How to access DSL/cable router once it is no longer a router?

[dlaw]

Hi, I have this network setting:

cable modem -> Linux router/firewall -> wireless router/switch.

Because I already have the Linux box as a router, so I have switched off the routing service of the wireless router. But then I don't know how to get access to the wireless router settings.

Any one have experience on this?

Thanx in advance.

 

[JackMDS]

All functions (including DHCP) should be disabled on the second Router. The WAN port should stay empty.

I.e. the Linux box NIC should be connected to a regular port on the Router via straight Cable (crossover if it comes from a Switch/Hub).

 

[rw120555]

Does the wireless router still have an IP address you can type in to access it?

If necessary, perhaps you can connect the wireless router directly to a pc -- if there is a way to turn the routing services off, there must be some way to turn them back on or otherwise access the device.

Why are you trying to access it anyway -- to change channels or WEP or whatever?

 

[skyking]

If you need to get into a router or WAP once you have turned off the higher level services, you need to do a hard reset back to default. Right now, it is simply acting as an unmanaged switch, and has no management interface as such.
Once you reset it, according to procedure in your manual, you can go back and turn off the services you want to. It is a one way trip, however. Very time consuming, since they have largely omitted the serial connection on these "Modern" devices.

 

[dlaw]

Originally posted by: rw120555
Does the wireless router still have an IP address you can type in to access it? If necessary, perhaps you can connect the wireless router directly to a pc -- if there is a way to turn the routing services off, there must be some way to turn them back on or otherwise access the device. Why are you trying to access it anyway -- to change channels or WEP or whatever?

Because I setup a wireless MAC address control list, and put in only one wireless card for testing purpose. But I have more than one wireless card, and now the others can't connect to the router since they are blocked.

I used the ip address 192.168.0.2 to access the router, but now I can't use that address anymore....the router doesn't seem to response to that address, and that address is no longer a valid ip on my network too.

I tried to reset the router, but it doesn't seem to be to right way to do, and even worse, it didn't work.

 

[dlaw]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
All functions (including DHCP) should be disabled on the second Router. The WAN port should stay empty. I.e. the Linux box NIC should be connected to a regular port on the Router via straight Cable (crossover if it comes from a Switch/Hub).

Yes, all functions have been disabled, but the problem is I wanna change the wireless access control list of the router.... while I have no idea how I can access the router anymore after I switched off its dhcp service, as it doesn't seem to response to the ip address that it used to.

 

[dlaw]

Originally posted by: skyking
If you need to get into a router or WAP once you have turned off the higher level services, you need to do a hard reset back to default. Right now, it is simply acting as an unmanaged switch, and has no management interface as such. Once you reset it, according to procedure in your manual, you can go back and turn off the services you want to. It is a one way trip, however. Very time consuming, since they have largely omitted the serial connection on these "Modern" devices.

Oh, so you mean everytime I have to do a reset? That's seems to be really annoying. Fortunately I don't think I will have to change the settings too many times. but still, it is kinda stupid to require users to reset everytime the users want to change a setting.

Thanx for all the input from you guys, thanx a lot.

 

[rw120555]

Next time you do this -- see if there is a way to give it a fixed ip address that won't conflict with any other ip addresses. I'm wondering if maybe it has an ip address (dynamically assigned maybe?) and you just don't know what it is, or maybe two deivces have the same IP and that is causing problems. Like you say, it shouldn't be this hard, but then again they probably didn't anticipate people hooking the router up to a Linux box.

 

[skyking]

Oh, so you mean everytime I have to do a reset? That's seems to be really annoying. Fortunately I don't think I will have to change the settings too many times. but still, it is kinda stupid to require users to reset everytime the users want to change a setting.

Yes it is annoying as all getout
These things were designed to be used as the router. You can get them to work as you like, but because it will no longer be functioning as a gateway, it will not be reachable by a browser-type interface.
If There was a nicely priced current router/WAP that still had a serial port, I'd recommend it over any other, for that very reason.
Major EDIT: Sorry for the misunderstanding, I was thinking about using a WAP in bridge mode, where it is for all intents and purposes transparent. Sorry

 

[rw120555]

These things were designed to be used as the router. You can get them to work as you like, but because it will no longer be functioning as a gateway, it will not be reachable by a browser-type interface.

Are you sure about this? I would think it would still have an IP address and hence be reachable. All my standalone WAPs have IP addresses, and I can reach them to configure them. I'm tempted to disable dhcp on my netgear router and see if I can access it, but now you've got me afraid to!

I'm still thinking there may be an IP address conflict or dlaw just can't tell what the correct ip is, but I could be wrong. If I was to do this on my netgear, I'm guessing I would disable dhcp, and then assign the router a fixed ip address outside the range my other router would assign (e.g. if the router normally assigns 192.168.0.1 through 192.168.0.33, I would give a fixed ip of something like 192.168.0.75).

 

[JackMDS]

Well it might be the old IP band story.

If your Router IP numberis (example) is 192.168.123.254, and your system IP band is currently (example) 192.168.0.1 it will not get to the Router.

If you know your Router?s last IP address? Configure one computer to a manual IP that is in the same band as the Router, log to the Router and change the Router?s IP to conform to the rest of the system.

Taking into to consideration that you must be a Linux Maven, temporarily configuring Windows should not be a challenge.

 

[dlaw]

um....it turns out that it is only because of the computers and the access point are not in the same network. I use an ethernet cable to connect to the access point, set the ip address on the computer to one that in the same network with the access point, and use the ip address that I used to access the access point, then it worked.

Thanx guys for all the inputs.