linksys wireless router, 2 NICs, ICS, a hub, DHCP, and a cable modem

WHy are you bothering?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!?!??!??!??!??!????!??!??!??!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?

You have this picture in your head:

Hub <- PC w/2 NICs <- Internet
|
|------ Linksys wirelss router ...........any...wirless....PC.....
|
|--- wired PC



It should be:

Hub <- Linksys wireless router <- Internet
|             ...
|             ...
|             .........any....wireless....PC
|
|---Your old 2 NIC PC
|
|---Any other wired PC

If you do it like I described, everyting just happens "naturally."  You may not even need the hub, because most of the wireless SOHO routers have **several** LAN ports built in as well.

What do I mean by "naturaly?"

This is what the routers are built for.  They have a DHCP server to assign interbal addresses to any PC that reuqests one (you have to set the PCs to "automatically obtain an IP address," instead of using a static address). As the address is assigned automatically, the router also tells the PC that for any internet traffic, it shoudl send requsts to the router.  The router then forwards this traffic to the internet, much as your old 2-NIC PC used to.  At tispointy, since the 2-NICer doesn't need to perform that function anymore, it ust gets used as a regular PC (at least, as far as network trafic is concerned).

the above aplies to both wired and wireless PCs that connect to the router.  Usually, there is little to no configuration required, but your 2-NICer may need some tweaking. you were probably running ICS on it (which is Windows-acting-ust-like-the-Linksys).  It may siply be a metter of setting both NICs to automatically obtain an IP address, and removing any software your DSL/Canle company had you install.

i could go that way... but then there are more settings to get to know anyway, since I host a website as well, so I think it will take a few more settings to allow the web to access my pc.

The website obviously has it's ip address change every so often, so I have a process already in place which monitors the ip change of the outgoing nic, and notifies the forwarding site about it.

If that can be set up easier, I'm all for it, I just thought that plugging the router into my hub would actually be simpler to set up.

R

is it possible to do it the way I first mentioned though?

even though it may seem unnatural for the router?

I have gotten it to the point where it correctly dhcp's ips tot he wireless laptop, while conneted to my wired side.
But every 2 seconds the router resets itself, until it no longer provides a signal. So I can't test if it will work perfectly.
again, this is with the weird setting of having both the Uplink,a nd the WAN plugged into my hub.

R

the WAN is set to obtain IP automatically, which I suppose it should, from my pc, and the ICS taking care of dhcp on the wired side.

'course then it's like there are 2 dhcp servers on the network, but I don't see any errors in my event log about that...
Maybe the router only dhcps to the wireless side somehow?

Yes it is perfectly possible.  In a way.  Your router must be able to BRIDGE instead of being a gateway/router.  If you want to do what you sound like you want to do, go return your Linksys wireless ROUTER and go pick up a bridge.  It's exactly what you want.  =)

Some routers can enable bridge mode though.  I believe the microsoft one, and I know apple's wireless routers support both routing and bridging modes.

Or... you could setup your router to host a new private network, using your hub as it's internet connection.  This is basically the same default setup that almost all the routers/gateways come with when you first buy them.  It will host it's own DHCP server onto all LAN ports, and get it's internet from it's WAN ports (or uplink, depending on what your router calls it).  If you set it up like this though, your wired computers will not be able to talk to your wireless computers... (but your wireless computers will be able to talk to your wired computers in most cases)

Hope that helps!

 - I

thats helps, but If you could give me more detail on the exact hookups for you last suggestion, that would be great.

My router (linksys BEFW11S4) has an uplink and a WAN port along with other regular ports.

So which one goes to the hub? Both?

The WAN feeds the router the network I guess... but the hub isn't accessible to set up unless it's Uplink is connected to the HUB.

I have found some interesting suggestions on linksys's site... I will be trying those as well.

Thanks
R

Thats what I thought. Though when I turn off DHCP, my wireless laptop doesn't seem to get an IP from my server. Maybe the router has to be told to allow this to happen... ?

I may resort to using the router for all it's worth... But right now I would like to work it into my current set up.

My dynamic DNS is a little trick I made 5 years ago that is still running.
I have a batch file that runs every hour. It grabs the current IP address, and generates a forwarding web page. It then ftp's this forwarding webpage to a cheap free web hosting site. my domain is permently set up to forward to this free web hosting site, but users are immediately forwarded to my actual home computer website.

It's the settings in your step 2 that I would have to figure out rather then figuring out why the router is not letting my wireless laptop get an ip assigned.

Thanks
R

okay, it works now. It seems it just needed to have everything rebooted i guess.

if someone can give me the detailed version of steps 1,2 and 3 that qwaletee gave, then I will accept that as an answer for the alternate solution.

Thanks,
R

thanks for the detail. Yeah, I have a secure set of pages as well.

Thanks again guys,

R