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Problem seeing my B3 when connected via 802.11ac

Posted: 16 Jan 2015, 15:03
by rog
I have a macbook pro, and I'm having an odd problem with it - I can't see my b3 when connected to my home network via 802.11ac.

The way my home network is set up is very, very simple. I have an an Asus RT-AC68U router, the b3 is connected to it via ethernet, and I have a couple of devices that connect wirelessly to it - a roku, a couple of mobile devices, and my laptop.

When the laptop is connected to the router via 802.11n, I can see the b3. When it's connected via 802.11ac, I cannot, nor can I connect to it by using Finder > Go > Connect to Server. However, I can connect via ssh.

I posted this question in a Mac forum, and someone told me the reason I can't see the b3, when connected via 802.11ac, is because the b3 doesn't support 802.11ac, and thus won't report on the network, even though it's connected via ethernet. That sounds a bit counterintuitive to me, so I wanted to ask here, and see if you guys agreed that that could be the problem.

Re: Problem seeing my B3 when connected via 802.11ac

Posted: 16 Jan 2015, 15:28
by Stryker
The B3 not supporting 802.11ac being the reason is absolute rubbish.
It is not the B3's job to route network-traffic between wireless (be it any kind of transmission-technology) and wired but the router's.
The B3 has no idea what your connection to it looks like beyond the node connected to its own Ethernet-Port and it does not need to. (see Footnote)

Do you know what kind of protocol "Finder - Go -Connect to Server" uses? (I am not a MAC-User) Is that a way to connect to a NFS/Samba-Share and open a filemanager window to browse shared files of a server?
Or is that just a fancier way to connect via something else?

--

At the level (OSI 2, data-link) where wireless and wired are handled differently, there are only point-to-point connections. At this level, the handling processes only know about themselves, the message, and the other side.
All the layers above this one (for example IP at "OSI 3, network" or HTTP at 5+) are end-to-end. They know what their ultimate destination is (IP x.x.x.x) and the router then calculates which one of the Interfaces at Level 2 (wired, radio-transmission, sheep) is the right one to reach it.

Re: Problem seeing my B3 when connected via 802.11ac

Posted: 17 Jan 2015, 14:41
by stasheck
Seems like a router problem with handling multicast between networks. Seen that a few times, but not this specific instance.

Check if there's anything in router settings about multicast/IGMP protocol.

Re: Problem seeing my B3 when connected via 802.11ac

Posted: 17 Jan 2015, 17:13
by rog
Thanks guys, that's what I thought. I'm going to take a closer look at the router, to see what I can find.

Stryker, the "connect to server" works as a samba share - it's looking for the address smb://192.168.1.10.