You've never seen so many IP addresses for something so simple...

[scootermaster]

The back story:

I've got a Mac (well, a hackintosh, but that doesn't matter) that I'd love to be able to stream files from. I've got an Xbox, with a Linksys router flashed with DD-WRT in bridge mode. There's a program called Connect360 that supposedly facilitates sharing betwixt the two.

Copied from the Apple forums:

Originally posted by: Kmax82
If you go into the Xbox's System Networking Tab, is it on the same IP range as your Hack? Also, when you turn on the Xbox, go into your Hack and open Connect360 and see if it sees the 360 there. Sounds like it's just a NAT issue with the two networks. So check to make sure your NAT is open in the Networking page in the Xbox as well.

Ugh. I'm up to my ears in IP addresses. So I used the instructions to set up the router as a bridge for Xbox from here.

So here's the dotted decimal soup we've got:

Internet Router (D-link):

IP: 192.168.1.1
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.1
DNS: Whatever the Time Warner DNS servers are

Xbox (When allowed to configure manually):
IP: 192.168.2.100
Subnet: 255.255.248.0
Gateway: 192.168.2.2
DNS: 192.168.1.1, DNS #1 from Time Warner

Linksys Router (Bridge):
WAN Connection -
IP: 192.168.1.2
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.1
DNS: 192.168.1.1, DNS #1 from Time Warner

Linksys Router
"Router IP" (Not sure what they mean by this)
Local IP: 192.168.2.2
Subnet: 255.255.248.0
Gateway: 192.168.2.2
Local DNS: 192.168.1.1

Hackintosh (connected via ethernet to the D-Link)
IP: 192.168.1.69 (static)
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.1
DNS: From Time Warner

Both routers are on the same SSID, and the Linksys is configured to Client mode (NOT client bridge mode).

Now, when I connect my Powerbook via ethernet to the Linksys, Connect360 detects fine. I also note that the Ethernet gets a DHCP IP of 192.168.2.100. Which, as you mentioned, leads me to believe that the problem is my hack is on a different network range (the airport in my Powerbook gets a 192.168.1.100+ IP)

Phew. Okay, so the question is: Is this doable? Can I configure the Linksys differently so it'll play nice with the networks? It's confusing having THREE different IPs -- the Xbox's IP, the router's WAN IP, and the router's local (client?) IP -- for what is theoretically supposed to be one unit (the Xbox). A subquestion is, one of these should probably be in the DMZ of my D-link router. Which one? And do I need to open ports on the Linksys as well (or put itself in its DMZ? Is that even possible?). I ask this because I think the Xbox live test worked, but it told me I had "moderate" NAT. The Dlink router is Xbox approved, and I enabled "game" mode on it, which fixed the ICMP problems I was having. But that has nothing -- I think -- to do with Connect360 working.

The Linksys is configured in the only way I could get it to work, and again, I just followed those directions. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks SO much...I would be so happy if I could stream music from my hack to my downstairs home theater.


Any ideas, oh networking gurus?

 

[kevnich2]

Why not keep all of your devices on 192.168.1.x and leave your subnet as 255.255.255.0? Your setup will work as long as the DHCP server is handing out a subnet of 255.255.248.0 but if DHCP is only giving a subnet of 255.255.255.0, your network now is technically two different subnets and will cause problems. Having a lot of IP addresses won't cause problems but keep things simple, if you have 5 devices, you don't need such a broad subnet range (192.168.1.x and 192.168.2.x)

 

[scootermaster]

Originally posted by: kevnich2
Why not keep all of your devices on 192.168.1.x and leave your subnet as 255.255.255.0? Your setup will work as long as the DHCP server is handing out a subnet of 255.255.248.0 but if DHCP is only giving a subnet of 255.255.255.0, your network now is technically two different subnets and will cause problems. Having a lot of IP addresses won't cause problems but keep things simple, if you have 5 devices, you don't need such a broad subnet range (192.168.1.x and 192.168.2.x)

As I said, I followed the instructions given on a website. And they work, at least in terms of connecting to the internet.

But what do you mean as far as the subnet? Which subnet should I set to .248? The D-link or the Linksys? Both?

