Another multi router setup question ....

mjward

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Going around in circles to hoping someone can offer pearls of wisdom!

I have an FTTH connection feeding a Huawei modem/router. This is the primary router.

I bought an Asus AC3200 router to permanently run a VPN connection (used Merlin).

The desire is to have two separate networks (1) Huawei direct Internet and (2) Asus VPN.

It is currently figured with an Ethernet cable running from a LAN port on the Huawei to the WAN port on the Asus. I have then set them to run on different subsets ie Huawei 192.168.100.x and Asus on 192.168.200.x.

Equipment attached to the Asus LAN ports runs perfectly (via VPN) and wifi on Huawei is fine.

However, wifi on Asus is next to useless. Signal is strong but connected devices aren't receiving any data.

Should I turn DHCP off on the Asus?
Should the Ethernet from Huawei go to Asus LAN instead of WAN?
Anything else?

In my head I'm thinking the VPN operation and desire for two separate networks makes this more complicated than standard cascading but maybe I'm over complicating things.

All help appreciated!
 
You can not connect a lan port to a wan port so you must use a lan port on the asus. You will also need to disabled dhcp on the asus and give it a static address. I think you will need to have the routers on the same subnet.
 
You can not connect a lan port to a wan port so you must use a lan port on the asus. You will also need to disabled dhcp on the asus and give it a static address. I think you will need to have the routers on the same subnet.
Yes you should be able to connect the LAN of the primary internet router (Huawei) to the WAN of the secondary router (Asus) to create a completely separate network on that router. You'll need to use a static ip address on the Asus WAN port that's outside of the Huawei's DHCP range (adjusting DHCP if necessary). So assuming the Huawei has an ip address of 192.168.100.1 and DHCP of something like 192.168.100.10 - 254, then set the WAN port on the Asus to 192.168.100.5, use external DNS servers like Google's, 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

Then back on the Huawei set that static ip address you've give to the Asus (192.168.100.5) so it's in the DMZ on the Huawei.

Then as you say have the Asus with it's own separate network of 192.168.200.1 and a DHCP range of say 192.168.200.10 - 100.

Now as for Wifi you want the two routers to have different SSID's and running on different channels so as not to interfere with each other. Also put some physical distance between the routers.

Lastly check you have the latest firmware for each router and let us know how you get on?
 
Great thank you guys. A lot of stuff there I haven't tried so will give it a go to it and let you know. I have them fairly close to each other, didn't realise proximity would be an issue, will take care of that too.
 
Frustratingly close to completing the above steps. As per pics below I've:

On Asus/VPN router:
(1) assigned static ip on WAN to 192.168.100.5 and used Google DNS servers
(2) set up LAN with 192.168.200.1 with DHCP 192.168.200.10-254
(3) assigned fixed channel 13

On Huawei modem/router:
(1) adjusted DHCP range to 192.168.100.10-254
(2) assigned to fixed channel 10

Now as per last pic I can't for the life of me work out how to assign the static IP of the Asus on the Huawei

ASUS:

ImageUploadedByAVForums1449072746.084728.jpg

ImageUploadedByAVForums1449072768.747429.jpg

ImageUploadedByAVForums1449072790.604455.jpg


Huawei:

ImageUploadedByAVForums1449072829.574135.jpg

ImageUploadedByAVForums1449072873.596090.jpg

ImageUploadedByAVForums1449072885.118821.jpg
 
You're not trying to assign a static ip for the Asus on the Huawei. You're looking at the firewall settings on the Huawei to see if you can add the Asus WAN IP 192.168.100.5 to it's DMZ (assuming it has a DMZ, might not).

Try it without the DMZ first and see what happens.
 
There was a DMZ option I believe so will have a fiddle with that tomorrow. As it stands now, the Asus wifi is not transmitting data so hopefully the DMZ fixes that.
 
If it's working ok wired to the Asus but not Wifi I'd tend to troubleshoot the Asus settings for a solution. Looking at the following forum thread I googled I think it's a setting in the Merlin software you flashed your Asus with that's preventing wireless clients using the VPN, as it seems you can restrict what clients get to go over the VPN.

Asus RT-AC3200 Router and VPN | SmallNetBuilder Forums
 
Hmm... It's not working wired to Asus either. Is that because I haven't added to the DMZ or has another setting impacted this now?
 
You have incorrect gateway on ASUS WAN. Gateway should be the other routers LAN address.
Limegreen is quite correct, on the Asus router internet connection page in your first pic you need to change the default gateway to 192.168.100.1 so the Asus knows external internet traffic goes out to the Huawei router.
 
Awesome gents, that change now has wired and wireless working from Asus. I am incredibly grateful to you both but especially to you MacrosTheBlack for walking me through the whole process. Also to confirm that's the VPN working over wireless!
 

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