you have any old devices that only support WPA. 

To avoid affecting your other devices’ security, you can set up the new SSID with the WPA1 security type on Nebula.

 

Thank you

Jay

mMontana

Is my opinion of not reccomending WPA for any reason. IMVHO WPA2-AES is the minimum security standard to adopt into Wireless Networks.

plouf

Hi Jay and mMontana,

Thanks for your help to both of you.

@mMontana, I completely agree with your remark about minimum security and not going below WPA2. As the Squeezebox doesn't implement it, I will only connect it through an ethernet cable.