Home Network questions

[seanR]

I think networks are a figment of someone's imagination.
I have been trying to get mine working for two month, it just get worse.
I have been through three print servers that I cant get to work, now my NAS can't bee seen, again.
This morning, my laptop couldn't connect wireless-ly.
BUT, I do have a whole bunch of neat plastic boxes with wires poking out of them and blinking lights they sure are pretty to look at!

:wstupid:

 

[Ralph]

Now that I am more awake...

There is actually a point behind all the inane Network architecture.
That point is to prevent XP powered DHCP devices, like PCs and Laptops, from messing with the DSL IP. My experience has taught me that if I don't protect Gateway#1, XP starts playing, so everything that stays on the network became Static, including Gateway#2. Gateway #2 is set up to allow DHCP logins.

Everything works right, but I recently got my own (as opposed to the one I drag home from work) wireless laptop and wanted Windows sharing to work across Gateway#2 if possible.

Rich, it took me 3/4 of an hour to devour your single sentence, mainly because I has to research every other word

That tells me that I am less than knowledgeable about that with I wish to do and that what I really need is to find one of those "Idiot" books and RTFM as it were

Oh, and I never use the KISS principle if there is a more complicated and arcane way of going something LOL!

I love the KISS principle. I use it every day, for my own sake if for no one else's.

 

[Ralph]

Now that I am more awake...

There is actually a point behind all the inane Network architecture.
That point is to prevent XP powered DHCP devices, like PCs and Laptops, from messing with the DSL IP. My experience has taught me that if I don't protect Gateway#1, XP starts playing, so everything that stays on the network became Static, including Gateway#2. Gateway #2 is set up to allow DHCP logins.

Everything works right, but I recently got my own (as opposed to the one I drag home from work) wireless laptop and wanted Windows sharing to work across Gateway#2 if possible.

Rich, it took me 3/4 of an hour to devour your single sentence, mainly because I has to research every other word

That tells me that I am less than knowledgeable about that with I wish to do and that what I really need is to find one of those "Idiot" books and RTFM as it were

Oh, and I never use the KISS principle if there is a more complicated and arcane way of going something LOL!

Having all your devices working on one subnet will eliminate your issue. You don't have to use DHCP on a single router configuration if you don't want to.

I'm not sure what you're talking about with DHCP devices messing with your ISP's IP address. 'splain me again, please.

 

[RichP]

Ok, two possible issues with DSL, one is that you have a small DSL modem that has one RJ11 phone jack and a USB and Ethernet plug for the computer. Second one is that you have a 4 port dsl modem/router w/wireless.
In the first case you need to put the DSL modem into bridging mode so that the the linksys can act as a PC, in which case you need to put your login and password into the linksys and set it up that way. This is the most common in this area, wireless DSL modem with 4 wired ports have just started showing up here in the last 8 months.
In the second case with a 4 port wireless dsl modem you are pretty much screwed, after many hours I have never managed to get double dhcp to work correctly, for some reason linksys and netgear, etc do not like getting a dhcp assigned address on their wan port from another dhcp router, there is a reason for it and I'm not into typing 4 pages. Bottom line is you dhcp will not work correctly, just accept it, static assign is a leaking bandaid.
A single dhcp router on the DSL modem of the first case is stable and secure and should have no issues UNLESS your telco pushes down a firmware update, that resets it back into normal mode and it has to again be reset to bridging mode thru logging into it.
Cisco makes a pretty neat DSL modem/router that is actually a true router, has an RJ11 for the phone connection, runs cisco IOS and you can do alot with it. The DD-WRT does the same router wise, it still needs the external DSL modem though.
Personally I prefer a standard wired router and if I want wireless I put in a separate wireless access point. Thats actually a requirement when I install in a shop, any shop, that has welders, that way whoever is about to use the welder has to move the plastic sign off the power switch that says 'TURN THE WIRELESS ACCESS POINTS OFF BEFORE TURNING THE WELDER ON' welders will shut a wireless network down in under 4 seconds and you end up rebooting the servers, switches, workstations, cable or DSL modems and any routers on the network.
The neat thing about the DD-WRT sofware is I can vlan the ports, assign one port to the wired network, 10.2.1.x, two port to 10.1.3.x, three port to 10.1.4.x, four port to 10.1.5.x, route between port 1, that port feeds a 12, 24 or 48 port switch and port 2 with a secured wap, stick an open wap on port 3 and route between 1 and 2, wap on 3 is for customers who have wireless devices and want to use them while their vehicles are being repaired.
The trick with upgrading the linksys is to upgrade with the mini kernel first, 2 meg, this removes the 4 meg limit that linksys has in their firmware, once thats in you then upgrade to the 5 meg full router package. Oh, an you can go back to the original just by doing the update from the DDWRT software and you are back to stock after downloading it from the linksys support site, also always remember to back up your router before doing any updates or upgrades.

