Will the WiFi still have network connection after the optical modem is changed to bridge? ChinaNet is full but can’t access the Internet. It’s not broken.

Will the WiFi still have network connection after the optical modem is changed to bridge?: ChinaNet is full but cannot access the Internet. Only the router WiFi can really connect to the Internet.

Last month, I changed the Huawei HS8145V5 at home to a bridge, and the dial-up on the router was able to work. The measured speed increased from more than 480 MB to about 910 MB, which was quite beautiful. As a result, my wife called me the next morning and asked me why my phone was full and I couldn’t view videos. I went over to take a look and found that her phone was not connected to the "shunot-5G" I set up, but the ChinaNet-XXXX on optical modem's butt. The signal still showed three bars.

My first reaction was that the bridge was damaged, so I restarted both the optical modem and the router. I figured it out later: The optical modem WiFi is still broadcasting, and the mobile phone can connect, but it no longer cares about surfing the Internet. I stepped on this pit all night, and I will break it out today to save you from thinking that normal phenomena are faults.

Let’s settle the accounts first: Bridging only hands over dialing and does not remove WiFi

Many people who change the bridge for the first time will think that after the change, the optical modem will be a pure photoelectric converter, and WiFi, background, and USB will all be gone. Not really. Changing the bridge only changes the INTERNET line in the WAN connection.: Originally, the optical modem was used for dialing and NAT forwarding, but now it is changed to Bridge, which leaves the dialing work to the router behind. Optical modem's own wireless module, DHCP service, and backend page are still partially open as usual.

I took the HS8145V5 at home and looked at the WAN connection table. After the modification, the mode of the INTERNET line in the table was Bridge, and the binding was still LAN1. ； I haven't touched the TR069, IPTV, and OTHER items at all, so everything on the optical modem side is still there. If you are not familiar with these terms in the WAN connection table, take a look at them first. What are INTERNET, TR069, IPTV and OTHER in the backend of optical modem? , I just couldn’t tell the difference at the time and almost deleted the TR069 item. Which section does the optical modem and the router control respectively? What is the difference between an optical modem and a router? Li also writes very straightforwardly.

So let’s talk about half of the conclusion first: After bridging, it is normal for the Optical Modem's own WiFi to continue to send signals, and it will not disappear automatically just because the bridging is changed. What has really changed is that there is no outlet behind this WiFi.

My mobile phone is connected to ChinaNet, but why can’t I access the Internet even though it’s full?

I measured this phenomenon on my mobile phone. I deliberately switched my mobile phone's WiFi from my home router to the ChinaNet-XXXX of optical modem. The status bar of my iPhone was still full. When I entered WeChat to circle around, the speed measurement software kept stuck on "Connecting to server". The same is true on Android. After connecting, you will probably not be able to get the DNS, or even if you get it, you won't be able to access it.

The reason is not complicated. When the Optical Modem is still in routing mode, when the mobile phone is connected to the Optical Modem WiFi, the traffic route is "Mobile phone → Optical Modem WiFi → Optical Modem dials NAT by itself → Fiber goes out". After changing the bridge connection, Optical Mode no longer dials and does not perform NAT forwarding. This route is disconnected when it reaches Optical Mode WiFi. ； The real dial-up router is behind the LAN1 of the Optical Mode. Since the Optical Mode WiFi is not connected to the router, the mobile phone will naturally not be able to access the Internet.

I'll look at it in a simpler way: After connecting to ChinaNet, go to WiFi details and see the gateway. If it shows 192.168.2.1 or 192.168.1.1 In the optical modem section, the web page cannot be opened again. It is basically an empty shell of WiFi. In the past, when optical modem did not change the bridge connection, this gateway could also send you an address of 192.168.2.x. ； Some optical modems will still send the address after bridging, but some will not send it out directly. It's the same thing when you see "Unable to obtain IP address". Don't rush to factory reset.

I still find this counter-intuitive: Full WiFi only means that the wireless signal between the mobile phone and the optical modem is strong, but it does not mean that there is a network behind this wireless period. The WiFi signal and the external network outlet are two separate accounts. This is also the case when the WiFi on the home router is full but the network is disconnected. This time it was just the optical modem bridge that moved the external network outlet to the router.

How to judge whether optical modem WiFi is causing trouble or the bridge is really broken?

The first thing I did that night was to plug the computer network cable directly into the LAN port of the router to measure the speed. It was over 900 Mbit/s, and the bridge connection was no problem. Then plug in the optical modem LAN1, and the computer can get the router's address, which is normal. This means that both the bridge and router dial-up are working, but the phone is connected to the wrong WiFi.

You can do your own investigation in this order as well.:

First connect to the router WiFi and test it ： If you can access the Internet, it means the main link is not broken.
Check which WiFi your phone is currently connected to ： Those whose names start with ChinaNet, CMCC, and CU are probably the ones that come with optical modem.
Connect to Shangguangmao WiFi and test alone ： It’s full but can’t open the webpage. It’s basically a real problem.
Even if the network cable is plugged into the router's LAN port, I can't connect to the Internet. ： That's a bridging or dialing issue, go back and check the WAN connection and account number.

