Static Routing Troubles

Rundi · 07-06-2004, 02:11 PM

Here is the story:

I had four computers on a 4 port wire Linksys router. Everything worked. However, over time a printer was added to the network as well as another computer. To expand my network to accomidate these additional devices I decided to get a 4 port wireless router to expand on the 4 port wire router I already have.

I have my wireless router hooked into my other router. At this point I can access the settings on my wireless router, but I can't access the internet through this router. What I think I need to do is use Static Routing, but I can't understand the directions. I qoute below:

Quote:

Static Routing

When multiple routers are installed on your network, you will need to configure Static Routing. The static routing function determines the path that data follows over your network before and after it passes through the Router. You can use static routing to allow different IP domain users to access the Internet through this device. This is an advanced feature. Please proceed with caution.

To set up static routing, you should add routing entries in the Router's table that tell the device where to send all incoming packets. All of your network routers should direct the default route entry to this Router.

Create a static route entry:
Select Entry from the drop down list. The device supports up to 20 static route entries.
Enter the following data for the static route.

Destination IP Address

Enter the network address of the remote local LAN segment. For a standard Class C IP domain, the network address is the first three fields of the Destination LAN IP, while the last field should be zero.

Subnet Mask

Enter the Subnet Mask used on the destination IP domain. For Class C IP domain, the Subnet Mask is 255.255.255.0.

Gateway
If this Router is used to connect your network to the Internet, then your Gateway IP is the Router's IP Address. If you have another router handling your network's Internet connection, enter the IP Address of that router instead

Hop Count
Enter the Hop count. This is the number of hop to each node until the destination has been reached.

Interface

Interface is the destination connection to. For example, if you are from the Local connection and you need to go out to the Internet Port, then you interface is Internet.

Click the Save Settings button to save your changes.

My wireless router appears as 192.168.1.101 on my wire router.

The address I use to access the settings on my wire router is 192.168.1.1

The address I use to access the settings on my wireless router is 192.168.1.2

My external IP is 64.xxx.xxx.x

With all of this information, I don't understand what the directions are telling me to do. Should I set up a static routing in my wire router, or my wireless router? And what information should I enter for each field?

Any help in clearing up this matter would be much appreciated.

Rundi

MrMud · 07-09-2004, 04:44 PM

Phew. Okay, you may not like this answer, but.....

You are over complicating things, really. You should go take back the wireless router and get instead:
1 Switch
1 Wireless Access Point (AP) (Only if you want to use Wifi, of course)

Plug the switch into your old router (you'll probably need a crossover cable, unless the switch has an uplink port). Plug the Wifi AP into the switch. Voila, working network without toying around with routes.

If you are looking for a learning experiance... read on.

The reason why your current network is a Bad Idea is because most Wireless "routers" now-a-days are actually NAT/Masquerading devices. So, as a result you probably have your Gateway router plugged into the Wifi routers "external interface". Which means the bloody thing will try to NAT/Masq all the computers behind it, as well as the wifi connection. So, option 1, don't plug it into the external interface .. but that means you have to disable it's default on services, such as DHCP. Option 2, look in it's config for something called "bridge mode" would would take out it's NAT/MASQ features. May or may not still do DHCP (most likely not). Not all units have this handy feature. Option 3, you can configure static routes (or RIP routes), but you'll first have to disable NAT/MASQ... and then configure the static routes. If you are really gung ho on doing option3, let me know and I'll see if I can explain it better.

Rundi · 07-16-2004, 11:38 AM

Thanks for the reply. I didn't reply sooner because I managed to get things working well enough for the present.

I think the length of time since when the wireless router was purchased was too great for a return . . . in any case I think it came with some rebate that made it cheap enough that the hassle of return is too much.

That said, I think I understand what you are saying about a wireless access point . . . now that I've played around with wireless technology a bit.

Again, you are right about the NAT/Masq issue . . . I kind of discovered that for myself.

All good points, wish I had known them earlier, but for this time around I'm just going to live with what I got working and do it right next time.

I didn't need to use static routing after all. I figured that out after much hair pulling. I got my configuration to work by simply turning on dynamic routing. By this means everyone can access the internet. Everyone can access the network printer. But I suspect there will be problems if someone wants to play games on the internet from the wireless router that is plugged into the wire router.

By the way, now that the use of Wireless Access points have been brought to my attention, could anyone tell me about how many computers can reasonably use one access point?

Thanks