Subject: Any Nexland router ex
From: Charles Smith (smithcm@alaska.net)
Date: Thu Oct 10 2002 - 21:35:01 AKDT
Chris Hamilton writes:
> Hi all, I'm interested in getting a Nexland router. It will
> let me run 2 DSL lines through a singe router. This will be
> new to me and I'm wondering if anyone out there has tried this
> particular unit
I'm currently downloading your pdf to look at it, but in the mean time I'll
hammer out this note.
My understanding of the serial port on the Nexland routers is that it is a
backup up port for the router to dialup a network connection if the WAN
connection fails. Are you sure you can run the serial and WAN network
connections concurrently?
I have had a lot of experience with the Nexland boxes Pro400 and 800 series
and they did present problems with constant connection resets when connected
to CABLE MODEMS. These resets caused much grief for my clients. One
afternoon I spent about two hours with a tech from GCI researching the
problem and this is what we found:
If you take a lap top PC and set the IP address to a 192.168.1.x or
192.168.0.x address and connect to a cable modem you will get a conflict of
the IP address. We used a Windows OS so that we could quickly and easily get
the conflicting MAC addresses. Take the MAC of that error message and it
will often match that of a Nexland router. There are lists on the Internet
that show what company or make of equipment uses what range of MAC
addresses. We did this from one customer location and then had the GCI
network people trace the MAC through their list of static IP customers to
identify the customer. All of our customers must have static IP. The first
conflict customer was one doing business with our company. I called that
customer and had them shutdown their Nexland box. We rebooted the laptop and
once again traced the MAC address. The second conflict was with a third
customer of ours. I called them and had them shutdown their Nexland. The
laptop was rebooted again and the MAC this time reported a conflict with a
MAC address that did trace back to a static IP or one of our customers, but
the MAC was a Nexland unit and located off of Tudor and A St. area.
This test was done from the Lake Otis and 42nd area. One conflicting address
was at the DeBarr and Airport Heights area, and I believe my second customer
was out on Dimond blvd. There are some points about this test to be noted.
The MAC addresses presenting the conflict were Nexland boxes. The conflicts
were being reported for IP addresses that were INSIDE THE FIREWALL of the
Nexland boxes. The conflicts took place across multiple cable segments and
pieces of equipment, or however they breakup their network. GCI network
configuration may also have a hand in the problem based on the IP addresses
should not be routing on the Internet. Anchorage may be setup as one big
personal gaming network for some people.
I got onto the Nexland support and posted my findings. The suggested that I
change all of the firmware back to their older firmware, 1.3 I think. I did
and it didn't, however their oldest boxes, pre PRO series, did not present
this problem.
So many people had this problem and I think it may have been the reason
Nexland changed the format of their support forum. I still have four or five
of the boxes I can see from my desk that have been swapped out with Linksys
boxes.
If you get one, set it up and see how long you retain the same WAN address,
if it keeps resetting to the point you have to unplug to reset on a regular
basis then that backup serial port may not do you any good.
This has been my experience with Nexland equipment Pro800 and Pro400 series
as of two years ago max.
Charlie
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2a23 : Tue Oct 15 2002 - 11:59:39 AKDT