Home Wireless Network

[bobsyouruncle]

Where I live there is Virgin Cable coming into the property, and then there is a router which splits this between 3 flats and I connect with an ethernet cable. I want to use wireless though and have a D-Link DSL-2640B.

Now when i plugged the ethernet cable into the back, I can connect wirelessly but after a while the connection drops and i have to reboot it. I have been looking at the settings and was reading that i might have to disable DHCP and use a static IP, but apparently if you do this only one device can connect at a time.

Anybody have any idea how to set this up, my trial and error approach doesnt seem to be working

[suityou01]

Where I live there is Virgin Cable coming into the property, and then there is a router which splits this between 3 flats and I connect with an ethernet cable. I want to use wireless though and have a D-Link DSL-2640B.

Now when i plugged the ethernet cable into the back, I can connect wirelessly but after a while the connection drops and i have to reboot it. I have been looking at the settings and was reading that i might have to disable DHCP and use a static IP, but apparently if you do this only one device can connect at a time.

Anybody have any idea how to set this up, my trial and error approach doesnt seem to be working

DHCP vs static does not limit the number of machines you can connect.
DHCP provides one less deterrent to would be intruders mind. But it does make adding wireless devices easier.

If the signal is dropping it could be that the unit needs patching. These devices usually have an admin site built into them

Enter 192.168.1.1 in the browser address bar and there you are. See if there is a firmware update facility. If there is then download the firmare update for the unit. This usually smooths all issues.

The only other thing I can suggest is downloading a copy of InSSIDer and seeing if there are any competing wireless networks nearby. Move your channel (again through the admin interface) as far away from the competing networks as possible.

Also I think white goods create interfence so if a kitchen seperates you and the router try moving nearer the router to see if this improves things.

[bobsyouruncle]

thanks - updated the firmware, at first i thought I had completely broken it until I realised I hadn't plugged the cable in

I still only seem to be able to connect using one device, i forgot to say i have a Mac so cant use inSIDDer, I can connect ok with the Mac, although am yet to see if it lasts. Can connect to the wireless router on my phone but no internet.

By the way the setup is as below so if I enter 192.168.1.1 whilst connected to the internet I see router A (which isnt mine so i cant configure it), i can only configure my wireless router (B) if it is not connected to A.

Virgin Cable Modem --> router A --> wireless router B

[bobsyouruncle]

well its started working now - lets hope it lasts

[NickFitz]

By the way the setup is as below so if I enter 192.168.1.1 whilst connected to the internet I see router A (which isnt mine so i cant configure it), i can only configure my wireless router (B) if it is not connected to A.

Virgin Cable Modem --> router A --> wireless router B

You can shift your wireless router to a different IP range: anything between 192.168.1.x and 192.168.254.x will do.

Assuming you chose the 192.168.2.x range, your router should have some configuration option - on my Netgear it's in the advanced setting under "LAN IP Setup". On your equivalent to that page set the IP address of the router to 192.168.2.1 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, and configure DHCP to allocate addresses from 192.168.2.2 up to 192.168.2.254. That should sort out any conflicts between the two routers and at least let you see your router's status when it's connected to the Virgin Media router.

UPDATE: here's the manual for your router (PDF) - the settings I mention are described on page 32.

Oh, and make these changes while connected to your router by ethernet, not wirelessly, as it might drop the connection on changing the settings, and your wireless adapter could get confused and not find it in its new guise.

[bobsyouruncle]

thanks Nick - makes perfect sense now

[stek]

If ur using two routers you might run into double-NAT issues, I think what you need between the wireless clients and the ethernet router is a bridge.

[bobsyouruncle]

If ur using two routers you might run into double-NAT issues, I think what you need between the wireless clients and the ethernet router is a bridge.

Yep that seemed to be the problem, have changed the wireless router to bridged and its working perfectly now - cheers