Hub One not recognising devices on network

[#1]

I have a Hub One router, and numerous devices on the network, which are all connected to the router via a switch/ wifi doofer.

The wifi is disconnected on the Hub One router, so all access to the Hub One is via Ethernet.

Recently, I have started to see issues with some devices, where they cannot access the internet.

Upon further analysis (and I admit I know nothing about this topic, so my apologies), if I have a device with Ethernet and wifi, and I allocate both to have DHCP, this used to work, and now doesn't - and the wifi won't connect.

If I allocate (on the device) a static IP address for the wifi, then I can access the device on the LAN, but it doesn't show up on the list of attached devices on the router.

In the list of devices in the DHCP table, there are devices that have static IP addresses as well as DHCP IP addresses.

So, I did an nmap scan of all devices, and the "missing" devices show up, but without their "friendly" names (e.g."Hagrids-PC").

I checked that the IP address resides in the valid range of IP addresses for the router (it is set to "only" allow devices between e.g. 50-253 on the relevant subnet, and I can see devices recognised above and below, so that isn't it.
Seeing similar posts, and there should be no issue with the IP address.
Rebooting the router also has no effect.

In addition, it seems to be an issue with the router, as the device - if operating from a "non-functioning" IP address, can be connected to using VNC, and accessed within the LAN, and can "see" the internet as long as I use the IP address, and not the url.

If I disconnect the Ethernet cable, then  I lose all access to the device - even if VNC is connected via WiFi!

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Many thanks,

[#2]

@DinghySailor49 welcome to the community

There appears to be some confusion regarding IP Addressing

Assuming the Hub One is using the default settings it's setting will be

Hub One 192.168.1.254 Class C network which uses a netmask of 255.255.255.0

The means the subnet has 254 IP Addresses 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254

The DHCP IP Address pool is 192.168.1.64 to 192.168.1.253

Looking at the IPv4  network properties for a DHCP device would look something like

IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100 <---- device set to use DHCP
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.154

IP Addresses 192.168.1.1. to 192.168.1.63 are still usable but connecting devices will need to be manually configured to use them.

So any device with an IP Address in the range 192.168.1.1.to 192.168.1.254 should work on the network

Can you advise the settings you use?

EDIT: devices manually setup may not appear on the list of attached devices.

[#3]

Many thanks @Dan_the_Van .

My settings on the router are the default with the default DHCP address pool (many thanks for that explanation).

If I set some devices to use DHCP for wifi and for Ethernet, it works for some devices, but recently, it no longer works for other devices, and the router will not assign a DHCP IP address to some devices, but does to other devices.

If I manually set the IP address as a static IP address, it may work for a time, however, if I disconnect the Ethernet cable, the wifi connection stops working on that device.

This may sound like it is the device rather than the router, but then if I disconnect the Ethernet and use DHCP for the wifi, the wifi connection might connect, but then does not show up in the DHCP table, and does not have internet access using a url, but may well work if I use an IP address!
This suggested to me that for some reason the router wasn't recognising the device, and therefore not providing access to the DNS.
I tried adding the wifi as a static IP address, and then adding the PlusNet DNS Name Servers manually - but that didn't work either.
Any other ideas would be appreciated.
Many thanks,

[#4]

@DinghySailor49 

If I understand you have turned off the Hub One WiFi and use a WiFi booster, am I correct?

If so, what is the make and model of the booster?. Does it also have a DHCP server, assuming a flat LAN (everything using the IP address range 192.168.1.x) it (booster DHCP server) should be turned off as there should only be one DHCP server for a network subnet.

A device should have either a wired or wireless connection NOT both.

[#5]

Many thanks @Dan_the_Van .

There is only one DHCP server on the network.

The device I use for the wifi is a mesh system from Netgear, which connects to the router.

I agree that a device should use Ethernet or wifi, but the problem I have is that the device I am trying to sort out at the moment is to be situated in a difficult to reach place, where its Ethernet port will be connected to a device, and so I need the wifi to be able to access the internet , and at the moment, if I disable the Ethernet port, the wifi doesn't work in DHCP mode, and I need to set a static IP address.

If I set the static IP address, I cannot access the internet (nor in DHCP).

The device doesn't show up on the router irrespective of whether I use DHCP or a static IP address.

nmap shows the wifi device.

The Netgear mesh device shows both the Etrhernet and wifi IP addresses.

This is what leads me to believe it is router related.

Many thanks,

[#6]

@DinghySailor49 

Ideally with a MESH system you connect the router to a modem for DSL copper connection or ONT for Full Fibre

How have you configured the Mesh system, as a wireless access point or does is it still have router functions?

Hub One router to Mesh router will result in two network subnets 192.168.1.x for the Hub and 192.168.?.? for the MESH 

If the Mesh is a wireless access point then it's IP Address would be one on the Hub One. The Hub device list only list's devices which are allocated an IP by the Hub DHCP server, that's why a IP Address Scanner see's it

Some random questions

What mode is the Mesh router in, WAP or router, If router what IP address range have you used.

