Router problems. (1 Viewer)

[Unicron]

Sort of an odd problem here I think. We've got wireless broadband with the modem in the main office and a wireless router there connected up (via cable) to a couple of desktop machines and then a long stretch of CAT 5 running into a second building where there's another wireless router acting as a slave to the first one providing wifi to the second building, I used to be in that building and could connect no problem.

We've done a bit of redeveloping lately and I'm now based in another building in between those two, there's no wires into it but it's close enough to the two routers to see both of them (for whatever reason the router in the main office was renamed to something specific to us and the second router when it was installed was just left as "default"). If I log onto "default" it's a very weak signal and only have a slow, intermittent connection. If I use the first router I can connect to the network but don't have any internet connectivity unless one of the computers (now that I think of it the one I always use when trying to get it to work is the computer that configured the router, I don't know if that's significant) has a web browser open.

All machines are Windows of various ilks. Mine is Vista.

Thoughts?

 

[RayRay]

Try delete the wireless profile off the laptop and set it up again? Are the security settings on the router setup like a hotel where you have to authenticate via a browser?

Also i think you can get onto seeing the routers settings by putting in its IP via a browser (im not sure where to get this). Do this and make sure they are both the same, maybe?

Also see if you have the same problem with a iphone/smartphone???

 

[Theseus Mock]

I can't explain why the connection works when that wired machine has a web browser open but the fact you can see the internal lan and not the modem (internet) suggests there might be some same subnet conflicts happening between modem and one of the wireless routers.

 

[Unicron]

Thanks guys.

suggests there might be some same subnet conflicts happening between modem and one of the wireless routers.

Do you think that could be fixed by configuring the second router to have the same name as the first one? If it's just a slave then both should have the same IP yes?

Will try deleting the profile as Ray Ray suggested. No need to log on like a hotel and as we're out in the country with no one around we've left the network unsecured

This appears to be a problem unique to my laptop as my Android phone and other laptops owned by others (all running XP) can get on no problem. This was also an issue in the past prior to the move when I'd occasionally bring my laptop into the main office, out of range of the second router and still have issues connecting.

 

[Theseus Mock]

My networking expertise is very much domestic and not at all CCNP enterprise level but I imagine your setup should be something like:

Modem (192.168.1.1): serves out an IP 192.168.1.x to Router 1
Wifi Router 1 (192.168.2.1): takes 192.168.1.x IP from modem into the WAN port. Outputs 192.168.2.x to connected devices.
Wifi Router 2 (182.168.3.1): takes 192.168.2.x from Wifi router 1 into its WAN port and dishes out IPs of 192.168.3.x to connected devices.

(depending on your setup/how sophisticated those modem/routers there could be 10.0.0.1 private IPs involved instead of the home baby version of 192.168.1.1)

A workaround in the meantime would be RDP directly into that machine whose internet works fine.)