Connecting Two MI424WR Routers on my home network - WON'T WORK

[entrican]

I have two MI424WR routers that I would like run on my home network.  The primary has been here for about 12 months and works great.  It's connected to my OTN via RJ45 and is installed into a SmartBox - a fancy word for a clever utility cabinet in the wall with cable management.

The primary and secondary are identical models and have the same firmware installed.

The primary is providing wired and wireless connections through out the house and there are also 4 Verizon STBs which connect through the coax on the primary.

While reviewing the primary routers network connections list, I can see the STBs and an assortment of ethernet connections and wireless connections (game consoles, phones, and some TV's).

I closely followed a few of the procedures I've seen online which say they will make this scenario work, but it doesn't.

Here's what I did.

1. Change the primary router DHCP pool to start at .25 instead of .2 just to give myself some headroom for static devices in between the dynamic network and static.

2. Factory reset the secondary router and applied some benign Wireless Network setting changes like SSID and WEP.

3. Under "My Network->Network Connections->Network (Home/Office)->Settings" I changed the "IP Address" from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.10.  I also changed "IP Address Distribution" to disabled.

4. Under "My Network->Network Connections->Broadband Connection->SettingsSettings" I changed the "Internet Protocol" to "obtain ip address automatically" to "no ip address".

5. Rebooted secondary router, and then once I verified all changes, I attached the coax cable to the secondary router and for about 1-2 minutes it looked like everything worked.  I could access devices on both sides of the network from their respective IP addresses.  The primary router was the only one handing out address via DHCP, but then suddenly the WAN connection on the primary disconnected and it seemed as though the secondary and primary were fighting over the WAN role.  I even tried disabling the Broadband connection on the secondary router ... same result.

Any ideas?  I hope I'm just missing a setting somewhere  ... its ALMOST working.

[CaptainSTX]

I am not sure how the MOCA works when you have the connection from the OTN to the primary router over Ethernet.

You might want to connect the primary router to your coxial network so the MOCA has a path on the coaxial.   Never having experimented or seen a discussion I'm just not sure if the router backhauls its functionality over the Ethernet to the ONT and then distibutes it on the coaxial.    Your setup isn't a typical setup. 

Also check that all splitters on your coxial network are capable of passing MOCA frequencies of at least 1.2Ghz.

[Anti-Phish1]

I don't know what set of instructions you followed, but you MUST disable the WAN connection on the secondary router.

Otherwise, both routers will compete for the single connection available from the ONT.

Follow part 2 of the following FAQ.  It has been throughly tested and is known to work.

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/15984

[entrican]

Hi Anti-Phish,

Thank you for your reply, and you as well Captain.  I did very carefully follow the process outlined in that post and I've actually gone through it several times to make sure I didn't goof up or miss a step - but no luck.

Everytime I connect the coax on the secondary router, the primary router DHCP connection to verizon disconnects and never re-establishes itself.  Although, everything else on the internal network side seems to be working like a champ!

I'm beginning to wonder if the intructions are applicable to the software on my router.  The procedure refers to a connection labeled "Broadband Coax" but my software refers to it as "Broadband Connection (Ethernet/Coax)".  Eitherway, I still disabled it and the PPPoE connection.

If you've got some ideas and want to be a second set of eyes, I would be happy to share some screen shots of my primary and secondary routers.

Here is the screenshot of my primary router "Network Connections" screen - the secondary router looks identical - in terms of the labels it uses, but keep in mind that after I complete the process on it - the status for the Broadband entry and the PPPoE entry read "Disabled".

-Robert

FIGURE 1: Screenshot from my Primary Router (for reference to the differences in the use of descriptions on the connections)

[entrican]

Here are my screenshots for anyone with an idea.

PRIMARY ROUTER: Network Main Status Screen after the procedure, a reboot, and attaching the coax

PRIMARY ROUTER: Network Connections after the procedure, a reboot, and attaching the coax to the secondary router.  You can see the broadband interface has disconneted and is awaiting a new DHCP lease - which never answers.