 

[kevnich2]

Ok, just to understand what your trying to achieve better. Your main router is a dlink. That one looks to be setup just fine. You have an xbox in another room that your trying to get connected wirelessly? I thought the Xbox's had a built in wifi card, is there a reason your connecting with that?) You have another linksys router with DDWRT that right now you are trying to put essentially as a wireless client and hook your xbox to that via ethernet? Your hardware is definitely good, it's the way you have the IP addressing setup that needs changed. Your dlink router looks setup fine. For your "hackintosh" why not just leave that in the DHCP on the dlink instead of putting it as a static IP? Next question, on the linksys router that your trying to attach as a client, what version of DDWRT are you using? You want to make sure that's in client bridged mode. It shouldn't have any WAN IP address when you do this, just a LAN IP address and the LAN IP should be in the same subnet as the dlink (if dlink is 192.168.1.1, make the LAN for the Linksys Router 192.168.1.2) in DDWRT, the LAN IP address is the Router IP address. You won't have anything for the WAN IP address as client bridge doesn't do anything with the WAN interface. Make sure the wireless is the same as the dlink and these two should be talking to each other wirelessly before you hook up your xbox. Once these are communicating, switch your xbox to DHCP. You shouldn't ever configure anything for static IP addresses unless it's a network printer or a server, otherwise just leave everything on DHCP (on the dlink router, you can set sticky or static DHCP addresses so it assigns the same IP address every time).

When everything is said and done, your IP addresses should be as follows: 192.168.1.x with a subnet of 255.255.255.0 and everything but the Linksys should get their IP address from the Dlink router. Post any questions you may have. Also, on the linksys, you want it in client BRIDGE mode, not client mode. There is a big difference and that's what's mainly causing your problems as your segregating your linksys and your xbox into the 192.168.2.x range instead of in the same network as your dlink router.

 

[kevnich2]

Also, when all said and done your IP addressing theoretically should look something like this: Dlink: 192.168.1.1, Linksys Router in client bridge mode: 192.168.1.2 (enter this as the router IP address), xbox (DHCP): 192.168.1.100, hackintosh (DHCP): 192.168.1.101, Powerbook (DHCP): 192.168.1.102, etc, etc Also, as far as the DMZ, if you get things working as I described, you shouldn't have to put anything in the DMZ as the only router you'll have is the dlink. How you have it now is with two routers, the dlink & the linksys, aka, double NAT which was caused by the client mode instead of the client bridge mode.

Remember, configure the linksys wireless as client bridge and only assign the Router IP as 192.168.1.2 with subnet of 255.255.255.0 and stop manually configuring the IP address of your xbox and other PC's, this usually just causes problems.

 

[scootermaster]

So I followed the instructions in the DD-WRT wiki, using wireless bridge mode, and it works fine. They're very similar to what you were mentioning, kevnich2, with a couple of hiccups that're specific to the router. Thanks so much! For the record, apparently the v24 version of the firmware doesn't allow things plugged into the client (bridge) router to get DHCP addresses from the main router, so you have to manually configure them. And I had my hackintosh with a static IP because it's simpler to put it in the DMZ (when I want to use soulseek or something).

But it works great now! I haven't tried streaming movies, but music works just wonderfully as does Xbox live (no NAT issues). Best $20 I've spent in a long time!

 

[kevnich2]

Originally posted by: scootermaster
So I followed the instructions in the DD-WRT wiki, using wireless bridge mode, and it works fine. They're very similar to what you were mentioning, kevnich2, with a couple of hiccups that're specific to the router. Thanks so much! For the record, apparently the v24 version of the firmware doesn't allow things plugged into the client (bridge) router to get DHCP addresses from the main router, so you have to manually configure them. And I had my hackintosh with a static IP because it's simpler to put it in the DMZ (when I want to use soulseek or something).

But it works great now! I haven't tried streaming movies, but music works just wonderfully as does Xbox live (no NAT issues). Best $20 I've spent in a long time!

As far as client mode, it's not a bug in the firmware, it's the difference between client & client bridge mode. Client uplinks via the WAN interface so it's like having two routers, so your main router was essentially the internet to your client router. Client bridge mode doesn't use the WAN at all and uplinks via the LAN side so everything further upstream was local to the router. This is all explained in the ddwrt wiki that you said you read. It's not a bug, it's how it's designed. There are definite situations where you'd need to use client instead of client bridge (hooking up to a WISP for instance)