And during its installation, each of us dealt with LAN and WAN connectors. They are intended for different purposes, but are used together, which often leads to confusion. Let's figure out what they are and what the difference is between them.
The Internet cable is connected through the WAN socket, and local devices are connected through the LAN.
What is LAN
This type of connection will allow you to combine a certain number of computers located at a short distance from each other into a local environment.
When purchasing a router, you may notice on the back of it there are four identical sockets of the same type. All of them are created with the purpose of connecting several PCs to one access point.
A LAN port is needed if you want to create a group to connect all the equipment inside the house to the Internet. Thus, it is possible to create a network that will cover an area of a couple of kilometers, for which they buy a cable with high bandwidth.
What is WAN
Using this type of connection, an external network is created, which represents a large number of groups and users, regardless of their location. The main difference is that the previous format is intended for internal connection of several PCs, and this type of connection is external.
There are many global networks, but the most famous and frequently used is the World Wide Web. This is what most clients prefer at different distances, since it is not limited geographically and is created using telephone wires and more modern technologies.
You probably saw a WAN type connector when purchasing and installing a router - a cable from the provider is connected to it. The joint operation of both ports is that one of them transmits a signal, which is then distributed to devices connected to the router.
Technical points
The main differences between these formats:
- The first type helps to create an internal network; WAN is used to connect users globally.
- A local group has a limit on the number of clients and territory, a global group does not.
- The ports have different data transfer protocols - Ethernet and 802.11 for local and PPP, HDLC, Frame Relay for external.
The other day I came across a D-Link DIR-300NRU/B7 router with a serious hardware problem - two ports (WAN and LAN2) burned out due to a short circuit in the network. One of the LAN ports is not a big problem when there are 3 more in stock. But without a WAN port, a router is of little use (although even in such a situation it can be used - set up signal reception via Wi-Fi with further distribution to a wired network). But in this particular case, you can restore normal functionality by replacing the WAN port with one of the remaining LAN ports.
Most often, such an operation is only possible using alternative firmware such as DD-WRT or OpenWRT. The first one for this router model, alas, is missing, and an unexpected problem arose with OpenWRT - every time after rebooting the device, the Wi-Fi settings were lost (reassigning ports and raising the PPPoE connection worked without problems). In general, I had to return to the native firmware and reassign ports using standard tools (I confess, I didn’t think before that this was possible in principle on native D-Link firmware, but after a deep study of the latest firmware I was pleasantly surprised).
So, first, we upload the latest version of the latest firmware to our router (take ). At the time of writing this article, the latest available version is 20151002_1430_DIR_300NRUB7_2.5.13_sdk-master.bin.
Now you can start reassigning ports. First, go to the “Network” → WAN page and delete our broken WAN (don’t forget to save the button settings in the upper right corner), after which the page will look like this:
The next step is to go to the “Advanced” page → VLAN. Here you will need to think a little (perhaps use the “scientific poking” method). The fact is that this router (like most devices of this class) uses a regular 5-port switch. One of the ports is software assigned to the role of a WAN port (but can be called wan, or maybe the “outmost” port in terms of numbering, port0, or port5), the remaining four are in the LAN role. Our task is to determine which port was in the WAN role initially and turn it off (in my case it was also necessary to turn off the LAN2 port) . Among the remaining ports, select the one that will now play the role of WAN. You can determine which port plays the role of WAN very simply. We look at the table on the WAN page. There are two groups of VLAN (virtual network) ports. In the lan group, all the ports that “watch "towards the user's local network (i.e. four LAN and Wi-Fi ports). The wan group initially has one port - WAN.
In my case, I need to remove two ports from the lan group - lan1 and lan2, and then save the device configuration. Then add port lan1 to the WAN group:
Please note that the current version of the D-Link firmware does not allow you to exclude the standard WAN port from the vlan group (that is, you cannot completely disable it using standard means). Therefore, for reliability, it is better to physically exclude connecting cables to this port (I simply covered both faulty ports with black electrical tape, and the LAN1 port, assigned to the WAN role, was “edged” with yellow electrical tape to avoid confusion in the future).
As a result of all the operations described above, the VLAN page will look like this:
Now you need to save the settings and (just in case) reboot the router. After the reboot, go back to the “Network” → WAN page and create a connection in accordance with the requirements of your provider (in my case - PPPoE).
That's all. If you did everything correctly, the router should connect to the provider’s network and start “distributing the Internet” to the local network (including Wi-Fi) without additional settings.
Through these simple manipulations, we got a working router with all the necessary functionality (albeit with fewer ports). True, there is one more nuance. In the standard D-Link firmware (unlike OpenWRT) there is no way to change the behavior of the LED indicators. Therefore, after the described port reassignment procedure, the “Internet” indicator (green globe), which is “tied” specifically to the WAN port, will stop working.
