Question about using 2nd router as a 'repeater' for home network 1

[jsteph]

Hi all,
The problem is that I can't see my upstairs computer's from my downstairs office computer.

On my home network, I have two wireless routers (upstairs and downstairs) because the upstairs computers can't get a good signal. The upstairs router is hardwired into a walljack that is wired to the downstairs router. My office is hardwired to the downstairs router.

I gave upstairs router 192.168.0.254, the downstairs is 192.168.0.1. I have DHCP turned off on the upstairs router, and have hardcoded all upstairs pc's with ip's 192.168.0.xxx, and gateway of 192.168.0.1, and I also hardcoded my isp's dns. All PC's in the house can do internet just fine, the problem is that I can't ping the upstairs from the downstairs.

I'm assuming it's due to the upstairs router acting as a hub with it's own address, and somehow the downstairs doesn't know how to reach those addresses. What do I need to do to get the downstairs pc's to see the upstairs ones?
Thanks very much,
--Jim

 

[jimbopalmer]

You are SO close! Move the wire from the WAN side of the upstairs router to the LAN side. Then it will just be a wireless access point and switch.

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve...36/m/735009307831?r=287009507831#287009507831

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.

 

[jsteph]

jimbo,
Thanks very much...but I'm still no-go. I had the wire on the lan secion, I just double checked. The upstairs 'repeater' unit is a linksys wrt54G. It has a bunch of settings for Internet connection--by default it's "Automatic--DHCP", but since I'm not using this as the internet gateway, should that be set to something else...like Static, PPPOE or something like that?

Or...should I hardcode my ISP's ip address (the one assigned to the main downstairs router by my ISP) to this router? That would work since my ISP does not change the addresses unless I have a serious problem and they have to reset at their end--I can release/renew here on the downstairs router all I want and I still get the same IP.

I guess it seems like what's happening is what was shown in that link you provided--this router is actually 'protecting' the upstairs computers from mine down here. Do I possibly need to make a routing table entry or something like that? I don't mind getting more complex with this even though it's a home system--I just want the upstairs to have easy access to a good signal.
Thanks,
--Jim

 

[jimbopalmer]

If the WAN port is empty on the WRT54g upstairs, it does not matter which WAN selection you choose, as you are not using it. There should be no need for a routing table entry as it is not routing.

The IP address upstairs should be some address in the same subnet as downstairs, 192.168.0.254 seems fine. DHCP is off upstairs so your computers should see the DHCP from the downstairs router.

If you plug in a computer to the downstairs router and do a IPCONFIG in a Command prompt what do you get?
If you plug in a computer to the upstairs router and do a IPCONFIG in a Command prompt what do you get?

The subnet mask and default gateway should be the same.

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.

 

[jsteph]

jimbo,
Thanks very much, I'll try that tonight when I get home. I think I have both router's subnets at 255.255.255.0, and all pc's with that subnet and the .0.1 gateway. But the upstairs PC's have hardcoded IP's...I'll try undoing that and have them get the address via DHCP.
--Jim

 

[jsteph]

Well I set the upstairs computer to DHCP, and it connects wirelessly to the upstairs router, and gets an address from the downstairs router. I see the listing in the downstairs router, and I ping it, and get no response.

Here's the ipconfig from both machines:

***********************  Upstairs Computer ********************************
C:\Documents and Settings\carlyh>ipconfig/all
Windows IP Configuration
        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : carly
        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : wowway.com

Ethernet adapter DLink Wireless PCI Card:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : wowway.com
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : D-Link WDA-2320 Desktop Adapter
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-15-E9-88-11-48
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.10
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Monday, September 21, 2009 7:04:13 P
M
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Monday, September 28, 2009 7:04:13 P
M


***********************  Downstairs Computer ***********************************
C:\Documents and Settings\jim>ipconfig/all
Windows IP Configuration
        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : jimoffice
        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ether
net
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-24-8C-43-71-0D
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.101
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
                                            192.168.0.254
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 4.2.2.1
                                            4.2.2.2
                                            192.168.0.1

The upstairs computer can ping my downstairs computer by name--it resolves it and pings fine. The downstairs computer can't ping the upstairs one even by typing the ip from the dhcp table (192.168.0.10). Notice I added the 0.254 as the second gateway...(this didn't change anything but I was willing to try anything to get the downstairs machine to recognize that upstairs router).

One thing that may or may not have any bearing--the upstairs router--the LinkSys, had defaulted to the 192.168.1.1 address, and the DHCP (even though it's off) was *never* able to use the 192.168.0.xxx range for dhcp--the third octed was hardcoded to 1. I was able to set the 0.254 address though, to be on the Dlink's 0.xxx subnet, but I'm wondering if internally the Linksys might be hardcoded to only broadcasting the other subnet?
This is really strange. Thanks for any further help on this,
--Jim

 

[jsteph]

jimbo,
Never mind--I got it going--thanks very much for all your help!

What I found the problem to be was...I checked to see if maybe somehow the computer had the Windows Firewall set to block everything, butI got an error trying to open the firewall--the service wasn't running. I'm not sure why. I also saw that 'computer browser' service wasn't running. So I started those and was instantly able to ping from my office.

Thanks for all your time, I wish I had check that first, but I always have Firewall Off, and I never disable the Firewall/ICS Service itself, so I never thought to look at the services.
--Jim

 

[jimbopalmer]

In the downstairs router:
What is the DHCP range?
Are 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.2 defined as DNS servers in the router?

I am suspicious that .10 and .101 are not near each other, as I would expect if they were both on DHCP

I am suspicious that the downstairs PC can see more DNS servers than upstairs.

It worries me excessively that you keep trying to make the upstairs router do routing and do DHCP. I hold out no hope of ever making two routers work, one HAS to be demoted to a wireless access point. I hope you can accept this.

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/11233

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.

 

[jsteph]

jimbo,
The 101 is hardcoded, I do that because I have a port swap set up so I can vnc into my computer using a non-standard ports at both ends. The 4.2.2.2,1 were dns servers recommended by someone because my isp, WideOpenWest, had some issues. I hardcoded this on my downstairs ip config.

I thought I'd see if these different did anything--they are different from the router's--I can't change the router ones because WOW supplies those...I'm not sure if this causes a conflict or what, but either way during all this I'd put the WOW dns's back for testing.

But I wasn't trying to make the upstairs router do dhcp--I just set the upstairs PC to dhcp (instead of hardocding the ip like I did with my downstairs machine), and the upstairs computer got the address from the downstairs dhcp.

So all is fine and i'm in business...thanks again!
--Jim

 

[jimbopalmer]

Great you must have got it working while I was editing my previous post!

I am always amazed when we get the right result!


I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.