Amazon Echo Devices

[JefferyMiller17244]

I'm a novice to the Cisco RV345 router, so bare with me.

I recently placed an RV345 into my network environment in preparation for a dual-WAN setup. Originally our setup was very straight forward and everything -- both hardwire and wireless -- was being served by a Netgear AX6000 Orbi system. The Orbi acted as the router and there were no other special configuration settings -- everything was using the default setup.

After installing and setting up the IP range on the RV345 we switched the Orbi into Access Point mode. All devices -- hardwired and wireless -- connect and get their IP address properly and are able connect to the internet.

All devices except the Amazon Echo devices. They are connected to wireless fine but none of them will communicate back to Amazon now. I'm assuming it is an issue with not having the right ports open, but I cannot find anything anywhere that talks about any ports that Amazon needs open for the Echo devices to work.

Any thoughts?

Jeff

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

Amazon Echo/Alexa uses these ports:

TCP 67,68,80,443,8080,40317

UDP 53,67,68,123,1900,5000,5053,33434,40317,49317

[JefferyMiller17244]

Thank, @Georg Pauwen.

Do I just need to put the additional ports into the Service Management area or is there additional settings that need to be made?

I looked at some other articles and they just talked about the Service Management area. But, it seems like there should be another location to apply those services.

Jeff

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

actually, I would disable the firewall altogether to start out with (Firewall --> Basic Settings, page 73 of the attached admin guide), in order to find out if a firewall setting is responsible for this. Should it work with the firewall disabled, turn on the features one by one to see which one is responsible. My guess if that UPnP could be the cause (disabled by default).

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/routers/csbr/RV340/Administration/EN/b_RV340x_AG.pdf

[JefferyMiller17244]

Hi @Georg Pauwen and @paul driver ,

Actually, I did try disabling the firewall all together and I had UPnP enabled at one point. Unfortunately I've tried so many different combinations I've started to lose track now.

I'll see if I can diagram things up later today. But in short here is a verbal description of my setup:

• Incoming ISP is through AT&T SmallBiz using an Arris BGW210-700
  • Internal WiFi is disabled
  • All firewall settings are off
  • It is configured in IP passthrough routing to the MAC of the RV345 WAN1 port
• RV345 is configured with one VLAN on 10.X.X.X
  • Pretty much all settings are factory default, except network range was changed to 10.X.X.X (because we'd already been using that)
  • All LAN ports are untagged in terms of VLAN
  • Firewall is enabled with basic settings - this has been enabled and disabled with no impact
  • UPnP has been enabled and disabled - this has had no impact as well
  • The three Netgear Orbi units have static DHCP addresses assigned to them, as do several other devices -- like server, etc.
• Netgear Orbi AX6000 is configured in Access Point mode
  • All DHCP, NAT, and other services are turned off in Access Point mode -- I cannot even get to them in the settings
  • Only thing that is available to control is the WiFi settings
  • The master Orbi AX6000 is plugged directly into the RV345 on LAN port 8
  • The slave Orbi AX6000 units (two of them) are using the 2.5Gbs wireless backhaul to the master AX6000
  • All Orbi units are picking up their IP assignments from the RV345 DHCP
• The is about a 60/40 mix of wired and wireless devices on the network, with the majority being wireless
  • All wired devices are connected directly to the RV345 on the various open LAN ports
  • All wireless devices are connecting through the Orbi AX6000

All wired and wireless devices connect to the internet just fine and they all communicate with one another just fine. For example, automated back-up tools running on the wireless devices are communicating fine with the Synology server that is wired.

The only devices that stop working are all the the Amazon Echo devices. There are about 7 of them in total.

The only difference between the setup described above and our original setup is that you would take the RV345 out of the mix, put the master Orbi AX6000 into router mode. The ISP is then fed to the Orbi using IP passthrough to the MAC on the master AX6000 WAN port. The rest of the wired devices are then connected to a separate switch than is then cascaded off one of the LAN ports of the master AX6000.

Jeff

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

just to be sure: which firmware release are you running ? The latest is release 1.0.03.20 (download link below)...

https://software.cisco.com/download/home/286288298/type/282465789/release/1.0.03.20

[JefferyMiller17244]

Yep, running the latest firmware - 1.0.03.20

[paul driver]

Hello

This seems to suggest the echos are pointing towards the Orbi for next-hop but as those devices are now basically layer 2 and the echos should be pointing to the the Rv345

The Orbi and the echos should now be in the same subnet with a default-gateway pointing towards the rv345 lan interface is this correct ?

Check the arp table for the amazon devices on the rtr then ping them from rtr - do you get a response?

Do you have any static routing applied on the rtr that might be negating the return path for the echos

Can the wifi devices is that work ping the echos - are they all the same subnet range?

[JefferyMiller17244]

Guys,

Here is something interesting.

I factory reset the RV345 this morning. Then created a little test bench setup using another Orbi system that we have and my back-up 4G LTE modem for ISP connectivity.

The only changes I made to the RV345 after factory reset was I changed the IP range on the VLAN again to 10.X.X.X and then added the static DHCP assignments. I then configured the other Orbi as an access point and plugged it directly into the RV345.

Using one of the Echo Show devices as a test, I changed its WiFi to the test Orbi that is running through the RV345 and it worked!

I want to say that I had RIP turned  on previously and that is the only major difference I can think of at the moment.

I'm about to go switch the Orbi AX6000 back to access point mode and insert the RV345 back into our main network to see if it works.

Jeff

[Georg Pauwen]

Good work...hopefully that works out. Keep us updated...

[paul driver]

Hello

---

@JefferyMiller17244 wrote:

hardwired and wireless -- connect and get their IP address properly and are able connect to the internet.

---

Usually you will only need to open ports on the fw if you expect the amazon device to receive externally initiated traffic which i don't think it does by default and as you have other wifi devices working and successfully connecting to the internet have you checked if this echo device is registered correctly with amazon and it is obtaining the correct addressing from your dhcp server.

[JefferyMiller17244]

@paul driver, all devices were working properly before making the change to the RV345. If I take the RV345 out of the mix and put everything back to just the AX6000 as the default router then they are fine. As soon as I put the AX6000 back to access point and put the RV345 back in place they stop working.

I went as far as de-registering one device and try to set it up again. It will not even register so long as the RV345 is in place.

Jeff

[paul driver]

Hello

So now I would expect the AX6000 would be running at layer 2 (no routing) and the RV345 to take on services such as routing, dhcp, nat etc.. ?

Can you confirm this, maybe post a simple topology diagram?

[JefferyMiller17244 · Accepted solution]

@Georg Pauwen and @paul driver,

Well, the test bench setup was very helpful as it told me that the RV345 really wasn't the problem.

I put the RV345 back into my network and reconfigured the Orbi AX6000 into access point mode again and the Echo devices all failed.

So, I decided that even though I switched the AX6000 to access point mode there had to be something left over from it being originally setup as a router that wasn't getting turned off. Therefore I decided to factory reset the AX6000 and go back through the initial setup and configure in access point mode as early as possible in the process so that there were few if any lingering settings from having been a router.

After doing that everything is working now!

Thanks for your tips and guidance. They did ultimately help me to continue to narrow in on things.

Jeff