No DNS error, Airport roaming network

HI

Been a long time since someone posted in this thread.

Just over 1 year.

My default IP address is 192.168.100.10. I have to have three digits in the third number set. Since I was unable to change that third set of digits, I went ahead and changed everything I could change to your example.

Is your modem a router? It is very unusual to use 192.168.100.x address as that IP is used for internal cable modem adjustment..

Tell me exactly what router you have and the IP address and DHCP range.. don't forget you need to ensure that both main router and the Airport cannot pass out identical addresses.

Remember to use ethernet for setup.. wireless is useless. Remember too IPv6 must be set to link-local only.

I think the dhcp range must be above the IP you set on the WAN interface.

Here we go..

I got the following error: "The DHCP range you have entered conflicts with the WAN IP address of your base station."

(The range reads 192.168.100.2 to 192.168.100.60)

Your DHCP range cuts over the WAN address.. it must not include wan.. it can go 11 - 60

It cannot go 2 - 60 because your WAN IP is 10.

I tried and I also had issues with 60.. nor would 200 work at the top of the range.. I had to go all the way to 254. And I could only use 2 addresses.. let me check what is going wrong.

Post some screenshots.. heck of a lot easier for me to solve things with a screenshot or many.. !!

I would look at the subnet mask.. it could be causing something interesting.

I changed the subnet mask and was then able to change the DHCP scope.

I could still not change the top address. Something unusual..

What model airport on what firmware??

I'm having a similar problem with my base station. No DNS server.

I tried to follow along with your solution, but hit the following snags:

My default IP address is 192.168.100.10. I have to have three digits in the third number set. Since I was unable to change that third set of digits, I went ahead and changed everything I could change to your example.

I got the following error: "The DHCP range you have entered conflicts with the WAN IP address of your base station."

(The range reads 192.168.100.2 to 192.168.100.60)

I assume there's a simple tweak somewhere that I'm not seeing.

Oh, and if I restart from the Airport Utility, it loses my base station entirely unless I do a hard reset.

Ok. Trying again.

I plugged into the router with the LAN, and changed the settings exactly.

Here's what happened:

After changing the internet settings to match yours, and setting the network to "DHCP Only" - without changing the DHCP range - I get the following error when I try to update:

The router address you have entered is not compatible with your WAN IP address.

If I then change the upper DHCP range to 60, per your instructions, and update, I get:

The value for "Range Ending" is invalid.

Now what?

Wow. OK. So.

After struggling with my settings for hours, it finally got late enough in the morning that I could contact my internet provider's support. It turns out that they were down, even though the indicator lights on the modem didn't show any trouble. Go figure.

Now that my internet provider is back up, a hard reset on the AirPort router has put everything to rights.

For the record, my AirPort is an older Extreme Time Capsule, and the firmware is ver. 7.7.8

Now that I have internet again, I notice that many of the addresses have changed (as I'm sure they should). I'm going to assume that the whole thing was my provider's fault and give you the credit for fixing it so promptly. ^_^

Hi Bob,

You helped me set up my roaming wireless network a few years ago & I've been extremely happy with its performance. We are using a Time Capsule as our main router and have 4 Airport Expresses set up in Bridge Mode to Create a wireless network. The expresses are all working well, but lately I've had some difficulties with web pages loading very slowly. In my research I've seen info regarding the DNS server setting on the router needing adjustment. (My DNS setting is empty.) Suddenly today, my router is showing errors & reporting that DNS is empty. I can't get it to go green and access the Internet; it wants a DNS Server address. Would you please review the settings with me that I should have for my Time Capsule? I believe Router Mode should be DHCP only; is that right? What should the DNS server settings be?

Thanks so much for your continued help.

Phyllis Sommers

I believe Router Mode should be DHCP only; is that right? What should the DNS server settings be?

No, Router mode is DHCP and NAT.

A lot of this thread is about using a special mode that is also routing.. but NOT NAT which you would normally use for internet.

If you have DNS issues.. check the TC which is acting as your main router. It must get DNS from your ISP.

It then will hand out DNS values to all the clients.. the express in bridge take no part in the network controls.. they are merely acting as wireless points.

I recommend you power down everything.. then power up in correct order.

Modem.. wait 2min

TC.. wait 2min

Express.. all of them is fine.. wait 2min

Computers etc.

