Smart DNS on an Access Point

[doriefish]

Hello! I am a newbie to posting on a forum, I usually manage to fix up anything I need to but I am truly stuck

I live in France and wish to use a Smart DNS to access a UK netflix account on my Roku
I use orange as my ISP which provide a modem router (Livebox) and they don't allow you to configure the DNS

I already use another router (Netgear DG834G v3 ) as a wireless access point and that creates 2 wifi networks in the house.

Live box ip - 192.168.0.1 wifi1
DHCP range - 192.168.0.2-50

netgear ip - 192.168.0.51 wifi2
DHCP disabled

On the Netgear, I changed the DNS settings to those provided by the Smart DNS company, and also changed the static ip routing of google DNS (8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4)

The netgear router is disabled as a DHCP server. The smart dns company tell me this needs to be switched on, and I get that as the roku is connected to wifi2 so it needs to be assigned an ip from the netgear router, not the livebox.

But when I enable DHCP on the netgear router it all blows up. Well not quite the netgear router loses internet connection

I also tried putting the netgear router on a different ip range of 192.168.1.x but again, lose internet

I am wondering if I can ditch the livebox and replace it with a router where I can change the DNS settings (not sure if Orange would allow it) but before I experiment, I wondered if anyone has a suggestion or can confirm if I just can't do what I want with my set up.

I hope I have included all the info
Dorie Fish

 

[bill001g]

Although it seems strange to people the main internet router does not have to be the DHCP server it can be any device.

So your best option is to disable the DHCP in the livebox. You can then run DHCP on another device. The key thing the DHCP would need to do is allow you to specify the gateway ip. Some routers will only allow you use the routers lan ip as the gateway and will not let you change it. If this is not a option on the netgear you will need a different device. You might be able to run a DHCP server on one of your PC. In anycase you would set the gateway to 192.168.0.1 and the dns to whatever you need in your example.

If you can put the livebox in bridge mode then you could replace it with the netgear but then you would also lose the wireless ability of the livebox.

Worst case what you can do is use the WAN port on the netgear and run it as a router. You would then assign a different subnet to the lan. You want to avoid this because of the double nat problems for devices behind the second router.

 

[doriefish]

Thank you for the reply! Ah I did try switching the DHCP capability around but I think I still had the two routers on different ranges when I did it so the default gateway would have been wrong, I will try that again

I started to look into a DHCP server on a PC, presume it would need to be running at all times to work? Although I do have a NAS so that might be able to do it...

The livebox does have a bridge mode option but things go crazy when you set it so I think the ISP have some control over that too. I have a wifi extender so I could use that to replace the netgear, and the netgear to replace the livebox....

 

[bill001g]

You only need the DHCP on boot. It does expire but on many DHCP servers you can set the time to permanent or to a really high value so it does not expire. It would then only need the DHCP server active when you reboot things. It has been a while since i ran one under windows client machines but there are free version that used to run under windows xp.

 

[doriefish]

So...I can't set a different gateway ID to the LAN id on the netgear:

Router Manual = "The assigned default gateway address is the LAN address of the router"

So either the WAN idea (do I run a cable from Livebox ethernet port to netgear dsl port for this scenario?)
or
Run a dhcp server on my NAS
or
try and replace the livebox with the netgear

Not sure at the moment!

 

[bill001g]

To get it running for a short time you could turn off the live box. Change the netgear to the same ip as the live box. Let it give out DHCP to the roku with the correct DNS. Then change the netgear back and turn the live box back on. The roku will keep the ip until it times out...you would have to look up the default time. It may take a bit to stabilize since the roku will have the wrong mac address for the gateway but it would likely let you run for a while...at least you could do this until you figure out what to do in the long term.

 

[doriefish]

So...I managed to connect the netgear as my primary router and the corrct DNS / gateway is set

But...I lose my VOIP phone and the TV. I thought the livebox would pick this up through the ethernet but it just fails. Wondered if it is possible for the DSL line coming in to be split to 2 routers? Turn the wifi off the livebox and just use it for TV and phone

Otherwise, the WAN plan is next, thanks for all your input

 

[doriefish]

Just to finish this thread...

I ended up replacing the router with a netgear wnr2000 and setting up a wan. It works perfectly

 

[Trina13]

To doriefish...
I have exactly the same problem as you. Did you keep your livebox or replace with the wnr2000? could you tell me in simple steps how to do it please?

 

[doriefish]

Hi Trina

It was quite simple. I have the livebox and the netgear router running. I have them both broadcasting wifi and connect to the netgear wifi when I want to use the DNS but you can also stop the livebox broadcasting so you only have one and always use the custom DNS settings

Steps:

1. Have the livebox running and connected to the internet
2. Plug in a network cable to INTERNET port of new router and to one of the livebox ports (usually 4 of them)
3. Connect laptop to new router in port 1,2,3 or 4
4. Access new router on the webpage and run the wizard. The IP of the router needs to be a different range to the livebox so 10.0.0.1, or 192.168.2.1
5. Change DNS on new router from Automatic, to DNS from smartdns provider

Then... it worked! See how you go, I can send my settings if you get stuck