This topic

Setting up IPv6 on ASUS Router Connected to Smarthub 2 with BT 900 Fibre

IainMcFarlane — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 19:13:26 GMT

I am upgrading to BT900 Full Fibre from BT 300, I use the Smarthub 2 to connect to the Internet via the BT modem and I also have a seperate ASUS Router DSL-AC68 and 3 AImesh nodes that are connected to the Smarthub via ethernet and are running as a seperate network (I had to keep the smarthub 2 doing modem duties due to digital phones I was led to belive, I had the ASUS mesh before the Fibre 300 product so wanted to keep this as a lot of home items hang off this mesh). I noticed when in checking a few things to add my new BT disc just sent that IPv6 is noted as not enabled for the ASUS connection and sure enough in the ASUS router it is disabled. Is it worth enabling this? could it cause issues if enabled, and if I do enable which of the basic set-up options should I choose? Native, Passthrough, Static, FLETS or any of the various tunnel options.

Any suggestions, advice or help would be greatfully recieved.

Re: Setting up IPv6 on ASUS Router Connected to Smarthub 2 with BT 900 Fibre

TimCurtis — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 08:19:12 GMT

@IainMcFarlane

I'm on Fibre 2 with the SH2 because of DV and with the DSL-AC68U.

The setting use for IPv6 is Passthrough and in the System Log , IPv6 tab it shows my IPv6 addresses.

On my PC Test-ipv6.com says that I don't have IPv6 but doing the same test on my iPhone 11 it gives me 10/10 for IPv4 & 6 so I'm assuming my PC is the issue here but everything else is OK.

Re: Setting up IPv6 on ASUS Router Connected to Smarthub 2 with BT 900 Fibre

IainMcFarlane — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 11:24:46 GMT

Tim, thanks, will set it up, my new laptop etc. are all compliant, I will give it a go knowing I can always put it back.

another think I notice is when connected to BT Wi-Fi I cannot route to the interface page of the ASUS router is there a way that I can get the two networks to allow this via opening a port or similar? I am guessing it’s because both are separate networks both operating DHCP separately ( the ASUS is in DMZ for connecting out to internet through the BT hub !

Re: Setting up IPv6 on ASUS Router Connected to Smarthub 2 with BT 900 Fibre

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 12:08:21 GMT

@IainMcFarlane

BT Wifi (public hotspot) is totally separate via a Virtual Path back to the BT server, and has its own DHCP server on a different subnet.

As it needs to be authenticated, its not really of any use.

Re: Setting up IPv6 on ASUS Router Connected to Smarthub 2 with BT 900 Fibre

IainMcFarlane — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 15:57:45 GMT

Keith

Sorry did not articulate my situation preperly. when I mention BT wifi, I mean the wifi from the Smarthub 2.

As I say I have an ASUS router with 3 further mesh nodes that is connected to my Smarthub 2 by ethernet, This serves seperated 2.4 and 5 gHz wirelss networks that I have most of my smart home items set up to (mauch easier for the 2.4 only stuff). The main mesh hub is also wired to the main ASUS DSL-AC68 router and I use the other ethernet ports on this mesh hub in my living room for connecting my hi-fi and sky out through (Prefer these all on fully wired for streaming etc). The Main ASUS router is oprerating DHCP in the range of 192.168.2.1 to 254 leaving the standard 192.168.1.1 to 254 for the SH2 that is connected direct to the BT modem (kept it this way as I understand the SH2 is needed for digital phone otherwise I would have used the ASUS as the main connection point). What I have done as I say is link the ASUS to the SH2 by ethernet and the SH2 allocates an IP address by DHCP to allow the ASUS and the SH2 to work on that port. Issue I have is if I am on my PC on the BT SH2 WIFi network, I cannot get the ASUS router interface up on the laptop (192.168.1.1 is address) to see how the network is if I am having any issues, I have to switch my wireless connection to the ASUS 5 gHz to allow me to do this and back again if I want to look at the BT SH2 webpage (192.168.1.254 by default). I have all my wireless heavy traffic stuff connected to the SH2 , normally, PC, phones, ipads etc simply as it saves a bit of traffic from the ASUS to the BT, but if I do want to look accross the network I have to continuoulsy switch networks. What I am wondering is if there is a way I can have the 192.168.1 - range directly accisible while I am on the SH2 wifi. so I can see what is happening where!

