Can't get into Araknis router web page

[pinkoos]

My router's IP address is 192.168.1.1

I was trying to get a new HP printer on our wireless network and couldn't get it working (tried for over 2 hours)

One trouble shooting step was to add the printer's MAC address to the router, so I logged into the router using 192.168.1.1, found the place where I think MAC addresses are entered and entered the printer's MAC address

I applied the change and there was like a 20 second countdown - I'm not sure if the router reboot too or not

Regardless, that didn't work in terms of getting the printer on the network wirelessly, so I was going to log back into the router and just take that MAC address out, but now the router's web page won't load with the 192.168.1.1 address

I'm on a Mac, so I went into both Terminal and network preferences and confirmed that that is still the router's IP address

I reboot the router and the cable modem

But, the page won't load - it just hangs. It doesn't present the password interface or anything else, it just won't load the page at all

I've tried different browsers and different computers and mobile devices, but no luck

The internet seems to still work fine with no connectivity issues, but I just don't know why I can't access the router's page any longer

Any thoughts?

Thanks

[Neo1738]

You can check network settings on phone, computer etc to see what IP address you are on. Generally if it is 192.168.1.x than your router is still 192.168.1.1 if it's something like 192.168.10.x (which I think araknis defaults to) than you need to use 192.168.10.1  I would honestly just try that quickly. 

[pinkoos]

Thanks for the reply, but as I noted, I did check what the router/gateway's IP address is in both Terminal and Network Preferences and confirmed that it's still 192.168.1.1

I also tried connecting a laptop directly to the router's LAN port and rebooting the router after making that connection, but was still not able to load the router's web page

But, I was able to load any other web page, confirming the connection out to the internet is still working

I'm not sure how entering the HP printer's MAC address and 'turning on' MAC filtering could have caused all this

And, if turning on MAC filtering but only inputting the printer's MAC address, wouldn't that cause everything else to not be able to connect to the internet?

Again, everything seems to be working fine in terms of connection to the outside world, it's just that I can't get into the router to remove the HP printer from the MAC filtering and to turn off MAC filtering

[msgreenf]

3 hours ago, pinkoos said:

address and 'turning on' MAC filtering could have caused all this

Why did you turn on Mac filtering? Do you understand what you did?

[pinkoos]

Fixed it - had to spoof my Mac's MAC address to the HP printer's one that I had entered in the MAC address filtering section of router's web page

Once I did that, I was able to easily log into the router using 192.168.1.1, delete the HP printer's MAC address and turn off MAC address filtering

Restored my Mac's MAC address to the original and all is good now, whew!

Though I could have spoofed the MAC address manually, I just downloaded  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wifispoof/id1192126677?mt=12 and used that

[RAV]

Back to your problem....

Create a 2.4 only WiFi SSID on your AP closest to the printer.

[pinkoos]

Just now, RAV said:

Back to your problem....

Create a 2.4 only WiFi SSID on your AP closest to the printer.

How do I do that? I have all Araknis hardware (router, switch, POE and WAPs)

 And would that negatively impact all the other devices that access that closet WAP? Would I need to reconfigure those devices to be able to connect?

[-defunct-]

This is where taking a networking basics course is helpful.

Splitting the 2.4ghz and 5ghz is done in the ssid config.

My suggestion is get a better printer because most are cheap crap.

[pinkoos]

1 minute ago, Dunamivora said:

This is where taking a networking basics course is helpful.

Splitting the 2.4ghz and 5ghz is done in the ssid config.

My suggestion is get a better printer because most are cheap crap.

LOL, ain't that the truth!

[pinkoos]

I'm currently logging into each of the 4 WAPs to see which one is the one closest to the printer and will figure out how to create that second 2.4GHz only network and give it a shot

Thanks to all for the help and suggestions

[pinkoos]

Finally got the HP printer on the network via wifi, but with some caveats

I created a secondary SSID and first tried WPA2-PSK security - no dice

So then I changed the security to ‘open’ (ie, no security, no password) and it worked

Devices on my primary SSID are able to see and print to the printer without a problem

Of course having the printer on an open network is not ideal, but I’m not broadcasting the SSID so I’m guessing that some hacker can’t *easily* backdoor into my network, right? Isn’t this analogous to just having an open ‘guest’ network with no password required?