One fine sunny summer day, quite quickly (as usually happens in the summer) a thunderstorm formed over the area where I live. And of course, what would a summer thunderstorm be without thunder and lightning? After one of the lightning strikes, my TP-LINK841N router completely lost contact with the outside world, in other words, its WAN port burned out.
An initial examination of the victim showed that the patient is most likely alive, although not all organs are working. With the WAN port, everything is clear - it cannot be resuscitated, but the LAN ports even seemed to show signs of life, although two of them, the 2nd and 4th, were not able to pull more than 10 MBit (apparently, interference in the provider’s cable during a thunderstorm gave a good according to the router), Wi-Fi worked properly and all wireless devices saw the network and successfully connected to it.
The situation is certainly sad, because this was the second victim in a month. Going to the store for a third one, without preliminary preparation - lightning protection for the provider's cable, and it entails grounding, etc., in general, somehow I didn’t want to potentially give up another 400 hryvnia to nature.
As a result, as a result of communicating with my friends on this issue, I was advised to try reassigning one of the 4 LAN ports as a WAN port. Why not.
To obtain the firmware we need, do the following:
- Let's go here http://download1.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/others/eko/BrainSlayer-V24-preSP2/.
- Select the current year (at the time of writing it is 2014).
- We select the latest version of the release (at the time of writing it is 06-23-2014-r24461).
- Based on the router model and hardware version, we find the corresponding section (in my case it is tplink_tl-wr841ndv8).
As a result, we will get (for my router) this path http://download1.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/others/eko/BrainSlayer-V24-preSP2/2014/06-23-2014-r24461 /tplink_tl-wr841ndv8/ .
Because Previously, my router worked on factory firmware, to switch to DD-WRT you will need a microcode file called factory-to-ddwrt.bin.
After downloading the required file, go to the web interface of the router - if the router has standard settings (and non-standard ones can always be reset using the reset button), then enter 192.168.1.1 in the address bar of the browser, respond to the login/password request with admin/admin, respectively ( If you have a router configured for your provider, you can find the standard login and password on the back cover of the router). Go to System Tools-> Frimware Upgrade.
Router microcode update page on standard TP-Link firmware
Select the previously downloaded factory-to-ddwrt.bin file to load. Click on the Upgrade button and wait about five minutes, after the update the router will reboot. After rebooting the router, go to the address 192.168.1.1, as a result we will see something like this:
Initial window after dd-wrt firmware Actually, we are asked to specify a user and password for administration via the WEB interface; the password specified here will also be for the root user when working with the router through the console. After saving the data you specified, the router will immediately ask for it when you enter the WEB interface. At this point, the procedure for changing the firmware can be considered complete.
Now, in fact, let's move on to the procedure for setting up ports. I searched quite a lot of pages both on Google and on the DD-WRT forum, but I still couldn’t find any working recommendations (maybe I did something wrong, but nothing worked - the LAN port didn’t want to work as a WAN), so far I didn’t come across a comment on one of the articles on a similar topic. Unfortunately, I can’t provide a link to the original source (lost in time :)), but the essence of the advice was that in order for the LAN port to become a WAN port, the following set of commands was to be executed on the router (to execute commands and display the result of their work, use the page Administration->Commands):
vconfig add eth1 2
vconfig add eth1 3
ifconfig eth1.2 up
ifconfig eth1.3 up
swconfig dev eth1 vlan 2 set ports "0t 4"
swconfig dev eth1 vlan 3 set ports "0t 1 2 3"
swconfig dev eth1 set enable_vlan 1
swconfig dev eth1 set apply 1
brctl addif br0 eth1.3
brctl delif br0 eth1
stopservice wan
sleep 10
startservice wan
Page for executing commands in the router shell To execute commands, they must be written (pasted) in the field Commands and press Run Commands.
I can’t say to what extent “by religion” this is the correct method, but it worked for me after executing these commands 3rd LAN port the router was assigned as a WAN port, received an external IP from the provider and everything worked.
In order to avoid having to repeat this whole “thing” every time you boot the router, it’s worth adding this set of commands to Startup. To do this, paste the above set of commands into the field Commands and press the button Save Startup.
In the end it should look something like this:
This is what the page should look like after saving the commands in Startup At this point, the port transfer procedure can be considered completed. Next, all you have to do is configure the router to work with your provider; I didn’t have the chance to do this because... The connection to my provider is via TFTP, i.e. I get the address from the provider's DHCP server.
I will be glad if this solution helped you, like me.
Hello friends! A month ago, our reader Vitaly I encountered an interesting problem: after a thunderstorm, his router stopped working. What exactly happened, and most importantly, what solution was found, today’s article is about all this. The narration is told in the first person.
