"Radio does not have an Internet connection"

VE6WZ · September 2022

Before I submit a help ticket I will ask here.

To be clear, I have been operating my Flex 6600 for 5 years remotely and am quite familiar with setting up the network and port forwards.

This just suddenly happened today. I was using the radio remotely via SmartLink and the connection just dropped, and I could not resume remote connection.

I logged into the PC at the remote and the radio is available on the LAN, and it works fine, but SmartSDR says..NO INTERNET. Of course I cant even use SmartLink setup, because it says "the radio needs to be connected to the internet" which I understand.

The problem is, the radio is connected to the LAN, and fully accessible, and the LAN via the router IS connected to the Internet. (That's how I access the remote PC and everything else at the remote)

I logged into the router and the Flex IP addy is there, and the port forwards are still all correct. But that's not the real issue, since even if they weren't, I could change them in SmartLink setup, but the radio thinks it has no internet so won't let me.

I checked that my ISP hasn't done something strange and blocked port forwards because I used some other device at the remote that require port forwards and they function fine.

I restarted the radio numerous times, did a full 12V power cycle using a remote relay and rebooted the router but no luck.

Why does the radio say it has no internet connection when it is connected to the LAN router that is fully functional and connected to the WAN?

Is there something else obvious I should try?

73, de steve ve6wz

Frederic HB9CQK · September 2022

Hi Steve, SmartLink is down, check the announcement from FlexRadio. I went through the same process as you before seeing the announcement. As suggested before it would really be helpful to have a simple traffic light indication on the FlexRadio Website to show the status of SmartLink!

73, Frédéric, HB9CQK

jlag · December 2022

I have been having the "radio does not have an internet connection" for the two years I have owned my 6600. Attempting to get this working once again.

The PnP sets up forwarding as such:

172.16.0.21:4994 - FlexRadio SmartLink TLS Port TCP Any -> 21000 - All Broadband Devices - Active

172.16.0.21:4993 - FlexRadio SmartLink UDP Port UDP Any -> 22000 - All Broadband Devices - Active

Would anyone know:

What is the SmartLink doing to determine if the radio has an internet connection? i.e. is it connecting to radio, pinging the server and waiting for response back on these forwarded ports?
Could using a Class B IPv4 addresses on my network be a problem (172.16.0.0-172.16.31.255)? Has anyone connected/registered SmartLink using Class B addresses?

WX7Y · December 2022

Kind of confusing on the Topic, but I think your saying the radio is on a Class B network, This should work fine UNLESS your double Nated, I ran my radio for may years on a class B network but it WASN'T doulble NAT'ed

so what is the input IP WAN to your 172.16.0.21 radios Router? Is it a WAN address or is there another Router that is attached before it hits the WAN?

have you tried to create port forwarding through the class B Router and set the DHCP reservations for your Radios MAC address in your class B network?

just a few questions before someone can give you a hint on what is going on.

jlag · December 2022

Thanks Bret, it is quite a setup. It probably is the another NAT even though the 2nd router is only an access point. It could be because it is a Mesh AP and I am forced to use the WAN port on it for the 10/100 backhaul. I do have a 10/100 line in from the main router into the shack before it goes to the WIFI AP. Going to try to put a dumb switch there to split to the radio before it goes to the WAN of the AP.

Interestingly, I forwarded port 4992 and I can establish a connection to the radio from the public side. The VITA frames don't make it though. MacOS Smart SDR lets you specify a fixed IP address for the radio connection so that is rather helpful. If I could make the connection this way without the cloud I would be extremely happy.

jlag · December 2022

Tried this to no avail.

A little bit about the topology:

FIOS ONT with UTP to WAN on Actiontec router. Actiontec does not provide WIFI but does provides DHCP on the 10/100 LAN ports and assigns Class B (172.16.0.0-172.16.31.255) addresses to all the clients. At this point the radio is connected to a LAN port on the Actiontec which is using the forwarding rules posted in my 19 Dec message above.

Still, upon the SmartLink registration: "Radio does not have an internet connection".

There are plenty of port forwarding rules in place on this router that are working fine. This is very strange. Going to capture the outbound and inbound when it tries to register and see what I can see.

WX7Y · December 2022

The easiest way is to have your internet provider create in THIER router a DMZ to your Router, or Forward a Real IP address from his WAN to your Routers WAN Mac address.

The only other way I know of is to have a Hardware VPN out to someplace that doesn't have 2 NAT's to give you a real WAN address.

jlag · December 2022

Hi Bret, my first router (the one that the radio is connected to) has a public IP, so the only thing I can think of is the 172 addresses. Going to try a 192.168 router later tonight. Would hate to have to re-number the net. We'll see how that goes...

Thanks again for the input.

John L

jlag · December 2022

Setup another router with Class C (192.168.x.x) subnet range, DHCP enabled and radio will not grab an address, remains on the auto-config address (169.254.x.x). Been doing this stuff since token ring days and never had a puzzle such as this.

Maybe it is VPN time for me :)

KD0RC · December 2022

I would submit a help desk ticket. Flex Support has long experience in getting various network configurations working.

jlag · December 2022

Not sure it is network related at this point. I DMZ'd the radio and it still replies "not connected to the internet" when attempting to register. With it DMZ'd though I can connect to it from the outside with SmartSDR IOS.

Maybe my SmartLink account is black listed :)

Mike-VA3MW · December 2022

That message is not a real indication of if the internet is available or not. Essentially, we are pinging a few hosts and for some reason we are not decoding the success message accordingly.

jlag · December 2022

Got it. I don't see the radio pinging any hosts during the Smart app start-up. I don't see any frames (other than broadcast) going out of the radio when SmartSDR starts up and/or when I click on "SmartLink Setup". Has the radio already determined yay or nay on internet access, cached that information, and report it to Smart when Smart queries the radio on app start-up?

David Decoons, wo2x · December 2022

I’ve seen this scenario once. I fixed it by downgrading the radio to one version older, reboot radio, including factory reset, then upgrading radio. Not sure this is same issue you have.

Your network has only one router (Actiontec)? If you plug a laptop in the radio’s network connection, does the laptop get a 172.16.X.X IP? And does it have Internet access?

Dave wo2x

jlag · December 2022

Hello Dave, thanks for the input.

Radio and everything connected to the AP grab an IP from the Actiontec main router without issues. The radio was stuck on the DHCP AutoConfig when I was testing with a different router for debug purposes. I had a cable running from the ONT to the shack when I was doing this and it looks as though the DHCP issue was a cable problem.

I took your advice, downrev->uprev, and SmartLink is registered and working as it should now with all of the original network equipment. Thank you to Bret, Len, Mike and Dave.

Case closed.

Regards/73 to all.

David Decoons, wo2x · December 2022

Glad you got it working!

Dave wo2x

"Radio does not have an Internet connection"

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