WAN vs LAN vs ADSL problems

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Maximus

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Hi everyone, I hope someone can point me in the right direction.

I've got a Planet ADSL modem with build in DHCP and NAT support. The ADSL modem is connected to my 100Mb 8 port switch. I recently purchased a Mecer 802.11g Wireless router, also with DHCP and NAT support, with a build in 4 port switch. Now, basically what I'd like to do is to disable the DHCP server and NAT on the Wireless router (I've already got everything setup on my ADSL modem so I don't want to change it to my wireless router) and then plug the wireless router into my 8 port switch. I then just want to use the wireless router as an access point onto my network.

The problem comes in when a wireless device (such as my laptop) connects to the wireless access point, and then tries to acquire an IP address from the DHCP server. The wireless router is not setup as a DHCP server so it doesn't provide an IP address. Does anyone have an idea on how to bypass this problem. I really do not want to change my current setup as it is working really well and it might be an unnecessary shlep.

Here is what I have tried so far:
- My ADSL router as the DHCP server at IP 192.168.0.1. Problem here is that WAN devices can't connect to the rest of the network since the wireless access point on IP 192.168.0.2 doesn't give it an IP address.

- My Wireless router as the DHCP server on IP 192.168.0.1. Both LAN and WAN devices can see each other, however, there is no access to the Internet. I have tried setting the LAN and WAN devices to use the ADSL modem on IP 192.168.0.2 as the default gateway but still can't access the internet. What am I missing here?

- Neither of the two routers are setup as a DHCP server and I use static IP's. However, whenever I do this all network devices can see each other, but I can't see the internet, even when I specify the gateway as 192.168.0.1 (which is my ADSL modem in this case).

- I've tried all the above combinations with my ADSL modem directly connected to the wireless router via it's WAN port, and also with the wireless router simply connected to my 8 port switch together with the ADSL modem.

Once I can get the setup to work I'll use different IP address ranges to make the whole network more secure. For now I just want to try and get it to work.
 
Hi
Try these suggestions :
You need to disable NAT/PAT and DHCP on your wireless base station.
You need to set the base station to Bridge mode.
If you statically assign IP addresses, you need to include a DNS server.
You may need to setup bootp forwarding on your base station, depending on what model it is.
Cheers -
 
Thanks for your quick reply ScrnScrm, I really appreciate it.

I've got a Planet ADE-3000 ADSL Modem router. You mentioned bootp forwarding, is that the same as port forwarding?

Thanks, I haven't tried setting the base station to Bridge mode. Will try that next.

In terms of setting the gateways, I'm a little confused over which router's gateway to configure to what. If I run the DHCP server from the ADSL router lets say on IP 192.168.0.1 and I have the wireless router on IP 192.168.0.2, do I need to configure the ADSL routers gateway to point to 192.168.0.2 (wireless router), or do I need to configure the wireless routers gateway to 192.168.0.1 (adsl router)? If I need to set the wireless router's gateway I can only do it through it's static routing table configuration interface which I then configure like this:
Destination Network: 192.168.0.0
Network Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway IP Address: 192.168.0.1 (ADSL Router)
Metric: 2

Does these values look correct to you?
 
Hi
Set your ADSL Routers IP address to 192.168.0.1, mask 255.255.255.0, No Default Gateway.
Set your Wireless Base Station IP address to 192.168.0.2 mask 255.255.255.0, Gateway 192.168.0.1 (In other words, configure it just like you would configure your PCs - the base station itself, when in bridge mode, will not be doing any routing)
Make sure the default gateway on all your PCs point to .1 NEVER point them to .2 - it will only slow you down. Your routing metrics internally should always be 1.
Then plug your wireless base station into a port in your hub. On the base station itself, do NOT use the port marked "internet" or "external". use one of the 4 hub ports.
Dont forget to configure your default DNS servers as well...

Bootp is on port 87 and is used for DHCP. You have to enable it if you are not using bridged mode on the wireless base station in order to enable DHCP requests to be routed. You would typically set bootp forwarders pointing to the IP address of your DHCP server. In your case, I dont think this will be necessary - it seems to me you just have a bit of a config mismatch.
In summary :
Make sure that the wireless device is in bridged mode
Make sure that the ASDL Routers internal interface default gateway is blank
That DNS is correctly configured
That you have "chained" the wireless hub to your network using the correct ports.

Cheers -
 
I tried setting the ADSL router to Bridge mode. Now, the router's manual tells me that I need to set the Encapsulation to "1483 Bridged IP LLC" or "1483 Bridged IP VC-Mux" whenever I use Bridge mode. Usually the Encapsulation is set to "PPPoE LLC" mode so I reckon the "1483 Bridged IP LLC" setting should be correct. However, changing the router to these settings stops me from being able to access the internet at all. When I set the ADSL router to bridge mode, am I supposed to set all the ISP dialup settings on the wireless router?
 
aaaah. stop! Base station dude, not ADSL router!!!!!! set the base station to bridge mode - in other words just bridge traffic between external interface and internal interface on the wireless base station! Leave your ASDL router as is!
 
Oops, I was busy typing when you posted. I have set my ADSL router to bridge mode instead of the wireless router. I can't remember seeing a configuration setting on the wireless router for changing the bridge mode. I'll check quickly...
 
it shouldnt matter anyway, if you use one of the four hub ports for the uplink. all the hub ports should be bridged anyway. you just lose a port, thats all. and if you are going wireless, it shouldnt matter...
 
Sorry about the misunderstanding. I am a complete noobxxorz to all things networking related, so this is a big learning experience for me.

Even though the DHCP assignment still fails on the wireless notebook computer (I opened all UDP and TCP ports on the wireless router), I am now able to access the Internet using a static IP through my wireless connection, which means something is working :). Since the rest of the network is on DHCP however my NetBIOS and other protocols are not working and I can't access the wireless notebook's resources. Since everything should be configured correctly now I'm going to reboot everything on the network and see if it makes any difference. Thx for all the effort to try and help a stupid sod like me. ;)
 
no worries dude. let me know how it goes. if you cant come right, PM me with your number and i will try give you a call tomorrow when i get a gap.
 
Phew, I finally got it working, even though it's through the use of static IP addresses. The wireless router has absolutely no facility or configuration to allow certain ports to be accessed from over its wireless connection. You can only configure these things on its internet side which enforces one to use the wireless router as the main outer gateway, unless using static IP's. I'm happy now that things are finally working, I would recommend that people do not use these Mecer wireless routers, even though you can pick them up for quite cheap. They have plenty of build in configurations for the internet side of things but very little for connecting it to an existing network.

Thx so much ScrnScrm, couldn't have done it without your help!
 
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