Need a network wizard

[gene heskett]

On Wednesday, August 17, 2011 06:01:03 AM Nils Kassube did opine:

> While I'm not a network wizzard, I'll try to help anyway :)
> 
> gene heskett wrote:
> > I have a home network that is all behind a NATing router, in this
> > case a netgear WNR2000V3, hooked to a cable modem at its WAN port,
> > and one of its LAN ports is plugged into an 8 port switch.
> > 
> > 200 feet of cat5 away, is a small Linksys 4 port workgroup 10/100
> > hub, with at least 2 more machines
> > 
> > But I need to replace this 4 port + uplink 'hub', with something that
> > looks like a hub, but also contains an access point, so my laptop
> > can be used without stringing another 25 feet of cat5 around to trip
> > over.
> > 
> > So I bought another netgear WGR614V10 and hauled it to this 'shop'
> > building.  More or less out of the box, and with the cable from this
> > house switch plugged into the WAN port, and the netgear WNR2000V3
> > gave it an address on the local network exactly as the netgear
> > WNR2000V3 is set to do.
> > 
> > That in turn, because the WGR614V10 still had its dhcp server
> > enabled, gave the laptops cat5 connection an address in its default
> > 192.168.1.X mapping
> > 
> > But, because the cable coming from this machine via the local 8 port,
> > was hitting the WAN port, everything behind that WAN port is
> > invisible to me
> > 
> > Now to show how little I actually know, I reasoned that this
> > WGR614V10 really should function as a hub with a radio if I plugged
> > my cable into a LAN port, and changed its LAN IP to this network by
> > giving it an address on my local net. It would then function as a
> > hub just like the hub I'd been using, but with a radio too.
> > 
> > And that is the roadblock.  Regardless of what I set the "to be
> > unused" WAN ports address to, trying to apply my local network
> > address to the LAN port is refused as it clashes with the WAN port.
> 
> There are certainly several ways to achieve your wanted goal of
> connecting from each machine to all the other machines.
> 
> I don't know if it is possible with the WGR614V10 to use it as a real
> router (i.e. disable NAT), because the setup manual I found doesn't tell
> anything useful. I think that option should be a part of the WAN setup.
> If that is possible, leave everything connected as it is (WGR614V10 WAN
> port -> WNR2000V3). You could disable the firewall on the WGR614V10 and
> tell the WNR2000V3 about a static route to the new 192.168.1.x network
> via the WGR614V10 WAN address. And to be sure that the WAN address
> doesn't change, you should make it a static entry.
> 
> OTOH, your idea of using only the LAN side of the WGR614V10 isn't too
> bad either. Then you only have a single address range for the entire
> LAN. I don't know the Netgear stuff, but maybe you should first
> disconnect the WAN port, then set the WAN port to a static address
> outside your LAN (e.g. 10.10.10.10). Then reboot the router and setup
> the LAN address to something within your current LAN but _not_ the same
> address as your WNR2000V3. Then again reboot the router and disable
> DHCP. Granted, rebooting shouldn't be necessary, but if it doesn't like
> changing the LAN address range to the wanted range (like you wrote), it
> may help. If that worked, connect the rest of your LAN to one of the LAN
> ports of the WGR614V10. DHCP is then served by your WNR2000V3 and it
> should also work for the WLAN part. At least that's how it worked here
> with three different routers from different manufacturers.
> 
> 
> Nils

Food for thought, thanks Nils.  This particular router, at its price, 
doesn't have the bells and whistles of the $70 models.  Config isn't helped 
by the very unlike dd-wrt web interface.  It does have an add static route 
page, which I may be able to make function like a hosts file, but uses MAC 
addresses instead.  I have not tested that yet, up too early, but I have to 
act like a geek and check my email before going back to bed.  ;-)

Cheers, gene
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