Question

M2000 MiFi vs ethernet router

  • 26 March 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 356 views
J
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I have an ethernet network in home office, connected to an ISP router (DSL). I unplugged the DSL line and installed M2000 5G MiFi, and redirected my Windows 10 desktop to connect to the M2000 for internet access; the desktop still uses the ethernet to access the printer. This seems to work well.

My problem: for some reason, I cannot access the web admin page for the MiFi. The ipconfig command output shows that the default gateway is 192.168.0.1, which is the IP address of the ISP router. When I try to access the documented admin web pages (http:/my.MIFI/ or 192.168.1.1) the browser says “this site can’t be reached”. Same results if I try to browse to the IP address in the “About” info on the MiFi itself (192.0.0.2).

Any help would be appreciated, Thanks!

3 replies

T
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I’d change the DHCP configuration on the router (change the router address to something like 192.168.5.1 and change the pool to 192.168.5.2 to 100, for example). Then when your Ethernet PC connects to the router through DHCP, it’ll have a 192.168.5.x address. Then when you connect to wireless via your PC, the wireless adapter will get a 192.168.0.X address and you should be able to get to the mifi via the 192.168.0.1 or 0.2 address (because wifi address does not conflict with address handed out by the router).

J
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Excellent idea, thank you for laying that out for me. I made those changes in the C1000A admin page, saved the changes, and found they did not take. I tried several times. Very frustrating. Then I made the mistake of turning off DHCP (thinking that I needed to make the IP changes between DHCP off/on. Yikes! Thereafter, I couldn’t get into the admin page to re-enable DHCP, stuck with no internet access. 

Eventually, the router was reset to factory defaults (and DHCP is on by default).

After much trial and many errors, I found on my Windows 10 PC that I needed to delete the Network Bridge (thereby isolating my PC from the router providing its own DHCP). Then I could browse to 192.168.1.1 and log in to the admin page. If I then recreated the Network Bridge, the admin page immediately told me that I had lost internet connection -- not "accurate" because I could browse the internet via MiFi with/without the Bridge. The Bridge is only needed so we can see the ethernet network in the office, particularly the printer. 

Anyway, deleting/creating the Network Bridge is an acceptable level of inconvenience for accessing the admin page.

Thanks for your help.

T
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Sorry it didn’t work out as planned! Although an extra expense, I would recommend getting a more capable router. Personally, I’m a big fan of the Pepwave Surf Soho as a fairly low-cost (about $200) router for the functionality it provides as well as the extra security (many “consumer” routers - like the Actiontec - have gaping security flaws that are never fixed).

The Pepwave router supports up to 16 VLANs  - which can include Ethernet ports (so for example, you have a separate Home, Work, TV and Guest networks), which can route between them if you want. It also supports WAN over USB. I have a MiFi 8000 hooked to the USB (going to get the M2000 soon), and don’t use the wireless on the MiFi at all (just use the wireless networks on the router). Here is the information that convinced me to purchase and no - have no affiliation with Pepwave or this person, but I am a big fan of the router: Pepwave Surf SOHO Router (routersecurity.org)

The rest of that site has also got some very good overall information on router security.

Cheers

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