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how to add a wireless router to existing network?

sonoferu

sonoferu

Senior member
Too bad I didnt write things down. For several years I had it working.

I originally set up a simple network at home - cable modem to a linksys 4-port router and cables out to the computer locations. Router was at 192.168.1.1

Then the wife wanted wireless so I added a wireless router to the end of one of the cables [in a room where there was no longer a computer needing it]. For some reason I cant remember, I ended up setting her IP to a static 192.168.1.199, and my desktop to 192.168.1.198. What I also dont remember is the IP I set for the wireless. And now it's been disposed of so I cant go back in and look it up.

Anyway, after several years the wireless started funking out, but she was always able to connect fine at the school where she worked, so I figured it had to be the wireless router that was going bad, and I just bought a new one.

I set the new one to 192.168.0.1, and let it have DHCP to the laptop, so she now has 192.168.0.100, gateway set to 192.168.0.1.

Am I right, thats why she cannot reach my machine to get to my printer? The mask makes the 1.* branch invisible to the 0.* branch, so to speak?

I cant go experiment with it right now, she went to bed a while ago and I dont want to wake her. The laptop is next to her bed.

Can I set the new wireless to something like 192.168.1.2? Would everyone see everyone else then?
 
The easiest option (if possible) is to simply replace the wired router with the new wireless router and just use the one device for everything. If you can't do that for some reason, then you need to log in to the wireless router, disable DHCP, and connect one of the LAN (NOT WAN/Internet) ports on the wireless router to a LAN port on the wired router. This will make the wireless router act as an access point/switch instead of a router and all of your devices will be on the same network and will be able to share resources.
 
thanks

My desktop doesnt have wireless so I need both. I could get a wireless card but my office is way far at the other end of the house and down in the cellar, where connectivity would drop.

Anyway, I get your point and I really think that is the trick to how it was working last time. I do remember thinking it was odd that the old wireless had the cable sticking into one of its outgoing ports not the Internet port.

I will try it!! when she gets up

thanks again
 
one more question? It now seems to make sense that her old IP was 192.168.1.199, if the config was as you suggest. Do I need to go back to static that way? Right now the wireless is set to DHCP and her connection properties for her wireless also. Will she get her IP from the main router then when she renews her IP? If the wireless is no longer a router then that sounds right
 
that did it - dhcp apparently came from the first router, she got

192.168.1.101 IP
192.168.1.1 gateway

THANKS!!!
 
I might have a clue to why the drops are happening. I got the new wireless router as above, and soon after, her laptop started doing the same thing - spontaneous loss of connectivity to the internet, though the connection always says connected, signal strength excellent.

Well, 2 things.

Our daughter came home and had her own laptop of course. So when ours dropped, I looked at hers, and she was still fine. So it's the laptop after all, not the router.

Then today I had the bright idea of looking at the laptop's iP when it drops. Normally it has been getting IP of 192.168.1.100, gateway 192.168.1.1 -- assigned presumably by the main router. Well, just now it dropped and the IP was 192.168.0.100, gateway 192.168.0.1. When I tried Repair from the Network Connections, it stayed there. When I unplugged and reset the wireless, the IP came back to 192.168.1.100

So somewhere along the way, something bumps the connection and it gets reassigned BY THE WIRELESS ROUTER, am I reading it right? And the Repair gets IP from the wireless, so thats why it never worked to just repair, I had to reset the wireless.

Does that say something? I dont know how to see what is going on.

I was about to try the next move - a new wireless card for the laptop. Hate to waste more money after sort of wasting it on a new wireless router

thanks
 
Or, the Laptops logs to another nearby Wireless that is Not secured.

Use the Wireless manger to configure it to log to your Network as first preferred.

Do, Control Panel, Network and Sharing Center. Upper left side click on Manage Wireless networks.

http://www.ezlan.net/vista/wireless_manager.jpg

Also consider this.

Assuming that the signal is strong, and that there is No electrical environmental noise (http://www.ezlan.net/wbars.html ).
Uncheck the Network Card's Power Saving (I.e., do not let the card save power).
There might be some variations on where the Power saving setting is.
Here are few examples, YMMV, look around in your systems.
Example, http://www.ezlan.net/example/powersave.jpg


Example, http://www.ezlan.net/Win7/power_sav_wireless..jpg


Example, http://www.ezlan.net/Win7/power_save_win7.jpg


Example, http://www.ezlan.net/Win7/adv_power-sav.jpg





😎
 
OK, 2 possibilities then

1. there IS another wireless network. Several years ago I installed a rooftop solar collector for hot water. The heat exchanger has a wireless, and I have a little USB wireless adapter on my desktop machine. It has an interface where I can monitor the hot water system. The laptop shows that one in its list, second after the wireless router up here in her office that I WANT to connect to. I dont have the IP for the hot water wireless exactly but I know it is something like 169.154.something ...

2. The power saving WAS on, set to Fast. I disabled it.

Can you explain what the 2 scenarios would be if one of them was the problem?

If it's the hot water wireless that is interfering, how would it do that? I know at the school where she works there is more than one router. Or maybe they are not really routers? Like you were saying about that earlier? Just that as she goes to different places in the building she can always connect. So there must be some way that she gets her signal from different points at school. But I bet none of them have an IP like 169.154.*.*

If it's the power saving, does the saver turn something off and then when you want to go back to work it asks for an IP and so it gets it from the wireless router and ends up on the *.*.0.1 subnet? The thing is, I see it drop the connectivity in the middle of a session where I am busy using it. And I am not aware of any pattern like leaving the laptop for a while and when you come back it can't connect.

Anyway, here I am guessing in the dark, I shouldnt go too far with that.

I am interested that the wireless for my wife has not always had this problem. It's been going on for a couple of years or so, and the hot water system has been installed for several years. I do wonder if the disconnects started at the time of the solar install but I have no way to know that
 
the signal strength is tops, by the way -- while I have been working on the problem the wireless router is right here on the desk, 2 feet away. Still gets the disconnects, no different from when she works from her bedroom
 
I could go into the wireless and set it to Static IP maybe? I know its currently configured to DHCP. then it would not be able to assign addresses?

Or I could set the laptops properties to a static 192.168.1.199 and then it would never drop?
 
I just went back and read over the posts and the link from JackMDS to "Using a Wireless Router as a switch with an Access Point" and I didnt get it the first time. Fardringle already told me to

"... log in to the wireless router, disable DHCP, ... "

which I didnt do. So it must be that the wireless which is still at 192.168.0.1 was doing the re-assigning of IP that left the laptop at 192.168.0.100.

And I see JackMDS was telling me to reset the IP for the wireless to be in the subnet of the main router, which wasnt done either

So when the wife gets back and I can work on it, I will do those things.

And here's hoping! This has been a puzzle and a pain

thanks all
 
Well, its crazy. I did those things, and after I did it got crazy. It started out with a connect, but it lost connectivity in a minute or two. That was the repeated behavior. Repair the connection and I could go out anywhere on the internet, not just cached pages, and in a minute or two I got the no-page-found errors. And in Outlook Express, Send/Receive got a message saying it was looking for host .... which would sound like a DNS issue

But unlike the previous drops, which came at LONG random intervals, this time the IP on the laptop stayed at the same IP it had after the repair. I ran "ipconfig/all" and nothing was different after the drop.

AND ... my desktop box in MY office acted the same. It is connected directly from the main router by a cable and has never had any problem all along.

So I gave up and told her to just stick the cable that has been going into the wireless, directly into her laptop for now.

WHY MEEEEEEE??????

Sorry, this has been a blow.

:-(

thanks for the helps
 
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