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Dual WRT54Gs

Hi all,

Our home has a cable modem connection into a WRT54GC router. Due to the house's construction, the wireless signal does not reach the south side our our home. I have an extra WRT54G that I used at school in an apartment. I connected the WRT54G to the WRT54GC using a straight through cable from LAN port to LAN port. Here's the setup:

WRT54GC (main router connected to cable modem) IP: 192.168.1.1 Subnet: 255.255.255.0 Gateway: 192.168.1.1 DHCP: enabled SSID: router1 Channel: 1 WEP enabled, with key (for discussion): 1234567890

WRT54G (new router) IP: 192.168.1.2 (static) Subnet: 255.255.255.0 Gateway: 192.168.1.1 DHCP: disabled SSID: router2 Channel: 11 WEP enabled, with key (for discussion): 1234567890

Currently, both work on wired and wireless connections. The reason I'm posting this is because the instant I enable WEP and click "Save" on the new router (WRT54G), I can no longer connect or ping the address

192.168.1.2 in order to administer the new router. I have tried doing so both on wired and wireless connections. However, I can still browse the internet, pull an IP address (through DHCP of the WRT54GC), etc. ... I just can't ping or connect to the administration section of the WRT54G.

I'm at a loss as to why this happens only when I enable WEP. It works up to and until that point, but not after, even from a machine connected wired or wireless to the WRT54GC... Neither pings nor connection through a web browser.

Any ideas why this might be? It works if I don't enable WEP to begin with, but then I don't have a "secure" network... (as "secure" as WEP is these days anyway).

Thanks in advance!

--

-Chris

Reply to
cweilema
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That's bizarre. You have the latest firmware on both devices? I've done this successfully with WAP54G devices, but that's clearly different from your situation...

Reply to
William P.N. Smith

I've done almost exactly the same thing and it works just fine.

Well, I have a wild guess. Run: Start -> Run -> cmd ARP -a on your Windoze box. Do the IP addresses shown correspond to the correct MAC address on the WRT54G? The MAC address for the ethernet connection and the wireless connection will be different, but the IP address will be the same. When switching between wired and wireless, the arp table will change for a give IP address.

Delete the table entry with: arp -d * to wipe everything. Then try: ping 192.168.1.2 to repopulate the arp table.

That's really weird. There's nothing on the ethernet side of the router that shoud be affected by the wireless side.

By any chance, is the WRT54G one of the Version 5 mutations? |

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v5 hardware versions are rather buggy, even with firmware updates. Duh.... what firmware version?

Please do not consider WEP to be particularly secure. It can be easily cracked. Switch to WPA-PSK if possible.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Yes, it is extremely weird. I tried arp -a and I receive the MAC and IP of "router1" ... I guess so long as it works, I don't really have a problem with it. I just thought I'd see if anyone had any ideas why I couldn't configure the second router. All the firmware is up to date as well.

Jeff, thanks for the advice on wireless security. Unfortunately, my dad's work computer runs Windows 2000 at a non-administrator level. Because of this combination, WPA-PSK with the built-in wireless card is not possible. I know that WEP is extremely out of date and can be cracked within minutes... It's more of a deterrent. I keep a close eye on the router logs as well. If you have any suggestions around this, Jeff, I'm all "eyes" ... ;-)

If anyone has any further ideas or suggestions, I'd appreciate it!

--

-Chris

Reply to
cweilema

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