Asus RT-AT66U as a Server?

I have read, or tried to read, the FAQ sticky. Much of the terminology is a mystery for me but I am slogging through it. I was able to set up the Asus as a Media Bridge, I think. At least it shows up as that on Control Panel/Devices and Printers/Multimedia Devices. Also, it doesn't show up on the Available Networks scan by my laptop. So now I have to figure out how to give access to the players like VLC from the LAN. It's covered in Section 3.5 of the User Manual but once again it is a challenge to get there by this novice. If I can get to the Asus control Panel it's clear enough I believe to set up the access.
 
Sounds strange with unusual subnet masks & random config changes (media bridge is definitely not what you want)


If I was helping someone diagnose this I’d run though the following

Disconnect the AC66 from the isp router/hub thing & the usb drive.
Rest the AC66 to factory default [Wireless Router] ASUS router Hard Factory Reset - Method 1 | Official Support | ASUS UK
Connect a computer via ethernet
Go to the ac66 mgt console
Set the ac66 into access point mode https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wireless/RT-AC66U/E7891_RT_AC66U_Manual.pdf Page:83
Once this has been set & saved I’d expect to loose connectivity to the ac66

I’d then connect the computer to the isp router/hub thing again via ethernet
I’d take a note of the computers ip address, broadcast address & subnet mast
I’d connect to the isp router/hub thing mgt console & take a screen dump of the dhcp lease table so I knew what addresses were in use
I’d then connect the ac66 wan port to a isp router/hub thing switch port
I’d then take another screen dump of the dhcp lease table so I knew what addresses were added, it should be the new ac66 address
Id launch the asus utility & use the device discovery to check the new ac66 mgt console address. Page 87 of the asus manual
If I couldn’t confirm the new ip address in either of the above steps I would change the ethernet connection on the ac66 from the wan port to lan port, wait a minuet or two & re run the dhcp lease & asus utility to confirm

Once I had confirmed & accessed the ac66 mgt console when connected to the isp router/hub thing. I would move the computer to the ac66
I'd confirm the computer had the same ip, default gateway & sn mask as when connected to the isp router/hub thing, I then confirm that I still had access the the internet when connected via the ac66

At this stage I’d bring the USB drive back in to the mix, consider if I was going to turn off the ac66 wifi, leave it on with the default said/password or change the said/password to match my isp router/hub thing
 
I have read, or tried to read, the FAQ sticky. Much of the terminology is a mystery for me but I am slogging through it. I was able to set up the Asus as a Media Bridge, I think. At least it shows up as that on Control Panel/Devices and Printers/Multimedia Devices. Also, it doesn't show up on the Available Networks scan by my laptop. So now I have to figure out how to give access to the players like VLC from the LAN. It's covered in Section 3.5 of the User Manual but once again it is a challenge to get there by this novice. If I can get to the Asus control Panel it's clear enough I believe to set up the access.

Without wishing to sound mean spirited, you really are wasting your time until you get the IP addressing sorted. Until the fundamentals are working, there's little to no value messing with anything else. It's like trying to repair a car that won't start by changing the stereo, or fiddling with the satnav. It might "feel" good, but you are getting nowhere and possibly making things worse and just burning up your time until you circle back round to fixing the fundamental problem. Until you've fixed the engine starting issue, (let's say it had a flat battery,) the car is no use for anything else.

If there is anything that's causing you particular difficulty with changing your router's IP address or you need some extra help to understand any concepts, then don't hesitate to ask.
 
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The router will be using the smb1 protocol to share the usb drive, current os’s do not support smb1 due to security issues.

Also if you haven’t put the device into access point mode then you could also have multiple network segments at play if you follow the sticky post at the head of this sub forum about using a second router this should remove any issues.
Its just disabled, Windows 10 & 11 support it.
 
What I don’t understand is why I should be using “access point” mode instead of “media servers” mode. In the documentation I read that setting up “The Servers Center allows you to share the media files from the USB disk via a Media Server directory, Samba share service, or FTP share service. You can also configure other settings for the USB disk in the Servers Center.”

I was able to go in and set it up as a Servers Center. The manual keeps referring to using this mode for accessing the USB ports and disk drives attached to these ports. I believe my problem is that all the setup terms and condition are not in my knowledge realm and I have not been able to get it right.

If I should go back and set it up as “Access Point” I will do that if that is really the way to go.
 
What I don’t understand is why I should be using “access point” mode instead of “media servers” mode. In the documentation I read that setting up “The Servers Center allows you to share the media files from the USB disk via a Media Server directory, Samba share service, or FTP share service. You can also configure other settings for the USB disk in the Servers Center.”

I was able to go in and set it up as a Servers Center. The manual keeps referring to using this mode for accessing the USB ports and disk drives attached to these ports. I believe my problem is that all the setup terms and condition are not in my knowledge realm and I have not been able to get it right.

If I should go back and set it up as “Access Point” I will do that if that is really the way to go.
Access point mode refers to the operation and configuration of the device on the network. You already have a broadband router on the network, so in order to not conflict with it this is what the AP mode is for so the Asus router is just a "simple" access point instead of router managing the network.

The media server section has nothing to do with the configuration of the above and is just a variety of ways to shares files via the Asus.
 
The media server mode seems to be there for accessing the USB drives on the ports. I am ethernet wired to the network. Why is access point a better way of going? When I am media server setup the Asus doesn't show up on a network search so it is not conflicting with my network, I would think.
 
What IP addresses have your router and your ASUS got..?
The router is 192.168.68.74 and the Asus is 192.168.68.64. The Subnet on the router is 255.255.252.0 and the Gateway is 192.168.68.1. I believe the Subnet on the Asus is 255.255.252.1 also because I seem to remember that they had to be the same and early on one was 252 and the other 255.
 
