Help regarding WRT54G in Remote setup 7

[MrDash]

Hi every one , I am new here.

My questions is this.

We have a router connecting a pc and a telephone, to a remote office network. The PC acts like workstation running the offices apps and connecting to the Hard drive. The company router in our house is a WRT5G, also there is another computer which is our own and was not part of the initial setup, that also is connected to the router. Things work generally fine except when our home pc connects to certain sites( streaming video from msnbc), then it falls over and seems to crash but in any case connectivity is lost.( also peer to peer stuff like bittorrent utorrent client are serverly hampered).


also if a xbox 360 is connected to the company router in our home it will work but when running the xbox 360 connectivity test it will say that our router does not have NAT or NAT upnp should be enabled.


I am wondering if this is why the router stops working some times, when connected to certain streaming video like msnbc streaming video. realplayers video streams work fine.


even if the company router in our home supports NAT unfortuantely we are un able to gain access to the setup for it because we do not have the password for it. and we are unable to accuire the password.

We considerd purchasing and replacing the router with another , but are worried about the office netowork connectivity being lost( will not work).

The big question is can we replace Our company router with another which we have password access too?

can we, may be, put another router in line with the company router and connect the home pc to the new one as well as the company router and will the company router still see the company network, and then we can enable NAT on the new router so the home PC and xbox360 are happy and connect properly.

your help and guidence in this matter would very much appreciated.

thanks
Paul

 

[Alterac]

I would not recommend replacing the router, that will most likely break the corporate connection.

Is your company paying for your internet access also?
If so, I would not touch the router, or the conncetion. I would order another connection for your personal use.

----------------------------------
Bill

 

[MrDash]

Thanks for the reply.
They are not paying for the line which is annoying. they see it as a perk doing you a favor letting My spouse work at home. they are tight fisted, and have a poor IT dept as far as I understand. And she lives in dread asking them to do any thing lest they drag her back to the office or fire her.

would a huib work?

cox communications say we could get another ip address i think it is, and use a hub. that way we only use the one communication line.

Thanks fopr you help it is appreciated I have been racking my head what to do for over a year.

 

[burtsbees]

How exactly do you connect to work? VPN? RDP?

If you don't know, you can go into the command prompt (start-->run, type "cmd") and do a netstat when connected to the company network, and post the results (copy and paste, ctrl-a, ctrl-c to select all and copy, ctrl-v to paste in here), and we can tell you what TCP/UDP ports are open. Let's start there...they may have some sort of QoS, which would be majorly FUBAR'd for them to do...

Burt

 

[silverhairb]

It could be that the company's policy is to not use those services. If you are using the company connection for personal use you probably need to comply with their policies (might be enforced by a firewall). That might be the first place to check.



[the other] Bill

 

[MrDash]

It seems to be using TCP and VPN


TCP CompanyInitialsVPNSVR:epmap web-server.Name.local:9999 ESTABLISHED




Lots of commands like this talking about data bases and fax servers and web server and such.

Thanks


sorry cant send listing , cause of security agreements and sensitive data on network. "more than her jobs worth" (Old British phrase)

any how may thanks for you help.

And i repeat it is our connection/ service however it is the company s router. hence why i thought plug in theres into my own router but would that work.?

 

[baddos]

If it is your DSL/cable/etc, then you could possibly get another router and stick it in front of the company router. I doubt it's a tradition lan-to-lan ispec tunnel, it should be fine behind another router.

 

[MrDash]

Ok thanks for the help; I am going to spend the money and give it a try!
I shall tell you of the out come of a little experiment.

 

[burtsbees]

Is this always connected, or do you have to initiate a connection to the company network with a VPN client?

Burt

 

[MrDash]

We have to logo on, either when computer is started a logon box appears, if that is not used /ignored then double clicking icon on desktop brings up a logo box, when that is used to connect we get new desktop with the company's apps.


So we got to logon on to company network.

Also i should say that when its not work time we often disconnect the work computer from the internet. and connect the home one directly to the modem. taking the router out of the loop.

 

[baddos]

Yeah, it's probably a software vpn then so just dual router setup would be fine.

Setup would look something like this:

|---------------|
|    New R.     |
|---------------|
    |         |
|-------| |--------|
|Work R.| |Home PC |
|-------| |--------|
   |
|--------|
|Work PC |
|--------|

 

[MrDash]

Excellent I am about to purchase a Linksys BEFSX41 although i have read people having problems with Upnp with the Link sys though mostly with the WRTG54 which just happens to be the works router model number.

