Network Question

sparkite

Im trying to help someone out with their network.

They have a wireless internet connection from irish broadband.
It comes into the house via network cable into a Linksys WRT54G.

This linksys is wired into a 10 port switch which links to a patch panel wired to different rooms in the house. This points work fine. The linksys router also provides wireless connectivity and all is fine.

We want to connect a second router to a network point in one of the rooms to provide a stronger wireless signal as the house is quite big. It is a belkin n1 router.

My first questions is whether a crossover cable is required or straight through.

My second questions is what way should the belkin be configured?
Irish broadband have external IPs
Linksys has internal 192.168.1.1 IP.

Alun

Why do they want (or think they want) a second router would be my first question.

sparkite

as mentioned above it is a big house (huge actually) and the wireless signal is poor in the room in question.

Alun

sparkite wrote: »

as mentioned above it is a big house (huge actually) and the wireless signal is poor in the room in question.

OK, so what they really needed was an additional wireless access point, not a complete router, so a bit of a waste of money / features.

Anyway, assuming they already have the router, they could always try substituting it for the existing router, and see if that improves their wireless reception in the room in question, especially if the device being used there supports wireless-N. Or, alternatively just connect one of the switch ports on the Belkin (not the WAN port) to the network point. A normal (non x-over) network cable will probably be perfectly OK so try that first, if not then a crossover cable. Also turn off the DHCP server in the Belkin and let the Linksys handle that side of things.

FruitLover

An AP might be a better choice in this situation than a router (keep everything in the same layer 2 domain). If you want to go ahead with the router plan, configure the belkin to use the linksys as its default gateway, then you'll need a static route on the linksys pointing to the belkin for whatever subnet range you end up using behind it (e.g. 192.168.2.0/24)

sparkite

Alun wrote: »

..... Or, alternatively just connect one of the switch ports on the Belkin (not the WAN port) to the network point. A normal (non x-over) network cable will probably be perfectly OK so try that first, if not then a crossover cable. Also turn off the DHCP server in the Belkin and let the Linksys handle that side of things.

OK so we just connect the network point in the wall to one of the 4 points on the belkin router (and not the wan point). However how should the belkin be configured? Its asking for LAN IP, WAN IP's etc.

axer

sparkite wrote: »

OK so we just connect the network point in the wall to one of the 4 points on the belkin router (and not the wan point). However how should the belkin be configured? Its asking for LAN IP, WAN IP's etc.

Really all you need to do is turn off DHCP on the router and setup the SSID and encryption key.

Alun

I'm not familiar with the interface on the Belkin, but you should just ignore anything to do with configuring the WAN interface, it won't be used. You're effectively only using the layer 2 functions of the router, i.e. the wireless AP and the built in switch. Try and avoid using any installation / configuration software that came with it and just use the built-in web interface, avoiding any 'wizards' or such like. You'll need to configure the wireless AP, with a different SSID to the existing router, and disable the DHCP server.

Or alternatively follow FruitLovers plan, although you'll be double-NAT'ing then which might cause all kinds of other trouble unless you can turn that off somewhere on the Belkin.

Theta

As axer said turn off DHCP and configure the wireless security and you should be fine!

sparkite

cool. we will give it a go. thanks for your help

FruitLover

Alun's plan is better if your Belkin has internal ports, do that (and read up on wireless security while you're at it!)