 

[WB9YZU]

Too confusing.

Modem<Gateway1<Gateway2(w)

I don't control the Modem.

Gateway1 Logs into the ISP though it. All PCs on this LAN are Static.

Gateway2 has a static 168.1.X address, but 168.2.X connections are allowed to be DHCP.

If I allow the XP machines to do DHCP, they mess with with the Gateway1 and reset the Ip from the ISP - Not desired. Gateway2 is on a separate Static IP which allows me to use my work laptop as DHCP and not have Gateway1 reset.

None of what I saw in your talk about VLANs seemed to address the issue that is at hand, which is making Windows networking talk across the 2nd Gateway to the second LAN. If it won't talk across a Gateway, why would it talk between two VLANs?

I need time to digest the info in this thread...

 

[Ralph]

Too confusing.

Modem<Gateway1<Gateway2(w)

I don't control the Modem.

Gateway1 Logs into the ISP though it. All PCs on this LAN are Static.

Gateway2 has a static 168.1.X address, but 168.2.X connections are allowed to be DHCP.

If I allow the XP machines to do DHCP, they mess with with the Gateway1 and reset the Ip from the ISP - Not desired. Gateway2 is on a separate Static IP which allows me to use my work laptop as DHCP and not have Gateway1 reset.

None of what I saw in your talk about VLANs seemed to address the issue that is at hand, which is making Windows networking talk across the 2nd Gateway to the second LAN. If it won't talk across a Gateway, why would it talk between two VLANs?

I need time to digest the info in this thread...

That's a new one on me. I've set up many home networks and I have never seen that happen. When you IP address changes on your DSL modem, can you still get on the internet?

Another thing to remember that the IP address of your DSL modem is set by DHCP by the ISP. If the DHCP lease expires you can get a different address from your ISP. If there is nothing wrong with your DSL modem. If it stays on and TCP/IP is working the way it should. Your lease should not expire. If it still does, you might want to give your ISP a call and ask them about why the IP address is changing. You'll probably get a new DSL modem.

If your devices are truly causing this issue, I suspect you might have something wrong with the Netgear device. Swap it with the Linksys. Use the factory firmware or flash it with DDWRT, machts nicht. Use DHCP and see what happens.

 

[Mudderoy]

That's not quite right, Coastie, but for a usual home network, it ends up that way.

A 192.168.z.t address usually has a 255.255.255.0 subnet mask, and that puts the wireless on a different subnet from the wired equipment. Without WINS servers configured between the subnets, none of the Windows shares will see [easily] between subnets.

You should be able to specify \\192.168.z.t as a target, and see what's on that machine.

This works for me on my home network. The NETBIOS names are just not available to the other network. It can be fixed, but I use it so infrequently I haven't spent the 15 minutes to figure it out. I just do the \\192.168.167.20 (from the 192.168.168.x wireless access point).

\\192.168.167.20\downloads for example.

 

[ChiXJeff]

NETBIOS isn't routable. You'll need a WINS server, or the equivalent, available on both networks. If you can see MAC level broadcast traffic on all ports, it's doable, but not necessarily the right way to go about it.

If you know the remote IP address or DNS name, you can get directly to it without having to go through the Windows Network Browser stuff.

 

[Ralph]

NETBIOS isn't routable. You'll need a WINS server, or the equivalent, available on both networks. If you can see MAC level broadcast traffic on all ports, it's doable, but not necessarily the right way to go about it.

If you know the remote IP address or DNS name, you can get directly to it without having to go through the Windows Network Browser stuff.

You can get around that by making an entry to the LMHosts file.