I am going to try the IPv6 stuff also, and it would be nice to have both the interfaces running at the same time so I dont need to keep swapping wifi when I am "tweaking" (breaking) things

hope this rambling makes sense!

Re: Setting up IPv6 on ASUS Router Connected to Smarthub 2 with BT 900 Fibre

TimCurtis — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 16:48:25 GMT

@IainMcFarlane

My SH2 does very little other than direct everything to my Asus, but obviously handling DV.

My SH2 has it's DHCP turned OFF and I've disabled it's wifi completely. It port forwards TCP/UDP on both IPv4 & 6 directly to the Asus's IP address.

I can see no reason for the SH2 to be doing anything other than handling DV and acting as modem for the Asus.

Port forwarding only works I think for internet traffic coming into the SH2 not for wifi access, although I could be wrong.

I've kept my Asus on the 192.168.1.nnn subnet as it's standard but set the SH2 as 192.168.2.1 with 192.168.2.2 as the IP address that the SH2 forwards to on the Asus as that's how I've defined the Asus port's IP Address. The subnet mask I use is 255.255.252.0 btw

Re: Setting up IPv6 on ASUS Router Connected to Smarthub 2 with BT 900 Fibre

TimCurtis — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 16:52:05 GMT

The only thing that doesn't work is accessing the Asus using the Asus app when not on my internal wifi, but I can do that by logging in directly via a browser should I need to.

Re: Setting up IPv6 on ASUS Router Connected to Smarthub 2 with BT 900 Fibre

IainMcFarlane — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 17:36:18 GMT

Tim

again thanks for the feedback. I kept the BT wirelss on the go simply as I have a lot of devices and I thought I would spread the load a bit. What I have now is workable and I do have lots of WIFI capacity as it stands. I can also use the phone app on the ASUS as well, but its not quite as easy as the web app. In reality I will have made the changes (speed update and getting IPv6 up and running) so in reality I will probably stop tinkering again soon!!

I think the next major update I may consider is triband mesh and Wifi 6, if I do that I will almost certainly set up as you suggest as above with the SH2 really only acting as a pass through.

Thanks for the help, I have taken note of your set-up for future reference!!

Re: Setting up IPv6 on ASUS Router Connected to Smarthub 2 with BT 900 Fibre

IainMcFarlane — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 17:38:57 GMT

Meant to ask, can I ask the reason for the change to subnet mask used?

Re: Setting up IPv6 on ASUS Router Connected to Smarthub 2 with BT 900 Fibre

IainMcFarlane — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 19:00:11 GMT

Tim

I have found a workaround, there is a feature to allow access to the Router from the WEB - I have enabled this and saved the access link as a bookmark, it now does not matter what wifi I am on I can access the routers at the same time !!

Re: Setting up IPv6 on ASUS Router Connected to Smarthub 2 with BT 900 Fibre

TimCurtis — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 09:48:45 GMT

@IainMcFarlane

Re the subnet mask,this is how I think it works.

When you use 255.255.255.0 then within your network you can only access devices with the same first 3 parts of the address the same , ie 192.168.1 to 192.168.1.255.

When you use something like 255.255.252.0 then it's more like 192.168.0.1 to 192.168.3.254. In truth I copied what someone else had done successfully and I'm thinking this is the logic behind it.

In my situation my Asus is 192.168.1.1 and my SH2 is 192.168.2.1 and the Asus port is set to 192.168.2.2 and I can see either device from either device but with 255.255.255.0 I don't think I could.

I'm sure I can be corrected in my thinking here 😊

Also I said that the Asus app didn't work when not on my local network , well that's incorrect as it does.

Re: Setting up IPv6 on ASUS Router Connected to Smarthub 2 with BT 900 Fibre

licquorice — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 10:23:06 GMT

@TimCurtis That's correct. The subnet mask determines how many bits of the address are network and how many are hosts. The 255.255.255.0 mask gives a /24 network i.e 24 bits for network with 8 bits for hosts giving 256 hosts. 255.255.252.0 is a /22 network with 1024 hosts.

