[SOLVED] Network Printer behind 2nd router.

[BrookrA]

Hello Network Gurus,

Here is my setup and my issue.

RouterA/Service Provider(Bell all-in-one router/cable modem)
- MacBook connected via wireless

RouterB/Connected to RouterA (vA ethernet CABLE from LAN rA to WAN rB)

• PC connected via LAN rB
• Network Printer connected via LAN rB

Notes: Everything works fine with PC (printing and internet), but MacBook can not see Network printer connected to rB.

• I want to keep PC and network printer to be connected to rB via ethernet cable.
• I want MacBook to be able to print wirelessly to printer using rA wireless network

Solutions?
- I can change MacBook to rB wireless network, but don't really want to. Is there a config setting I am missing in rB to allow
the MacBook to see the network printer behind rA?
-I have access to change the settings in rB, but not rA (Bell router/cable modem all-in-one).

Many thanks for any help.
B

 

[kanewolf]

Hello Network Gurus,

Here is my setup and my issue.

RouterA/Service Provider(Bell all-in-one router/cable modem)
- MacBook connected via wireless

RouterB/Connected to RouterA (vA ethernet CABLE from LAN rA to WAN rB)

• PC connected via LAN rB
• Network Printer connected via LAN rB

Notes: Everything works fine with PC (printing and internet), but MacBook can not see Network printer connected to rB.

• I want to keep PC and network printer to be connected to rB via ethernet cable.
• I want MacBook to be able to print wirelessly to printer using rA wireless network

Solutions?
- I can change MacBook to rB wireless network, but don't really want to. Is there a config setting I am missing in rB to allow
the MacBook to see the network printer behind rA?
-I have access to change the settings in rB, but not rA (Bell router/cable modem all-in-one).

Many thanks for any help.
B

Does network B have to be isolated from A? If not, then you move the connection on router B to a LAN port and turn off the DHCP server on router B.
Then all devices will be visible to each other. You can still use the WIFI on router B.

 

[BrookrA]

Network B does not have to be isolated from network A. I tried this and moved WAN connection from router A to LAN port on router B.
- I then lost internet and printer function for the PC connected to router B.

Notes: in the Network settings of router B, I turned off DHCP, hit save, and let it reboot. My instructions also said to change the IP of router B from default 192.168.0.1 to something like
192.168.0.XX. ..so I don't need to change the router B IP address?

 

[gggplaya]

You need to make the static IP address of Router B within the subnet of Router A, but outside the DHCP range.

For Example:
Router A is 192.168.1.1
DHCP Range is set to 200, so it's 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.200.
Router B should be set to 192.168.1.201 and Gateway of router B should be set to 192.168.1.1(RouterA).

 

[SamirD]

Network B does not have to be isolated from network A. I tried this and moved WAN connection from router A to LAN port on router B.
- I then lost internet and printer function for the PC connected to router B.

Notes: in the Network settings of router B, I turned off DHCP, hit save, and let it reboot. My instructions also said to change the IP of router B from default 192.168.0.1 to something like
192.168.0.XX. ..so I don't need to change the router B IP address?

You did it wrong. 😀

Basically you need to set router B's IP address to something that router A shouldn't be messing with. If router A is 192.168.0.1 then I will make router B something like 192.168.10.1 so it's on a completely different network. It's a pain to access it as you need to manually set a system to 192.168.10.2 to connect to 192.168.10.1, but otherwise it remains invisible to router A and will allow everything to work seamlessly.

The concept here is that a router also contains a switch and an access point and you basically want to use only the switch and access point and disregard the router part of it. You can join a switch and access point to any network to extend that network, so router B will do just that when only the switch and access point parts of it are being used (hence why we do not use the wan port).

 

[BrookrA]

Understood. I will report back when IP changes are mode in router B. Also to be clear, I need to be sure to turn off DHCP in router B, correct?
Many thanks!

 

[SamirD]

Understood. I will report back when IP changes are mode in router B. Also to be clear, I need to be sure to turn off DHCP in router B, correct?
Many thanks!

Sounds good. Yep, be sure the dhcp server is turned off. If you have 2x dhcp servers on the same network it can break your network like it did previously.