can't connect to new bridge with 192.168.1.1 as directions require

[axlrose]

I am trying to set up two new ENS202's in a bridge form to get wireless internet from my house out to my new detached garage. I have wireless throughout my house already. I have a range extender and a separate old router set up as an access point. I can access my router with 192.168.0.1 When I try to connect to my new bridge with 192.168.1.1, I don't connect. I am sure I have it set up according to the directions and I have tried directly into my pc and directly into my router. No luck.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[BFG-9000]

If your default gateway is 192.168.0.1, it has automatically assigned a DHCP address in the 192.168.0.x range to your network adapter, which then cannot see anything in 192.168.1.x

Under your PC's Local Area Connection Properties, set a fixed IPv4 address such as 192.168.1.10 and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. Then you should be able to access the web configuration page of one of the ENS202s (keep the other one unplugged). You'll want to change the IP address of one of them away from 192.168.1.1 so you can access them separately later when both are plugged in.

When you are done setting everything up, change the IPv4 back to Obtain an IP address automatically so you can use the internet again.

 

[axlrose]

That helps me get the big picture. I don't know why this process has been so difficult.

I was finally able to get into the ENS202's last night after doing that same thing that I had done over and over, but then clicking close on the windows that were opened on the way to making the static ip address. I spent an hour or more going through both devices and setting everything up, but in the end, they didn't see each other. There must have been a setting that I still had messed up. I couldn't work on it anymore after 3:30am because I was too tired. I came back on today to see if I could troubleshoot the last step and I'm back to not being able to access the bridges at all again even with the ipv4 setup the same way etc. I am going bonkers here...

 

[axlrose]

Still stuck. I can get to my router still, but I just can't get to the ENS202's again. It's got to be something I'm doing wrong with setting up the static address.

I wonder if your very last step was where I made my mistake last night in my sleepless stupor. I bet I actually got them both set up and then didn't turn wifi back on without the static address as normal.

 

[boosted1g]

First and foremost please tell me you are connecting the first one to the router via ethernet and not trying to go via wireless.
Router---(ethernet)---ENS202---(Wifi)---ENS202--(ethernet)---access point--(wifi)--devices will give you full speed
Router ---(Wifi)---ENS202 ---(Wifi)---ENS202--(wifi)--devices will give you 1/4 speed to SHARE among all devices in building 2.
The reason for this is each time a single radio acts as a repeater you cut the bandwidth in half because it is now playing a middle man. In the second configuration each ENS202 is acting as a repeater and thus each time it gets cut in half. So if you start with a solid 100mbps connection from the router to 1st ENS202, you end up with 25mbps shared by all devices in building 2.

Let me break down the difference between devices. Many commercial access points/bridges will easily swap between one function or the other.
Access Point: ethernet in---wifi and ethernet out
Bridge: wifi in----ethernet out (or ethernet and wifi out)
Repeater: wifi in----wifi out

All of these devices should be on the same subnet. So if primary router is 192.168.0.1 then these should also be at 192.168.0.x.
Go into primary router and make sure DHCP does not start until at least .10. If it does start at .2 then change it to go from .100-.254, reboot router and any device currently connected to it.
I would just go ahead and do a factory reset on the ENS202 devices. Then you will need to manually set your IP address on the computer you want to use to configure them, plug cable direct from PC to the device and then input the default IP and then set it up accordingly and change its IP to be .02 for 1st ENS202, .03 for 2nd ENS202, and .04 for the other router/access point in building 2.
So the 1st ENS202 under configuration 1 above will be an access point, then the 2nd ENS202 will be a wireless bridge.

 

[axlrose]

Okay. Back to playing around with these things again today. I will go back to trying to connect the directly to the pc. I have been trying both that and to the router.

E-mail from EnGenius said to set them both up as WDS Bridge to WDS Bridge.

 

[axlrose]

Okay. Reset button and connecting directly to pc seems to have FINALLY let me back into the device again. I am going to go back through the directions and see if I can follow them all again and then try to find a link between the two devices that I couldn't find before.

I'm not sure I completely follow you on the .01 and .1 settings on the router and the ens202's, but I'm going to try to watch for potential problems related to that as I set them up again.

 

[axlrose]

So access to my router should be
192.168.0.1

Here are the directions at the end of the setup for my ENS202's.

Sept 7: In “IP Settings” change the IP address to a new, unused, static IP address on the same subnet and also
enter the default gateway (example 192.168.1.5 if router is 192.168.1.1).

What should the number I use for this be?
- IP Address
- Default Gateway

 

[axlrose]

Okay. I'm still messing something up, but this is at least where I'm messing up. Hopefully you can clear up this IP Address and Default Gateway issue for me.

When I entered numbers that I thought were appropriate, I didn't get a chance to then verify through the 192.168.1.1 that the connection was up. I was immediately sent to a can't load page making me sure that one of my address or gateway I entered wrong. That would also explain why I couldn't get back into the devices without resetting them as well.

Problem identified, now I just need some more help to solve it.

Thanks for your patience.

 

[boosted1g]

Most networks have a subnet of 255.255.255.0. Without complicating things this bassically means that a device can only communicate with devices that have the first same 3 sets of numbers.

So 192.168.0.1 can only communicate with devices from 192.168.0.2-192.168.0.254 (each address is 8 bits and thus its maximum number is 255 but that is meant for broadcast, thus 254 being the real max).

So if you have your router at 192.168.0.1 and your EnGenuis on 192.168.1.1 then they will not be able to talk to one another.

DHCP is the service that provides addresses (otherwise you have to manually set the address at each and every device). This is great for clients (computers, phones, etc) but is bad for stationary networking equipment. Thus you want to manually assign addresses (this is called a static address) to the EnGenius that is within the subnet (so same first 3 sets of numbers) but outside of the DHCP range of your primary router. Thus on your primary router you should do as a I said earlier and set DHCP to .100 - .254 (and reboot all devices). Then sent Engenius 1 to have x.x.x.2 and Engenius 2 to have x.x.x.3 for address (the x's being the same first 3 numbers as your primary router.


WDS would tell to me that you are trying to go wifi from router to engenius, then wifi from engenius to engenius and then wifi again from enginues to building 2 devices. This is going to be very low performance and very buggy.
If you cant run a hardwired Ethernet cable then next best thing is powerline adapter from router to 1st engenuis device.

 

[BFG-9000]

As I suggested before, you have to set a fixed ip like 192.168.1.10 in order to see the ENS202's config pages. Connect them one at a time directly to the PC and once you are in, set them at 192.168.0.5 and 192.168.0.6. Then you can set the PC back to obtain IP address automatically, and connect the two ENS202 to your network. After that, you always access them from 192.168.0.5 and 192.168.0.6, not 192.168.1.1 and with no fixed ip required.

Default gateway is 192.168.0.1. Hope this helps!