SECONDARY ROUTER: Shows the Broadband Coax and Ethernet disabled

 

SECONDARY ROUTER: Network Status Screen

[viafax999]

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@CaptainSTX wrote:

I am not sure how the MOCA works when you have the connection from the OTN to the primary router over Ethernet.

You might want to connect the primary router to your coxial network so the MOCA has a path on the coaxial.   Never having experimented or seen a discussion I'm just not sure if the router backhauls its functionality over the Ethernet to the ONT and then distibutes it on the coaxial.    Your setup isn't a typical setup. 

Also check that all splitters on your coxial network are capable of passing MOCA frequencies of at least 1.2Ghz.

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The primary has to be connected to the coax network to facilitate the ethernet connections to the STB's.  The coax port actually supports two the connections - the wan connection if it's enabled and the lan connections..

His setup is fairly typical.  I would guess that his issue is that he needs to DISABLE the Broadband connection (Moca) on his secondary router and make sure that his netwwork home /office coax shows connected on the secondary and primray.

[viafax999]

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@viafax999 wrote:

His setup is fairly typical.  I would guess that his issue is that he needs to DISABLE the Broadband connection (Moca) on his secondary router and make sure that his netwwork home /office coax shows connected on the secondary and primray.

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Which I see from his pictures is exactly what he has.  It's interestthat his broadband connection(coax) shows disabled.  Mine shows Down.  Wonder if I could persuaded Veriaon to give me a an Actiontec router so that I could test some of these scenarios.

[viafax999]

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@entrican wrote:

Here are my screenshots for anyone with an idea.

PRIMARY ROUTER: Network Main Status Screen after the procedure, a reboot, and attaching the coax

---

Hmm, why does your primary router say Broadband coax connecting?\

It should say ethernet Connected  Coax connection bradband on the primary is disabled also?

[entrican]

Hi viafax999,

Thank you for help and taking a look at this.  Its been quite irritating.  I've been a developer for 30 years and network engineer, and for the life of me, I cannot seem to isolate the magic switch to make this work.  I spoke with Actiontec and they don't suppport the Verizon routers.  The tech listened to me, and was very nice, he just said that Verizon puts their own software on the units and they don't have training or expertise with them.

Normally, my primary router reads Connected DHCP "AAA.BBB.CCC.DDD" (with an IP address of course) but about 30 seconds after I attach the coax to the secondary router, the primary changes to "Connecting...." and then after a minute or so it goes to "disconnected", then after 30 seconds or so again ... it goes to "Connecting...." and remains there until I disconnect the coax from the secondary router.

It sure seems as though the "disable" on the secondary router Broadband connection is being ignored.  I even tried leaving it enabled and set it to No IP but it didn't change the behavior.

I also came across a setting in "Advanced" under "System Systems" called "Auto WAN Detection" which was enabled.  Not really knowing what this was all about, I figured what the heck and tried to see if disabling that would help - it had no effect.

Lastly, one thing that seems noteably different about my router(s) and some of the instructions on the web is that the software in my routers presents (Ethernet/Coax) as though they're one (as-if) they're just an internally bridged (probably are).  In other words, it does not display Broadband Ethernet seperately from Broadband Coax ... they are one in the same within the software.

-Robert

[viafax999]

Yes your router network connections page appears somewhat different to mine.

I actually have my primary router as an ethernet connected personal netgear router and the Verizon router is with it's wan port to a lan port on the netgear.  The stb boxes are on the network home/office coax and the ethernet switch has a laptop connected that I was playing about on testing static routes.

What version Actiontec rouers do you have?

From you screen shot it would appear that you are correct and if so then it seem that you couldn't have 2 routers moca connected.

You could just connect the routers in bridged mode via ethernet but that would only work if you have ethernet wiring in the house which I guess you don't otherwise you wouldn't be attempting to use the coax network.