NEXP1GO WAN Port as LAN

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routerjockey
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NEXP1GO WAN Port as LAN

Post by routerjockey »

Hi folks, i have searched, googled and checked the OpenWRT forums but haven't been able to get a definitive answer. I have a NEXP1GO router running latest firmware. I power it via an unmanaged POE switch in my van. As the POE port is the WAN port on the router i was hoping it was possible to reconfigure the WAN port to be able to pass traffic as there are wired connections into the POE switch that need the cellular gateway. This has been working for over a year via the router wireless but now trying to extend it to wired hosts. I know it will work if I run another cable to the LAN ports but since this is on top of a van, i'm trying to minimize how many holes i put in the roof, points of failure, etc.

Something like this:
Wired Host------POE Switch-------NEXP1GO-WAN port

I've tried adding WAN to BR-LAN, giving it a static IP, etc with no luck. Any thoughts would be appreciated if this is even possible. thanks.
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JimHelms
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Re: NEXP1GO WAN Port as LAN

Post by JimHelms »

This may be of help:

routerjockey
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Re: NEXP1GO WAN Port as LAN

Post by routerjockey »

@JimHelms thanks for the link. I did see this video by Richard which is what getting me thinking about this as he shows adding the WAN port to the BR-LAN virtual bridge. I'm going to the test the router with a different POE switch and see if I get different results and will post an update here for the next guy that a similar issue.
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Re: NEXP1GO WAN Port as LAN

Post by routerjockey »

UPDATE: I figured out the issue. Fortunately I have several Cisco POE switches laying around and I was able to get more info on what was going on the WAN port. One of the pins/cables in the RJ45 cable connecting the WAN port to the cable gland was disconnected and just happened to be the RX pin. In my troubleshooting I could always get the WAN port to TX but never RX a frame. Even more strange, my Cisco switch would show the interface down/down despite supplying power to the router via POE. This got me looking a Layer 1 issues with the cable. Once i removed the combo cable gland/jack and plugged directly into the router WAN port (bypassing cable gland into enclosure) everything worked as it should.

For those wondering, the router configuration is really simple, just add the WAN port to the BR-LAN group and leave it as a DHCP client and it will pass DHCP Requests to the router and address wired hosts via the WAN port with no issue. No firewall rules needed to be applied, just that little step.

Hopefully this saves someone else 6 hours of troubleshooting :-)
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