**The Ultimate Modem/Router Setup Thread**

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So I am finally moved in, have internet connected and have set up the network. I currently have my E4200 recieving the WAN signal in the basement. It has a LAN connection to my desktop and it is also transmitting a WLAN signal to the E3000 and the WRT54GS routers. They are both set up as wireless repeater bridges using dd-wrt firmware. The E3000 is connected to my HTPC and the TV, network receiver, and PS3 in the basement. The WRT54GS is wired to the TV and BluRay players upstairs.

I am now trying to figure out the best way to utilize a central storage device:
The E4200 (or E3000) could have an external HDD via USB 2.0.
I could also use an old desktop with a couple of HDDs configured in RAID or just simply for storage of network data that would run all the time. But then would I need to buy server software?
The next option would be a NAS and HDDs (this would be the most expensive as I don't have any of that equiptment around). I assume most retail NAS units come with decent software?
Also, the desktop could have an external USB 3.0 HDD but then it would have to WOL for other network devices to access data.

Any advice on the best, easiest, and cheapest options?
 


Mass apologies, something was wrong with my email, usually I get an email when someone replies to my thread, so something must have gone wrong.

Anyways, to your question. This is the setup I have.

I have smart wiring so it makes everything SO much easier.
Net gear DG834Gv5 handles to the connection to my ISP and PPPoE configuration. The Netgear acts as a 'dumb modem' and bridges the connection to the E3000. The E3000 handles port forwarding, fire walling, security, DHCP and every other router function. I have a Cat5e cable running into a port in the wall that goes straight to my room upstairs (1Gbit) and another straight to my dads PC, everything else in the house is connected wirelessly.

I have 3 external hard drives connected to my PC and shared across the network. These hard drives are pretty much on all the time, and are 2TB, 2TB and 1.5TB and connected VIA USB 3.0. With this setup, the hard drives can utilize their power saving function, which spins the hd down when not in use for a few minutes.

Although, I leave my PC on 24/7 pretty much, so it's not all that good for my PC. Now with your suggested idea, mounting the hard drive VIA the E3000, You will be limited the maximum speed of USB 2.0 which is 480Mbps (60MB/s) compared to having it wired VIA USB 3.0 and your PC(USB 3.0 is 5Gbps) and bottlenecked by Ethernet( 1Gbps).

So the benefit of connecting it VIA your PC is you'll get pretty much twice the bandwidth capabilities. Sharing will be easier, especially streaming to other devices with on the fly streaming.

Now if your doing on-the-fly streaming with Tversity for example, you obviously need Tversity on your PC. Now if you had the hard drives connected directly to your PC, well everything would be easy as.

But instead of mourning USB, or leaving your PC on, if you have the cash, purchase a NAS, preferably a Non-Raid NAS, so its just like an external hard drive enclosure.

Yeh, I just rambled on about connecting VIA USB or your PC, and then realized about a NAS. A NAS would be a perfect option, if you can afford it.

Anyways, I hope that helps, just jump on http://pccasegear.com to grab your NAS. And yeh, let me know how it goes.
 
Will the Triple Router Y-Configuration work if you start with a modem and wired router that are separate units. Such as a Motorola cable surf modem to a 4-port broadband ethernet router, then out to the two wireless routers?
 
Hi Axxeon,

Just wondering if you know how to enable sharing resources between 2 router (each connected to internet) ?
Router 1 with 192.168.0.x
Router 2 with 192.168.1.x

I want to share printers, network faxs between 2 network but I don't want mess the internet traffic. so users on 1.x only use WAN 1 and cannot use WAN 2.

Thanks
 
I got my first one up and running this weekend. I went with a Y-configuration. The biggest issue I had was setting the right Static IP information on the master and the slaves. I'm a noob.

(Also, remembering to reconnect cables carrectly as I worked on things, sheesh!)

(And, not using the darn Cisco-Linksys software for the modems. Much easier to do from web interface, without ever touching the software. Obviously, you can do a lot of the configuration in using their software.)

I'll try to map it all out in a decent graphic and post it.
 


