New Linksys wireless router, Different Subnets, no access for wireless 1

[msdonb]

Okay, thanks guys for your insight. This should be simple, but I'm having a brainfart. I have a network currently configured to 192.168.43.xxx with a DHCP server @ 192.168.43.254. I have installed a Linksys WRT54G wireless router and it resides @ 192.168.1.1. I can get internet access using the wired ports, but the wireless users cannot access the internet. Do I need to change the gateway to the 192.168.43.254 DHCP server? Or is there some type of port forwarding/NAT settings that need to be configured? Additionally, is it even POSSIBLE to set up two different subnets to communicate using the same internet connection? I tried disabling the DHCP server on the Linksys (192.168.1.1) router, but the 192.168.43.254 DHCP server won't assign any computers on the 192.168.1.1 subnet an IP address. Help!?!?

In the "Advanced Routing" configuration, when I click "Show Routing Table" it shows the Following:

192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 0.0.0.0 LAN & Wireless
192.168.43.0 255.255.255.0 0.0.0.0 WAN (Internet)
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.43.254 WAN (Internet)

It's wierd, I can access the internet through wired connections, but not the wireless.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[brianinms]

You should have bought a wireless access point and not a wireless router.

 

[msdonb]

So there is no way to get this to work?

 

[brianinms]

Um, you could disable DHCP in router and plug your wired connection into a LAN Port. I would give the LAN port a static ip address on your internal network first.

 

[msdonb]

I've tried disabling the DHCP server on the wireless router, but our other DHCP server won't assign an ip address to anything connected to the router. I'm thinking it's because it's on the .1.1 subnet instead of .43. When DHCP on the wireless router is enabled, it assigns ip addresses of .1.100, .1.101, etc, but the wireless cards still cannot access the internet. Only the wired ports recieve internet access. :-\

 

[SYQUEST]

msdonb,
When the unit is used as a WAP, the router should be disabled, since it is not routing! At this point it is a device on the LAN.

You do that by logging into the router and assigning a static IP and subnet mask to the router/WAP in the same range as the network you are connecting to. Then disable the DHCP server and save your changes. Make sure the ONLY connection is to the LAN side. Don't plug anything in the WAN side. Set the wireless per your requirements.

Do you really need two subnets? Please explain what you are trying to do.

....JIM....

 

[msdonb]

Actually... No, I don't need two separate subnets. I just figured that since I had bought a router, and not an access point, that there would be no way around using two subnets. My LAN is already operating on a 192.168.43.xxx subnet, also with a p2p VPN connecting a network of 192.168.44.xxx subnet. When I installed the WAP, it auto assigned itself an ip of 192.168.1.1 and an outside ip address of 192.168.43.217. I haven't had any luck getting anything sitting BEHIND the WAP to obtain an IP address from my DHCP server that's on the 192.168.43.xxx subnet. So you're saying that I shouldn't use any of the WAN ports on the WAP and just plug the router into a segment of my current LAN (which it is). Then assign the WAP/router a static IP on the .43 subnet? Disable DHCP and it should be all good?

Thanks for your help, will try it out. Why is it the ports on the router can't be used?

 

[SYQUEST]

Yes and yes... When the router with wireless is used as a WAP certain parameters have to be set that affect how it functions physically. So it becomes a "LAN device" and the "router" portion is not used. In order to "connect" to the WAP portion you only use the LAN ports, which is actually a small data switch that the WAP portion connects to internally for access to the LAN. The rest of the LAN ports CAN be used as an extention of the LAN if needed.

In the WAP mode only the WAN PORT is NOT used. (It sort of becomes a gate to no where!)

....JIM....

 

[msdonb]

Okay, I the Linksys Router has an IP of 192.168.43.171, I disabled DHCP on the router. Do I need to assign the router's local IP to 192.168.43.171 too? I'm confused, how does anything sitting BEHIND the router know where to find the DHCP server? If DHCP is turned off on the router, then doesn't something have to be configured to let the wireless/lan clients that the DHCP server is somewhere else? The wireless clients are still not recieving any internet... actually, now they aren't even being assigned an IP. What am I doing wrong? Any ideas?

 

[SYQUEST]

Well, I may have misread your original post.So let's see what is going on here.

The current DHCP server is what kind of device?
A router or a PC server?

Is the WRT54G your only routing device or do you have another router on the LAN connecting to your broadband provider?

If you have another router being used as the gateway to the Internet, then that should be your DHCP server, unless this is not what you want to do. If that is the case I will wait for your response as to what hardware you actually have and how you want it to work.

See, I am under the impression from your original post that you have two routers on your LAN. One is unknown and the other is the WRT54G. In addition you may be using a PC server for DHCP.

Please clarify the above so I can understand what you are trying to do, and help you.

....JIM....

