piBeacon Wifi only works when ethernet cable connected

Posted on
Thu Jun 08, 2017 11:43 am
johnfdl offline
Posts: 177
Joined: May 18, 2017
Location: Atlanta, GA USA

piBeacon Wifi only works when ethernet cable connected

So when I installed my first piBeacon, I had an Ethernet cable connection and never needed to mess with wireless. But my second piBeacon went in a location that did not have easy access to ethernet so I enabled the Wifi. Sadly, it would not/could not connect to Wifi unless, ironically it was also ethernet connected. A bit of googling found others with the same issue. In my case the issue appears to be that I was setting up the rPi 3 with a static IP address. So I my /etc/network/interfaces looked like this:

Code: Select all
iface lo inet loopback

iface eth0 inet dhcp

allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
address 192.168.2.155 # Static IP you want
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.2.1   # IP of your router
    wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
iface default inet dhcp

allow-hotplug wlan1
iface wlan1 inet dhcp
    wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
wireless-power off


But for whatever reason, this did not work. I had to reserve the static IP address in my router's DHCP settings. Then the wireless worked even when I'd yank out the ethernet. Unsure why this is, but I wanted to report it here should anyone else be banging their head against the wall. So my etc/network/interfaces looks like this now:
Code: Select all
iface lo inet loopback

iface eth0 inet dhcp

allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
    wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
iface default inet dhcp

allow-hotplug wlan1
iface wlan1 inet dhcp
    wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
wireless-power off


And my /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf looks like this:

Code: Select all
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=US

network={
        ssid="2-11"
        psk="457654aA."
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

network={
        ssid="2"
        psk="457654aA."
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}
network={
    ssid="ASUS"
    psk="enter your wireless password here"
    proto=RSN
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
    pairwise=CCMP
    auth_alg=OPEN
}


I called this out here to hopefully help anyone else banging their head on the wall. The reason I didn't want to reserve the IP address in the router DHCP config is that it has a limit of 16 reserved IP addresses and I was already at my max. So I had to remove one of the reservations to make room for this one.

Posted on
Thu Jun 08, 2017 1:47 pm
kw123 offline
User avatar
Posts: 8333
Joined: May 12, 2013
Location: Dallas, TX

Re: piBeacon Wifi only works when ethernet cable connected

If you have a router with 16 max fixed ip numbers I believe it is time to upgrade.


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Posted on
Thu Jun 08, 2017 2:56 pm
johnfdl offline
Posts: 177
Joined: May 18, 2017
Location: Atlanta, GA USA

Re: piBeacon Wifi only works when ethernet cable connected

It's not really old. It's actually a cable modem/router combo. Arris Surfboard SBG6580. I have multiple wireless routers (DHCP turned off on them) wired into the cablem modem to extend the wireless range throughout the house. Could I just turn off DHCP on the cablemodem and turn on DHCP on one of the routers and switch all the wired connections from the cable modem to the router? This networking stuff always confuses me.

Posted on
Thu Jun 08, 2017 3:32 pm
kw123 offline
User avatar
Posts: 8333
Joined: May 12, 2013
Location: Dallas, TX

Re: piBeacon Wifi only works when ethernet cable connected

If you have a router with 16 max fixed ip numbers I believe it is time to upgrade.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Posted on
Thu Jun 08, 2017 3:48 pm
johnpolasek offline
Posts: 911
Joined: Aug 05, 2011
Location: Aggieland, Texas

Re: piBeacon Wifi only works when ethernet cable connected

johnfdl wrote:
It's not really old. It's actually a cable modem/router combo. Arris Surfboard SBG6580. I have multiple wireless routers (DHCP turned off on them) wired into the cablem modem to extend the wireless range throughout the house. Could I just turn off DHCP on the cablemodem and turn on DHCP on one of the routers and switch all the wired connections from the cable modem to the router? This networking stuff always confuses me.



Hey, at least you CAN set static IPs in the cable company's DHCP server... at my mom's place, the wireless ISP that is her only choice won't let us into the routrer; we have to give THEM the MACs that need to be static and THEY set the Tables.

Posted on
Fri Jun 09, 2017 6:31 am
kw123 offline
User avatar
Posts: 8333
Joined: May 12, 2013
Location: Dallas, TX

piBeacon Wifi only works when ethernet cable connected

You should be able to
-Switch off wifi on the cable modem.
-Add a router through an Ethernet cable
-Manage everything from the new router


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Posted on
Thu Jun 22, 2017 6:25 am
johnfdl offline
Posts: 177
Joined: May 18, 2017
Location: Atlanta, GA USA

Re: piBeacon Wifi only works when ethernet cable connected

kw123 wrote:
You should be able to
-Switch off wifi on the cable modem.
-Add a router through an Ethernet cable
-Manage everything from the new router

Done. I tried to turn off LAN DHCP on the cable modem, but for some reason the new router couldn't connect to the internet. But the cable modem is issuing IP addresses in the 192.168.3.xxx range and my new router is in the 192.168.2.xxx range so I think I am fine. The only thing that connects to the cable-modem's LAN is the new router. I now can assign all the reserved IP addresses I want again.

Thanks for the help.

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