DSM-330 problem on switched network
The DSM-330 seems to have a hard time living on a switched network. It has worked fine on a network routed through a Thomson SpeedTouch 546i for over a year. Now I have gotten a new ISP and have received a network switch, Edimax 3105p, but now the DSM-330 doesn't want to play ball anymore.
I think it's due to the fact that the Edimax gives a new DHCP gateway for each node on the network, and thus the DSM-330 and the PC aren't sharing the same DHCP.
The funny thing is that the Connected Server on the PC can see the DSM-330 is on the network, but the DSM-330 can't find the Server on the PC. This leads me to believe there is some sort of lame routine on the DSM-330 that only lets it find Servers that have the same IP address other than the last number.
Right now my Connected Server is on 84.38.158.84, with a DHCP gateway at 84.38.158.1. The DSM-330 has an IP of 84.38.152.35 and a DHCP gateway at 84.38.152.1.
I have tested changing the IP manually on the DSM-330 to share the same DHCP gateway as the PC, and that works - except it will disconnect from the server whenever it feels like it. I'm guessing it's the DHCP gateway that kicks it off, or something.
How can I get this to work as it should?!?!
I'm running 1.3 version of the Server on my PC since there's too many problems with 1.4, and I'm not sure if I want to venture off into 1.5 beta territory unless there is some bug fix that will help me remedy this situation.
The DHCP server should not assign IP addresses outside the subnet mask.
The switch is giving it a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0... So when I restart the DSM-330, it freaks out and doesn't know what's going on, so I have to go in and manually set it to 255.255.0.0 again and save for it to find the server on the PC again...
Is it just the switch that's being dumb? Is it common for a switch to give different DHCP gateways to each node on the same network?
When it gives the PC an IP of (example) 10.10.20.3, with a gateway of 10.10.20.1 and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0; and gives the DSM-330 an IP of 10.10.30.3, with a gateway of 10.10.30.1, and subnet mask of 255.255.255.0... Is that normal?
If I can recall, the SpeedTouch set up all nodes through the same DHCP gateway and their IPs were all the same except the last number...
Let me know if it's just the switch being a moron, then I will just live with the manual hack for a while and eventually get a better switch (perhaps one with an HTTP console)...
Most important for the scope of this forum, though, is to just confirm whether or not this is a bug that can be programmed different with the Connected software setup to avoid these kinds of problems or if it's just my switch messing things up.
Last thought: I'm starting to think my switch isn't even assigning any of the IP addresses... Might be something further "up the line" and the switch is just delegating on its behalf, which would explain why it's acting so weird.
Is there any reason you need to use a bridge? I have used the product in countless situations with DHCP and switches without any similar issues.
Can you describe the router and switches or bridges you are using?
It's an Edimax 3105p... It receives signal from my fiber-optic line that gets used for both Internet and IP-TV. It's giving each node its own DHCP gateway, and cutting them off from each other by setting a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. It's not a managed switch, so there's no way to change any settings on it. Guess it's just doing everything wrong, or is this how switches are supposed to work?
For instance, one PC will have 10.10.10.4, and another PC plugged into the same switch will have 10.10.11.6. With a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, unless by a freak accident they end up within the same IP range, the PCs can't see each other.
What's odd, though, is that my PC can always see the DSM-330 regardless of the IP, while the DSM-330 can't see the Server.
That's what led me to believe that the DSM-330 should be able to see the Server even though it's on a different DHCP gateway, but no dice.
Search on the threads here for UPnP. Somebody else had a problem where their router wasn't passing the Universal Plug-and-Play Discovery Packets over the net. That sounds a little like your problem.
Maybe another approach would be to find a switch that wasn't quite so 'smart' and plug it into your EDIMAX through it's uplink port, and plug your PC and DSM-330 into that 'dumb' switch, then they wouldn't have to route through the EDIMAX.
Yeah, I tried to use the SpeedTouch for that purpose, but it seems like it didn't manage the connections at all, and still let the Edimax assign them IPs and all that. That might be because it's an ADSL router/switch and not a normal network switch.
Shouldn't have to get another router just to work around this problem though, especially when I can trick it to work for about 5-15 minutes at a time by faking its IP address on the network. The Server can also always see the DSM-330... but not the other way around.
Seems like a firmware/software issue to me, that it doesn't check for servers that are on anything other than IPs that are similar on the first 3 numbers...
For now I have solved this by turning off DHCP and just editing the subnet mask to 255.255.0.0 so that it will know to look on other ranges of the IP address than just the last number.
Whether or not this will work long term is another matter... I'm just wondering if it's hard-coded somewhere in the firmware or software to use a 255.255.255.0 subnet mask, but I'm guessing this might come from the DHCP server, and since in this case I can't control the DHCP server, I'm SOL...?
Running the 1.5beta software now.