Setting up network

  • Thread starter Thread starter pdenny
  • Start date Start date
P

pdenny

Through the years I have acquired a variety of equipment which was working
just fine until I added a new laptop running Vista64. I have 5 computers in
my office, 3 in my living room and one in my child's room. They are all
wired except for my child's which is running 802.11ag. One of the computers
in the living is connected directly to the office where I have the other 5
computers. I have a 4-port wireless router and an 8-port standard router in
the office which tie in to my satellite ISP. I have another 4-port wireless
router in my living room that has my 2 laptops connected to it and this
router is connected to the wireless router in the office. The 5 computers in
the office, the living room computer that is wired directly to the routers in
my office and the computer in my child's room all seem to be fine. I am
unable to see either of the laptops from any of these computers. Each laptop
sees only itself. I need to know what my best option is for tieing all of
these computers into one functional network. Is it possible to piggyback one
router to anotherand if so what is the best way to do so. I suspect it is
possibly as I have been doing it for years. I just don't know if it is the
smartest way to do it and if there are in particular pitfalls to it. If
anyone can help at all, I will be very grateful.
 
Through the years I have acquired a variety of equipment which was
working just fine until I added a new laptop running Vista64. I
have 5 computers in my office, 3 in my living room and one in my
child's room. They are all wired except for my child's which is
running 802.11ag. One of the computers in the living is connected
directly to the office where I have the other 5 computers. I have
a 4-port wireless router and an 8-port standard router in the
office which tie in to my satellite ISP. I have another 4-port
wireless router in my living room that has my 2 laptops connected
to it and this router is connected to the wireless router in the
office. The 5 computers in the office, the living room computer
that is wired directly to the routers in my office and the
computer in my child's room all seem to be fine. I am unable to
see either of the laptops from any of these computers. Each
laptop sees only itself. I need to know what my best option is
for tieing all of these computers into one functional network. Is
it possible to piggyback one router to anotherand if so what is
the best way to do so. I suspect it is possibly as I have been
doing it for years. I just don't know if it is the smartest way
to do it and if there are in particular pitfalls to it. If anyone
can help at all, I will be very grateful.
Click to expand...

You don't mention exactly how everything is wired but I assume that
the 8-port standard router is connected to your internet modem and
the other two wireless routers have their WAN ports connected to a
LAN port on the 8-port.

In order to have one network, you need to have only _one_ router
(which is the one connected to your internet modem). Your wireless
routers really need to be wireless "Access Points", or if wired, need
to be Switches. Fortunately, you can configure a Wireless Router to
be an Access Point and a Wired Router can be configured to act as a
Switch. To do this, there should be no connection to the WAN port on
these transformed routers.

Check this site for instructions on how configure a wireless router
as an access point:

"How do I use a Wireless Cable/DSL Router as a Switch with an Access
Point (or a Wired Router as a passive Switch)?"
<http://www.ezlan.net/router_AP.html>

HTH,
John
 
Back
Top