If this does not fix it tell us because I think you will need to consider a factory reset on the TC.. and perhaps replacement. Lifespan of 3 years is pretty normal for TC.

Thanks for your advice. It didn't work to power cycle, but I was able to talk to Apple support & they helped me reprovision the modem & Time Capsule. This worked & I'm happy to say we're up & running again!

Thanks again,

Phyllis

We don't know whether the AirPort Extreme, and two AirPort Expresses connect directly to the LAN <--> ports on the Uverse gateway.....or whether the AirPort Extreme connects to the Uverse gateway and the Expresses connect to the AirPort Extreme.

The best situation.....in terms of installation and wiring practice would be to connect a 5 port Ethernet switch to the Uverse router and then connect each of the AirPorts to the switch.

Next best choice would be to have each AirPort connect directly to the Uverse gateway

Last choice would be to have the AirPort Extreme connecting to the gateway and the Expresses connecting to the Uverse router. Or, the Extreme connecting to the Uverse gateway, one Express connecting to the AirPort Extreme and then the other Express connecting to the first Express.

With all of the AirPorts in Bridge Mode......it is the sole responsibility of the Uverse gateway to provide DHCP, NAT, DNS, etc services for all of the AirPorts. Unfortunately, my experience with several samples of the gateway that you have has been that it does not always do this job well....particularly in terms of renewing the DHCP lease for each connected device.

it might help to set up each of the AirPorts with Static Internet settings for IP Address, gateway address, DNS Servers, etc....something like the example below:

The other thing that you might consider......which works best when I've used the Uverse gateway in the past with multiple AirPorts.....and is a setup that Apple Support will recommend if you call them........is to go ahead and set up the AirPort Extreme as a router to provide DHCP and NAT services, then connect each Express to the AirPort Extreme.

This way, the Uverse router only has to keep track of one device....the AirPort Extreme....and the Expresses seem to be happier connecting to another Apple product for their network information.

You will have a Double NAT situation on the network if you try this.....but that may or may not create issues on the network. Basically, you won't know until you try. I'm not specifically recommending a Double NAT setup here.....just noting that in some cases it can work well.

IF.....you have the Uverse router set up for port forwarding, or you have a gaming console on the network and you want to play interactively over the Internet, the Double NAT is not going to be what you want.

IF.....you have the Uverse router set up for port forwarding, or you have a gaming console on the network and you want to play interactively over the Internet, the Double NAT is not going to be what you want.

You can connect the gaming console directly to the uverse.. to bypass the double NAT issue.

To OP.. another variation of Bob's suggestion is to use the Airport as secondary DHCP server.. this works well for me.

I also recommend the use of Static IP and DHCP only .. no double NAT..

It is not that hard to setup and can result in good network stability, since Airport will control the IP of the clients joined to it.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6509420

Tell me specifically the model of the gateway and what IP it is using.. give me a screenshot of its LAN setup page.. And I can then do the work for you in giving you specific setup parameters.

This will I am sure fix DNS issues.

Ok, this will work well.

Your modem has IP of 192.168.1.254 with dhcp range of 64-253

So we can set the AE to static IP and use DCHP

Thusly..

Start from factory reset. In the wizard make sure it is create a new network.. Select the options and go to create a new network if it gets the wrong thing.

Then you can put in all the names you want.. short, no spaces pure alphanumerics.

Next, it will ask for ethernet to WAN from the modem. If you are doing this setup far away you can skip it for now and just go next.

Next. The AE will complete its setup and now you can fix the special way we are going to do it via edit.

So click on the AE and then edit.

Go to the internet tab and change to static IP. This is perhaps the most important screen here.. I want you to setup the AE exactly like this.

There is nothing you need to change on the Wireless tab.. So go to the network tab.

Mine immediately changed to what you see below when I chose DHCP only.. this is fine.. all you need to fix up is the top address. 200 is in the range of the Uverse so you want to cut that back to 60 (it would not allow anything but in 10s)

So you modify that one directly.

Now I recommend the following changes as well.. in Network Options.

Save and update all the changes.

So in summary.. your AE now looks like this.

Ignore the error.. you should be green. (my network is using a different IP range.)

Once you complete this and make sure it is working.. use the wireless and ethernet to make connections to the internet. If everything is working as it should then you can then setup the two express. Reset them to factory and setup one by one.

Post if you have any issues..