 

[msdonb]

We are running a dedicated T-1 that comes off the fiber into an Adtran router that is acting as our gateway (i believe?). There is a PC DHCP server assigning DHCP addresses to anything connected on the 192.168.43.xxx subnet. The linksys device is auto-assigning itself an ip of 192.168.1.1 (by default) and has an outside IP address of 192.168.43.171. The Linksys device auto-detects the proper gateway (192.168.43.254) as well as the proper DNS servers. However, in the basic setup, I have tried setting the IP configuration to both static & auto (dhcp) which has done nothing. If I turn the DHCP off, anything sitting BEHIND the linksys will NOT recieve an IP address, as it has no way of detecting the DHCP server or obtaining an IP address. Any wireless devices connected to the Linksys device will get assigned an IP of 192.168.1.100+ with DHCP turned on, but I am confused on how to get the 192.168.43.xxx subnet to talk to 192.168.1.xxx. If EVERYTHING but the linksys device is sitting on the .43.xxx subnet, and even the linksys device itself has an ip of 192.168.43.171, then how could I expect anything sitting BEHIND the router to recieve an IP on that same subnet? I am considering just buying a WAP due to all the frustrations this is causing me. But what does a WAP do differently that a router won't? As you mentioned before, shouldn't there be a way to simply disable the router portion of the device??? How does a WAP assign IP addresses to devices that reside behind it? Thanks so much for your time and your patience. I'm obviously a little rusty... Happy holidays.

 

[SYQUEST]

So my assumptions were correct.

Now it appears you are trying to use the WRT54G as a WAP in your network. You need to go back and reread my posts above and follow those instructions!

What I would add to this is, use one PC to connect to the WRT54G with nothing else connected to it to confuse or cause problems. Then after you have completed the parameter changes and saved them, connect the WRT54G to your LAN via one of the LAN ports on the WRT54G. That should be the only physical connection to the WRT54G. Then report back with your results.

If you still have a problem with the wireless PC not getting an IP from the DHCP, there might be an issue with the DHCP serving the WAP. Try changing the device you are using for DHCP from the PC server to the ADTRAN router and see if that makes any difference. Also review and verify your wireless options on the WRT54G.

One last item make sure you have the latest firmware updates in the WRT54G. Linksys has a history of updates for these boxes!

Unfortunately, the Linksys manual mentions nothing about using the WRT54G as a WAP. That is Linksys/Cisco's fault.

....JIM....

 

[msdonb]

Okay, I will try your configuration and report my findings. You said to connect the router to my LAN via one of the LAN ports on the Linksys device. I was connecting the Linksys to my network via the "Internet" / uplink port as I thought that anything plugged into the LAN ports on the Linksys would be considered 'behind' the device and thus wouldn't be considered part of my current subnet. What should the IP address of the Linksys device then be?

 

[SYQUEST]

See, when the WRT54G (wireless router) is used as a WAP (wireless access point) it is no longer performing ANY routing functions. Hence you can't use the "INTERNET" or "WAN" port. I forgot Linksys called the "WAN" port an "INTERNET" port. Also, you can look at the WAN or Internet port of any router as a "gateway" or "gate", and the router functions as the "gatekeeper". Allowing traffic thru per programming options or defaults set.

Now the WAP portion of the router connects internally to the 4-port LAN switch. That is why you have to connect to the "LAN" of the router to connect the WAP to your LAN. As for setting an IP address to the WAP, I usually pick something in the high end of the address block, example: 10.10.23.253. I usually organize my LAN assignments and put switches and routers, etc. in the high end. This is just personal preference. You may have your own methods.

Oh by the way, the subnet mask would be the same as the LAN you are connecting.

Good luck, hopefully this does the trick!

....JIM....

 

[msdonb]

So I tried your configuration and finally I'm getting access to my LAN. Wireless devices residing behind the router are being assigned ip addresses on the .43 subnet from my DHCP server @ 192.168.43.15. I have assigned a static IP to the linksys device. I have also specified the DNS servers assigned to me by ISP. But there's a problem with the DNS, as when I assign the linksys device the DNS servers corresponding to the ones that we use; it craps out. Additionally, when the wireless clients are connecting, they are not recieving the proper gateway that clients connected to our lan recieve (192.168.43.254). Any ideas? The only way I can see getting it to work would be to somehow manually assign a static ip to each wireless client as this is the only way to manually enter an entry for the 'gateway' field.

But we're definately making progress! Thanks for the help.

 

[msdonb]

HAH!!! IT WORKS!!! Man, this issue has been kicking my ass for days! It finally works... somewhere along the line of trying various configurations and dealing with ASUS' wireless usb adapter software, the TCP/IP stack got manually configured to use the gateway 0.0.0.0 (even though everything was set to auto-obtain.) I do most of my net-stuff (flush/renew ip's, ping, etc) from the command console so I wasn't seeing this issue. But when I went into the protocol bindings/configuration within windows, i noticed the gateway was greyed out and read (0.0.0.0). I have no idea how this happened, but once I cleared the setting, everything works wonderfully!

Yay! JIM...Thanks so much for your help!

 

[SYQUEST]

Your very welcome! I'm glad you finally solved the problem. "Murphy" seems to popup in the strangest places...

Btw, the 0.0.0.0 does have significance. In the IP address world it is a "wild card" or "any address will do" kind of thing but not in your case.

....JIM....