Wireless Router but no broadband

[BERTUK]

I currently have a Belkin Wireless Router (F5D7230-4 ) http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProd...=&Section_Id=201522&pcount=&Product_Id=136493 . I currently don't have access to broadband in my area, but it will be coming and I intend to subscribe when available hence the purchase of the router.

However, in the between time I want to use the router purely as a wireless access point. The Belkin router allows it to be configured purely as an access point but I'm confused as to how I configure my NIC. Do I need to specify an IP address for my NIC?

Will it be possible to share my dialup connection thru the router (acting as access point) via Windows XP?

My current setup is 1 x Desktop computer with a PCI modem and NIC connected to the router and 1 x Laptop with Belkin Wireless access PCMCIA card.

Thank you for your help I'm a little bit confused as a lot of the guides assume you either have broadband and\or an existing wired LAN.

Bertuk

 

[wjsulliv]

Ok if I follow correctly you want to do the following (for now):
Connect your desktop to the internet using Dialup. Setup ICS to share the connection over the NIC. Use the router as an Access Point to share the Dialup to your laptop.


Here is what you need to do (keep in mind I know nothing about Belkin products, this is a generalized statement):
1) Setup the Router as an Access Point
a. Turn off DHCP
b. Set it to a static address in the 192.168.0.2-255 range (remember this number, presuming you have a web browser based interface for controling your router).
c. Unplug/turn off the router until later.
2) Setup the desktop to share the connection over the nic (ICS). Generally this will assign 192.168.0.1 to your nic.
3) Reboot the desktop
4) Turn the router back on. After say 2-5 minutes try and log into the router using the above specified IP address. Check to see that the router believes it is connected and DHCP is still off.
5) Turn on your laptop with the wireless card installed and configure it to look for a wireless connection to the internet.
6) See if it gets an IP from the desktop, via the router by running an ipconfig (should result in a 192.168.0.XXX number.
7) Dialup on the desktop
8) Try and connect to the internet on the laptop.


You may want to add the ability to control the dialup connection from the laptop. Which is a setting in ICS. I would not recommend automatically dialing or always dialing, etc.

 

[BERTUK]

Hi!

Thank you for the advice, I have tried your solution and have had greater success than before. (Thank you!) However, a couple of problems still remain

I was able to use the desktop to browse shared files on the laptop, but despite connecting the laptop to the wireless network I could not see the desktop computer or any of its shared files

My Internet connection also does not work properly. I can connect to about one website before my Internet connection no longer works (i.e. every page can not be found), this is also true when using the IP address assigned to the router. I know the Internet connection works ok as I connected the laptop directly to my dialup account and could browse web pages easily.

I feel I'm about halfway there but despite looking at numerous Internet and network options I am at a loss as to where to go next.

Do you have any other ideas as to what might be causing this?

Bertuk

 

[wjsulliv]

Desktop sees files on the laptop, but the Laptop doesn't see files on the desktop:
1) What OS is the laptop?
2) Have you run the Windows XP networking wizard on both machines and made them both part of the same work group (make sure to setup the laptop to find the internet 'through another computer or residential gateway')?
3) Are you sure the DHCP is off on the router?
4) What are the ip addresses of the router, desktop and laptop?

Regarding the Internet Connection:
1) If your in XP make sure that the wireless connection hasn't dropped out (Ping the router and desktop).
2) If you in XP make sure you 802.1x Authentication turned off on the wireless card (may cause drop outs).
3) Make sure to setup the laptop to find the internet 'through another computer or residential gateway'.
4) It is possible your that your laptop is having trouble resolving the dns of the sites (thus page can not be displayed is not a connectivity issue, but a dns issue). Try and connect again. When the connection appears to go out put 198.133.219.25 (www.cicso.com) or 129.42.17.99 (www.ibm.com) into the address bar and click the 'go' buton. If the coresponding site appears then you have a dns issue.
5) Assign your laptop a static IP address, host, dns, etc.

 

[BERTUK]

Thanks for the advice, I haven't been able to try your second set of sugestions just yet but to answer a few of your questions

1) The laptop OS is XP Pro and the desktop OS is XP Home
2) I have run the XP networking wizard on both machines and believe I have picked the correct options.
3) The router allows an option for it to be enabled purely as an acccess point which removes all configuration options for DHCP, firewalls, etc. To make sure I did disable DHCP in the router configuration and then enabled the option to act purely as a WAP.
4) I set the router's IP address to 192.168.0.254. The desktop NIC to 192.168.0.1 (XP chose this with ICS as you explained). The laptop obtained an IP address of 192.168.0.29 (I didn't choose this)

When I first needed to configure ICS it was not available on my dialup connection on the desktop machine (XP Home), my laptop (XP Pro) had the options available to be enabled if needed. It wasn't until after I run the networking wizrd (I believe) that these options became available on the home machine, is this normal?

...and to clarify a few points that I badly explained in the first place....

The desktop machine is having problems with the Internet connection once the router and NIC have been configured. One web page (maybe two) will load before I will be unable to access anymore websites. This is also true if I use the router's IP address, no connection will be made to the web interface. If I am offfline the desktop will want to connect even if i am trying to access a local IP address, i.e. the router's.


Huge thanks for your advice I will hopefully be in a position to try your other tips soon!

Bertuk

 

[wjsulliv]

To stop the desktop autodial:
Disable dialing in IE-
1) Launch IE.
2) Go into Tools --> Internet Options --> Connections Tab
3) Highlight each and all connections (one at a time) and set them to "Never Dial"

Disable dialing in the Network Connections folder (right click on My Network Places and select properties) folder-
1) Open the folder
2) Right click and select properties on your shared dialup connection
3) Select the advanced tab
4) Make sure "Establish a dial-up connection whenever a computer on my network attempts to access the internet" is not checked.


Just to clarify:
The host machine is the one that loses its ability to see web sites after 1 or two. You may want to rerun the networking wizard on it and/or rerun the networking wizard on the XP Pro machine and create the floppy disk set to be used on the Home machine. I don't think there is really a meaningful difference between Home and Pro that would cause your problem, but it can't hurt to know you used Pro's networking wizard on both.

 

[BERTUK]

Hi!!!

Thank you so much for your advice, as of today I now have a fully functioning, file sharing, dialup sharing, etc network!

I rolled back both machines to a pre-wireless router and wireless NIC restore point and started again. Following your advice and being able to do everything manually was a lot better and resulted in everything working a lot smoother. I think my problems came from using the setup wizard provided by Belkin, I'm sure it might have worked great with a broadband connection but don't think it was able to cope with any other type of setup.

My wireless network is now secured and encrypted with everything working fine!

Once again many thanks for all your help. It's hugely appreciated!!!

Bertuk