I've had similar issues before with bad cables so I've already tried different cables.
The one AR300M16 that has always worked on 192.168 networks without any issue, any combination of plugging/unplugging/rebooting it always gets an IP and works but fails to get an IP from CG-NAT (100.79 ect)
The other AR300M16 works occasionally on 192.168 but never on CG-NAT.
I'm sure there is something simple I am missing, I've never had so much trouble connecting a WAN.
Can someone confirm that eth1 is the port labeled WAN? I would have expected eth0 to be WAN but I have tried changing this around with no success.
If you have inadvertently plugged a 48 volt poe into an ar300m ethernet port, you WILL have damaged the port. (don't ask me how I know - it is in my 5 year old notes).
That poe "injector" you have could be faulty and pushed voltage the wrong way....
If you reflashed an ar300m-16 with the generic flash then the original version is overwritten.
But the gl-inet firmware also works for me so it is not that.
If you have just bought the ar300m-16s from Amazon, send them back as faulty and buy 2 MT300N-v2s instead, these have a better coverage even without external antennas.
Other external antennas do not do much at all because the little ones are designed to work with the internal ones to give a closer to 360 degree beam pattern. This is at the expense of spreading the radiated power around 360 degrees as well, so range is reduced.
@hecatae Adding external antennas to the mt300n-v2 is also a bit of a waste of time.
The internal antennas on this one give a quite directional beam pattern a 90 degrees to the top of the dome in the case.
This plus the better wireless chip (cpw the ar300m) gives a phenomenal range if you point the dome in the direction you want to give coverage. there is even a wall mount for these to point the dome out horizontally.
Adding the antennas in your link looses power in the pigtails as well as spreading the beam pattern very significantly. In addition the incoming gain is not what you would expect from the length of them.
All in all, counter intuitively, it reduces range and coverage. It might give the impression of an improvement if mounted with the dome pointing vertically, but that is just the effect of spreading out the beam pattern. The holes blocked up by the connectors in the conversion are in fact to allow warm air inside to escape, so in high ambient temperatures you can/will get overheating (I have been there and done all this).
Standard mt300n-v2's make a very good long hop meshnode. I have on many occasions put these in a weather proof plastic housing, and mounted up to 300 meters apart, pointing at each other, give a good stable connection.
So I used a 10/100 unmanaged switch and the router obtains an IP instantly.
Confirmed with multiple AR300M and a MT3000 which had the same problem.
Just not very practical...
I also have a issue with the 2 Yaosheng PoE Injectors I have, some routers connect to them some don't. Haven't found out why yet.
I am now using the Boondocker Dualie POE Injector.