What is the device that requires both ethernet and WiFi?

What device is running the DHCP server

What have you turned off on the Hub two

For the static IP Address what are the settings you use

[#7]

Many thanks again @Dan_the_Van .

The MESH system is used for access within the home, and is a wireless access point, and is not used as a router (assuming my understanding is correct!).

Only the Plus One is connected to broadband.

All DHCP IP addresses are only assigned by the Hub One.
On the DHCP table, are devices with static IP addresses and DHCP IP addresses.
In addition, there is a list of devices on the home network, and again it includes some devices with static IP addresses, but not all.

And in the case where I disable the Ethernet port of the device in question, irrespective of whether the wifi is static IP address or DHCP, it does not show up on the Hub One at all.

The device that requires Ethernet and wifi - will have the Ethernet on a different subnet - but as I can only get internet via Ethernet, I currently cannot have it located in the right place, until I can prove the wifi can access the internet.
The device is a small single board computer.

The only device on the network running a DHCP server is the Hub One.

On the Hub One, I have turned off the wifi - both 2.4G & 5G - as that is provided by the MESH network.

The reason for the MESH system was that the Hub One signal doesn't reach half the house (and it is not a big house).

For the static IP address, I use an unassigned value - mid-range in the IP range; the netmask is 255.255.255.0 and the gateway is the IP address of the Hub One.

I hope that helps!

My thanks again,

[#8]

Thanks for your reply, what is the single board computer,  the operating system, what addresses are you trying to give each interface? 

I have a Hub One which I'll fire up tomorrow morning to see if I get the same results. 

A ping from the invisible device to the Hub might help it appear.

Catch up tomorrow.

[#9]

@DinghySailor49 

Have you considered using DHCP for the wireless device and setting to 'Always use this IP Address'

Before starting set the device to use DHCP and make sure it is connected

From the Hub One Home navigate to >Advanced Setting >Home Network > Devices

Click on the device to you wish to set

 

Change to Yes, you can also set the IP Address to one of your choice BUT it must be one within the DHCP pool, maybe use 192.168.1.200 or change the DHCP start IP Address to be one below your preferred IP Address.

With regards of the Ethernet connection I would suggest a reboot after the change is made as sometimes a Network Card is not dynamic and only read the settings on boot

HTH

[#10]

My thanks again @Dan_the_Van .

I cannot get to the point where I use DHCP on the wifi device, as the wifi device is never "picked up" by the router.

I think if it were, then I could try your idea of the static IP being assigned by the router, which I use on other devices.

I have seen others report that PlusNet routers can have an issue with dealing with more than a certain number of devices, which I took with a pinch of salt.

PlusNet did say they would replace my Plus One router some years ago, so I don't know if replacing the router would sort the issue.
My thanks again for your help.

[#11]

@DinghySailor49 

What is the device you are having issues with? You may need to ensure there is no ethernet connection, as some devices disable wireless if a ethernet connection exists.

The device should search for active wireless access points and then you'll be prompted for the network key/passcode on attempting to connect, but I guess you know that.

Looking at >Troubleshooting >Event log selecting category WiFi do you see any entries for this device attempting to connect? (Probably not)

From what i can remember the Hub One does not have issues with the number of devices connected, I have had over 20 in the past.

[#12]

My thanks again @Dan_the_Van .

My apologies for the delay, but I have made some progress, and I think there are two issues - I still think that the Hub One is not "seeing" devices (in one example, a device appeared as not connected, when I was looking at the device and could see it was "in action"!

Whilst this isn't great, I think at the moment, I can live with it.

The device I was most concerned about is a RaspberryPi 4, running bookworm.

I found this page: https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/issues/6049 after running dmesg, which had lots of errors of the form:-

brcmfmac: brcmf_set_channel: set chanspec ????? fail, reason -52

---

The solution that worked for me  was from "Matthew1471" posted on 26th Jan 2025 was to edit 

/boot/firmware/cmdline.txt

 I used

sudo nano /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt

and the file has numerous options separated by a space, and so I suffixed

options brcmfmac feature_disable=0x282000

then save/ exit, and reboot, and I then ran dmesg and the errors had gone, and I could use the Ethernet and wifi devices.

As that was yesterday, I need to revisit to see if the router is recognising all devices correctly.

My thanks again for your help!

[#13]

@DinghySailor49 

Good you're getting somewhere, my Pi 4 is currently running off a SSD card and is one of my LAN fileserver

This is a handy link for knowledge for setting up bookworm network interfaces (EDIT if not running the desktop)

https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2024/set-static-ip-address-nmtui-on-raspberry-pi-os-12-bookworm 

Hope this helps