Any recommendations for UPNP NAT enabled router under $100 would be welcomed

any way you have been a bit of a saint in simply talking to me about the problem

many thanks.
PS neat diagram thanks.

 

[burtsbees]

Ultimately, you would want two separate networks, or at least that would be ideal. You don't want work stuff seeing home stuff---that's your private stuff. Now is this DSL? Cable?
NAT UPNP simply means that you statically NAT, or "port-forward", a port for your X-Box (or anything else for that matter) to connect from the outside. NAT is a concept that takes a while to explain, so I would Google this topic for a better understanding. Basically, NAT (Network Address Translation) allows nodes (printers, computers, X-Boxes, etc.) on the inside network (LAN, Local Area Network, or the network behind your router, separating it from the outside) to be routed to and from the outside world (WAN, Wide Area Network). The addresses computers use to be routed to and from are called IP addresses---the ones inside your network need NAT to be able to be routed to and from the outside. The LinkSYS WRT54G supports this. The section is called Applications and Gaming, but you don't have access to the router without the password...
You could just get a different WRT54G---the VPN setup is likely on the computer. The only thing the router does is allows the VPN to connect through a certain port.

Now when you say connectivity is lost when you connect to certain websites, is the VPN disconnected?

Burt

Burt

 

[MrDash]

Well saint Burt,
the work c computer off when this happen and some times we do have it one and it still happens.

I think it must be something to do with the type of stream as i said realplayer streams always works but I do notice that realplayer always plays in real time; whilst others seem to try to download every thing whilst playing and then play from buffer.

however the democracy now site does this buffered play plack and there is never a problem with it.

so once again I say that it must be something about how the way the stream is encoded that makes democracy now realplayer realy very reliable and the others loose there connection, when going through the router.


Its the streaming that cause the router to fall over / crash Msnbc video stream of there news clips cause the router to stop working have to power down and power it to get it to start to work.Comdey channels jon sweart show streams cause lock up a few viral sites wont stream with out lockup,the onion is one and peer to peer just sucks whe it com,es to finding peers to down load from when the router is connected.


I am assuming that when I configure the WRTG54 correctly this will go away. Of course it could be a problem with the unit I mean thats why I asked for a UNIT other than The WRT54G cause people have complained about Upnp not working properly but if you think that has nothing to do with internet. however I thought NAT did have internet implications butno as complained about it as far as I a have read. but it may not be enabled. on the work router.

I shall Buy a new WRT54G(Newegg as a 30 days returns and I understand that amazon as a similar policy) and hope things get better, may be you'll be around to advise me

Thanks Burt.

 

[burtsbees]

You say that when you are done with work, you disconnect the router and plug straight into the modem. Does the problem still occur at this time? If not, then you have done some great troubleshooting, and I would also think that the WRT54G is faulty. I too have replaced these---they seem to be good for about 1 1/2-2 years. Let us know how it goes! Following the instructions on the Installation CD is straight-forward, so I do not foresee any problems for you in the setup. Good luck, and as always, we will assist you in setting this up if you need it. We are glad to help.

Burt

 

[MrDash]

Doh! I just went and baught one thinking it was only the
setup.

Any way as long as it works out the box and proves our theory's then it will be a success and I can look into getting the Ideal router for our setup.

And yes when router is out of the data path then every thing works beautifully


Thanks for all your help

 

[silverhairb]

Ideal router" might be a combination of a wired router and a wireless access point. I used a Cisco 831 router and a Cisco 1121g Wireless Access Point until I recently upgraded the router. The 831/1121g was a very stable combination. I think you could probably get both for under $100 on eBay.

another possibility, and for more $$, is a Cisco 851W which has wireless support built-in like in the WRT54G.

Don't be too concerned about Cisco set-up. Plenty of help here.

[the other] Bill

 

[burtsbees]

Don't worry---I think it is the hardware, and those routers aren't bad for the $$$---if they last even 6 months, the $35 or whatever is worth it. Like I say, I have seen an average of about 1.5 years or so. Just FYI---if any posts are helpful, we always encourage stars to be given so that newcomers to the forum may see that certain posts have been helpful. Please look at the bottom left of every thread post, and any particular user or users who have been helpful---you or anyone can give stars (but one cannot give stars to themselves). Thanks.

Burt

 

[silverhairb]

Always give Burt stars. Don't make him shamelessly beg. (lol)

[the other] Bill

 

[MrDash]

Sorry I didn't even know about star system [ the perils of a newbie ] he certainly deserves all the stars he gets.