WL-500gPv2 Media Server issue with ADSL

[wrc4]

I have a WL-500gP v2 with ASUS official 2.0.1.2 and 2.0.1.3 beta firmware which support the "cool" Media Server feature. I was able to access the media files on the WL-500gP v2 from my Nokia N810 and stream audio and video. But once I connected to my ADSL from the WL-500gP v2, my N810 can no longer find the Media Server. Neither was I able to connect to the samba shares through hostname ("WL-500g.Premium2" by default). If I disconnected from my ADSL the above two things worked again. I tried different UPnP devices but they all have the same problem.

Does anyone have any idea on how this could happen?

[wrc4]

Maybe we can share some experience.

[wrc4]

I just found out that my ISP's DNS will resolve any unknown hostname to a fixed web page on a server saying you need to double-check you input. I guess this is a related problem to the Media Server problem. So I tried to install my own DNS server on my Debian box. I installed the bind9 package and point my router to this DNS. Now if I ping my router's hostname I no longer get wrong ip. But my question is: How do I register my router to this new DNS? (My router is still the DHCP server.) Do I need to create a zone in my DNS? (I don't own a domain name yet.)

[raas]

Hi,

strange problem.

but,

do you have to use a proxy server from your ISP in order to use the internet?
(check this in your browser. Tools/internet options/connections/lan settings/)
if so, enable the flag 'bypass proxy server for local addresses'

See if it works.

HTH

[wrc4]

No, I don't use proxy server to connect to the Internet. I'm pretty sure that if I don't use the DNS provided by my ISP the samba share and Media Server will work OK. But I'm using ASUS firmware so I can't do much about the settings.

[raas]

Hi,

That's pretty obvious as you ISP doesn't know what kind of machines with services you have running. Besides from that, You're on an internal network. (eg 192.x.x.x. or 10.x.x.x, ip's which aren't stored in any public DNS)

You say you have an adsl connection. Do you have a seperate modem/router which was given to you from the ISP besides the asus premium? If so, configure your asus to 'Access Point Only' (can be found in original website on asus to configure the firmware). this way your asus will only appear in your network as a client (same as a pc/laptop) without it's router functionality disabled.

Then, In your internet settings of your browser use the ip-address of your modem/router (from your ISP) as the default gateway and DNS settings.

Then it should work.
(this way you're using the DNS functionality of your modem/router for your internal network addresses so that they can be found. If the DNS in your modem/router can't find an ip for a public website. eg. this forum, it starts using the first public DNS (of your ISP) and so on.)


HTH

[wrc4]

Thanks raas. But if I configure my WL500gp as AP only, where can I configure the PPPoE?

My understanding of how it should work is as follows (I don't know if it is right, though): The DNS server of WL-500gp will handle the name resolution request for FQDN as well as NetBIOS names (hopefully), it has the DNS returned by PPPoE configured as forwarders. So it will forward the request to the outside DNS first to see if it can be resolved. If not, it will look at it's local setting and probably try to look up the NetBIOS names.

I tried my WL500gp at my office with connection type set to Cable Modem something. The WL500gp is still configured as Home gateway with NAT enabled. But I was ble to ping my router with both "my.router" & "wl-500g.Premium2" (the Host Name I set in USB Application - Basic Config). The ip address of WL500gp is still 192.168.1.1. I guess the difference is when my office DNS server couldn't find the hostname it will just return an error instead of pointing to a silly website. This will allow the DNS in WL-500gp to function properly.

Maybe I can configure my PPPoE to use some DNS servers other than the ones given by my ISP. But I don't think I can just simply set a DNS from other ISPs, can I?

[wrc4]

After several email exchange with ASUS support, the problem has been fixed in the latest 2.0.1.5 firmware. But the firmware is far from perfect: if I play with the settings a little bit either samba or Media Server will have problem again. And I still need to restore an old settings file or even re-configure from the begining once in while. I will definitely switch to oleg firmware once it has better support for 500gp v2.