Question about hardware setup. Our home internet has a modem/router plus a few repeaters. One of these repeaters has a wired connection to the router. Would I be able to use an ethernet connection between this repeater and the Freedombox instead of directly into the router?
Yes. Network configuration wizard in Freedom box has an option for this setup. I don’t think that the repeater between the FB and router is significant (it is of the same subnet as the LAN)
Give it a go and share how it works.
In my own network FB connects directly to a power line ethernet and clients connect to FB via that link. It works and there is no additional setup. That sounds similar to what you are asking about.
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I’ve got it set up! I am very excited.
Setup went pretty smoothly. I used the mDNS setup option, and http://freedombox.local/
I quickly realised I needed to disable my current VPN. (Can I suggest this point be included in the manual in the interest of catering to all abilities?)
I was a bit concerned about setup behind a router. I share a router with extended family: router isn’t in my home, and we conenct to the network via repeaters. Pioneer box is plugged into the one repeater that has an ethernet connection with the Router. I can still access the router though. I have chosen not to configure it for the time being because I am not sure how doing so will impact others on the network. I think I selected My ISP provides a public IP address that may change over time during setup because that seemed the most probable case.
I managed to download and install Wireguard last night with the intention to using it as my VPN going forward, but no implementation yet because, from memory, I need to deal with the router problems first.
One problem I have right now is that I don’t know how to reconnect to the Freedombox web interface again having shut down my computer last night. http://freedombox.local/ isn’t working.
And apologies in advance - I am so, painfully, a beginner.
Hello @Screep
At the moment wireguard as a issue : firewall: Setup inter-zone forwarding Hopefully the fix will be avaible in a software updates soon !
Regards & Welcome: Peterc
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Did you check that you vpn Is off again after restarting your computer?
Can you ping freedombox.local?
Is freedombox.local address correct?
Is there a device on your network with duplicate IP to freedom box?
Is your network repeater the same as used by FB? If no you should confirm the repeater link is up.
Just thinking of the basics here.
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I have accessed the router and found the Freedom Box’s IP address, but I get a
The connection has timed out
message each time I enter it.
address is correct, yes
I can’t ping http://freedombox.local/
VPN is disabled, yes
no other device on my network with duplicate IP to freedom box
from what I can see on the network map, it seems I am connected to a different network repeater as used by FB. Pretty certain the repeater link is up, though.
If FB is up and you can’t connect even by ping then you are either
- not on the same LAN (IP address prefix and/or netmask differ)
- network segments are not connected (a repeater is down)
What is your computer IP and what is the FB IP? They should be 192.168.x.x, 172.x.x.x, or 10.x.x.x inside of the LAN. Don’t share your ISP network address (won’t look like the three address blocks above)
Try connecting using the same repeater leg as the FB.
Also, you probably can’t connect to your FB from the Internet yet, if this is what you are trying to do.
I replied to you, @joseph a day ago via email, but it hasn’t shown up in the forum. Same thing happened with a previous reply.
To your questions:
PC: 192.168.1.19
FB: 192.168.1.37
Not certain how to connect to the same repeater leg as the FB, but it is connected to the repeater I am closest too.
Not trying to connect to the FB from the Internet, no.
Repeater is down seems believable as a scenario because the walls of the building I am located in are very thick.
I would like to make a little progress on setting up the FB while trying to sort through the WiFi network problems. Would using an ethernet cable to connect my laptop to the repeater that is connected to the FB provide an interim solution do you think?
Hello @Screep
Can you get access to wifi ? If so this gizmo may be of help ? VAR11N-300 Multi-Functional Wireless Portable Wifi Router/ Wifi Bridge/ WiT6J5 Use your laptop to set it up. Then use the VAR11N-300 with your freedombox to get wifi access.
Regards: peter
Hello @Peterc
Thanks for this suggestion. No trouble connecting to WiFi, only trouble is finding the FB on the network.
When you suggest I ‘use the VAR11N-300 with your freedombox to get wifi access’, what precisely are you suggesting in terms of setup?
Hello @Screep
The VAR11N-300 is a wireless repeater. The reason I mentioned it was to give you an other option to help install freedombox. Dose the device you have freedombox installed on have a HDMI ? if so can you use a TV HDMI to watch the boot of freedombox to see if you can pick up a ip address at the end of the boot ?
I have used the VAR11N-300 to install freedombox on a raspberry pi 3 b+ when I had no Ethernet connection, only wifi.
Regards: peter
Brick will do that in my experience. I use power line ethernet to connect the access points and wireless distribution does not work in my case.
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Stone in my case! Not feasible to have everything ‘wired’ atm, but just to be clear, the following setup:
FB and laptop connected to the same repeater with Ethernet cables
should solve the problem?
This would remove a lot of questions.
- laptop and FB IP addresses look like the same subnet
- Ethernet cable removes wifi as a point of failure
- connect by IP removes DNS as a failure point
Not connecting after that would make me suspicious that FB is not answering for some reason.
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Would it help–and be safe–to share a screenshot of my LAN map? I could try to show how the FB, repeater and computer are/are not connected…
I don’t have an ethernet port in my laptop. . . .
I tried pinging the FB using its IP and got:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 3ms, Maximum = 7ms, Average = 5ms
Hi @Peterc
I have the Pioneer-FreedomBox, so I do have HDMI. I already know the FB IP address from accessing the router.
FB is also already installed and updated. I just haven’t been able to connect to it again since initial setup.
First of all, thank you both for trying to lend me a hand with my problem. I haven’t yet found a solution.
I have changed the position of the FB, connecting it directly to the router via ethernet rather than one of the repeaters. Still can’t connect with it though, neither through the FB’s IP address, nor through http://freedombox.local/
I am going to try connecting to it by placing my self next to the router and see if that helps.
If none of this works, is there a way to ‘reset’ the FB in some way and begin the set up over again? Could I wipe the SD card, download a new image and start again that way?