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[TableLeg]

Can anybody please help me to do the following if it is possible.

I have an old Netgear DG834G Router.

I have a wired Ethernet point in a room direct from the main house router (1x Ethernet socket).

What I want to do is connect 2x devices to the one Ethernet socket so they can both access the internet.
Better still if I can do this using my old router then I would hope I could also use the Wifi point as an access point as this point would also be in a part of the house that has no Wifi.

I searched and followed a number of different webpages detailing how to do this but have been unsuccessful in getting it to work.

I hope someone on here can go through it with me.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

 

[benji09]

If I understand you correctly, what you really need is a switch for the port sharing, but this would not not give you wifi. You can in fact do what you want to do with the old router by plugging one of the ethernet ports into the link to the other room, leaving the other three ethernet ports to use for other things. The wifi will work OK this way. BUT you must turn on the second router AFTER the main one is working, otherwise it will try to take over the network. Ideally you should disable the DHCP setting on the second router to stop this happening.   

[TableLeg]

Thanks Benji09,

To clarify, with the 2nd router I was aware I need to have DHCP off. I also need to have a fixed IP address for the 2x devices.

I believe I need to assign the 2nd router with this fixed IP address. Is this correct?

[Bodge99]

Hello,

You should be able to do this in various ways.. How you do it depends on exactly the capabilities of the router and your exact requirements.

I've just been setting something similar up. I've successfully linked 3 routers together in a similar way to what you are describing.

I found that most advice stated that a lan port to lan port connection between each router is required with warnings not to use the wan port (if fitted) etc.
This should normally work O.K. but there are often "gotchas" here.

Are you looking to connect the Netgear to the ethernet socket and connect 2 computers to the lan ports here?

If memory serves.. this router is a 4 port adsl modem router with a wireless AP. I seem to remember that the lan ports are all auto sensing with regard to uplink connections. This means that you can connect any of the lan ports to a working network and it will configure the lan port as a "cut down" wan port (i.e. only ethernet aware).

Therefore, assuming that this is all handled automatically, then just connect lan1 to your ethernet socket and the computers to any of the other ports. If a computer works here then the wireless will also.

If you hit a snag then it will be due to one or more of the following:

The netgear may need to be manually configured to suit the upstream router:

Find out the main routers LAN settings.. if the router status page is (for example) 192.168.1.1
then you'll need to set the netgear lan address to something else (e.g. 192.168.1.254).
The first 3 numbers of the 4 must be the same...

If there is a setting for the uplink address (may be called WAN address or something similar.)
then set it to an unused address (e.g. 192.168.1.200).

You'll need to disable DHCP (handled from the main router, this may be automatically disabled.) and NAT. If you can find a setting (on the netgear) to enable bridge mode then do so. If not, then you'll need to disable the netgear from attempting to connect to ADSL.

You **will** get this working.. take it slowly and by all means ask questions here.

BTW, if you ever find that a particular lan port will only connect at 10M instead of 100 then there is an easy fix (failing electrolytic capacitors).

Bodge99

[TableLeg]

Thanks Bodge99,

I'll have another go at it then.

What do I need to do in order to give the 2nd router a fixed IP address so the main router always knows that connection is that IP address?

[Bodge99]

Hello,

Can you connect the netgear to a computer and access its status page?

If you can't, then ask here...

If you can, login and look for the lan settings. change what you find to match the first 3 numbers of the main routers subnet. Ensure that the last number is different.

Bodge99

[Bodge99]

Hello,

I've just read the thread again.

What you are looking for is this:

Router 1 (the main router) connects to ADSL. This router handles DHCP, for all downstream devices. When you've sorted out the Netgear, then Router 1 will still control and issue addresses for anything that requires auto configuration. DHCP requests are passed through the Netgear upstream to Router 1.

If you have a device that needs to be manually configured, then I recommend that you use an address that is outside of the DHCP address pool.

To clarify. The following is an example only. Your specific numbers will be different.

Assume that router 1 is set to issue address's (by DHCP) in the range (e.g. 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.200).

Now boot an auto configured PC. It will probably be issued with 192.168.1.2 .
Boot another, and it will probably be given 192.168.1.3
 
Now you decide to boot your media server which has a manual configuration of 192.168.1.3 .

You now have 2 devices with the same address. Not good, won't work.. see the problem?

For the media server to be guaranteed to connect correctly it would need to have an address of at least 192.168.1.201 (202, 203 etc.).

You may need to reduce/alter the DCHP pool on router 1 if you have to/wish to use manually configured devices.

One further thing that I forgot to mention about the Netgear. You may need to set its default gateway to point to router 1.

Bodge99

[TableLeg]

Thanks again Bodge99,

I'll try to be more specific as you won't have realised it but by referring to Netgear it slightly confusing as my main router is also a Netgear.

Specific info is as follows:

Main router 1.
Netgear 1 - DHCP range 1-50.
Connected to multiple devices but has an Ethernet cable from one of the ports that runs to another room (Room 1) in the house terminating at a socket.

Room 1.
Has the one Ethernet socket.
Requires a games console and a PC to be connected via the one Ethernet socket.

Router 2.
Netgear 2. DHCP OFF. IP address Anything above 50??? Is this correct?
Connect one LAN port to the Ethernet socket (from the main router).
Connect two of the other LAN ports to the games console and the PC.
NAT OFF.

Make sure the games console and the PC don't have a fixed IP address?

[Bodge99]

Hello,

Any reference to the Netgear router above means Netgear 2.

Yes, anything above 50 will be fine. I'd stay away from 250 - 255. You never know what you might want to add to the network in the future.

Connections sound good.. You can use a fixed address on the games console and PC if you wish... It's totally up to you. Just use anything >50 but <250 that is not used elsewhere.

Try it out and see what you get..

Any problems then just post here..

Good luck.

Bodge99

[roseway]

Router 2 - you can't do that with the DG834G. You need a router with a WAN ethernet socket or an ethernet/WiFi range extender, for example this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Edimax-EW-7228APN-150Mbps-5-Port-Extender/dp/B004JV42A0/ref=sr_1_7?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1408400311&sr=1-7

(I think that will do the job, but a careful examination of the spc is needed.)

[Bodge99]

Hello,

I think that you'll find that you can.. The auto sensing uplink capability is a bonus here.

Otherwise use it as a dumb switch. I've done this with an earlier model Netgear a few years ago.

Time will tell.

Bodge99

[roseway]

It will work as a switch, so you can connect up to three devices to the single ethernet socket, but I don't believe that it will work as a WiFi extender. I'm prepared to be proved wrong though.

[TableLeg]

Thanks again all.

As an update I have configured it and am testing it over the next few days for any issues.

Rest assured if either of my kids can't get on line for any reason I'll soon know about it!!!

I'll post back in a few days with any results.

 

[TableLeg]

No not working 

One can get connected on his games console whilst the other can't and vice versa.

I think that is something to do with NAT and online gaming ports. With the 2nd router removed and the consoles and PC connected directly back to the main router it works fine.

I think I am going to have to concede that it just won't work. This isn't the first time I've tried this.

So what other options are there?

[TableLeg]

What about a simple switch like a Netgear FS205.

Could I plug this into the Ethernet wall socket and then plug the PC and games console into that?

I also have a WiFi extender that I could then plug into the Switch as well.

Would the switch work?