Can't connect WRV210 Router to a switch

window_eye · ‎05-02-2011

Hi,

Product: Cisco WRV210 Wireless-G VPN Router

Problem: Won't connect to my network switch, no lights, no connection.

I've got an cable internet connection with modem plugged into the internet port and that seems to work fine. If I plug a device, such as a laptop, into any of the ethernet ports on the router I can connect successfully to the router and through to the internet. The problem I have is that I have more than four devices that I want to connect so I want to connect the modem to a switch.

I was previously using a different internet router, now disconnected, that seemed to connect to the switch fine. All my other network computers previously connected to each other and the internet through that switch no problem.

When I plug the WRV210 into the switch, none of the lights on the switch or router come on and there is absolutely no response from ping or the admin page (192.168.1.1).

I've tried two different switches, with the same response (one Dell switch, the other Netgear). If I plug the old internet router back into either switch then it works fine.

Could anyone tell me if there is a setting i'm missing somewhere? According to the WRV210 manual you can connect a switch to it, it should work.

Can you only connect it to Cisco brand switches?

Is there something else i'm missing?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, i've run out of ideas.

Thanks.

Antonio Knox · ‎05-02-2011

Verify power to the switch. Also test the switch with a PC. Power it up and plug a PC to it with a straight through patch cable to make sure the switch actually works. It sounds like it's the real problem child here. If you get a light, it's (presumably) good, if not the switch is bad.

Also, make sure that you connect:

Modem ----> Switch ----> WRV210 (INTERNET PORT)

Very important that you plug into the INTERNET PORT, as this port may be the only one set to pick up a DHCP lease. Also, I don't know if both the switch and the WRV210 are managed (I know the WRV210 is), you should ensure that speed/duplex settings are a match.

modimodimodi · ‎05-02-2011

Dear All,

I think that this is an issue with the router WRV210 as I've seen many users with this kind of problem, and me, I'm experiencing this problem with no solution yet:

- seems like this router is NOT communicating with some kind of devices. Currently, I've noticed that it's not communicating with many models of Lenovo Thinkpad laptops. I did not succeeded in setuo the router through these laptop, used and Asus laptop and it worked.

- I've succeeded in getting the router talk to a D-Link switch, BUT IT'S NOT COMMUNICATING WITH AN HP V1910 SWITCH (formely 3COM brand).

Anyone to give us the solution on how to make WRV210 communicate with ALL network devices? Mine is using the latest firmware, 2.0.0.11.

Thanks.

Antonio Knox · ‎05-02-2011

What is your specific model # for the V1910 (ie. V1910-24G, V1910-48G, V1910-24G-PoE, etc)?

window_eye · ‎05-02-2011

Hi Antonio,

Thanks for the reply. I've carried out the tests you suggested. The switch works powered on with two PCs connected. All corresponding lights are on.

I think your second point may have hit on the problems i'm having. If I connect a lan port on my WRV210 to the switch (the connection that worked with my previous router) there are no connected lights on the switch or the router. If however I connect the switch to the internet port I get connected lights on both.

So I have it setup like this:

Internet ---> Cable Modem ---> Switch Port 1

Switch Port 2 ---> WRV210 (Internet Port)

Switch Port 3 ---> Laptop PC

Switch Port 4 ---> Desktop PC

Nothing is connected to the WRV210 LAN ports.

The problem I have now is that the PCs connected to the switch (switch lights on) cannot seem to ping or connect to the WRV210 or the internet.

Any ideas what's going wrong now?

Many thanks for your help. I think i'm getting closer to the solution. Any further suggestions would be appreciated.

Antonio Knox · ‎05-02-2011

Are the PCs picking up a lease (check ipconfig)? There may be a lease limit on the modem.

Please rate helpful posts.

Message was edited by: Antonio Knox

window_eye · ‎05-02-2011

Yes they are. But they are picking up a strange one that I don't recognise.

Starting 162 instead of 192

Antonio Knox · ‎05-02-2011

Are these statically assigned IPs? Double check for that.

window_eye · ‎05-02-2011

Thanks again for all your help.

It seems that the PCs are not picking up a lease.

IP config is returning an IP address but I don't recognise it.

Although I wouldn't expect them to pick up a lease from the modem because the modem has no DHCP server. Its just a straight through connection. They should presumably be picking up a lease from the WRV210? That's how my old router worked anyway.

Antonio Knox · ‎05-02-2011

If the 162 addresses are not statically configured to the PCs, I would argue that your modem is indeed leasing only one ip. Here's why:

In this deployment

Internet ---> Modem ---> Switch port 1

Switch port 2 ---> WRV210 (INTENET PORT)

Switch port 3 ---> Laptop PC

Switch port 4 ---> Desktop PC

The INTERNET PORT on the WRV210 acts as a DHCP Client (not a server) port, which means that he would ONLY recieve DHCP Leases on this port. This is the lease that he uses to connect to the internet.
All devices connected to the Switch will receive leases from the modem, unless the modem only allows a single lease.

If you had this deployment

Internet ---> Modem ---> Switch ---> WRV210 (INTENET PORT)

WRV210 (LAN-1) ---> Laptop PC

WRV210 (LAN-2) ---> Desktop PC

Still, the INTERNET PORT on the WRV210 acts as a DHCP Client port, which means that he would ONLY recieve DHCP Leases on this port. This is the lease that he uses to connect to the internet.
All devices connected to the WRV210 (LAN) ports will receive leases from the WRV210, as it is now the DHCP server to the LAN.

Hope that makes sense.

