2nd Router to a switch or direct to 1st router?

[mikeny]

Hi. I use a D-Link DIR 825 and I like running WPA2 for both bands. However I recently could not get a connection with the PSP (even with WPA) so I hooked up my old Actiontec M1424 WR to the D-Link (disabled DHCP on it), ran WEP and got the PSP (and Nintendo DS Lites) connected.

I was wondering though if I relocated my switch I would need to connect other devices near the router directly to it again.

Long story short, can I connect the Actiontec to a switch in another room and continue this setup or does it need to be directly connected to the router?

2nd Question) Can I connect my main desktop to a switch or does 1 PC have to be connected directly the router?

Thanks.

 

[mikeny]

I just had another idea. If may be better logistically if I put the Actiontec (as a second router with seperate ssid) in another room. Could I connect the DVR that is in that room to one of the Actiontec's switch ports? Will the "D-Link network" punch through the actiontec to the DVR? Thanks.

 

[thiggins]

If you configure the second router as an AP, you can locate it anywhere you like and use its switch just like the switch on your main router.

 

[tipstir]

If you use a second router you should set that up as AP. What you do is disable DHCP and NAT in a wireless router. That's if your going to get another 825 though. DLINK forces you to buy DAP since none of the routers they sell offers wireless client bridge mode.

DIR-655 I use a switch to another AP which takes care of all the wireless devices I have. I also use another switch to manage all other devices on the network. I do not connect any system directly into the router.

Port 1 = 100mbps base 16-port switch
Port 2 = 1000mbps base 8-port switch

If you use a wireless bridge you can then connect a wireless ap into that bridge to make that 100% wireless making it isolated from running wired to both devices.

Would look like this: (hardware: dir-655, buffalo wireless client bridge and wireless access point)

 

[mikeny]

Thank you for your response and for the link. I did not read the whole page yet but can I ask you if it's necessary to change anything if the Actiontec for example is 192.168.0.199 on the D-Link network but on its own it's 192.168.1.1. The DVR I may connect it to is the D-Link network LAN.

 

[mikeny]

I just looked at that link. I wonder why it is working as I did connect the D-Link 825 to the Actiontec's 'internet' port, not the switch port and I saw in the link not to do that.

The actiontec is providing a third SSID. The D-Link provides 2 (one on each band). I manually assigned IP addresses to the handheld devices to be on the actiontec's network with the actiontec as the gateway for those devices only. It seems to be alright this way. I wonder why. I was just thinking of relocating the actiontec.

 

[mikeny]

If you use a second router you should set that up as AP. What you do is disable DHCP and NAT in a wireless router. That's if your going to get another 825 though. DLINK forces you to buy DAP since none of the routers they sell offers wireless client bridge mode.

DIR-655 I use a switch to another AP which takes care of all the wireless devices I have. I also use another switch to manage all other devices on the network. I do not connect any system directly into the router.

Port 1 = 100mbps base 16-port switch
Port 2 = 1000mbps base 8-port switch

If you use a wireless bridge you can then connect a wireless ap into that bridge to make that 100% wireless making it isolated from running wired to both devices.

Would look like this: (hardware: dir-655, buffalo wireless client bridge and wireless access point)

Thank you tipstir.

 

[overdrive31]

Hi. I use a D-Link DIR 825 and I like running WPA2 for both bands. However I recently could not get a connection with the PSP (even with WPA) so I hooked up my old Actiontec M1424 WR to the D-Link (disabled DHCP on it), ran WEP and got the PSP (and Nintendo DS Lites) connected.

I was wondering though if I relocated my switch I would need to connect other devices near the router directly to it again.

Long story short, can I connect the Actiontec to a switch in another room and continue this setup or does it need to be directly connected to the router?

2nd Question) Can I connect my main desktop to a switch or does 1 PC have to be connected directly the router?

Thanks.

Hi! The DIR-825 has guest access or in other words 4 total SSIDs, each with their own individual security settings, including client isolation/wireless partition. Guest access SSID using WEP for the wireless game devices with client isolation turned on, prevents any snoopers from gaining access to the rest of the network, sorta like an separate subnet but not. It uses MAC address zoning/partitioning to prevent other SSID clients from viewing data on the network, thus not allowing attackers whom could break WEP security easily, from sniffing/attacking your SSIDs with WPA2 security had they breached the WEP, but they would still have free internet . You could just setup the guest access for 2.4GHz set to WEP with WLAN Partition checked. You'd save having to use an second router/AP and it's simple to turn on/off if perhaps someone was using the breachable SSID for free internet. Good Luck

 

[mikeny]

overdrive31,

Thank you for that info. That is interesting. I will consider that option.

Sorry to reply with another question but suppose I wanted to maintain the setup with the 2 routers:

One laptop is a 'g' only device. If I wanted to put that on the Actiontec's 'g' SSID with WEP, what would have to do to enable file sharing with other devices on the D-Link network?

Is it possible? The way it is now, if I connect to the Actiontec, the default gateway is 192.168.1.1. (different subnet from the D-Link 192.168.0.1). If I connect to the actiontec's SSID, I can't see the other computers or the network printer.

I think I have to change to the Actiontec's address to 0.x but then I'm still not sure if it'll work.

Do they need to be on the same subnet and the same default gateway or just the same subnet?

Do they need to have the same security and/or same SSID's? I guess I'd be defeating the purpose of enabling WPA2 on the D-Link if a WEP device could access the files anyway.

Edit: Maybe I can duplicate the security settings for the laptop and make an Actiontec WPA2 'g' band AND use that guest zone on the D-Link for the gaming devices that require the WEP?

I was just thinking of isolating the computer to 'g' and using the D-Link wi fi band for 'N' only.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[mikeny]

Don't mean it to be a running commentary here and I realize that this is not reflective of my original question but I wanted to report on how I set it up.

Ovedrive31, I looked into the guest zone. I selected WEP for a guest zone for 2.4 Ghz but when I tried to save the settings it wouldn't let me saying, I can't select WEP as I have the 2.4 Ghz. band set for 802.11N only. So I change the main band to be 802.11b/g/n. Then I was able to set up that guest zone with WEP. However, I saw that data transfer rates for the two connected 'N' clients dramatically dropped. Therefore I turned off the guest zone, switched back to 802.11N only (with WPA2/AES) for the main 2.4 Ghz band and went back to the Actiontec.

I was able to change the actiontec M1424WR's IP address from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.0.2 and I assigned my b/g clients as 0.3 etc, well below the range of the D-Link's DHCP range of 0.100. I have a cable connected at this point between both router's switch ports as suggested. DHCP is disabled on the M1424. I used the D-Link IP address (0.1) as the gateway for all connected wifi devices on the "M1424's" 'b/g' WEP network with unique SSID. I CAN view files across all connected devices now, use the network printer, log into either router with all the connected devices. Of course, I suppose the system is more vulnerable now as if you can break into that WEP network you can see the files that were supposed to be protected by the WPA2 network.

However, it seems that all the 'N' speeds are maximized, legacy b/g devices can go online and I actually had fun playing around with all of this.

 

[tipstir]

825 has two minipci wnpu cards one for 2.4GHz and the other is for 5.3GHz. Cautions users are reporting issues with this device. But it has to be the firmware.