Can anybody reach their NR7101 settings pages/GUI via LAN (ethernet cable)

k1s

Can anybody reach their NR7101 settings pages/GUI via LAN (ethernet cable) connection, once it's connected to their primary router (in pass through mode)?

If so, what are your IP settings?

The primary router on my LAN is by default 192.168.1.1

To avoid conflict I changed the NR7101 set to pass through mode, DCHP off, and tried setting IP address 192.168.1.253 (outside the DCHP range of the main router).

With that I can't reach the NR7101 settings pages/GUI from any device on the LAN - or directly via Wifi

Then I tried setting NR7101 IP address to 192.168.254.253. Still not accessible through the LAN, but this time the direct WiFi connection works.

(Since direct WiFi connection requires climbing onto the roof to get a connection, I want to be able to reach it through the LAN)

tonygibbs16

Hello @k1s

I have not got one of these devices, nor do I work for Zyxel.

However, have you tried configuring Remote Management for IP Passthrough following 27.5 of the User Guide at https://download.zyxel.com/NR7101/user_guide/NR7101_Version%201.00.pdf ?

Maybe it might help you…

I wonder the NR7101's IP address when it is in IP passthrough is the IP address allocated by your mobile network operator…

Kind regards,

Tony

k1s

Hi Tony - thanks for your reply,

Remote Management is for access via WAN, right? I want to access via then LAN

tonygibbs16

Hello @k1s

You're welcome.

You're probably right about what the Remote Management in PassThrough is for.

I am guessing a bit, but…

maybe if you put an Ethernet switch between your primary router and the PoE injector LAN port then you might be able to connect a computer to such a switch and then talk to the NR7101 using the 192.168.254.253 IP address that WiFi access works with…

You would then need to give the computer on the switch an IP address in the same subnet as the NR7101 that is also not one given out by DHCP with your primary router.

Using an Ethernet switch might at least allow you to try to ping the NR7101, and also be able to run Wireshark on the computer to see what is happening (as the usual challenge is making traffic visible.)

- a simple Netgear unmanaged switch such as a Netgear GS305 5 port switch might get you a way in… see https://www.netgear.com/uk/business/wired/switches/unmanaged/gs305v3/

Kind regards,

Tony

k1s

I've tried with a switch in between and IP addresses as above, with no difference in the outcome.

What would I be looking for in the packets?

tonygibbs16

https://community.zyxel.com/en/discussion/comment/52591#Comment_52591

Hello @k1s

If you had set the computer on the switch to an IP address in the same subnet, e.g. 192.168.254.254, then a Ping should have been possible, as it should be a connection on the same layer 2 broadcast domain.

- so not sure what else to look for if physical connectivity is present.

If you have a more capable switch, with the ability to do port mirroring, then you could set that up and monitor the traffic between your primary router and the NR7101.

You could also try using a WiFi extender / repeater to bring the WiFi that works to a more accessible location.

Or you might need to use the NR7101 in Routing Mode. You could set the NR7101 to have a different LAN to your primary router, e.g. 192.168.2.0/24, to avoid a clash of addresses.

Otherwise, I feel that you might be stuck with configuration via WiFi only.

Kind regards,

Tony

k1s

Do you mean connect like A or B?:

A:

NR7101
↕️
PoE_Injector
↕️
Switch
↕️   ↕️
PC Router

B:

NR7101
↕️
PoE_Injector
↕️
Router
↕️
Switch
↕️
PC

tonygibbs16

Hello @k1s

For Port Mirroring to work I mean your connectivity A above.

Connectivity A is also what I meant for trying a switch without port mirroring.

Kind regards,

Tony

k1s

OK, I understand the connection, but not what "monitoring the traffic" / capturing the packets will reveal.

For example with the NR7101 set at 192.168.254.71 and pinged from from 192.168.1.4 I get Destination host unreachable, with these corresponding packets - which don't reveal anything [to me 😕]:

tcpdump -i any -c20 -A -vv dst 192.168.254.71
tcpdump: listening on any, link-type LINUX_SLL (Linux cooked v1), capture size 262144 bytes
09:32:09.269783 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 128, id 20672, offset 0, flags [none], proto ICMP (1), length 60)
192.168.1.4 > 192.168.254.71: ICMP echo request, id 1, seq 2244, length 40
E..<P.....id.......G..D.....abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwabcdefghi
09:32:09.269783 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 128, id 20672, offset 0, flags [none], proto ICMP (1), length 60)
192.168.1.4 > 192.168.254.71: ICMP echo request, id 1, seq 2244, length 40
E..<P.....id.......G..D.....abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwabcdefghi
09:32:09.270050 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 127, id 20672, offset 0, flags [none], proto ICMP (1), length 60)
10.190.5.146 > 192.168.254.71: ICMP echo request, id 1, seq 2244, length 40
E..<P.......
......G..D.....abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwabcdefghi
09:32:09.270665 ARP, Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 192.168.254.71 tell 192.168.254.1, length 46
........
^#.L..............G..................
09:32:10.311119 ARP, Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 192.168.254.71 tell 192.168.254.1, length 46

tonygibbs16

Hello @k1s

Thanks for your post of the tcpdump output.

I have also looked at the man page for tcpdump at https://www.tcpdump.org/manpages/tcpdump.1.html

Reading the tcpdump output you have posted shows:

• at 09:32:09.269783 you send an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request datagram to 192.168.254.71, which is what the Ping command sends.
• at 09:32:09.270050 another ICMP echo request datagram is sent to 192.168.254.71.
• at 09:32:09.270665 a router at 192.168.254.1 sends an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) request to try to get the MAC address of the host at 192.168.254.71, which doesn't get a reply.
• at 09:32:10.311119 the ARP request is repeated, which does not get a reply.

and so this is why there is a destination unreachable returned.

This suggests the following to me:

• That there is some sort issue, either a physical layer connectivity issue or a hardware issue or a software issue or a configuration issue between 192.168.254.1 and 192.168.254.71.

Which router is 192.168.254.1 ?

If there is connectivity through the NR7101 to the Internet for you, then it would suggest a software or configuration issue.

Kind regards,

Tony

k1s

Thanks, Tony, but that's kind of what I meant:

"some sort issue... connectivity... hardware... software... configuration " doesn't narrow it down much.

I'm fairly convinced it shouldn't be hardware, as this is the 3rd NR7101 I'm trying. I've used many more cables, all tested, and tried several different switches, so I don't think it's connectivity.

It certainly could be Zxyxel's software, which is why is like to get an answer to how it should be configured to work.

I can't believe I'm the only one who wants the reach the configuration pages through the LAN in pass through mode.

Answering your question:

In this example, 192.168.254.1 is another 5g modem (ZTE-MC7010): the one that currently delivers internet to the LAN, via b the primary router 192.168.1.1. The ZTE modem has it's routing facility switched off (pass through/bridge mode only), and is not serving any DCHP IPs on any subnet.

It's configuration pages are reachable from any pc on the LAN 192.168.1.x, without any specific extra configuration, which is why I thought that giving the NR7101 a 192.168.254.x address (192.168.254.71 in this example) should also work.

Just for clarity, if I remove the other modem from the network, the problem reaching the NR7101 persists, so I don't think it's interfering…

... unless the packet traffic says otherwise?