Need help going through 2 routers

[Capricorn]

Well, I think D-Link routers use 192.168.0.xxx IP's, and NetGear use 192.168.0.x IP's. So im not sure if The IP's are colidieing together or what

That's fine. The answer's still pretty much the same. Both routers can't use 192.168.0.1 as their LAN IP address. That would be akin to you and your neighbor deciding to both use the same house number on your street. How would the post office know which one of you to give a package to if you both had the same address? Change the router #2 to use 192.168.1.1 as it's LAN IP address.

If you leave router #2 as a DHCP server for other things you connect to its LAN ports (which I would), make sure that its starting address for DHCP addresses it will give out is 192.168.1.2 and ending address is 192.168.1.49 (where the .2 and .49 are just arbitrary guesses on my part. They can end with anything other than .1 [because the DLink router #2 is using that for its own address on the LAN] and .255 or above. Addresses ending in .255 and .0 are reserved for "special networking things.")

If you use fixed IP addresses rather than DHCP, the devices you connect to router #2's LAN ports must start with 192.168.1.

 

[Capricorn]

Is a picture worth 1000 words?

Let's try this:

For the diagram, I used 192.168.21 as the router #2's LAN subnet. Doesn't matter what you use as long as it's different than router #1's LAN subnet (and in the range from 192.168.1 to 192.168.254, inclusive).

 

[[ Garett ]]

Wow man, thanks for all your help we got it workin thanks to you! i owe you man.

Thanks again!
Garett

 

[Capricorn]

Very, very cool. I've done that sort of multiple router setup at work, but you're the first person I've run into doing it in a home network. I still say pretty gutsy.

 

[autorep]

I hope you guys donÂ’t mind me posting this. I found this thread with a search engine and thought my situation was very similar, but a little more complicated and incase anyone else ran into the same problem, they could use this information to solve their situation.

I have 2 notebooks running Windows XP in my home office where my Internet connection is. I also have an Imac G3 in another room that does not have an airport card (still $80-$120) using dialup and taking FOREVER to surf the web. I wanted to get all 3 computers to share the same high speed internet DSL connection and thought wireless would be a good solution. My DSL account with my ISP is Dynamic IP address assigning by the way. A week ago I didnÂ’t know a thing about wireless.

OfficeMax was having a sale selling Belkin 802.11g wireless goods for $9/ea. After rebates (802.11g will also connect backwards to 802.11b). Their Mac expert told me I could buy 2 routers (Belkin Part #F5D7230-4) and have the Imac hardwired into the second router, then have the 2 routers communicate to one another wirelessly. In effect, the second router is an alternative to getting an airport card for the Imac G3. I also bought a wireless network card for 1 of my laptops as the other had it built in. My total investment was $30 for 2 routers and a wireless network card for my notebook.

First, the Imac had to be upgraded from 9.0 to 9.2 to be able to download the router software so the Imac could communicate with the router it was to be connected to. This was 3 downloads, 4 hours each on dialup, yikes! Eventually, I was able to get all computers to the internet, but I could not maintain a connection when the computers hibernated, rebooted, etc. I donÂ’t know if it was because the addition of the second router, routers sharing the same IP address, if I was bridging correctly or not, If one should be an access point or what. I did end up solving the problem. Here was the solution:

SUCCESSSFULL CONFIGURATION:
Set up all computers either DHCP enabled (Dynamic IP addresses / IP addresses automatically get assigned to the computers during each session) or Static IP addresses (set the IP address once and forever). As I suspected that part of the problem was IP addresses (because I had seen connections terminated due to “another computer on the network already has the same IP address”, I elected to go static even though I had a dynamic IP account with my ISP. If configuring for static, IP addresses should be outside the range of the DHCP server assigned IP addresses as suggested by the router manufacturer. If you opt. for static, you will need to turn the DHCP server off (under LAN setting) in the primary router (the one not set up as the access point) Set the following TCP/IP settings for the computer connections:
IP Address: 192.168.2.100 (100 and up to be outside the range if configuring static IPÂ’s)
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.2.1 (routerÂ’s IP address)
DNS Server: 192.168.0.1 (ISPÂ’s modem DNS server/ using the routerÂ’s IP address should work also).