Message was edited by: Antonio Knox

window_eye · ‎05-02-2011

Thanks again! That does make sense.

Your explanation of the DHCP recieve only on the internet port was very clear, excellent.

One slightly confusing thing though. As a test I turned everything off and just connected the laptop to Switch Port 1. This again returned an IP address in the 169 range (169. 254.243.204 sorry the 162 before should have been 169, just a typo).

Since there was nothing else connected to the switch does that mean that my switch (unmanaged) is somehow dishing out IP addresses or is it just a locally cached address?

From my limited knowledge of my cable (modem) I'm guessing that the internet port on the WRV210 needs to recieve an address from my ISP via DHCP. I can see how this works if I connect the internet directly into the internet port. It only has one place to go. If however I connect to the internet via my switch. How does the WRV210 or the switch know where to get the ISP internet IP address from?

I can't find any documentation, online, on the unit or the ISP connection manual, telling me what my modem's IP address could be. Is it possible that it doesn't have one?

Also. If i'm connecting my clients to a switch rather than the inbuilt lan ports on the WRV210, does that mean that I can't use the WRV210 as a DHCP server? Since I can't connect any of the inbuilt LAN ports (DHCP server ports) to an external switch?

I appreciate your patience in helping with this. It's been driving me crazy for weeks.

Perhaps a little background might help.

My old setup worked like this:

Internet ---> Modem ---> Router (Internet Port)

---> Router (Inbuilt Switch Port1) ---> Network Switch Port 1

----> Network Switch Port 2 ---> Laptop PC

----> Network Switch Port 2 ---> Desktop PC

----> Network Switch Port etc.....

All clients using the DHCP from the router.

This setup still works, I wanted to switch to the WRV210 specifically for the VPN feature.

Other than the new router, all cables and connections are the same.

I had thought that I would just be able to replace the router and everything would just work the same. I'm starting to wonder, from what you have said, if it won't be possible to get it working how I want. Essentially I all I want is to have more than 4 devices connected to the WRV210.

Any further help will be appreciated. I realise that it's quite complicated. And do genuinely appreciate your help thus far.

Antonio Knox · ‎05-02-2011

169.x.x.x are Microsoft self-assigned IP addresses. These are addresses that your PC machines gave themselves when they couldn't get a lease.

Here's your tests:

Test 1

Power down everything, power back up and connect as follows
Modem ---> Switch Port 1

Switch port 2 ---> Laptop PC

You should get an ip address and be able to connect to internet from laptop
Connect WRV210 to Switch port 3
WRV210 SHOULD NOT get an ip address, but the laptop will still work to access the internet.

Test 2

Power down everything, power back up and connect as follows
Modem ---> Switch Port 1

---> Switch port 2 ---> WRV210 (INTERNET PORT)

Connect laptop to WRV210 (LAN-1)
WRV210 will get an IP from modem and connect to internet
Laptop will get an ip address from WRV210 (likely different ip range than what the WRV received from modem) and you should be able to connect to internet from laptop
Connect Desktop PC to Switch port 3
Desktop PC SHOULD NOT get an ip address (may end up with 169.x.x.x and will not ping), and laptop will still work through the WRV210 to the internet.

Let me know of your results and we will work from there.

window_eye · ‎05-02-2011

Sorry for the delay in replying. I've been getting some strange behaviour and wanted to be sure.

Test Results:

Test1: Laptop still gets 169 ip and cannot connect to the internet.

Test2: Laptop gets address from WRV210. Still no internet access. Desktop PC doesn't get an IP address.

I did some other tests to try and narrow down.

Test3: Power down all. Plugging the laptop straight into the modem. Power on. Result: No internet access and a 169 ipaddress.

Test4: Power down all. Plugging the modem into the WRV210 Internet port and the Laptop into LAN port1 on the WRV210. Power on. Result: The laptop gets an address from the WRV210 but still no internet access.

Test5: Power down all. Plugging the old router (netgear) back in. Modem into internet port. Laptop into router LAN1 (Netgear). Everything works. The Laptop gets an IP address from the netgear router and has internet access. Same if i plug it in via the network switch.

It seems that my old router is tied somehow to the internet connection. It doesnt seem to allow another device to pick up an IP address from it.

All of the settings for the internet connection on the Netgear are set to AUTO.

I will investigate this separately. Clearly I need to at least be able to get the WRV210 connected to the internet before I can investigate further. I will have to take it up with my ISP.

I thank you again for your time and patience with this. It looks like its going to continue to be a slog.

I will report any further findings back here. As for now, I seem to be stuck till I can get in touch with my ISP who are not able to answer calls right now due to the bank holiday.

Many Thanks.

Antonio Knox · ‎05-02-2011

Of course, you could solve all of your problems if you move the Switch BEHIND the WRV210

Internet ---> Modem ---> WRV210 (INTENET PORT) --->

WRV210 (LAN-1) ---> Switch port 1

Switch port 2 ---> Laptop PC

Switch port 3 ---> Desktop PC

This is essentially the exact same setu you had with the Router. You are just using a Wireless Router in it's place. And you are correct in thinking that it should work the same, but the problem is, when you changed from Router to WRV210 you didn't reconnect everything the same. You moved the switch from behind the Router to in front of the WRV210. Connect the WRV210 (INTERNET PORT) direct to the modem, connect the switch back behind the WRV210 (LAN-1), connect the PC's to the switch ports 2 & 3 as shown here, and it should work as it did before.

Message was edited by: Antonio Knox

Antonio Knox · ‎05-02-2011

Success?