Re: Setting up IPv6 on ASUS Router Connected to Smarthub 2 with BT 900 Fibre

TimCurtis — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 10:27:59 GMT

@licquorice

Lucky guess on my part 🙂

@IainMcFarlane

Just to add that I use the Asus DDNS service and even with the Asus not directly connected to the internet that DDNS name is kept up-to-date as the Asus does a check every 6 hours and if a internet connection is reset. That may only be true of the later firmware versions though.

Re: Setting up IPv6 on ASUS Router Connected to Smarthub 2 with BT 900 Fibre

countrypaul — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 13:14:09 GMT

@IainMcFarlane
Re the subnet mask,this is how I think it works.
When you use 255.255.255.0 then within your network you can only access devices with the same first 3 parts of the address the same , ie 192.168.1 to 192.168.1.255.
When you use something like 255.255.252.0 then it's more like 192.168.0.1 to 192.168.3.254. In truth I copied what someone else had done successfully and I'm thinking this is the logic behind it.
In my situation my Asus is 192.168.1.1 and my SH2 is 192.168.2.1 and the Asus port is set to 192.168.2.2 and I can see either device from either device but with 255.255.255.0 I don't think I could.
I'm sure I can be corrected in my thinking here

Also I said that the Asus app didn't work when not on my local network , well that's incorrect as it does.

@TimCurtis

The range of addresses for a /22 mask should be from .0.0 to .2.255, some routers use 192.168.2.0 and some use 192.168.2.255 for the actual router address. But whilst technically these end of range addresses are usable, some devices do not handle them properly so generally best avoided.

Re: Setting up IPv6 on ASUS Router Connected to Smarthub 2 with BT 900 Fibre

licquorice — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 13:59:07 GMT

.255 shouldn't be used as that is a broadcast address for that network.

Re: Setting up IPv6 on ASUS Router Connected to Smarthub 2 with BT 900 Fibre

TimCurtis — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 14:49:10 GMT

When I referred to 192.168.1.255 in my post above that was a typo and obviously should have been 192.168.1.254.

Re: Setting up IPv6 on ASUS Router Connected to Smarthub 2 with BT 900 Fibre

IainMcFarlane — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 17:53:09 GMT

Tim

coming back to this post as I would like to be able to have devices see each other accross my 2 networks (especilly when it comes to connecting to streaming amps etc.

Do I change the subnet mask to 255.255.252.0 on both routers ?

I would like to make the changes but not muck it up as I do not fancy resetting everything and having to go back through all the setup.

Will I have to turn off one of the DHCP and then allocate fixed IP addresses between the routers or will they both happily coexist as long as they are on basically different IP ranges?

Re: Setting up IPv6 on ASUS Router Connected to Smarthub 2 with BT 900 Fibre

licquorice — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 18:17:49 GMT

@IainMcFarlane wrote:

Tim

coming back to this post as I would like to be able to have devices see each other accross my 2 networks (especilly when it comes to connecting to streaming amps etc.

Do I change the subnet mask to 255.255.252.0 on both routers ?

Yes

I would like to make the changes but not muck it up as I do not fancy resetting everything and having to go back through all the setup.

Will I have to turn off one of the DHCP and then allocate fixed IP addresses between the routers or will they both happily coexist as long as they are on basically different IP ranges?

They will coexist, the range you set on each will be different.

Re: Setting up IPv6 on ASUS Router Connected to Smarthub 2 with BT 900 Fibre

IainMcFarlane — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 19:14:28 GMT

Tim

thanks, will make a point of having a go at this tomorrow!! (need to pluck up the courage 😄 )

Re: Setting up IPv6 on ASUS Router Connected to Smarthub 2 with BT 900 Fibre

IainMcFarlane — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 19:28:28 GMT

Hi all

i have tried to update the Subnets on my routers, the BT router has updated fine, but when I go onto the ASUS I get an error message saying “WAN and LAN should have different IP addresses and subnet

also even with the 252 subnet on the BT I am still struggling to see anything on the ASUS router currently ! It’s not a killer for me but would be great to have full visibility across my networks !