Office Network Issue

Hi,

You will have to get the company that provide your leased network to put a route on their router to route traffic to the printer, or, set the wireless router up so that it uses the 192.168.128.x network and gives out addresses on that range.

M@

You should be able to connect a LAN port on the Wireless router to the office network, give it static IP address of (I think) 192.168.128.21 (as noted above) and then turn DHCP OFF on the wireless router. Now it should be an extension of the office network and people on wireless should see the printer.

... Thinkpads_User

My question is whether they limit the number of IP's you can use in the 192.168.128.x network.  If it's only 3 or 4, then you can't have wireless clients on the same subnet.  If it's more (ie. the entire subnet range), then configuring the router as a WAP would be the best approach.

If limited to a certain number of IP addresses; are there other resources on the 192.168.128.x network you must access or is it?  Is there inbound traffic routed to these devices?

Maybe easiest to use LAN ports on the router for the admin and finance PC's and network printer.  Everything would end up on the 192.168.1.x network and be routed twice (through the wireless router and then again through the router the virtual office has you connected to).

If you have a number of moving laptops, it might be easiest to get more office IP addresses if you can.

Otherwise, give the wireless network a different subnet and get a small wireless printer for the roaming folk. That will be quite simple to do.

.... Thinkpads_User

how do i make the wireless router perform like a switch, to grab IPs from 192.168.128

Hook it up LAN port to network as I described. Then go to the LAN settings of the wireless router and set the IP address to 192.168.128.21 (I think).

Before you start this, you need to check with the Landlord how many IP addresses you may use.

.... Thinkpads_User

sharepoint2013, you can try to disable DHCP on the router LAN side and set it to automatically acquire IP from the WAN side, failing that, manually configure the devices on the LAN side to have an IP of 192.168.128.x

Here's what I would suggest.

                                               WAN                  LAN 5-Ports
Wall-----------------------------------Wireless Router-----------------------------------------Clients
                                  192.168.128.18         192.168.1.1         DHCP 192.168.1.5 - 192.168.1.100

1. admin pc 192.168.1.101
2. finance pc 192.168.1.102
3. network printer 192.168.1.103

In this case, you are only using one of the IP's provided by the building.

Let me know if you have any questions.

I agree with the solution suggested by infamus.  Here is a diagram:

You might envision the host company's network as one of the upper routers and your router as one at the bottom of the cascade.

Seems half of these responses have all suggested the same thing, mine included.  Author needs to pick one and run with it.

@infamus i can't control the IP given by the network ports of the building i.e. its dhcp and it gets IPs of 192.168.128.x

Then you can set WAN port of the Wireless router to "DHCP" instead of static.

The whole idea is to provide access to your LAN resources.

Using the WAN port and DHCP on the WAN port puts you back to the start with an entirely different roaming network.  So you will, in the case, have to get another printer for the new subnet.

.... Thinkpads_User

Printer will be connected to the LAN port of the wireless router so it stays on the same subnet as moving(wireless) lapops and other devices.

Here is the diagram I mentioned above:

So, you plug the WAN port of your router into the wall with DHCP so it gets one of the addresses from the host company.  You get one IP address from them here.

Then, you plug everything else into the LAN side of your router with DHCP turned on.
Everything on *your* LAN gets IP addresses from your router.

Your computers should be able to see computers on the host subnet if they allow that.
They will certainly see the internet gateway and have internet access.
Multiple-Subnets.pdf

@fmarshall

I was wondering where the diagram was....  LOL

This is exactly what I was saying, except the "public/guest wifi" part.

Hi, from the information provided it seems your building provide you with IP addresses from 192.168.128.1 to 192.168.128.254
On your wireless router, you will need to set it's IP to 192.168.128.250, it's subnet to 255.255.255.0 and it's gateway to the gateway of the buildings router. Do an ipconfig on one of your PC's to find this out.
On your wireless router you will need to disable DHCP.
When wireless devices connect to the wireless router, the DHCP request will bypass the wireless router and obtain one from the building router on your network range.
You will then be able to access the devices on your network as required

I hope we can be clear on this:

Either, the "building" has given you a set of IP addresses to use but we don't know, from what you've said, how many there are.  
- one conjecture is that you have 192.168.128.18 through .20 and one more and they are all static with no DHCP service provided and you have to set the gateway and DNS server addresses manually for things plugged into those 4 ports.

OR
- another conjecture is that you get a small DHCP range but we don't know where it starts or ends.
- another conjecture is that you get a full 253 addresses via DHCP from the building (saving one for the DHCP server on their side), so you get maybe 192.168.128.2-192.168.128.254.  This is similar to what mattclarified alludes to I believe.

We just don't know because you haven't told us yet.  But that's OK.

If you have an adequate range of IP addresses provided from the "building" via DHCP then:
- you don't need a DHCP server on your side unless you want it.  But, if you do, then you need a NATting router WAN/LAN setup.
- your wireless router can be set up as a simple switch (see diagram here) with DHCP on the LAN side disabled.

If you don't have an adequate range of IP addresses provided from the "building" via DHCP or any other means then this means:
- set up a router on your side with NAT.
- set the router WAN up according to what they provide you (i.e. via DHCP or static)
(gateay and DNS too).
- set up the router LAN however you want as long as it's different from and doesn't include 192.168.128.0/24.
Wireless-Router-as-a-Simple-Swit.pdf

@sharepoint2013  - I assumed you only had 4 IP addresses. Please do clarify that.  

If you plug the WAN port of the wireless router into your office network, it will be isolated from the office printer, so you would need a second printer.

If you cannot set a static IP, that makes hooking everything up together more difficult (but still do-able).

What does the Landlord say about this. They may think you have a specific number of devices and are not providing more than you are paying for.

... Thinkpads_User

I believe some of those companies charge per computer that requires internet access. You really need to talk to their people and see what you can do within their confines. If you guys are renting from Regus, I know their IT is in Asia. All the office staff can do is send a request through an electronic system and wait for those folks to respond. Does that company offer wireless to begin with? If so, then it's pointless for you to get a wireless router.

Can i say that i should configure my wireless router IP to 192.168.128.254

You can try that - it should work. But you may need to work with the landlord to make certain.

.... Thinkpads_User

You never did cite what the IP address of the wireless router is to begin with. But also, you might have more computers online that what's allowed.

@masnrock 192.168.1.254.

Is that the wan address of the router?