PSA: Devolo MAGIC 2 ***next*** Does Not Pass Tagged VLAN Traffic

parityboy

parityboy

parityboy

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10 Dec 2012
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206
Background
A little while back I purchased a Devolo MAGIC 2 home kit (one single port, non-WiFi adapter and two dual-port WiFi-enabled adapters) - these worked perfectly fine (and continue to do so). I make extensive use of VLANs on my network - I created a VLAN on my (Linux) laptop and connected to one of the adapters via Ethernet and it passed the tagged VLAN traffic to the switch as expected.

Current Issue
Since the MAGIC 2 line lacks "business" features (like the ability to map SSIDs to VLANs), I decided to a) expand my powerline network by purchasing another MAGIC 2 WiFi unit and b) purchase a MikroTik hAP AC2 to use as a VLAN-supporting AP (connected to the new Devolo adapter via Ethernet, in place of my laptop).

The Devolo unit I purchased was one of new "MAGIC 2 WiFi next" units (the originals didn't seem to be in stock anywhere and the newer units are now sporting MIMO-enabled WiFi). I hooked everything up (after configuring the SSID and VLAN trunk port on the MikroTik) and couldn't get an IP address from my router. For reference, I plugged the MikroTik into one of the original MAGIC 2 WiFi units and it worked perfectly fine - address acquired via DHCP for the specific VLAN, passed IP traffic as expected.

I then went back to the new MAGIC 2 WiFi next just to double-check and nope...will pass un-tagged traffic perfectly well via WiFi and Ethernet, but tagged Ethernet traffic is a no-no.

TLDR
The newer Devolo MAGIC 2 next powerline adapters do NOT pass VLAN-tagged Ethernet traffic via their on-board Ethernet interface. This maybe either a change in the Ethernet chip being used (possible but hard to believe - every modern 1Gb/s Ethernet chip should pass tagged VLAN traffic out of the box) or a change in the onboard firmware (which is far more likely, my WiFi next unit is running 5.6.0, while the original MAGIC 2 WiFi units are running 5.4.0).

There is an update to 5.6.1 available for the original MAGIC 2 WiFi units but I don't think I'll be deploying it any time soon...
 
Is this you just having a moan, or is there a question in there somewhere?

The number of their customers that have concerns about tagged traffic must be minuscule.

I'd be pleased that Powerline was actually working reliably at acceptable speeds.

Given the choice between a box of Cat5e and a bit of effort, or Powerline adapters, you'll see me with my Krone tool in hand.
 
bremen1874 said:
Is this you just having a moan, or is there a question in there somewhere?

The number of their customers that have concerns about tagged traffic must be minuscule.

I'd be pleased that Powerline was actually working reliably at acceptable speeds.

Given the choice between a box of Cat5e and a bit of effort, or Powerline adapters, you'll see me with my Krone tool in hand.
Click to expand...

My post was for anyone else attempting to do what I've attempted to do with this particular product (or more accurately the newer variant of it). Other powerline products may not have this limitation, but I've not invested in them. Homelabbers run powerline due to the fact that not every property or circumstance lends itself to running Cat 5e or Cat 6 into every room to support a WiFi AP. Not only that, but if running Ethernet was that easy, the market for powerline networking would simply not exist - it's called "supply and demand". :)
 
I'm confused here, because the spec sheet makes no mention of VLANs. It seems like you got lucky with the initial deployment and then made assumptions about newer revisions of a product.
 
parityboy said:
My post was for anyone else attempting to do what I've attempted to do with this particular product (or more accurately the newer variant of it). Other powerline products may not have this limitation, but I've not invested in them. Homelabbers run powerline due to the fact that not every property or circumstance lends itself to running Cat 5e or Cat 6 into every room to support a WiFi AP. Not only that, but if running Ethernet was that easy, the market for powerline networking would simply not exist - it's called "supply and demand". :)
Click to expand...

No, I think the market exists because the marketing tells consumers a bunch of lies. And any informed consumer will read the spec sheet and realise pretty sharpish that these devices ‘just about’ work. WiFi is little better. As has been said above, there is no real substitute for a cable. As for houses that don’t lend themselves to being cabled up, I’ve never seen a house where you couldn’t run a cable. Even in rented properties the landlord is generally only too happy to get it cabled up so long as the job is done properly because it adds value.
 
Caged said:
I'm confused here, because the spec sheet makes no mention of VLANs. It seems like you got lucky with the initial deployment and then made assumptions about newer revisions of a product.
Click to expand...

This is the most sensible response so far. :) Yes, I did assume that a newer revision would maintain this feature, even if it did so "quietly". Granted, a "business" variant would likely support such a feature officially (along with SSID->VLAN mapping) but Devolo do not have such a variant with the newer powerline tech. If they had, I'd have purchased those instead. :)
 
On the topic of cabling rental properties, I've done it a couple of times. I never even asked because nobody does an audit of what sockets are on a wall, and if you use the same range of accessories and do a proper installation then it doesn't look out of place so there's no reason for anybody to give it a second look.
 
FYI, The Devolo Magic 2-2400 (at least the models 8254 and 8504, which are the non-Wifi ones) happily let tagged VLAN packets go through unmodified.

So, as long as your switch / Wifi AP can do the tagging then it will work fine.

If you forget to update the switch config to let the tagged/untagged packet reach the Powerline transmitter, then you get the symptom where the end device won't get an IP...

In my case I use VLANs to isolate the guest and IoT networks from my main LAN. And I use the magic 2 to link two different areas of my house and that works fine.

HTH.
 
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