Wireless router help

Hi guys,

I live in rural spain so can't get a landline let alone broadband. I signed up with a local ISP who came out and installed an antenna on my roof so I can access the internet via their wifi hotspot. Basically I have a lan cable from this to plug into my laptop. OK works great. So then I get more adventurous and buy a wireless router so I don't need the lan cable to my laptop but use the laptops in built wifi to connect to the router and the internet.

Everything works fine, but I can't access the router to change it's settings anymore.

Guy I bought it off told me to turn off dhcp, so I accessed router setup via html at 192.168.1.1 and did just that. He also told me to change from unsecured to secured, but after I've turned of dhcp I can't get the setup page on that IP anymore.

Heres a few more details -

windows vista home premium compaq with inbuilt wifi e-tech adwg02 wireless router isp's network cable from antenna plugged into 1st of four lan connections

network settings show my computer with an IP allocated from ISP, a gateway with IP allocated by ISP, and in the middle, the ssid of the router, but with no IP.

It all works fine but I need to access the router to turn on security.

Any ideas, help appreciated.

Thanks,

Nam-kha

Reply to
nam-kha
Loading thread data ...

You have connected the ISPs device to the first of four LAN ports.

This is incorrect!

You connect ISP equipment to the WAN port. Your wired equipment gets connected to the LAN ports. Your wireless also connects to the LAN side of the router via RF (wireless).

The purpose of a router is to sit between two networks and facilitate connections between them. Also, if traffic is not passing through the router, how do you expect to derive the security benefits of the router?

What you want is for the router's WAN port to acquire an IP address from a DHCP server of your ISP. Your host (computer) would acquire an IP address from the DHCP server within the router. The host would then have an IP address on the same network (192.168.1.0) as the router's web server interface, and you would be able to access the web interface.

Right now, your host has an IP address from your ISP's network (not

192.168.1.0), and doesn't know how to reach the router's web interface.

Correct your cabling.

Configure your host with a static IP address (e.g.: 192.168.1.2) temporarily, connect to the router, turn DHCP back on, configure your host to use DHCP again, and resume whatever router configuration you desire.

Best Regards, News Reader

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.co.uk wrote:

Reply to
News Reader

You may have to configure the router's WAN port via the router"s administrative interface, depending on the ISP.

Typical options are:

- static IP address assignment from ISP

- dynamic IP address assignment from ISP (DHCP)

- PPPoE (authentication via username and password)

You can try the default first if you like, but you would benefit from reading the manual.

In fact, if you had read and understood the manual, you wouldn't have mis-configured your network in the first place. No offense intended. :>)

Since your host was connected to the network directly (unprotected by the router), chances are your host may already be compromised.

You might want to use SpyBot or some other trusted application to scan your system, and address any issues if found.

Best Regards, News Reader

News Reader wrote:

Reply to
News Reader

OK Thanks, I have 4 lan ports on the back of the router and a dsl port with a different type of connector. Guy I bought the router from said just use lan 1. Assuming (correct me if i'm wrong) the dsl port is what you call the wan port, what cabling do i need? I don't want to break the isp provided lan cat5 lead that originally plugged straight into the lan port on my pc

btw, i did not get a manula with the router, i bought it second hand. I have downloaded both uk and spanish manuals from e-tech website, but they are only 2 pages long and don't really help

Many thanks,

nam-kha

Reply to
nam-kha

That changes everything. Thanks for including the relevant information in your two posts.

I assumed (incorrectly) that your WAN port was an Ethernet interface, as most routers used in residential settings are configured that way.

The ISP equipment you have described has an Ethernet interface; the router's WAN interface is not Ethernet, therefore they are not compatible.

The guy who sold the router to you must have known the router did not meet your needs if he advised you to "just use lan 1". This person is apparently not your friend, as they have taken advantage of you.

To utilize the functionality of a router, traffic must pass through it (i.e.: your devices on the LAN side, the ISPs devices on the WAN side). My earlier post explained why you can not access the management interface from your host.

Right now you have the equivalent functionality of a wireless Access Point with the exception that you can't even effectively manage it.

Ideally you would return the router to the non-friend, get your money back, and buy another wireless router.

If that can not be done, consider the following two options:

Option A: Buy another wireless router with the appropriate WAN interface. Sell the existing router to someone who actually needs a router with a DSL WAN interface.

Option B: Buy a "non-wireless" router with the appropriate WAN interface. Attach the existing wireless router to it (LAN port of one device to LAN port of the other) using a "cross-over" Ethernet cable. The wireless router will provide the wireless connectivity. The non-wireless router would provide the security. In order for this to work you would need the LAN IP addresses of the two routers to be on the same network (e.g.: 192.168.1.0). HOWEVER, the two IP addresses must NOT be the same (e.g.: 192.168.1.1, 192.168.1.2). You would then be able to manage both devices from your host.

