Converting a wireless router into a switch

[Cerulean]

I have this wireless router up at my cubicle, and I have it set to be a router/DHCP and hand out IPs under itself. However, now I want to turn this wireless router into a switch running on 192.168.1.x. The router's IP on the network is 192.168.1.120. Here is what I have so far (have not saved or applied this yet):

Now here is this part. At the moment, I have it set so that it would hand out IP addresses to machines connected to it (wirelessly or wired) on 192.168.128.x. I want it to act as a switch (as mentioned before), so what do I set this "Local IP Address" setting to? Do I set it to 192.168.1.120? Thanks.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

To convert a wireless router to an access point/switch....simply assign its LAN IP in the same IP range as your primary router, but make the last octet something different that does not conflict with your primary router or DHCP pool.

Example..say your primary router is 192.168.1.1, and the DHCP pool hands out addresses starting at 192.168.1.100...make your wireless unit something like 192.168.1.245 or 192.168.1.253 or 192.168.1.2.

Now..disable DHCP on this wireless router...since your primary router most likely does this.

Next..uplink your wireless router to your main switch or primary router using a LAN port..you will not use the WAN/Internet port of this wireless router.

That's it! You don't have to go disable firewall or NAT features...since you're NOT using the WAN port...it's routing features are not coming into play.

 

[Cerulean]

What is the difference between the "Internet Setup" and "Network Setup"?

Internet Setup category looks like the configuration for the router itself -- ie "what is my identification on the network?"

The Network Setup category looks like the configuration for clients connected to the router. When I try to set that as 192.168.1.120 or 192.168.1.254 it gives me a popup error saying "The WAN IP address is same with the LAN IP address! Please check them again!"

 

[Deleted member 12106]

To convert a wireless router to an access point/switch....simply assign its LAN IP in the same IP range as your primary router, but make the last octet something different that does not conflict with your primary router or DHCP pool.

Example..say your primary router is 192.168.1.1, and the DHCP pool hands out addresses starting at 192.168.1.100...make your wireless unit something like 192.168.1.245 or 192.168.1.253 or 192.168.1.2.

Now..disable DHCP on this wireless router...since your primary router most likely does this.

Next..uplink your wireless router to your main switch or primary router using a LAN port..you will not use the WAN/Internet port of this wireless router.

That's it! You don't have to go disable firewall or NAT features...since you're NOT using the WAN port...it's routing features are not coming into play.

This.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

What is the difference between the "Internet Setup" and "Network Setup"?

Internet Setup category looks like the configuration for the router itself -- ie "what is my identification on the network?"

The Network Setup category looks like the configuration for clients connected to the router. When I try to set that as 192.168.1.120 or 192.168.1.254 it gives me a popup error saying "The WAN IP address is same with the LAN IP address! Please check them again!"

Internet Setup is your WAN configuration, how you configure the WAN/Internet port...Ex Dynamic, Static, PPPoE (DSL). The "outside" of the router, wild side, red side, etc.

Network Setup is your LAN configuratoin, how your configure your network...Ex LAN IP address default 192.168.1.1, or if you need to change that to something like 192.168.0.1 or 10.1.1.1, etc. The "inside" of the router, private wide, green side, etc.