Ok, you want to have the netoworks completely separate yes? So to have a printer and stuff, your gonan need to run a Y-configuration with 3 routers, A Master to 2 slaves, and have your printer setup on the master, or have a computer connected to the master with the printer shared. That way you can sahre the printer accross the network but your retain the security between the two subnets.

Thanks,
Axxeon
 
Hi! First of, YOU'RE 17???? Holy crap you're good..
Second, my problem. I currently have a modem connected to a Netgear 3500 (router 1) running it's own SSID in the basement. A wire running from router 1 to a second one one the main floor configured with a different SSID (Netgear WGR614v8, router 2). The 2 SSIDs are working fine, i can connect to both and get internet on all my devices (wireless), the problem comes when I need to extend the range of the second router. I don't know how to set it up! I've tried many guides and it's getting very frustrating! I would really appreciate if you could help me! I want to extend the second router's range by connecting a Linksys wrt54gs v2 to it.
Here is what I have:

Router 1 (working):
Internet IP Address: Get Dynamically From ISP
Domain Name Server (DNS) Address: Get Automatically From ISP

LAN TCP/IP Setup
IP Address : 192.168.1.99
IP Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
RIP Direction: Both

Router 2 (working):
Internet IP Address: Get Dynamically From ISP
Domain Name Server (DNS) Address: Get Automatically From ISP


LAN TCP/IP Setup
IP Address : 192.168.2.1
IP Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Use Router as DHCP Server (yes)
Starting IP Address: 192.168.2.3
Ending IP Address: 192.168.2.254

Router 3 (NOT WORKING):

LAN TCP/IP Setup
IP Address : 192.168.2.2
IP Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
 
Hey there,

Yes I'm 17 and Thanks!!!

OK so what I think you should do is, chuck DD-WRT on the WRT-54GS, you'll find it on here

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices#Cisco_Linksys_.28Wireless_a.2Fb.2Fg.29

check the back of your router for the version number and you'll find it on that link.

Once that's done, there should be a section on your second routers configuration page, something like Router Repeating or WDS, now you would set that to your 3rd router's MAC address(on the back of the router) and then I'm pretty sure that's pretty much it.

Your 3rd router should now be receiving a repeated wireless signal. If it is not, you may also need to configure the 3rd router to receive a repeated signal from the 2nd router, so just chuck in the second routers MAC address and that should be it.

Hopefully it should work, let me know how it goes.

Thanks,
Axxeon
 
Ok so, once you've done what I outlined in the previous post, turn DHCP off on the 3rd router and you should be set to go I think, If that doesn't work, let me know ok.

Thanks,
Axxeon
 
Hey man! thank you for your reply!
I have tried that before and i'm afraid that won't work as the netgear router that i have (WGR614 v8) does not support WDS (the second router..) even with dd-wrt. So what I decided to do is just run a cable all the way to the other side of the house and connect router 2 with the linksys (router 3). I already purchased the 75ft cable.

Again, Router 2 is setup like this:

LAN TCP/IP Setup
IP Address : 192.168.2.1
IP Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Use Router as DHCP Server (yes)
Starting IP Address: 192.168.2.3
Ending IP Address: 192.168.2.254

And the linksys (router 3) is set up like this:

Local IP Address : 192.168.2.2 -----------> One increment higher that the second router!
IP Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
and has DHCP disabled.

Once I hit apply on the settings of the linksys, I cannot longer access it. I have to reset it for it to load on 192.168.1.1 again.
I don't understand why this happens..

I have connected the cable from LAN-LAN, no results!

should I change the DNS of the third router to the IP of the second one?

Thanks again man!!
 
Thanks! it works!! I just had to do that DNS thing.
I did however had to put a different SSID for the third router because I thought it wouldn't work if the names were the same but with different IPs..
Again, thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction!!
 
Hey you seem to know what you are talking about so I'll ask my question here.
I recently moved into a new house that has ethernet cables that come out of the wall in several rooms. My cable modem is downstairs and I need the upstairs ethernet ports to work for my desktop. I have tried connecting my cable modem to the etherner cable downstairs and my computer to another ethernet cable upstairs but that did nothing. I have also tried going from my modem>router>ethernet>computer and that still did nothing. I have tried connecting computers to multiple cables and setting up a network but the computers say a network cable is unplugged.
Do you have any ideas of how I can get the ethernet cables to work throughout the house so I just plug them into computers and have internet?
 
