I did some googling and forum searching and could not find anything that was exactly like the issue I'm experiencing currently.  I'll try to break this down as succinctly as possible.

 

I've had unRAID working normally via an ethernet cable run directly to the router in the living from my office.  In the office I have a simple Netgear switch/hub that my unRAID server (and iMac) connect to.  Decided to buy an access point to eliminate the long ethernet cable.  Got the AP setup and connected, verified access to the internet using my iMac.  Attempted to do the same with unRAID and it could not get out, couldn't even ping the router.  None of my docker apps could get out either, yet my Linux VM (on unRAID) could get out just fine.

 

Troubleshooting steps:

• Verified all of the network settings were still the same
• Verified the router was still seeing the server in it's DHCP table, noticing the Linux VM was also there like normal
• Restarted network service on server; no change
• Successfully ping my iMac from server (they are connected to the same switch)
• Verified iMac could still ping the router
• Rebooted the server (safe shutdown); no change

 

As a last resort, I disconnected the AP and reconnected the long ether cable directly to the router and unRAID has connectivity again.   Log attached.

 

unRAID server details:

• unRAID ver 6.8.3
• 2U Supermicro chassis & mobo
• Dual quad-core Xeon
• 16GB RAM
• Dual 8TB parity drives
• 256GB SSD cache
• Two 8TB data HDD + one 1TB data HDD + one 2TB external USB data HDD

 

Router = TP-Link Archer A7
AP = TP-Link AC1200

unplucky-syslog-20210215-2228.zip

Edited February 16, 20215 yr by Mat W
Added router and access point model names

6 hours ago, Mat W said:

I disconnected the AP and reconnected the long ether cable directly to the router and unRAID has connectivity again.

There are no WiFi drivers in unRAID.  It is not as simple as it may appear to add them.  A wired connection is required.

 

Some get around that with powerline adapters, but most don't offer great performance.  Others try wireless bridges wired to the server bridged to the router via WiFi.

 

The bottom line is that you must have a wired connection to a NIC on the server.

 

EDIT:  Your VM works because the VM OS has WiFi drivers.

Edited February 16, 20215 yr by Hoopster

@Hoopster - I'm not attempting to connect with WiFi.  The server is hardwired to the access point (via a switch) which communicates with my router via WiFi.  So from server's point of view, it's an ethernet connection via eth0.  The server is able to ping both my iMac (on the same switch) and the IP addy of the access point, but not the router beyond it.

 

Topology: internet <-cable-> cable modem <-cable-> TP-Link Archer router <-Wifi-> TP-Link Access Point <-cable-> Linksys switch <-wire-> unRAID server eth0 port

 

Unless, you're saying that unRAID cannot work through any WiFi connections anywhere in the chain?

3 hours ago, Mat W said:

Unless, you're saying that unRAID cannot work through any WiFi connections anywhere in the chain?

Sure not that, the problem is AP client bridge really trouble, most equipment just not support or not reliable. TP-Link AC1200 also haven't mention support client bridge but you success connect with upstream router.

Best solution was mesh WiFi.

 

Are you follow below WDS setting, enter master AP mac ( not router WAN/LAN mac ) ? If it not work well, I don't think you can do anything.

https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/faq/440/

Edited February 16, 20215 yr by Vr2Io

8 hours ago, Mat W said:

Unless, you're saying that unRAID cannot work through any WiFi connections anywhere in the chain?

No, not saying that at all.  All unRAID cares about is that the server NIC has a wired connection.  As I mentioned, several unRAID users are using wireless bridges with unRAID servers.  It appears, that is what you are trying to accomplish but it is not working for you. 

 

I am not familiar with the AC-1200 and whether or not it has a bridge mode, but this has worked for others who needed a "wireless" connection with unRAID.  Others mention having done it with and Archer C8 in bridge mode.  Overkill probably, but it worked.

 

Your setup should work if you can get a WDS bridge established between the AP and router as per the instructions @Vr2Io posted.  If the AC-1200 is not capable of that, this is likely your problem.

1 hour ago, Hoopster said:

Your setup should work if you can get a WDS bridge established between the AP and router as per the instructions @Vr2Io posted.  If the AC-1200 is not capable of that, this is likely your problem.

Fortunately, the AC-1200 supports both "Client" mode (what I'm using now) which is basically just acting as wired to wireless converter connecting to my WiFi router AND a "Range Extender" mode which sounds more like bridging.  I'll trying using the range extender mode and see if that works.

 

If not, I'll have to go with a different device that allows for the WDS bridging feature you and @Vr2Io mentioned.  Thank you both for the assistance.

Edited February 16, 20215 yr by Mat W

1 hour ago, Mat W said:

Fortunately, the AC-1200 supports both "Client" mode (what I'm using now) which is basically just acting as wired to wireless converter connecting to my WiFi router AND a "Range Extender" mode which sounds more like bridging

This video may be helpful.

So, I think I've confused things by stating the model number of the AP is "AC1200" (which is clearly indicates on the box).  The actual model is TL-WA1201.  The manual, specs on the TP-Link website and pop up help in the AP's webUI all indicate it supports WDS.  Even with WDS enabled on my TP-Link Archer A7 router and despite the AP manual and popup help both clearly indicate there should be a field to set WDS to auth/WDS1/WDS2/etc on the AP.... there is no such field.  I even updated the firmware on the AP, still no such field.  I change it to "extender" mode and still no luck.

 

At this point I'm giving up, returning it and going back to the simple CAT5 cable.  I've never been particularly fond of Wifi if I'm being honest and this only exhibits why.  I greatly appreciate all the assistance!

19 hours ago, Mat W said:

So, I think I've confused things by stating the model number of the AP is "AC1200" (which is clearly indicates on the box).  The actual model is TL-WA1201

The specs for the TL-WA1201 do say it supports WDS Bridge mode.

 

AC1200 will appear on a lot of equipment as it is the combined theoretical speed rating of the 2.4 GHz and 5GHz bands with AC WiFi.  Netgear and Asus do this as well.  You won't actually get anywhere near those speeds but the higher the number they put on the box, the better for marketing purposes.  To confuse you more, it is the actual model number for one of their routers.

21 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

The specs for the TL-WA1201 do say it supports WDS Bridge mode.

Yup, and the screenshots used in the manual even show a field for selecting which specific WDS version to use.  However, no matter what I did, no such field appeared.  I even updated the firmware, thinking that might help.

 

At that point I had already invested way more time than the benefits would be worth, I decided not to deal with contacting support and just returned it.

7 minutes ago, Mat W said:

At that point I had already invested way more time than the benefits would be worth, I decided not to deal with contacting support and just returned it.

👍