The other options for security mode include:

WPA-PSK mixed

WPA2

WPA mixed

I may try one of these but wanted to first see if anybody knew which one of these would be most likely to work - maybe I could try that one first

Thanks

Edited April 24, 2021 by pinkoos

[-defunct-]

It would take less than 30 seconds to backdoor a hidden open network.

Some printers need advanced settings on APs shut off, so I honestly wasn't kidding at buying a printer that supports modern WiFi standards.

 

I bought one for around $350 to make sure it supported 5ghz and proper encryption.

[-defunct-]

Simple and bad passwords on WPA2 can be cracked in less than 5 minutes.

[pinkoos]

Yeah I figured, like I said not ideal

Buying a different printer is not an option, so do you have a suggestion of what security method of those I listed above to try next?

Thank you

[-defunct-]

I would check the printer's manual and ensure it supports WPA2.

If it does, then you'll need to tinker with the fast roaming settings and other advanced settings on the AP.

[pinkoos]

It is but reading online many people report issues getting WPA2 to work

[Cyknight]

18 minutes ago, Dunamivora said:

fast roaming settings

This is the issue for 90%+ of wireless printer connection issues.....

With al these new home offices, we've done numerous in the last year - and EVERY SINGLE ONE where people couldn't get their printer to work/work reliably it was fixed doing nothing else but turning off fast roaming - regardless of network brand.

If fast roaming is important for other daily use, setting up a separate access point in range on it's own ID dedicated for the printer(s) is certainly a good option.

[pinkoos]

So let me check in the Araknis WAP SSID config and see where I can turn off fast roaming for the secondary SSID and re-try WPA2-PSK

[pinkoos]

I guess I misunderstood - you’re suggesting getting another WAP just for the printer

Looks like fast roaming is a global setting for the WAP, so I can’t just have it off for the secondary SSID

Oh well

[Cyknight]

25 minutes ago, pinkoos said:

Looks like fast roaming is a global setting for the WAP, so I can’t just have it off for the secondary SSID

Yeah it's global only

 

25 minutes ago, pinkoos said:

you’re suggesting getting another WAP just for the printer

No I'm suggesting that if fast roaming is of importance (it often is not!) the next best option is to have a dedicated AP

[pinkoos]

But if turn fast roaming off for this AP, I need to turn it off for all of them, right?

[Neo1738]

Get a cheap wall outlet wifi to ethernet adapter and hardwire it if you can.

[pinkoos]

So turning off fast roaming on all 4 APs worked with WPA2-PSK enabled, and even worked in getting the printer on the combined 2.4/5GHz SSID (though I also confirmed that it worked on the 2.4GHz only SSID)

It's too soon to know if turning off fast roaming will effect our everyday wifi usage by our multiple network devices throughout the house

Thanks again for all the help

[Cyknight]

On 4/24/2021 at 9:15 PM, Neo1738 said:

Get a cheap wall outlet wifi to ethernet adapter and hardwire it if you can.

Ugh.

 

7 hours ago, pinkoos said:

It's too soon to know if turning off fast roaming will effect our everyday wifi usage by our multiple network devices throughout the house

For most it likely will not - it's the 'travellers' that are affected by it. ie those that are watching videos or using streaming communication over wifi and walk around the house.

Even then in most scenarios it's fine and won't be noticed all that much.

Understand that I'm not saying fast roaming is a bad thing at all - just that most wouldn't notice the difference so it's not a bad idea to just try.

[pinkoos]

Just happened to stumble upon this technical bulletin from Araknis:

https://www.snapav.com/wcsstore/ExtendedSitesCatalogAssetStore/attachments/documents/Networking/SoftwareAndFirmware/AN-AP-I-N_FW_1.1_TSB.pdf

See the bottom of the first page:

"• Does any equipment NOT work with Fast Roaming/Handoff? • Gen 1 Apple iOS products won’t work. Most newer iOS devices work correctly. • We have reports of HP wireless printers not connecting but no model numbers have been provided yet."

My printer? Yup, it's an HP wireless printer