When the network cable was plugged into the router and I couldn't connect to the Internet, I checked it for my neighbor last month. In the end, his broadband account number was missing and the router couldn't connect to it. That kind of problem has nothing to do with optical modem WiFi, and the troubleshooting methods are different. Router dial-up keeps failing after the optical modem is changed to bridge I wrote in this article that if you first connect your computer directly to the optical modem and dial it once, you can tell who is responsible at a glance.

I later made a special comparison: The mobile phone is standing in the same position in the living room. When connected to ChinaNet, the display shows -72dBm, and the webpage rotates in circles. ； Even the 5G display of our own AX3000T shows -58dBm, and the measured speed is more than 370 megabytes. Don't be fooled by those three boxes. The number -72 is already on the borderline of "you can connect but you can't do the work". The mobile phone does not actively switch because it sees that the current WiFi is not completely disconnected, so it refuses to leave. Therefore, instead of manually switching it every day, it is better to turn off the WiFi of optical modem directly and cut off this dead end from the root.

How to turn off optical modem WiFi in the background

After confirming that it is an empty WiFi, the cleanest solution is to turn it off. Don't leave an SSID hanging around the house that is connected but not connected to the Internet. If your phone's WiFi is weak, it will stick to it. Especially if you have 2.4G devices such as sweepers, cameras, and smart sockets at home, they don't care whether you have a ChinaNet network or not. They will connect to it when they scan the network.

The path of my HS8145V5 is: Plug the computer network cable into the LAN port of the optical modem, and enter the browser 192.168.2.1 , use the useradmin on the sticker on the back of the optical modem to log in. Note that after bridging, the network segment of the optical modem and the router are easy to collide. 192.168.2.1 Enter the router background. If you really can’t get in, just set your computer’s network card to 192.168.2.10 , mask 255.255.255.0 , plug in the LAN port of the cat and then enter. I have emphasized this elsewhere.

After logging in, look for "Network" or "WLAN Configuration" and you can see two wireless configurations, 2.4G and 5G. Click in and turn off "Enable SSID", "Wireless Switch" or "WLAN Switch" and save. The name may be written as "Wireless Network Switch" or "Enable Switch", just recognize the words "on" and "off". After turning it off, the ChinaNet in the mobile phone's WiFi list will disappear after a while, or it may still be there but cannot be connected.

After turning off 2.4G and 5G at my house, the phone no longer runs to the optical modem on its own. It used to be that there was always a ChinaNet grabbing device with a signal next to the AX3000T. Now the WiFi list is much cleaner. Don't worry that turning off optical modem WiFi will affect your broadband. The broadband is through the LAN port and has nothing to do with the WiFi switch.

In these three cases, optical modem WiFi can be left temporarily

I'm not saying that all bridge users must turn it off. There are several situations where it would be useful to keep it, but you have to be aware that it does not have an external network now, so don't use it as your main network.

I haven’t bought a router yet, so I’ll use it temporarily. ： Some people changed the bridge and router first and then arrived the next day. In this case, although the optical modem WiFi is not connected, after the optical modem and the router are connected, the router WiFi will prevail for a short period of time. The optical modem WiFi does not need to be turned off immediately.
Only used as local debugging entrance ： optical modem WiFi can also be used to change settings in the background, especially when the router cannot be accessed, and the mobile phone can be connected to optical modem WiFi. 192.168.2.1 On the contrary, it is convenient.
There are some old devices at home that only recognize cat SSID. ： It is true that there are old printers and old cameras that have forgotten ChinaNet. In this case, don't turn it off immediately. Change the device back to the router WiFi and then turn it off.

But no matter whether you stay or not, don’t connect your mobile phone to optical modem WiFi. Even if the signal says full, it's a dead end. If you really want to use up your cat WiFi for a long time, you shouldn’t change the bridge connection. Is it worth the trouble to change the optical modem to bridging? Here I have calculated the benefits and costs of both ends, and first clearly see what my home needs.

I finally summarized it into four steps. If you follow them, you won’t have to restart them several times.

Looking back now, I restarted twice more that night, simply because I didn't distinguish between "optical modem WiFi has signal" and "optical modem WiFi has network". If you encounter the same situation, follow this order:

Connect to your own router WiFi, first confirm that the broadband and bridging are normal.
Check whether the mobile phone is connected to the built-in WiFi of optical modem such as ChinaNet and CMCC.
If Lianguangmao WiFi is verified, but it is full but cannot open the web page, it means that it is an empty shell.
Enter 192.168.2.1 In the background, turn off both the 2.4G and 5G wireless switches of the optical modem.

It has been more than two months since my Huawei HS8145V5 was rebridged. The dial-up speed of the router has been stable at more than 900 MB. The optical modem WiFi has been turned off for a long time. There has never been a problem of the mobile phone being stuck to the wrong network. You can't say how serious this problem is, it's just that it's very good at pretending: The WiFi is full, and people subconsciously think that there is a network, but they end up going around for a long time. In the future, when you see that ChinaNet is full but unable to refresh, don’t blame the broadband first, first check which WiFi you are connected to.