If you pursued option B, you would want to configure the two routers to have different IP addresses PRIOR to connecting the two routers together as described above. If they were connected together and had the same IP address, you would not succeed in configuring them.

Option A would be simpler, and easier for you to implement based on your skill set.

See if you can return the router to the non-friend. If that fails, I suggest you pursue Option A.

It's unfortunate that the manufacturer is not committed to providing adequate documentation. Typically, I would avoid buying products from such manufactures. If they can't meet their obligations, I can't be bothered buying their product (not even second hand).

Best Regards, News Reader

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.co.uk wrote:

Reply to
News Reader

Considering all the wrong things he told you about the unamed used thing he sold you, I'm not surprized it doesn't work... Does it have a name? Were the guy that sold it to you's lips moving when he talked? if so he wa probably lying... maybe he's training to be a politican? :)

Does your unamed box have a reset button? can you even reset it back to normal and get rid of any mistakes? If it has one, try holding it down for

30 to 60 seconds...... If you don't have an ethernet cable port for wan input, then you have a boat anchor.. buy a boat...... :)
Reply to
Peter Pan

An additional thought:

I provided Option B mostly for educational value.

I know I could get it to work, but there are additional considerations I didn't mention, such as disabling the DHCP server in the wireless router.

Overall, I think option B would have many challenges for you.

Best Regards, News Reader

News Reader wrote:

Reply to
News Reader

He mentioned that it was an e-tech adwg02.

I can't find an adwg02 model.

Once the model is found, he can download the instructions (apparently in a variey of languages).

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

I get the impression that you don't actually need routing, you simply want an AP for your internet connection and don't need to connect more than one pc to it.

It seems that your existing router could work as an AP still, you just want to set the security.

I'm not sure, but try this:

1) disconnect router from the internet and reset the router. Find the little pinhole in the back or wherever and push in for a few seconds while plugged in.

2) plug your laptop by ethernet cable into the router. It should now assign you an address as DHCP should default to on.

3) Find the wireless security settings and adjust.

4) Disconnect the cable and try connecting via wireless to the router, using your new security key. If all goes well....

5) plug the internet cable back into your LAN and try it now.

6) if there are problems, unplug the internet and plug in your pc. Go into the interface of the router and disable DHCP

7) try again

Good idea to restart router between changes and different connections.

Reply to
seaweedsl

What he has is an ADSL Wireless Gateway so using it as an AP means he has no NAT, no firewall and will be restricted to a single user. The manual on the website is pretty poor though one of the others might have info to set it up. Basically he has the wrong item.

Reply to
LR

there's a lot of different information being shared on both sides... Back to basics... forget the router/AP for a minute

you currently have a WiFi antenna on the roof, and an Ethernet cable to your computer. What basic IP addresses are assigned - just the 1st couple of digits are good... Is your computer setup for dynamic/DHCP or static assigned ? What are the IP, Gateway, DNS, etc

ok - now the router/AP - you just want to use it as a local WiFi access point so you don't need to be tied to the Ethernet cable from the roof - right ? Therefore - the "device" will merely be used as an "access point".

Changes - ok - you said everything was working OK, true ? - was the access point working locally ? or not yet ? and then you started messing with it...

If you turned off DHCP in the router, then you should be getting your DHCP address from the W-ISP... ? that's why we wanted to see what your W-ISP assigned IP. If you also turned on "security" in the router, then your computer has to match whatever "key" you created. What kind of "security" did you turn on in the router ? Lastly - if the IP address segment from the W-ISP is not the same as your local 192.168.xx segment then you will never be able to browse the router admin page unless you are hard wired and using a static IP address within the 192.168.xx segment.

SO - where do we currently stand ?

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.co.uk wrote:

Reply to
P.Schuman

This last part appears to be the issue. He turned off DHCP on the router and probably has his pc on automatic. The AP is (correctly) acting as a switch only and the PC gets it's IP address assigned by the WISP router through their installed client adapter.

PC-)-)-)-) AP/Switch ---> Client Adapter -)-)-)-)-)WISP Router

The problem is that the administration address (LAN address) of the router is likely set for a different subnet than what the WISP's router is handing out to the PC. No big deal. I see various ways to get around it:

1)Temporarily assign an IP to PC in router subnet to access router...OR.... 2) Turn on DHCP temporarily (I suggested reset above) and then disconnect from internet, allowing you to get addy in router's subnet ....OR.... 3) Perhaps best of all, now that I think of it, is to use the ipconfig/ all command note the address given by wisp to PC as well as the gateway. Then by method 1 or 2 above, go into router's administration and change it's a LAN address to something within the WISP subnet, but hopefully out of it's DHCP range. Now he can go in (by cable preferably) and tweak the "router" all he wants using the automatically assigned IP address from the WISP.

I guess the problem with number 3 is knowing what's out of the WISP router's DHCP range.

Cheers, Steve

Reply to
seaweedsl

Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.