Hi Axxeon,

I am hoping you can help me out with the following problem.
I have two draytek's 2820 at different locations which are connected threw a VPN connection. This connection is up and running! Now I want to install another router behind one of the draytek routers. Offcourse you can try solving this by installing it in an configuration you mentioned above (CASCADING A ROUTER (Same subnet)).

The second router has some options like VOIP which needs the router to have a WAN IP adres which can be achieved by connecting it as a router as aposed to a switch.

I configured the routers as followed:

Draytek 2820
WAN ip: from ISP
LAN ip: 192.168.2.1
DHCP on, 192.168.2.4~200
UTP cable from lan port to wan port of Thompson router

Thompson router (with Wifi & fxo port for voip)
WAN IP: 192.168.2.2
LAN IP: 192.168.2.3
DHCP on, 192.168.2.201~255
DNS: 192.168.2.1

What configuration should I use so that the Thompson router (the second one) would get a WAN IP from the DHCP from the Draytek?

Thanks 🙂
 
Change the DHCP range of the router(Master) from 192.168.1.2-254, to 192.169.1.3-254, so the address range is one increment above the Slave routers IP address.
Click to expand...

My router wont let me change the range of this on the Master Router.
 
Axxeon,

Thanks for this post--it has been immensely useful to me.

I'm having a problem that I hope you might have an idea how to solve.

I previously set up a second router (Linksys WRT54GL v1.1) as a slave precisely the way you suggested. All was working well for months, then my primary router (Verizon FIOS) died. I just replaced the FIOS router and my network is all working fine except I am unable to access the set up menu on my Linksys router to reconfigure it. I have tried everything I can think of. I have done a hard reset of the device, plugged it into multiple computers (LAN port to LAN port), but I can't access the configuration screen. I read the suggestion that I plug it in and then run ipconfig in a cmd line to make sure I am using the correct default gateway, but when I did this, I didn't get a default gateway shown. I am wondering now if somehow the Linksys router is dead as well. I know the wired connection from the FIOS router to the Linksys router is working because I can connect the computer directly to the FIOS router and get a network connection.

Any ideas would be appreciated!

Thanks.
 



I'm good. Determined that my slave router was damaged--must have had some sort of spike or something that damaged both. Bought a new router and all is working perfectly.

Thamks again for this thread.
 
axxeon i need help with a temporary lan connection i need to setup for multiplayer gaming.... i need to connect a minimum of 10 pcs via lan but all i have is a 8-port switch and a dsl-2460t it has router capabilites i think so can i interconnect the two via ethernet and bridge them ??? or what should i do

thanks in advance
-DESPERATE need to have it up by saturday BTW im a noob st networking pls use common language.... idk all the abbrivetions
 
Running a Triple Router Y-Configuration pretty much covers the setup I am using, except we have 5 subnets fed from one gateway router/modem. I know just enough to cause a real mess, so I would appreciate your help.

I am right to assume that if we want to share a printer between two of the 5 subnets, I would insert another router that Y-configures them downstream from the gateway? IE, what you describe

[fixed]
Gateway 192.168.0.1
|
| Printers on 0.(x) shared with all
|
____________________________________________________
Routers | | | | |
IP 0.10 0.20 00.30 0.40 0.100
| | | | |
Subnet 10.1 20.1 30.1 40.1 100.1


To share printers between 40 and 100, would it look like:

Gateway 192.168.0.1
|
____________________________________________________
Routers | | | |
IP 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.2
| | | |
subnet 10.1 20.1 30.1 140.1
| Printers on 140.(x)
| shared with 40.x
| and 100.x
_________________
| |
Lan 140.40 140.100
| |
subnet 40.1 100.1

[/fixed]
Q: How do I put on computer on the shared subnets so that it can use fileserver and printers on both subnets?

Q: We have been talking about ethernet connected devices: How would I share a USB printer between subnets?

Would this be easier with programmable switches rather than SOHO gateway routers?

Thanks for your help

Manfred
 
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