Issue with two routers in my home network

[DT4K]

I have a cable modem/router with wired connections to my directv adapter, NAS, printer, and a wireless router.

Then my wireless router serves the rest of my house, including my laptop.

The problem I'm having is that I can't connect to the devices attached to my cable modem/router from devices connected to my wireless (like my laptop).

I was looking at the configuration on the cable modem/router and the wireless router and both have DHCP enabled and they appear to be on different subnets.

What's the easiest way to configure my network so everything can talk to each other?

Below is some of the info I found looking at the config on each device:

ARRIS cable modem/router
IP Address = 192.168.0.1
DHCP enabled 192.168.0.3 to 192.168.0.254
RoutedWithNAT
Connected clients
192.168.0.3 - Netgear router
192.168.0.5 - Diskstation NAS
192.168.0.7 - Office Printer
192.168.0.8 - Directv

Netgear wireless router
IP Address = 192.168.1.1
DHCP enabled 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.254
Connected wireless clients
192.168.1.4 - vizio tv
192.168.1.5 - android iphone
192.168.1.6 - moms phone
192.168.1.7 - kids PC
192.168.1.3
192.168.1.2 - Sony bluray
192.168.1.12 - my laptop

 

[smitbret]

Sounds about right. You have created 2 separate networks in your house on 2 different subnets. You need to pick one device to act as the router. When you plug the Arris in to the WAN port of the router, you are effectively telling the NetGear router that the Arris modem/router is just a modem that brings the internet into the network. Your DHCP needs to be controlled by just one device. Multiple DHCP servers are a terrible idea for a home network.

Unplug everything and connect it to the NetGear. If you don't have enough ports, get a $15-20 switch and plug that into the NetGear router.

 

[DT4K]

I can't plug everything into the Netgear because to solve some range issues between my office and our upstairs bedroom, I had to move it out of my office and one room closer to the center of the house, connected by a 20 ft cat5 cable.

But I think I just solved the issue.
After some googling, I did the following:
Disable DHCP on the Netgear.
Switch the cable connecting the Arris to the Netgear from the Netgear's WAN port to one of the LAN ports.

As far as I can tell, it looks like everything is now on the same subnet. From my laptop (connected wirelessly), in Windows Explorer, I can now see all the wirelessly connected devices AND the devices wired to the Arris.

 

[avos]

In your current configuration your Wireless router would have a route to your cable modem/router network, but your cable modem/router network doesn't haven't a route to the wireless.

To keep the same setup you'd need a static route on the cable modem/router for 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 to use a gateway of 192.168.0.3.

And of course there are going to be firewall rules on the Netgear to block connections starting from the WAN side. So you'd have to create a rule to allow 192.168.0.x traffic.

The wireless router is going to send anything not in the 192.168.1.0/24 subnet out its WAN to 192.168.0.1 by default.

Broadcast services aren't going to work across them either.


To clean this up you have 2 options. The easiest would be to factory reset the Netgear, plug the cable coming from the ARRIS into one of its LAN ports, and go through the setup wizard selecting AP mode.

The other option, and probably what I would do, is what smitbret suggested. Run everything into the Netgear and purchase a small switch if you need more ports. I wish they would stop bundling modems with basic NAT/dhcp routers. It just causes problems like we have here or with double NAT'ing.

 

[Ketchup]

Disable DHCP on the Netgear....

You got it!

 

[smitbret]

I can't plug everything into the Netgear because to solve some range issues between my office and our upstairs bedroom, I had to move it out of my office and one room closer to the center of the house, connected by a 20 ft cat5 cable.

But I think I just solved the issue.
After some googling, I did the following:
Disable DHCP on the Netgear.
Switch the cable connecting the Arris to the Netgear from the Netgear's WAN port to one of the LAN ports.

As far as I can tell, it looks like everything is now on the same subnet. From my laptop (connected wirelessly), in Windows Explorer, I can now see all the wirelessly connected devices AND the devices wired to the Arris.

Yep, that should work fine. Your Arris modem is now your router and is the heart of your home network. By disabling DHCP and connecting devices to the NetGear, you've created an access point.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Yup, "router as a WAP" I use a couple old routers for the same thing.