Networking nightmare

reardoma

Solid State Member
Messages
8
Location
USA
To all -

Thanks in advance for helping me through this one, i'm visiting my parents house and they've got a bit of a nightmare on their hands.

My parents have Time Warner Cable broadband and are using the factory cable modem that has a wireless function built-in, and it transmits the wireless signal perfectly and the ports on the back also work when an ethernet cables is connected to their desktop.

They have what is roughly a 100ft networking cable that runs through the walls to another portion of the house (large house). The cord connects to an ethernet port in the other portion of the house. Using a second ethernet cable from that port they have a 2nd router plugged in that has a different SSID and broadcasts perfectly. No issues there.

Here's the nightmare part - where the 100ft cord networking jack is they had 8 more ethernet cables run to different rooms in the other portion of the house, with 8 jacks in the room where the initial 100ft cord ethernet port is....(wall looks like a switchboard operator's room) the idea being that when a wired connection is needed, they could plug an ethernet cable from the 2nd router to the appropriate port and then use whatever jack for a wired connection using an additional ethernet cable in whatever room.

At one point this was all working when i was home last year. This year (i'm home now) the ONLY port that works is the port that plugs into the WAN port on the 2nd router... so while both wireless routers run perfectly, i'm unable to get any of the ethernet connections to work using the ports on the back of the 2nd router.


So to summarize, there's a 100ft cable from the primary modem/router to a 2nd router, which they then want to run cables out of for wired connections when needed. Something is not configured correctly to allow the ethernet connections from the second router to be active, which is the point i'm stuck at, i assumed i could just plug the cords into the 2nd router (as is possible and working with the first router), but obviously not..... any thoughts?


Sorry for the long post.

The first router is a time warner cable modem/router combo, the second is a belkin N router. All ethernet cords themselves have been tested and are functioning cords.


If i need to include any more information just ask and i will reply immediately!

Thank you in advance for your patience and assistance!
 
To all -

Thanks in advance for helping me through this one, i'm visiting my parents house and they've got a bit of a nightmare on their hands.

My parents have Time Warner Cable broadband and are using the factory cable modem that has a wireless function built-in, and it transmits the wireless signal perfectly and the ports on the back also work when an ethernet cables is connected to their desktop.

They have what is roughly a 100ft networking cable that runs through the walls to another portion of the house (large house). The cord connects to an ethernet port in the other portion of the house. Using a second ethernet cable from that port they have a 2nd router plugged in that has a different SSID and broadcasts perfectly. No issues there.

Here's the nightmare part - where the 100ft cord networking jack is they had 8 more ethernet cables run to different rooms in the other portion of the house, with 8 jacks in the room where the initial 100ft cord ethernet port is....(wall looks like a switchboard operator's room) the idea being that when a wired connection is needed, they could plug an ethernet cable from the 2nd router to the appropriate port and then use whatever jack for a wired connection using an additional ethernet cable in whatever room.

At one point this was all working when i was home last year. This year (i'm home now) the ONLY port that works is the port that plugs into the WAN port on the 2nd router... so while both wireless routers run perfectly, i'm unable to get any of the ethernet connections to work using the ports on the back of the 2nd router.


So to summarize, there's a 100ft cable from the primary modem/router to a 2nd router, which they then want to run cables out of for wired connections when needed. Something is not configured correctly to allow the ethernet connections from the second router to be active, which is the point i'm stuck at, i assumed i could just plug the cords into the 2nd router (as is possible and working with the first router), but obviously not..... any thoughts?


Sorry for the long post.

The first router is a time warner cable modem/router combo, the second is a belkin N router. All ethernet cords themselves have been tested and are functioning cords.


If i need to include any more information just ask and i will reply immediately!

Thank you in advance for your patience and assistance!

Have you tried plugging the cable to the 2nd router into a LAN port instead of WAN port. But as you said it worked before, I'd suggest looking at the settings within the 2nd router for any config to do with the LAN ports, they may have been disabled.

If you have a spare router try plugging that in, it could be a hardware fail.
 
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I've got it working... seems some of the ethernet cables themselves were defective as well as overlapping ip ranges from the two routers.

I appreciate all your help and this thread can be closed, problem solved!!
 
I would be replacing that second router with a switch ASAP. No need for there to be two of them on a home network. If you need wireless at the second location just use an access point.
 
I would be replacing that second router with a switch ASAP. No need for there to be two of them on a home network. If you need wireless at the second location just use an access point.

If you plug your Ethernet from the main router into the 2nd routers Lan port instead of the WAN, then it will be an access point with flexibility of having wired devices

You will need to make both configs the same but on the second router(AP) turn off DHCP
 
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