Network config help

[meester]

I have two 4-port routers. One is gigabit + 802.11n, the other is 100mbit without wireless. Both have their own internet connection. I also have an 802.11n bridge, which is connected to the 100mbit router.

My config

gigabit - 192.168.2.1
100mbit - 192.168.2.6

My PC is physically connected to the 192.168.2.6 router, but my PC's gateway set to 192.168.2.1. I have VMs on my PC which have 192.168.2.6 as their gateway, in order to use the internet connection on that router.

My laptop is connected to the wireless 192.168.2.1 device.

I am building a server, and I need it to be connected using gigabit to my PC.

As a result, I need to swap my 192.168.2.1 and 192.168.2.6 routers around (they are on different floors). As a result my PC and my server will connect directly to the 192.168.2.1, and so will all my wireless devices.

At the moment the 192.168.2.6 router is fairly integral, but when I swap them around it will only have my xbox, plus cable modem, connected to it.

Questions:

* at present, my PC, connected to 192.168.2.6, works quite happily with the gateway set to either 192.168.2.1 or 192.168.2.6
but if I set my laptop's (wireless) gateway to 192.168.2.6, instead of 192.168.2.1, it doesn't work. Why is that?

* Will my config swap work? In particular, will VMs running on a box connected to 192.168.2.1 be able to set 192.168.2.6 as their gateway?

 

[Pheran]

I have to admit that my first reaction to this entire setup is "Why???" but I'll assume there's some reason you have these two Internet connections on different routers.

If you don't want to swap things around, you could just add a gigabit switch to the 100M router to interconnect your PC and server.

I do not know why your laptop cannot access the other router over the bridge, unless your gigabit router has some funny restrictions on wireless-to-wireless communication. I would be hesitant to start swapping things around without understanding that issue better.

If you must have dual WAN for some kind of redundancy, I'd consider cleaning up this whole mess by installing a proper dual WAN router such as a Cisco (Linksys) RV042 plus an 802.11n AP, and a switch to use with your bridge if you must support another location you can't get cabling to.