Reboot both routers. After Rebooting, primary router should have internet connection immediately. Be sure to use same computer hardwired to each router to configure, so you can have the same computer being able to access and manage both routers.

Router 2 (secondary) -
1. Set up as an access point. Take note of the new IP address because after you have selected it to be the access point, you will need to access the router by the new IP address after clicking change. Setting it up as an access point will also change the IP address so both routers have different IP addresses, as well as automatically disable its DHCP server (if configuring static IP addresses).
2. Under MAC Address Control, Set up the primary router to have MAC Address Control by inputting the WAN or (WAN/LAN) Mac address in and selecting “allow”. Then you only need to be hard wired into the primary router to be able to log into the primary and secondary routers to change settings if needed.
3. Change the SSID and channel if necessary. Both routers need to be on the same channel to communicate.

Router 1 (primary) -
1. Make sure that the primary and secondary routers are on the same channel. Rename the router if necessary.
2. If you have static IP addresses for the computers, be sure to turn off DHCP Server under LAN settings.
3. Set up Wireless Bridge between the routers by putting the secondary routers WLAN Mac Address in the AP1 fields. Click “Enable only Specific Access Points to access” then click “apply changes”.

I hope this can help someone save 30 hours of beating their head like it took me to finally get to this point.

Auto

Search phrases: Connecting 2 wireless routers bridging access point Imac G3 G4 Mac Macintosh OS 9.0 OS 9.1 OS 9.2 OS X using a router as an airport card second 2nd router multiple computers wirelessly notebook laptop portable.

 

[Capricorn]

Autorep:

That is a mighty darn impressive first post. Welcome to the group!

What you were doing was definitely different than what this post was originally about, but equally difficult. What you have set up is a wireless bridge. Some WAPs (Linksys' WAP - not their wireless router, mind you, but their straight WAP, the WAP54G) have a wireless bridge function built in. It turns out that you got lucky and the Belkin (sort of) supports that. Did you use the Belkin wireless bridge addendum to help you set that up? (I guess it's in the latest manual, too.) Interestingly, it claims that "... you can only bridge your Wireless G Router (model F5D7230-4, F5D7231-4) to a Belkin Wireless G Range Extender/Access Point (model F5D7131, F5D7130)," but you managed it with two F5D7230-4s by putting the secondary one in Access Point Mode. As you mentioned, that turns off the routing (NAT IP sharing) and the DHCP server. That also changed the default IP address to 192.168.2.254. I'm fairly impressed with Belkin's router. My Netgear and Linksys routers don't have the Access Point mode or Bridging feature. (Yeah, I have two. Don't ask.)

Set up all computers either DHCP enabled (Dynamic IP addresses / IP addresses automatically get assigned to the computers during each session) or Static IP addresses (set the IP address once and forever). As I suspected that part of the problem was IP addresses (because I had seen connections terminated due to �another computer on the network already has the same IP address�, I elected to go static even though I had a dynamic IP account with my ISP.

I suspect this has nothing to do with your IP account with your ISP. It's probably the fact both of the Belkin wireless routers originally had active DHCP servers for your inside LAN network. Your computers were broadcasting requests for an IP address but sometimes the primary router answered and sometimes the secondary answered. Since the two routers are on the same network, but don't know about each other's DHCP server and aren't cooperating with each other, they both start handing out addresses at the same starting IP (probably 192.168.x.2 through 192.168.x.100 or .255). Therefore, more than one computer gets 192.168.x.2 (where x appears to be "2" by default for Belkin equipment [0 in Netgear and 1 in Linksys], but anything in the range 0-255 is valid) so there probably were conflicting IPs.

You should be able to go back to using DHCP for the PCs, but leave the DHCP server off in one of the two routers. You'll still want the secondary router at a fixed IP address so that you know what it's address is for administration purposes. I would set it's LAN IP address to 192.168.x.2 (where the primary Belkin router is using 192.168.x.1 - again where x is probably "2"). You would also need to change the DHCP server range on the primary router to not serve the .2 address and to serve less than the entire range of available IP addresses. Linksys' DHCP server serves 192.168.1.2 through 192.168.1.100 by default. Belkin appears to do the same but using the 192.168.2 subnet. Netgear does the whole range, which I find a bit stupid.

Congrats on getting this all set up even if you did find it a bit hairy.