MAC address issue

[Schern]

It may just be something I have to live with but I have a problem with MAC addresses. Mainly that my PC and xbox seem to share one and won't allow me to stream media between the two. The background is that I have with a wireless access point which is set in infrastructure mode to provide a wireless link between my router downstairs and all my wired hardware upstairs (xbox, ps3, pc). These 3 devices are all plugged directly into the access point which is then connected to the router downstairs. The problem is that the router downstairs sees all the devices as sharing the same MAC address, namely the access points. So when I check the Attached Devices page on my Sky router it shows the different IP addresses but the same MAC:

# IP Address Device Name MAC Address

1 192.168.0.2(AP) UNKNOWN 80:1F:02:09:BB:F6

2 192.168.0.100(xbox) UNKNOWN 80:1F:02:09:BB:F6

3 192.168.0.101(PC) GOLIATH2 80:1F:02:09:BB:F6

I've tried enabling the access point as a DHCP server but that doesn't seem to have solved my problem. Does anyone have any suggestions? It's not vital but I would like to be able to stream media if at all possible!

[Neo_VR]

It may just be something I have to live with but I have a problem with MAC addresses. Mainly that my PC and xbox seem to share one and won't allow me to stream media between the two. The background is that I have with a wireless access point which is set in infrastructure mode to provide a wireless link between my router downstairs and all my wired hardware upstairs (xbox, ps3, pc). These 3 devices are all plugged directly into the access point which is then connected to the router downstairs. The problem is that the router downstairs sees all the devices as sharing the same MAC address, namely the access points. So when I check the Attached Devices page on my Sky router it shows the different IP addresses but the same MAC:

# IP Address Device Name MAC Address

1 192.168.0.2(AP) UNKNOWN 80:1F:02:09:BB:F6

2 192.168.0.100(xbox) UNKNOWN 80:1F:02:09:BB:F6

3 192.168.0.101(PC) GOLIATH2 80:1F:02:09:BB:F6

I've tried enabling the access point as a DHCP server but that doesn't seem to have solved my problem. Does anyone have any suggestions? It's not vital but I would like to be able to stream media if at all possible!

do you have WPS setup on both the router and wireless AP?

[mannyo]

Looks like at some point in the past you have cloned a mac address, its not possible to an xbox and PC to have the same mac address by default unless you have a microsoft network adapter in your pc.

Maybe you did soemething in the past to use internet connection sharing on the pc, and cloned your xbox mac addresss on to the pc. Check your network card settings carefully as there is an option to change the mac address on nearly all drivers. Remove the manually typed mac address and reboot.

[Schern]

do you have WPS setup on both the router and wireless AP?

I don't know what WPS is I'm afraid. Could you explain and I'll check?

I've never altered the MAC addresses on anything (until playing around last night but they're all back to there defaults now). The MAC address shown in the connection details is the access points mac address. There doesnt seem to be any sort of setting on the AP to do with MAC addresses other than security wise for sharing the wireless signal if I was using it as an access point.

[Schern]

Just googled WPS. The AP has it but I disabled it last night as it seemed to be restricting my access to the AP through an IP address forcing me to use the setup cd which doesn't have full options. I can't find anything related to WPS on my sky router.

[amity498]

this mac address 80:1F:02:09:BB:F6 would that be the mac of the AP that is upstairs. If so it looks like it is acting like a HUB , Hence streaming will work at the same time and it will slow your network down due to traffic,as it is sending packets to every active port. Question is does the Ap have a built in switch?

also are you able to post the model of the device

Edited 28 August, 2011 by amity498

[cjb]

Yes, please post details of the WAP.

[Schern]

It's an Edimax ew-7228apn. And yes the mac address you've posted is the AP's address. It has a 4 port switch built in, each port is filled (printer,pc,ps3,xbox).

[amity498]

What mode is the Ap using currently ?

From reading the manual it looks like you should use Universal Repeater mode for the ap to connect to the Ap router downstairs.

Few other questions, has the streaming ever worked, also have you tired hard reseting the AP with Xbox/pc connected and starting fresh like it was out of the box

[Schern]

It's in infrastructure mode at present. Ive done a hard reset and also updated the firmware to the newest version. I tested this morning and the ps3 won't stream from the pc when using the wired connection but if I swap to wireless to run off the router downstairs it works and finds the pc as a media server. I don't have a wireless adapter for the xbox so can't try that.

[Neo_VR]

the wireless access point shouldnt be DHCP, it sounds like its acting like a router, anything thats connected to that ap will "seem" like a single connection to whatever is on the other side.

DHCP and routing should only be done by the router... does sound like theres a config setting your missing on the access point.. theoretically you shouldnt need to change anything on the router side.

[Schern]

I've tried changing it over into Wireless Repeater mode but that doesn't seem to solve the issue. I was wondering if there was a way that I could get the AP to handle the routing? If I set the AP to be the DHCP controller so it was assigning IP addresses would that do it? Then it could be the single connection to the router downstairs and all my other devices would work through the AP.

[auroan]

If I understand everything..... if you put the ps3 on wifi along with the Pc it all works ? But if you use wired between the PC and ps3 it fails ?