The router is 192.168.68.74 and the Asus is 192.168.68.64. The Subnet on the router is 255.255.252.0 and the Gateway is 192.168.68.1. I believe the Subnet on the Asus is 255.255.252.1 also because I seem to remember that they had to be the same and early on one was 252 and the other 255.
The router and the gateway should be the same

To elaborate that: A subnet mask of 255.255.252.1 is invalid so perhaps you have mis-remembered it (a lot of kit would not have allowed you to enter such a subnet mask, but some will.) In an IP network (or "subnet" as we often refer to them) every device should be using the same subnet mask, so change the one on your ASUS to match everything else which prime-facie looks like it is 255.255.252.0

Subnet Mask 255.255.252.0 is unusual for small SOHO networks, (255.255.255.0 is more common) but it should be fine as long as everything is using the same one.

IP addresses are structured, a bit like real world postal addresses, and the subnet mask tells stations how to interpret that structure. Using the postal address analogy again, IP addresses consists of a "street-name"+"house-number" and the subnet mask tells hosts how much of the address is "street-name" and how much is "house-number" using something called a binary bit mask.

A subnet mask of 255.255.252.0 will avail an address space for 1022 host stations which is way more than most SOHO users need, but if it's working I'd leave it alone. (255.255.252.0 means 192.168.68.0 is the "subnet address" ("street-name") and 192.168.68.1 thru 192.168.71.254 are the station addresses ("house-numbers") with 192.168.71.255 being reserved for a special "broadcast address" ie "all stations.")

A subnet mask of 255.255.252.1 is completely invalid and I would be surprised if it works at all.

In one "knows what one is doing" we can use subnet masks to achieve certain effects, but a simple SOHO network rarely needs such features, so we just need to use it to instruct all stations to interpret the IP address structure in the same way, ie give them all the same subnet mask and default gateway (of which more below.)

When an IP host has an IP data packet to send, it uses it's IP address and subnet mask to determine whether the "destination" host is on "the same" subnet as itself (same "street-name") or a "different" subnet (different "street-name"). If the "the same" then the sending host will using some magic that send the traffic directly across the local network. If "different" the sending host will send the traffic to it's configured "default gateway." The "default gateway" device on receiving any traffic will determine where to send the traffic next to move it towards it's destination. This is what IP Routers "do" - make routing decisions about where to send any IP traffic they receive based on the traffic's destination IP address and a table of "routes" each router builds internally.

Thusly, in the SOHO use case, the "default gateway" for all hosts should be the IP address of your Internet connected router as that's the only "route" outside the local network that's of any concern to you (ie "the rest of the world.")

If your ISP Router has an IP address of 192.168.68.74 and any of your hosts have a default gateway of 192.168.68.1 then this is incorrect. Either your ISP router's LAN IP address is wrong (ie it should be 192.168.68.1) or your default gateway settings are incorrect (ie it should be 192.168.68.74.) You should verify what your ISP connected router's "LAN" IP address is and that should be the "default gateway" for all other stations.

When looking at router configs, be aware that routers (and only routers) may also have something called a "default route." This is a different "thing" to the "default gateway" despite the names being similar. Don't mess with the default route in your ISP router or you may break the whole network's Internet access (it will probably have self configured it in any case and may no let you change it.) Your ASUS should not need a default route, but it won't hurt if it has one. Since we don't want the ASUS to route any traffic (irrespective of whether it's in AP mode or router mode) it doesn't matter what it's default route is. But the ASUS LAN IP address and subnet mask do matter and need to be consistent with the rest of your subnet as discussed above.

Also, in AP Mode your ASUS may need to be told a "default gateway" but just set that the same as the rest of your network (ie 192.168.68.74 or 192.168.68.1 when you have determined which of those is the correct IP address you ISP router.) In "router mode" your ASUS (probably) won't have a "default gateway" as such things are meaningless to routers (routers have "default routes" instead.)

Whatever "mode" you set the ASUS to, you must ensure it's built in DHCP Server is "off." AP mode probably turns it off for you automatically. In Router mode, you may need to do it yourself.

I cannot think why the media server functionality should differ between the ASUS AP Mode and Router mode, but it depends how ASUS wrote their software.

However, fix the IP addressing first, them we can investigate what's going on with SMB and file serving.

As described, it's sounds more complicated than it is, especially to someone new to all this, but once you've got the IP addressing sorted, you may find it all "magically" just works.
 
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The media server mode seems to be there for accessing the USB drives on the ports. I am ethernet wired to the network. Why is access point a better way of going? When I am media server setup the Asus doesn't show up on a network search so it is not conflicting with my network, I would think.

From the strange network behaviour you are describing I suspect you have confused usb server & media centre modes, the later is described below.


[Wireless Router] How to set up media bridge mode on ASUS Wireless Router? | Official Support | ASUS Global.


Here is your routers manual 3.5 usb server vs 4.7.1 Media centre.3.5.

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wireless/RT-AC66U/E7891_RT_AC66U_Manual.pdf

If you have confused the two modes then again I suggest you set the router to access point mode & then follow the usb server instructions.
 
CM,

Thanks for your suggestion. Unfortunately, I have given up on the project. I’ve spent hours trying different schemes and I have yet to get it to work. It’s just too complicated for my simple mind. I’m sure I could hire someone like you to come in and set it up in less than an hour. But I’m guessing that it must not be important enough for me or I would have done that.

I’m sorry to have wasted a lot of people’s time on this. It was stimulating trying to figure this out although quite frustrating on the way.
 

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