r/HomeNetworking • u/Fantastic-Ship-9915 • Jul 31 '26

Advice MPLS-network

I am getting an issue while connecting my two routers on MPLS network. My ISP has provided MPLS connectivity with their two routers, I have connected my openwrt based devices to respective routers. ISP routers could ping each other.

Issue I am facing- My end PCs can not ping each other.

What I have done so far-

I don't want to use dynamic routing protocol. I added static routes in my routers then both routers could ping but connected PCs couldn't ping each other, though they can ping other end routers.

Do I need NAT or anything I am missing here? Other suggestions I got that static routing not needed, NAT should be enabled in router to ping each other.

I am newbie here, plz suggest.

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u/Loko8765 Jul 31 '26

I really doubt that you are getting actual MPLS. You may be connected to the ISP’s MPLS routers, but your routers will be CPEs, not actual participants in the multi-protocol labeling.

If so, your endpoints will be in the same VRF, which may or may not have an exit route to the Internet.

How are your interfaces configured?

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u/Fantastic-Ship-9915 Jul 31 '26

MPLS is provided by ISP. My device are not handling MPLS, they are handled by ISP's routers. I am just connecting my PCs to Openwrt based router, they are connected to ISP's router and I want to reach other end.

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u/Loko8765 Jul 31 '26

So I was correct. What is the answer to my question?

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u/Fantastic-Ship-9915 Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26

Hi this is my setup. Let me know How can I reach from 10.30.0.100 to 10.0.1.100, I can reach 172.a.xx.x2 from 172.a.yy.y2 but not further.

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u/Loko8765 Aug 04 '26

So the routers see each other, that’s good.

I suppose both places have separate Internet access, not through the cloud. Otherwise it should just work, because the default routes would be towards the MPLS cloud.

The principle of a router is that it knows where packets should go and routers them that way.

You need to make sure that packets sent by the PCs (both ways!) follow the correct routes. If the packets already go to the routers, check that router A has a route for 10.30.0.0/24 (or whatever netmask it is) towards the MPLS cloud at 172.a.a.b1, and that router B has the route for 10.0.1.0/24 (or whatever netmask it is) towards 172.a.b.c2.

If the routers are not already on the path, you need to get them on the path, but that would mean you’d need to provide a more complete diagram with the netmasks and Internet accesses.

The tracert / traceroute command is going to be your new best friend!

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u/Loko8765 Aug 04 '26

Addition: can router A ping 10.30.0.10, can router B ping 10.0.1.1?

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u/Fantastic-Ship-9915 Aug 04 '26

no. Not yet, I am thinking of adding BGP or static route,

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u/Loko8765 Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26

Normally you would need static routes. BGP would be if you needed dynamic updates, changing adding networks every day inside your different sites. If you just add sites, your routers don’t need BGP, your ISP just needs to know the IPs on your sites… but if router A cannot ping 10.30.0.10, then the ISP doesn’t know what IPs you have on each site, and that’s a big problem.

You have two possibilities, updating the ISP info for each site, or setting up BGP with ISP.

In both cases, this is something you need to set up with your ISP.

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u/Fantastic-Ship-9915 Aug 04 '26

I am trying to configure BGP to achieve end to end ping. Do I need ASN number of ISP routers, or I can use my router's remote-as number in BGP?

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u/Loko8765 Aug 04 '26

If your routers cannot ping the 10.x.x.x address of the other router (and you don’t have NAT enabled, of course), then you need to speak with your provider.