Modem to Switch to Wireless Router

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Smitty2k1

Gawd
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May 31, 2005
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Is this possible? Due to the layout of machines and incoming cables in my house I would like to connect the modem directly to a switch and then run a long cable to a wireless router centrally located inside my house. None of the other LAN ports would be used on the router, but the switch is going to have all 4 ports (Plus the 5th for the incoming modem) used.

As it is setup now, I can't see the internet from the wireless laptops. My laptop CAN see the other two networked computers but can only access one of them.

I'm currently connecting a port on the switch to port 1 on the router, not the 'internet' port. Either way didn't seem to make a difference.

I reset all the devices powering on the modem first, then the switch, then the router.

Help!
 
the way you have it set up won't work with most ISP's. You should have it...

Modem -> Wired Router (most have 4 ports + WAN port)-> Wireless Access Point
 
I just drew this the other day for another thread, but ill share it again :)

Screen%20shot%202010-07-10%20at%209.44.36%20PM.png
 
Depending on the ISP you're only going to get one, maybe two, public IPs from your modem and that's why your setup isn't working. Also, you want all of your computers to be behind that router/firewall for protection. It's a bad idea to have a windows machine directly connected to the internet, period. That being said, the proper layout would be: modem>firewall>switch>AP & PCs.
 
Captain Colonoscopy said:
Depending on the ISP you're only going to get one, maybe two, public IPs from your modem and that's why your setup isn't working. Also, you want all of your computers to be behind that router/firewall for protection. It's a bad idea to have a windows machine directly connected to the internet, period. That being said, the proper layout would be: modem>firewall>switch>AP & PCs.
Click to expand...

exactly what i drew out above, why did you have to repeat what every one has said ?
 
dashpuppy said:
exactly what i drew out above, why did you have to repeat what every one has said ?
Click to expand...

Why do you have to be an asshat, douchepuppy? You've been on here for three months, don't start disrespecting forum members that have been here, contributing usefully, for a lot longer than you have.

And I'm not entirely sure I "repeated what everyone just said" as you drew a picture and ONE other person said something similar to what I posted.
 
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Captain Colonoscopy said:
Why do you have to be an asshat, douchepuppy? You've been on here for three months, don't start disrespecting forum members that have been here, contributing usefully, for a lot longer than you have.

And I'm not entirely sure I "repeated what everyone just said" as you drew a picture and ONE other person said something similar to what I posted.
Click to expand...


Hey, don't be a jerk I was just asking why you would repeat what i showed, i'm only on this forum to help and learn.
 
What everyone's said is correct. The primary reason, however, is that the switch probably isn't layer 3 and isn't capable of NAT. You need the router before the switch to translate your single public IP into many private IP's to share among your computers and devices.

You could certainly use the switch to extend the connection from the modem to the router, but you wouldn't be able to get connectivity on anything else plugged into the switch because your ISP is only going to hand you one IP from their DHCP server. The ISP's DHCP server will assign an IP to the first MAC address it sees. This is why your laptops wont connect to the Internet over the wireless connection in your current config. I would imagine this setup would be completely worthless for your needs.

You're going to have to plug the modem directly into a router, firewall, or layer 3 switch that can run NAT, then you can hang an additional switch off of one of the switchports on the router just like the helpful diagram that dashpuppy posted.

You could always get an additional wireless access point and hang it off of one of the ports on the switch to attain the results you desire.
 
dashpuppy said:
Hey, don't be a jerk I was just asking why you would repeat what i showed, i'm only on this forum to help and learn.
Click to expand...

Thanks but I know how to properly setup a network and due to the limitations of my household I was asking if it was possible to do what I wanted.

Frankly, your diagram was useless.
 
Protoform-X said:
What everyone's said is correct. The primary reason, however, is that the switch probably isn't layer 3 and isn't capable of NAT. You need the router before the switch to translate your single public IP into many private IP's to share among your computers and devices.

You could certainly use the switch to extend the connection from the modem to the router, but you wouldn't be able to get connectivity on anything else plugged into the switch because your ISP is only going to hand you one IP from their DHCP server. The ISP's DHCP server will assign an IP to the first MAC address it sees. This is why your laptops wont connect to the Internet over the wireless connection in your current config. I would imagine this setup would be completely worthless for your needs.

You're going to have to plug the modem directly into a router, firewall, or layer 3 switch that can run NAT, then you can hang an additional switch off of one of the switchports on the router just like the helpful diagram that dashpuppy posted.

You could always get an additional wireless access point and hang it off of one of the ports on the switch to attain the results you desire.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the info!
 
If your ISP gives you one public IP address, then this will not work at all unless you use a layer 3 switch. This is specifically the reason that a router is put in front of a layer 2 switch.

If your ISP gives you many public IP addresses and you wish for each machine on your network to have it's own public IP address, a layer 2 switch would work for this just fine. However, that would be incredibly dumb to set it up this way due to the fact that each machine would have a public facing IP address and make each machine an easy target.

To answer your question simply, no...the way you want this will not work properly at all unless you want a layer 3 switch. Then, you would really have no need for a router at all.
 
Smitty2k1 said:
Thanks but I know how to properly setup a network and due to the limitations of my household I was asking if it was possible to do what I wanted.

Frankly, your diagram was useless.
Click to expand...

You know how to setup a network ? is that why yours is not working ?
 
Smitty2k1 said:
Is this possible? Due to the layout of machines and incoming cables in my house I would like to connect the modem directly to a switch and then run a long cable to a wireless router centrally located inside my house. None of the other LAN ports would be used on the router, but the switch is going to have all 4 ports (Plus the 5th for the incoming modem) used.

As it is setup now, I can't see the internet from the wireless laptops. My laptop CAN see the other two networked computers but can only access one of them.

I'm currently connecting a port on the switch to port 1 on the router, not the 'internet' port. Either way didn't seem to make a difference.

I reset all the devices powering on the modem first, then the switch, then the router.

Help!
Click to expand...

I asked this exact question (more or less) a couple days ago. Here is the link:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1531879

Hope it helps, and goodluck.
 
Captain Colonoscopy said:
Depending on the ISP you're only going to get one, maybe two, public IPs from your modem and that's why your setup isn't working. Also, you want all of your computers to be behind that router/firewall for protection. It's a bad idea to have a windows machine directly connected to the internet, period..
Click to expand...

Bingo! Key words are in the last 2 sentences.
 
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