Networking with DLink and Linksys wireless routers

[JediJorgie]

At my house, we have a slapped-together network that has taken a huge dump on me. To share our cable internet we have two wireless routers, a DLink and a Linksys. I can't provide the model numbers until I get home from school/work. We have two routers because eight of us live in the house (a college house) and one of my roommates says his Mac laptop won't work with the Linksys, but will work with the DLink.

So far, the network has worked alright, but last night one of my roommates using a Cat 5 cable lost connection. After a lot of work, we found out there somewhere between the routers in my room on the second floor to my roommate's room on the first floor, his cable was bad. With a new cable, he can now connect to the network, but not to the internet. After switching cables around in different combinations between the two routers, I got to the point where I could get everyone's internet working, except for the roommate who had the bad cable. When I plug him in, his works and nobody else can get on the internet.

I spent about six hours on this last night and I'm going crazy. It doesn't help that I'm the only person in my house who knows something about networking, and I don't even know that much. I hope this description makes sense, if you'd like something clarified, let me know. Any help you can give would be appreciated.

 

[piasabird]

OK if you are using two routers do both routers have DHCP on?
If so make sure you are not using the same IP Numbers on DHCP.
Normally DHCP uses a range of IP numbers and you can change the range in the router setup. Sometimes Routers have a default IP and that can conflict too.
Everyone should use the same workgroup and their computers names should all be different or that might cause problems.

 

[JediJorgie]

Both have DHCP running and have different ranges for possible IPs. I'm fairly certain we are all on the same workgroup, I'll check when I get home. I know we all the computers have different names.

One thing I just thought of was MAC addresses. My understanding is that the cable modem's MAC address should used by the first router, in this case our Linksys. The DLink should have the Linksys' MAC address. Correct me if i'm wrong.

 

[JediJorgie]

Well after all the problems of last week miraculously solved themselves, the internet up and died again last night. Nobody can get online now. I can get on both routers though. I did notice that the Linksys router connected to the cable modem can't seem to assign DHCP numbers. I click release and renew, and nothing happens. I tried hooking up the cable modem to the DLink directly, and that one was also unable to assign DHCP numbers. I'm thinking its the cable company. Any thoughts?

 

[JackMDS]

One Router should be on the Modem establishing normal connetion. The second Router should connect as a Dumb Switch.

Like this, Using a Wireless Cable/DSL Router as a Switch with an Access Point (If it is not a Wireless Router, the principle applies to a Wired router as well).

:sun:

 

[JediJorgie]

Thanks Jack, I will try that.