Firewall for WiFi extenders
Firewall for WiFi extenders
This is my second update about it. The waveform FX1300 (possibly 3100) T-Mobile modem isn’t working on wireless. It’s in the top floor office and I connect from my living room at 17mbps. The device sits right above me. My home network uses switches throughout—8 ports in the living room, 8 in the office, plus 24 ports (100mbps) plus two SFP and four gig ports. Netgear is in the basement with a server running about ten Ethernets. The 8-port switches are Gigabit, while the Netgear mixes things up. It’s handy that the Netgear supports PoE on around 12 of the 24 ports. Overall, it makes sense given the setup.
The T-Mobile box goes to the basement (a Netgear switch), then the living room switch (8 ports, Gigabit) and the office switch (8 ports, Gigabit/TP-Link) are off their main ports. Any device with an Ethernet port is clearly hardwired. I’m trying static IPv4 for everything. The modem assigns MAC addresses and follows my settings—“you” are .12, “you” are .20. Perfect.
Also, I don’t have 5Gbps internet anywhere—probably not intentional. Moving on, poor 2.4/5 signal pushed me to a Netgear AC1750 (ex6250). I plugged it in, reset it, and set it up as a repeater. It’s acting as a mesh repeater, which is confusing. I’ve used WR-54G repeaters with DDWRT enabled for similar setups. They work fine, but it’s not an AP—there’s a switch nearby. It seems to be using NAT or something; I can’t find my wireless devices with nmap or the modem.
My modem connects everything, including devices that accidentally connect to it. The laptop shows the MAC address and it works. Still, I can’t assign static IPs. It pulls up all ports, but nothing shows up for the repeater itself. It’s a firewall, probably. I tried scanning with nmap and WiFi to repeater, but still no signal. It’s disconnected from my subnet—no surprise.
The modem connects everything, even devices that accidentally connect. The repeater is visible on the scan, but it’s not showing up as connected. It’s a firewall, possibly blocking certain ports. I can’t disable it or change NAT settings. If anyone wants help, just send my IP and let me know if you want DM.
I have a T-Mobile static IP, which is why I’m trying static IPs for everything. Still, how do I assign them to Wi-Fi when the repeater isn’t pulling up? It’s not working as expected.
Honestly, if I were in your position, I’d have already bought a new repeater at BestBuy. All the firewall rules and hidden devices just don’t appeal to me. I value straightforward features and solid documentation. From what I see, the device seems designed for easy plug-and-play. I’m not sure you’ll enjoy tweaking the settings—maybe stick to using it as an access point instead of trying to force it into another role. Also, your mention of static addressing clashes with the fact you have reserved addresses, suggesting a DHCP server is already in place. That said, using a specific VLAN would be a much better approach. Why would you risk it on your own network?
It wasn’t easy, but I got it done. A more complex setup with Fortinet rack firewalls and APs was needed. After changing it to a single AP and tightening things, devices started showing up. The tricky part was figuring out what exactly the smart light was—lol! “Alto beam” repeated five times? That’s another topic for later, but the issue is solved!