Help needed bridging TPLink TL-MR3420 and Netgear DGN2200M

Hi All,
I had an old Mega 100WR as my ADSL router, and a TL-MR3420 handling a Cell C speedstick and failover between the two. My MWR started giving issues so I went and picked up a Netgear DGN2200M ADSL router with built in 3G failover. This new kit is working fine, my ADSL connection is definitely more stable, and failover seems to work well too.

Now I don't need it for the 3G connection I'd like to bridge the TL-MR on my wifi network so i can hook up my tv, bd player and xbox to it with wired connection but I'm having trouble getting it working.

My setup is as follows:
- My main router (DNG) has an ip of 192.168.0.1, and I've limited it's DHCP range to 192.168.0.2-192.168.0.200 with gateway for clients set to 192.168.0.1
- I've set the secondary (TL) ip to 192.168.0.201, and set it's DHCP range to 192.168.0.202-192.168.0.254 and gateway for clients set to 192.168.0.1 as well (tried setting their gateway to 192.168.0.201 as well)

Result is:
- I've tested with the diagnostic tools on the secondary router, and it's able to ping the primary router
- Clients attaching to the primary are able to access each other, the primary and the secondary, but NOT clients on the secondary
-Clients on the secondary are able to access each other but neither of the routers or any clients on the primary
-Clients on primary can access the web, clients on secondary can't access the web

The TP gives an option to set local IP, but not gateway or dns. It has the ability to set static routing tables, but not if destinations are on same subnet (which makes sense I suppose)

So has anyone had any luck getting this sort of bridge working on this router? Alternatively, any wild ideas to try? As a last resort, there's a version of OpenWRT that can run on it, but it's marked as not stable so I'd prefer to exhaust other options first.

Thanks

Clients on the secondary router (TP) won't be able to access the web, because they are being served by DHCP with DNS and Default Gateway details that are not actually connected to the outside world. The DNS and Default Gateway being issued by your TP will the IP address of the TP itself, which doesn't have a connection to the internet, hence why those clients won't be able to access the internet.

You need to set only 1 router as the DHCP server, and this router has to be the one with the internet connection. The other router will act as a simple switch. Also, having DHCP on both routers won't guarantee that a client connecting to Router A will be served with DHCP on router A, and a client connecting on Router B will be served with DHCP running on Router B. The client will accept the DHCP settings from the first DHCP server that responds, which is for the most part unpredictable.

As to why clients on the primary router are not able to see clients on the secondary, and vice versa, I am stumped. Even without an internet connection, the 2 routers should act as a simple 4-port switch, passing traffic between the 2 devices (no routing required, just switching). Perhaps there is some other setting on one or both of the routers that is preventing traffic flow from one router to the other. Perhaps a faulty port or a faulty network cable on one or both of the routers? Perhaps a static routing rule you have added?

BTW, you technically aren't bridging the 2 routers. You're simply connecting them to each other, or putting them on the same physical network, via a switch.

I would try resetting both routers to default settings, enabling DHCP on your Netgear router, and disabling it on the TP. Then first try to get clients on your TP to see clients on your Netgear, and vice versa.

All in all, it should be a pretty simple process. Not much to configure, except for the static IPs of the 2 devices, your single DHCP server and range, and your 3G and ADSL account/access details.

I did try killing the DHCP server on the second router, clients ended up not getting IP addresses at all. I also tried giving my test machine connected to the second router a static ip, and still didn't manage to get any web access.

I'll consider a complete reset, but at least in the case of the netgear, it's out the box defaults with just the WiFi, ADSL and 3G set up. I think at this stage it'll be simpler, quicker (and better performant) to just get up in the roof and run some CAT5

Try setting up 2 seperate class c Subnets. ie
192.168.0.0/24 - Netgear - 192.168.0.1 ( don't care about DHCP anymore)
setup route 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 via 192.168.0.2

and
192.168.1.0/24 - TP(LAN) - 192.168.1.1 (DHCP with gateway of 192.168.1.1 range 2-254)
Setup WAN IP(ie on your wireless) to be 192.168.0.2

Although I haven't had a look at that TPlink router's routing it should be possible