Somewhere in July of this year there was a severe thunderstorm and on that day my microwave oven and stereo system (which I used to play sound from the computer) broke down and the Internet went out. What’s interesting is that I checked the fuses at the furnace and the center - they were intact! I sent it in for repairs: in both cases the transformer windings burned out. I’m not particularly specialized in electronics, and it remains a mystery to me why the fuses are intact, but the windings of the transformers burned out. By the way, they have already been repaired and are back in operation.I began to understand the Internet. My Internet is distributed through a Zyxel Keenetic GIGA router. I clicked on diagnosing network problems, and I got the error DNS server is not responding.I Googled possible solutions to this problem - I scoured the entire Internet in search, but nothing helped. I really tried everything I found on this problem. Interestingly, I could enter the router settings interface, change settings, save them, and do other actions, but there was no Internet access, although the network was working. 
I contacted the provider, he fiddled with himself and said that everything was fine on his side. I contacted Keenetic technical support, described the problem, and they advised me of an unusual solution. It is as follows: when you purchased the Zyxel Keenetic GIGA router, it had the first version of firmware, its interface is like this.
Everything is very clear and informative and I got used to it, but there was an experimental version of firmware v2 for Zyxel Keenetic GIGA (on GIGA II and GIGA III it had already become the main one) and I was advised to flash it. The idea was that the second version allowed assign one of the four LAN ports as WAN, to which the Internet cable fits. I updated the router to the second version and in the settings assigned the first LAN port as the WAN port.
In principle, I could assign any of the LAN ports. The cable from the computer's network card was plugged into the third LAN port.
I checked the network diagnostics - the situation is the same - the DNS server is unavailable. I contacted the provider again - within three minutes my Internet was working! Nevertheless, in this situation, I again tried to assign the router’s WAN port to connect to the Internet, but the result was negative - the network worked, but there was no Internet.
That is, as a result of a thunderstorm, the WAN port of the router went down and if not for the unique ability to reassign the port, it would hardly have been possible to return it to operation. By the way, this router has two USB ports, which greatly expanded its capabilities, but as a result of the thunderstorm, they, unfortunately, also failed. But the main thing is that I have the Internet!
Today we will talk about what a router’s WAN port is, how to configure it, and how it differs from a LAN. This solution is used for routers to the Internet. The correct configuration of this channel ensures stable operation of network equipment.
Procedure
First of all, let's discuss how to configure the WAN port. So, we connect the router to the network. Using (usually included in the kit of the above equipment), we connect the LAN port of the router and a computer or laptop. We turn on both devices. We are waiting for the personal computer to finish loading. Open the Internet browser. Enter the IP address of the router. This value can be clarified in the device manual. Press the Enter key. We are waiting for the equipment web interface to complete loading.
Working in the browser
Next, to configure the WAN port, enter your login and password. This action will allow you to access the ability to configure router settings. Open the WAN menu. In some cases it may be called Internet, or Setup. Fill out the proposed table. Select the protocol type for data transfer, for example, PPTP or L2TP. We indicate the encryption type if this function is supported by the selected provider. Enter the access point or Internet server IP. Fill in the “Login” field, as well as “Password”. Data provided by the provider. Check the box next to the option to automatically obtain the DNS server address. If you need to enter a static IP address for the router, fill in the Static IP column.
Saving settings
We activate the Firewall, NAT and DHCP functions. To do this, check the boxes next to the appropriate items. Some parameters may not be used if you do not plan to connect more than one personal computer to the equipment. To fully configure the WAN port, you must click the “Save” button. Reboot the router. For this purpose, you can use the menu functions, or turn off the device for a couple of seconds and start it up again. We connect the provider's cable to the WAN. We check the functionality of the router. To do this, launch the browser and open several pages in it.
Difference
We've figured out the setup, now let's look at how WAN differs from LAN. A regular router has only one port of the first type and several of the second. Outwardly, they are all the same, but to ensure correct operation of the equipment, confusion is unacceptable. WAN is a global concept that covers and connects a huge number of computer systems around the world. A LAN is a local phenomenon involving a small number of PCs in a small area. The difference between these concepts lies in the purpose of the network. WAN is an external association that connects local groups, as well as individual computers. Network participants are able to interact with each other, taking into account the data transfer rate.
The Internet is the most famous, but not the only WAN network today. That is why on routers there is a port with the corresponding abbreviation. It is designed to be connected to an Internet cable. LAN is used to connect to a local network. Such coverage can extend for a maximum of several kilometers. The WAN network is not limited by territory, and even telephone lines can be used to organize it. The LAN connection uses a direct topology. The WAN network is based on a mixed hierarchical network. In addition, the described channels differ in the data transfer protocols used. The number of clients when connecting to a LAN is limited. Now you know what a WAN port is and how to configure it.