Basic Internet/Router Setup

[bj2386]

Hi all,

Today I got a new router and am having some problems setting it up. The automatic configuration utility that came with the router did not work properly so I am having to manually configure it myself. When I got it, I immediately installed DD-WRT on it and tried messing around with the ip address, etc. but it will not pull up any web pages or ping any sites. The two screens below show the current router configuration. Right now the router is directly connected to the internet and my laptop is directly connected to the router via ethernet cable. If anything looks amiss, or have any suggestions in general, please let me know.

 

[JackMDS]

Your WAN IP is 192.168.1.7

This is Not an Internet IP.

May be you should explain what is the type of connection and what the Router is connected to.

 

[bj2386]

The router is directly connected to a DSL modem and the computer is directly connected to the router. Is there a way to change the WAN IP or is that something that the router is detecting? (as opposed to something the router sets)

 

[JackMDS]

If the Modem is a modem only, then you have to configure the Router's WAN side to PPPOE with Id and PW, see the principle here, http://www.ezlan.net/PPPOE.html

It he modem is a combo Modem/Router.

Option One. configure the Modem/Router as a Modem only.

Option two, use the new Router as an Access Point.

Using a Wireless Router as a switch with an Access Point - http://www.ezlan.net/router_AP.html

 

[bj2386]

I got this advice from another forum and it worked immediately.

Both the internet and your local lan are living on the 192.168.1.x ip range.

Broadly speaking your router doesn't know how to route packets to the internet, as far as the dd-wrt router is concerned it is all one big network.

Try changing the default ip from 192.168.1.1 to something else like 192.168.10.1 (anything other than 192.168.1.x will work)

Thanks for the replies.

 

[Jamsan]

I got this advice from another forum and it worked immediately.



Thanks for the replies.

While the suggestion worked, that's the dumbest explanation I've ever heard. The internet NEVER lives on 192.168.1.x. The local LAN of your DSL modem was creating a 192.168.1.x network, and the dd-wrt router didn't know how to route to the modem lan (which in turn routes out to the internet) because it itself was 192.168.1.x. Changing the dd-wrt side in effect allowed the router to route to the 192.168.1.x network because it was now different, so it was now reaching the modem lan, and now reaching the internet.

 

[JackMDS]

If you are on the road have No spare and you blew a tire, it might be that if you fit someone else spare somehow to your car, you can make it to the a service station.

That is what you solution is.

Cause Now you have double NAT on you Network and sooner or later something will Not work.

--------------
In General.

When some one have a problem and he/she can not solve it due to topic related ignorance, a solution that does not Not alleviate the ignorance his Not a solution.

 

[NesuD]

I double NAT at about 50 locations around north america every day and it isn't really that big of a deal and I have a specific requirement that dictates I do that. Other than making the networking a tad more complex it doesn't really add any more failure points from a hardware perspective. Now if you find yourself having to do any port forwarding it will get more complicated because you will have to do it in two different devices. If it were my home however I would go with one of the options Jack suggested. In my case probably option 2. You however may want option 1 so you will be able to take advantage of some of the more advanced features of the new router.

 

[Tech_savy]

You are good in finding answers dude.......

 

[bj2386]

Even though it was tempting to leave it as is, I guess I will try to fix it as you guys suggested. Here is my DSL modem (http://www.netopia.com/support/hardware/3341.html). It is a modem/router using PPPoA (not sure if that is significant) and will try to attempt the first option listed by Jack. I looked at the modem documentation and it gives the option of configuring the modem to be a bridge. Is that what I want?

 

[JackMDS]

I looked at the modem documentation and it gives the option of configuring the modem to be a bridge. Is that what I want?

Yes.

 

[bj2386]

OK, so I set up my modem into bridge mode like the instructions said. I then tried plugging in my router to the modem to see what would happen but did not work. So apparently, I still need to correct some settings manually (probably in my router?) Here is a screenshot of my modem settings when it was set to bridge mode:



I noticed that the router had a WAN ip of 192.168.1.1 when I tried to connect with it briefly so it is still not getting the correct ip (at least, that is how I understand it from the discussion thus far). Does anyone have some suggestions for my next step?

As a side note, as you can see in the screen shot, the DHCP server on the modem appears to be on. I know that both the modem and the wireless router can not have DHCP so that may be a problem too.

 

[bj2386]

So I have been looking at my modem instruction manual (http://www.netopia.com/support/hardware/manuals/SoftwareUserGuideV76-Clsc.pdf in PDF) and I saw two possible featues at may be applicable to my situation. The first one, on page 73, discusses configuring an IP Static Route:



"A static route identifies a manually configured pathway to a remote network. Unlike dynamic routes, which are acquired and confirmed periodically from other routers, static routes do not time out. Consequently, static routes are useful when working with PPP, since an intermittent PPP link may make maintenance of dynamic routes problematic."

The manual shows a screenshot on how to configure this.
The second option, on page 85, invlovles turning on a "Default Server":



"This feature allows you to:

• Direct your Gateway to forward all externally initiated IP traffic (TCP and UDP protocols only) to a default host on the LAN.
• Enable it for certain situations:
– Where you cannot anticipate what port number or packet protocol an in-bound application
might use. For example, some network games select arbitrary port numbers
when a connection is opened.
– When you want all unsolicited traffic to go to a specific LAN host.
• Configure for IP Passthrough."

Again, the manual provides more information on this topic on page 85.
Does anyone know if either of these features are what I need?



As requested, here are some screenshots of my router configuration menus.
Status Page




Router configuration page when WAN connection type is set to "Static IP"




Router configuration page when WAN connection type is set to "Automatic Configuration - DHCP"




Advanced Routing Configuration Page




I will keep looking through this but any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks

 

[cpals]

Just to get you up and running quick... change your WAN back to DHCP and put your Router IP config on a different subnet. 192.168.2.1 would work.

 

[bj2386]

I finally decided to just set the wireless router up as an access point using the instructions below.

Connecting two SOHO broadband routers together.

Configure the IP address of the secondary router to be in the same subnet as the primary router, but out of the range of the DHCP server in the primary router. For instance DHCP server addresses 192.168.0.2 through 192.168.0.100, I'd assign the secondary router 192.168.0.254 as it's IP address.

Disable the DHCP server in the secondary router.

Setup the wireless section just the way you would if it was the primary router.

Connect from the primary router's LAN port to one of the LAN ports on the secondary router. If there is no uplink port and neither of the routers have auto-sensing ports, use a cross-over cable. Leave the WAN port unconnected!

Although this configuration does not allow the wireless router to take advantage of the DD-WRT firmware, It's not a big deal since the only reason I installed it was for increased stability. As an added bonus, the remote desktop feature of my home server now works like a charm. I could never get it to work with my old router.

Just to make sure, if I want to do any port forwarding in this configuration, do I just need to open ports in the modem or do I have to open ports in both the modem and the wireless router?

 

[JackMDS]

The Modem is Not a Modem. It is a Modem/Router, and thus you need to open ports in its Router component.

The Wireless Router is Not any more a Router, under your configuration it is an Access Point with a switch, and thus do not block or deal with ports, thus No ports need to be forwarded through it.

In General.

If One uses proper Language it usually directs better toward understanding the world around us, and find solution when needed.

As an example, using a lot of "Bad language" means reducing Intellectual capacity.

Not much functional content can be covered when inserting "wtf", "You know", and "like", into most sentences.

.

 

[piasabird]

Sometimes the router can just assign the IP address from the WAN to be assigned dynamically. Normally you are not assigned a IP statically.