SmartLink with two radios

ldelatorre · October 2023

We have two FLEX-6400 radios on our network. I call the first one Flex-A and the second one Flex-B. I have registered both on my SmartLink account. They both show up on the smartlink available radios from a remote network (UPnP) but only Flex-A can connect remotely. The software sees both and correctly sees the slice usage status but not able to connect to Flex-B. I have no issue connecting locally to either radio. I have compared configurations and they are identical. On the Network Settings button, both radios have their respective local IP address and the Automatic Port forwarding (Not Recommended) box is checked. TCP Port is set to 21000 (says 4994 recommended) and UDP Port is set to 2200 (says 4993 recommended). Manually changing those to the recommended numbers does not fix it and it does not save the change.

WX7Y · October 2023

That's because the FLEX only uses the 4992 and 4993 IP Ports and you can't change it on the radio, with two radios on the same network there are several limitations due to collisions on that port. SmartLink knows how to handle the Port Translation but for some reason it doesn't work with two radio's on the same network.

One thing I do is remote power off the radio I'm not planning to use.

Better solution if your Service provider allows it have two different WAN IP's on two routers so 2 different WAN IP address's and 2 LAN Subnets and one radio per Router.

The later works really well, but does require more hardware and cost.

good luck

Mike-VA3MW · October 2023

That's because the FLEX only uses the 4992 and 4993 IP Ports and you can't change it on the radio, with two radios on the same network there are several limitations due to collisions on that port. SmartLink knows how to handle the Port Translation but for some reason it doesn't work with two radio's on the same network.

Hi Brent

Sadly, this isn't true.

The reason being is that the port is only 1 part of the network addressing and it is associated with the IP address of the device. (IP Address:Port Number)

It is perfectly safe to have multiple radios on the same subnet. In fact, I have 3 on 1 network and in the office, well, there are many.

In order for SmartLink to work with multiple radios on the same network, they have to have different ports on the WAN side. If you keep SmartLink in Automatic mode and your router using uPNP, the setup is handled automatically by the router to avoid collisions.

You can see my uPNP table below from my router. Notice that the WAN port numbers are all different while the Internal port numbers are the same but the IP addresses are different.

I hope that helps explain some NAT basics.

73

ldelatorre · October 2023

Let me add another detail: The Automatic TCP Port and Automatic UDP Port tests pass on both radios.

ldelatorre · October 2023

Wow I'm going to put a ticket in. This is just not right. They need to fix this.

WX7Y · October 2023

Yea it mess's things up like FRStack and Node-Red if there listening on Port 4992 and 4993, I know on Node-Red the Smart Guys figured out how to move from using those IP ports and went to using the Radio Name or serial number but still Node-RED can only work one radio at a time not sure about FRStack as I haven't ran it in a long time.

Good Luck with a support ticket and I would be interested in what they tell you.

ldelatorre · October 2023

Hey an update - Today I turned off Flex-A and still cannot access Flex-B on SmartLink on an outside network. It shows up but still won't connect. I verified my router (eero pro) has UPnP turned on. Do I need to setup port forwarding on my router? I thought the whole point of SmartLink was to handle that.

Note: My router does not allow me to see the UPnP port forward tables

ldelatorre · October 2023

UPDATE: I solved the problem by manually assigning a port forward to FLEX-B to a different TCP and UDP port pairs to the radio. I left FLEX-A on automatic. I imagine it forwards TCP 21000 to 4994 and UDP 22000 to 4993 but cannot verify it.

Thank you all for the help. Mike that post with the NAT table was very helpful.

Mike-VA3MW · October 2023

Automatic does work for multiple radios.

To check what is going on, log into your Router and there will be a uPNP table some place. You want to review what is going on. This is better than just guessing.

Or, download uPNP Wizard and see what it reports. www.xldevelopment.net

Here is mine (you'll notice their seems to be 2 radios on the same IP, but that is a left over that I haven't cleaned up yet).

73

ldelatorre · October 2023

Tried the UPnP Wizzard and it throws an error on open. I can only conclude the eero pro router does not fully support UPnP.

WX7Y · October 2023

Euro Routers are Junk in my opinion and I returned mine to Amazon and demanded a FULL refund even after the 30 Day limit mainly because it took so long getting any support.

Who in there right Mind would think that it was a good Idea to manage a Network using a SmartPhone and not a WEB interface?

I went back to what I knew works well and that is the ASUS MESH Routers, BUT I DON'T use UPnP and so I can't vouch for how they work with UPnP.

My Computer which is in the House and the Radio is out in the shop and and my Latency is most of the time <1ms with 2ms being the highest with 3 dropouts right when I fire up SmartSDR and no other Dropouts 10 hours later.

SmartLink with two radios

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