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JackFlag for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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Using 2 routers - connecting together

Dear experts,

I have a cable modem | Linksys BEFSR41 4-Port Cable Router | Belkin 7230 4-Port & Wireless Cable Router.

I use Xlink to play with my Playstation 2 online - however this only works through the Linksys router (I have tried everything to make the Belkin work)

Problem is, the linksys is not wireless. I have three wireless PCs I would like to connect.

I would like to basically have my modem connect to the WAN port of the Linksys, my playstation will connect to port 1. Then I want to connect my belkin wireless router from its own WAN port to the Uplink port on the linksys so that I can have wireless internet access throughout the house.

I tried to do this but something was not right - I do not want DHCP enabled.

Does anyone have any ideas about this or even better a walk through of how to set all this up, i would be very grateful

The belkin wireless router can work as an access point if need be - I got a feeling I am not plugging cables in the right places.

Thanks
Jack
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plug the cable into the uplink on the linksys and port 1 on the belkin.  with the cable in the wan port, its trying to negotiate a wan connection.  the belkin would need to be in wireless bridge mode.
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You should be able to change some setting on the Belkin to basically turn it into a hub/switch instead of a router.  Turn off DHCP and NAT, and plus your connection in one of the non WAN ports.  Use the wireless if you need it, otherwise turn it off.  This should allow DHCP request to be passed though it from your Linksys router.
In your Belkin you should be able to set the WAN connection to static IP (sorry I'm french and don't know how to translate "IP fixe").  The cable should go from the Belkin's Wan port to a standard port on the Linksys.
I suggest you search through the configs of the Belkin and tell the belkin to be an Access point and not a router.  Connect one of Belkin's LAN ports to the uplink on BEFSR41

I think that the belkins have this setting, i could be wrong about your model.  One of my clients has the PRE-N one and that does have this feature.
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Hi, thanks for the responce.

There seem to be a few options, some are conflicting others though, I think I will try odoet/sirbounty's solution first.

My belkin router has the options for wireless bridge mode and to be used as an access point - my understanding of exactly how these work is not great though.

As standard, the belkin has an IP of 192.168.2.x and the Linksys is 192.168.1.x ----> Should I make them both on the same numbering ie, Linksys IP should be 192.168.1.1 and the belkin: 192.168.1.2 ?

Thanks
Jack
Hi Jack - it's conflicting advice, cause it should theoretically work 'both' ways...

I have dual Linksys devices, set up both ways at one time or another.

If you're turning the belkin into a switch, set it's address to be on the same network (if Linksys would allow you to use 255.255.0.0, this wouldn't even be an issue - presumably your model doesn't allow you either) - thus 192.168.1.2 should work (or technically anywhere between 1 and the upper boundary where your linksys starts leasing addresses - default is .100).
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OK, so, setting my belkin wireless as 192.168.1.2 and switching off its DHCP - does this automatically make it a switch or do I need to find the settings in the config pages?

Cheers

p.s - not sure if my linksys will allow to use 255.255.0.0, will check when home
it automatically makes it a switch by plugging it into one of the "lan" ports (instead of the wan port)...
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cool, I will let you know results tonight :)
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Hi all, I did the above - i.e Cable modem - WAN of Linksys then LAN of Linksys to LAN of Belkin

All is working fine - the linksys is passing out the IPs correctly which is great.

I left NAT enabled on the belkin - I got a feeling that that way the hardware firewall is up, probably wrong though.

another reason I left NAT on is that turning it off took away all the option on the left hand column of the config pages and defualted it to 192.168.2.254 - my network now runs on 192.168.1.x

Lastly in my network connections page, there is an icon called "Internet Connection" and it is currently disabled - the internet works fine - whay is this there,

Thanks again
Jack
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Hi, thanks, the internet browsing/email is fine it seems, my VPN went straight in.

BUT

I have just had a thought, port forwarding for some applications - I guess I may need to switch off NAT afterall, guess I cant port forward from the linksys to the belkin then from the belkin to my local IP?

As I mentioned above, when I switch off NAT the belkins IP address changes to 192.168.2.254

do I just need to try and change this to 192.168.1.2 as it is now?
>do I just need to try and change this to 192.168.1.2 as it is now?
that would be the ultimate configuration for your situation.  i am unsure however if this is possible with the belkin.

can i ask what you need port forwarding for?
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apps like VNC or pcAnywhere may need it in my experience.

can I do as I described in my previous post? Also, if I disable NAT will my hardware router firewall still be active?

I will have a look at the belkin setup and see how I get on.
you want to disable the nat and firewall functions of that belkin because your linksys is doing that function.  if you are using vnc from your wireless laptop and trying to get to a computer on another network, then you should have to forward any ports.  if you are trying to get to one of the computers inside, then you would need to setup the port forwarding.
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Cool, Ok, Yes, if I want to connect to my home PC from Work I would port forward to its local IP - Understood.

What i just did was change the linksys to 192.168.2.1 and the belkin with NAT disabled defauts to 192.168.2.254, so now everything is 192.168.2.x, DHCP is issuing IPs fine.

My main concern was that on the box and instructions for the linksys router there is not any real mention of a built in firewall, just some info about how the router can work with PC-Cillin etc

However I did a "Shields Up" test and it comes back that I am stealth and nothing untoward can get through, wierd. Even my XP SP2 firewall is off!

Last question, now that the belkin has NAT switched off - when it comes to port forwarding, need I ONLY forward them on the Linksys? no other steps?

Cheers
Jack





port forwarding should be done on the linksys only - you are correct.

your linksys is not a fully built firewall.  what it does is take the public ip.  to enable anything to be initiated from the outside, you have to configure your port forwarding.  otherwise it basically drops any incoming data that it doesnt have any record of initiating from the inside.
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may I say thanks for all the great help :)
your welcome.  glad you got it working. :)