Mesh subnet issues

[rajs]

I have had google mesh set up through an Ethernet connection to my main Huawei router for a while. I began having some issues with Wi-Fi on some audio products which were supposed to be on Wi-Fi. I have now noticed that the ip addresses for Wi-Fi being handed by the mesh are 192.168.86.x while the Huawei hands out 192.168.100.x and this could be a problem as some audio connections (eg. Roon) cannot work across subnets. I had the primary connection wired to the WAN input on the mesh. I tried to shift it to the other LAN Ethernet port but it gets stuck. Shouldn’t this work ? I would like to have the Wi-Fi ip addresses same as the Ethernet wired Ip.

I would appreciate any assistance.

[MichaelP]

Hello @rajs 

The Google/Nest WiFi system is a router+firewall that creates a new "inner" network separate from the "outer" network it is connected to – for your system, that outer network is created by a Huawei unit that is also a router+firewall. Because the Google/Nest WiFi system is a firewall, there are limitations on how devices on the "inner" and "outer" networks can talk to each other. The solution here is to connect your Ethernet devices to the inner network created by Google/Nest WiFi by using the LAN Ethernet port on the primary unit. You can connect an inexpensive (unmanaged) Ethernet switch to this port to make more ports available. The Google/Nest WiFi unit's WAN Ethernet port should be the only thing connected directly to your Huawei system.

[rajs]

Thanks Michael for your reply. However I have a problem that the Switch that is currently wired to the Huawei is through the walls of the house (data points) ... I will not be able to connect the google router to that point. Instead can I change the WAN setting through the google app to sync with the IP address that Huawei is dishing out ?

[MichaelP · Accepted solution]

Hello @rajs 

I don't know how things are placed in your home, but you should be able to feed those house connections from an unmanaged Ethernet switch instead of from the Huawei unit.

The Google/Nest WiFi system can be put in a "bridge" mode. However, it will lose significant functionality when doing so. Most importantly, the mesh feature that supports secondary units (e.g., Nest WiFi Point or Google WiFi units) will be disabled when the primary is in bridge mode. Device prioritization and the guest WiFi feature will also be disabled. Here's a help article with more details: https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/6240987 

[rajs]

Will try and give it a shot ... it is a little complicated from a wiring perspective. 

Alternative to the bridge I was wondering if the WAN attributes could be changed to be similar to the ISP/Huawei unit? 

[MichaelP]

No, what you're asking for is to put it in bridge mode (which will require giving up the features I described earlier).

[Jhonleanmel]

Hey folks, 

Thanks again for helping here, @MichaelP. 
@rajs, I hope you've got the answer you're looking for. If you're still in need of any assistance, feel free to let us know. 

Best,
Mel

[Jhonleanmel]

Hey there,

I wanted to follow up and see if you are still in need of any help. Please let me know if you are still having any concerns or questions from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further.

Thanks,
Mel

[rajs]

Thanks Michael for your valuable suggestion and Jhonleanmel for getting back. I have only just (last night) managed to get the primary router (Huawei) into bridge mode with a lot of conversations with my ISP ! as it was for the longest time not allowing me to change it into bridge.  Now it seems both the ethernet and wifi are providing IP addresses in the 192.168.87.x range. Hopefully all will be OK. 

[Jhonleanmel]

Hey rajs, 

Awesome — glad to hear that and thanks for getting back to us. It looks like we can consider this one complete, so I will lock the thread shortly unless I can help out with anything else. 

Best, 
Mel

[Jhonleanmel]

Hey rajs, 

As we got our resolution here, I'm going to mark this thread as resolved. I'll be locking this thread if we won't hear back from you in 24 hrs. Should that happen, feel free to create a new one if you have more questions or have other concerns in the future.

Cheers,
Mel