A student near Harris Park reported a strange one: WiFi showed connected on every device, but only a single device could actually reach the internet — whichever grabbed it first. The flat’s rent included internet over the building’s Opticomm fibre (the retailer appeared to be Harbour ISP), the Nokia modem-router had exactly one status light, and no computer in the home could take an Ethernet cable. A remote video session narrowed it to the wiring; the on-site visit found the live line sitting in a LAN port and a dead NBN cable in the WAN port. Round trip on the road: three hours.
With the live line in a LAN port, the router never brought up its own internet connection. The provider hands out one connection on that line — it leaked straight through the LAN side to whichever device asked first. One lucky winner, everyone else stuck with no usable IP.
| WAN port | LAN ports | |
|---|---|---|
| Job | Talks to the provider — brings internet in | Talks to your devices — shares it out |
| What belongs in it | The incoming line from the fibre box or wall | PCs, TVs, switches, a second router as AP |
| If swapped | Router never gets online | One device may grab the provider’s address; the rest get nothing |
| In this flat | Held a dead NBN cable | Held the live Opticomm line |
Root cause: the live Opticomm line was in a LAN port while a dead NBN cable occupied the WAN port — the router never routed, so exactly one device could get online at a time. Two cables re-seated brought the whole flat back; the new ASUS now runs as a wired AP off the Nokia. Difficulty: three stars — most of it spent on the road and on a router with a single status light.
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