And the PC and Ps3 are on the same switch ?

Whats the ip addresses of the PS3 and PC when hard wired ?

I don't think this has anything to do with the link between the wifi AP and your router.

[Schern]

If I understand everything..... if you put the ps3 on wifi along with the Pc it all works ? But if you use wired between the PC and ps3 it fails ?

And the PC and Ps3 are on the same switch ?

Whats the ip addresses of the PS3 and PC when hard wired ?

I don't think this has anything to do with the link between the wifi AP and your router.

Yes, wired streaming through the switch fails. Whether it's between the PS3 or Xbox. The PS3 I can workaround by using the built in wireless adapter but I don't have that luxury on the xbox.

Below is a screen print how the router sees the connections (PC is .03, Xbox .04 and PS3 .07, AP is .20):

Someone on another forum has suggested it could be to do with LAN subnets and the router and AP using the same one. The router shows as 192.168.0.1:80 when I log in and the AP shows as 192.168.0.20:80. Any ideas how I would amend the subnets they use?

Edited 4 September, 2011 by Schern

[JohnMcL7]

Someone on another forum has suggested it could be to do with LAN subnets and the router and AP using the same one. The router shows as 192.168.0.1:80 when I log in and the AP shows as 192.168.0.20:80. Any ideas how I would amend the subnets they use?

My apologies if I've misunderstood your setup but what you've said shouldn't matter because the Edimax shouldn't be doing any routing or similar as it should simply be working as a basic unmanaged switch which passes traffic back and forth. Looking through the specification for the device that's all it appears to be capable of (it doesn't appear to support DHCP, NAT or any router functionality), given there's different IP addresses showing on the Sky router the Edimax can't be doing any sort of NAT as that would show as just the Edimax attached but none of the devices attached to it. Is the Edimax connected to the Sky router wirelessly?

Personally I went with powerplugs and a switch rather than a wireless repeater setup as the connection was far better for gaming on the consoles/PC and I find it's a lot more reliable than wireless bridges which I experimented with previously and found it to be a bit of a pain in the neck although I believe wireless bridge technology is meant to be better.

John

[Schern]

My apologies if I've misunderstood your setup but what you've said shouldn't matter because the Edimax shouldn't be doing any routing or similar as it should simply be working as a basic unmanaged switch which passes traffic back and forth. Looking through the specification for the device that's all it appears to be capable of (it doesn't appear to support DHCP, NAT or any router functionality), given there's different IP addresses showing on the Sky router the Edimax can't be doing any sort of NAT as that would show as just the Edimax attached but none of the devices attached to it. Is the Edimax connected to the Sky router wirelessly?

Personally I went with powerplugs and a switch rather than a wireless repeater setup as the connection was far better for gaming on the consoles/PC and I find it's a lot more reliable than wireless bridges which I experimented with previously and found it to be a bit of a pain in the neck although I believe wireless bridge technology is meant to be better.

John

I can set the Edimax up as a DHCP server (which I've tried but still suffer the issue) but it only has fairly basic settings. The Edimax is linked wirelessly to the Sky router (which has no wired connections attached whatsoever). I've not encountered any NAT issues using it (the xbox and PS3 haven't reported any NAT issues anyway). It just seems like the Edimax is broadcasting it's own MAC address for everything attached to it which seems a bit odd. I'm tempted to look into the plug setup but it starts to get a bit messy... Sky router to plug downstairs to plug upstairs to switch to devices! Compared to my current setup of router to AP which shares the internet connection fine but for some reason suffers this MAC issue which won't let me stream! I'm starting to think it's a hardware limitation.

This is the only page of the Router setup that I don't understand the majority of the settings on... Is something enabled that shouldn't be?

Edited 4 September, 2011 by Schern

[JohnMcL7]

I've had a read through the manual and see you're right about the DHCP server functionality although you definitely do not want to do this as it could potentially cause further problems as both DHCP servers would be on the same network. There's nothing on the page you've posted above that you need to change to modify this MAC address behaviour. Looking at your DHCP client list above, you've got a PC on the Edimax and I assume the Macbook is connected wirelessly to the Sky router? What level of connectivity do they have, can they ping each other for example? I'm a bit puzzled as clearly some of the network functionality is working based on your screenshot above, somehow your Xbox, PS3 and PC are getting a DHCP address from the router (otherwise I doubt the router would show them on its client list) but I can't see how the router can give out the IP details to those machines if they're all showing as having the same MAC address? (admittedly it's late and it's been a long day so I apologise if I've missed something obvious)

A homeplug setup is very simple as you can get it up and running without configuration anything, I just have a cable from my router into the homeplug then the second homeplug is connected to a basic switch and then the devices connect through that switch. I initially had a four port 100Mb/s switch but upgraded it to an eight port gigabit switch for £30 which unfortunately the 360 can't use although I think the PS3 can and it means I can hook up the gigabit laptops for higher speed between them and the server or desktop PC connected there. The higher speeds are an additional benefit of this setup as most of the all-in one network devices in any sort of reasonable price range are still 100Mb/s