Problems Setting up a Second Wireless Network on one Computer

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junghm69

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#53630 11-Dec-2009 21:02

I have a computer (A) connected to the internet through a wireless router (Router A) which I do not have administrative rights to. I have a second computer (B) which is situated in a location that cannot connect to that router.

I am trying to set up a different wireless network between computer A and computer B using another wireless router (Router B) and USB wireless adapter. When I connect router B to computer A, the WiFi internet connection stops working even though the network icon says I am still connected. I tried changing the IP address of router B because it was the same as router A but there was no change. I'm not sure if I did it correctly. I changed the IP address of router B through it's admin page and then performed ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew.

Then I tried connecting router B to computer B and the USB wifi adapter to computer A. This solved the internet connection problem on computer A. However, there doesn't seem to be any information moving through the connection even though the USB wifi adapter reports a good connection between it and router B. The network setup wizard finishes ok on computer B but gives an error when run on computer A. Also, I tried NAT32 with this setup but computer B still would not connect to the internet.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

raytaylor

3835 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#282972 15-Dec-2009 23:52

This is a interesting setup.

1) On Computer A, the internet connection would stop working because router B becomes its new gateway address. If you have 2 network connections with different gateways, windows will usually use the most recently connected's gateway as 'the' gateway to the internet since they will have equal priority levels. In advanced networks with multiple gateways it is possible to set priorities so it prefers a specific gateway - too complicated for your setup.

2) Router B should be an access point. It is cheap and easy to buy one and not use your router. To turn a router into an access point(if you really have to), turn off the DHCP server in its administrative website. At the same time, set its ip address to be one next to your router A address. Eg. if router A is 10.0.0.1 then make router B 10.0.0.2
Also make sure the SSID or wireless network name is different to what is programmed into router A

3) Now on computer A, hold down ctrl and click on each of your wireless networks. Right click and select bridge. ( i think you can do it with 2 wireless networks). This will make a transparent layer 2 bridge between the networks. Connect wireless network 2 to Router B. Connect wireless network 1 to Router A.

4) Connect Computer B wirelessly to router B.

So in theory
a. computer B connects to router B. It issues a DHCP request
b. the request signal travels thru rB to cA, cA then passes it on to rA
c. routerA responds with an ip, gateway and dns address. it travels the same path back to cB
d. computer B should be able to ping router A and ping www.google.co.nz as if it was connected directly.

If you cannot bridge the two wireless networks, then you may have to run an ethernet cable from computer A to routerB as you should not have any problem bridging an ethernet and wireless network. I have never tested it with 2 wireless networks though. DHCP and alot of protocols have problems passing over two non-wds networks in a row so depending upon various background options and the models of routers you are using, this still may not work without the ethernet cable to eliminate one of the wireless links.

Ray Taylor

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junghm69

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#283741 18-Dec-2009 13:18

Thanks for the reply and suggestion.

I'm a bit confused though as to your solution. It sounded like your first solution option requires a third wireless adapter. If I understood correctly, router B would not be wired to any computer but standing alone in order to become an wireless access point. I would then need one wireless adapter on computer A that wirelessly connects to router A and another that connects wirelessly to router B. Then I would need a third to wirelessly connect computer B to router B. Is that correct?

As I do not have a third wifi adapter, I tried your second option. I connected router B to computer A via ethernet cable. I bridged the two connections (wifi to router A and LAN cable to router B). But when I tried to connect computer B wirelessly to router B, computer A reported an ip address conflict. Also, because DHCP has been turned off on router B, computer A cannot acquire a network address for that connection when enabled. I tried changing the TCP/IP properties to manually assign an ip address but it didn't help. Router A's IP address is 192.168.0.1. And as you suggested, I set router B to ip address 192.168.0.2. Therefore, I thought the logical ip address to assign to the router B connection on computer A would be 192.168.0.3. I left the subnet mask the same (255.255.255.) And I tried default gateways of 192.168.0.1 as well as 192.168.0.2. I copied the DNS from the router A connection by looking them up with ipconfig /all.

It might also be helpful to note that router A assigns an ip address of 192.168.0.37 to the wireless connection between it and computer A.

Any suggestions? Should I get a third wifi adapter? Thanks again so much for your time and effort.

raytaylor

3835 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#283836 18-Dec-2009 17:06

You shouldnt need a third adapter.

Check the DHCP settings in router A and check to see the range that it assigns addresses from.
Should not include 192.168.0.2. So somthing like a start of 192.168.0.10 and end of 192.168.0.100 would be good.

Ray Taylor

There is no place like localhost

Spreadsheet for Comparing Electricity Plans Here

junghm69

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#283901 18-Dec-2009 21:14

Thanks again for the reply and quick response,

I do not have administrative rights to router A. However, guessing from the fact that router B had the same ip address and it used 192.168.0.2 thru 192.168.0.51 for it's DHCP, I think it's safe to assume that router A uses the same default address range for it's DHCP.

Does that mean I should set router B's IP address to 192.168.0.52? And what about the TCP/IP settings on computer A's LAN connection to router B. Should I leave it set to "obtain IP address automatically" or should I set it manually? And what should the manual settings be?

junghm69

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#283905 18-Dec-2009 21:35

I've learned that the default start for router A's DHCP range is 192.168.0.2 and has a default of 253 for the number of clients. Therefore it goes all the way to 192.168.0.254. I know that number 255 usually should not be used so what should router B's IP address be? 192.168.1.1?

raytaylor

3835 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#283983 19-Dec-2009 11:44

Router B's address should not be the same as any other on the network
So ideally you would want it outside the DHCP range of router A

I would assume that if you set router B to 192.168.0.254 (the highest you can go) then there is a very low chance of router A issuing a computer the same address. If it does, just turn everything off and back on and it will start issuing at the beginning again. It also will be recycling the addresses.

You should be able to set the computers to auto or manual. should work either way.

NOTE Since you cannot lower the range of the router A dhcp server, the address can be substituted for:
192.168.0.2 > 192.168.0.254
192.168.0.3 > 192.168.0.253 (should work on auto with a dhcp issued low address)
192.168.0.4 > 192.168.0.252 (should work on auto with a dhcp issued low address)

That way the DHCP server will be unlikley to issue an ip address that will conflict with one you have set manually.

Ray Taylor

There is no place like localhost

Spreadsheet for Comparing Electricity Plans Here

wheelsofsteel

1 post

Wannabe Geek

#286276 31-Dec-2009 14:37

If you get a router that has repeater ability configure it to repeat the router A's wireless to computer B.

If you don't but you have a router that supports the dd-wrt firmware, flash the device http://www.dd-wrt.com
and setup as required.

I use a router for this purposem with the dd-wrt software without problems, so let me know if you need help with the config.