Need help connecting a wireless laptop to a wired router,

W

W.O.T. Stang

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 4, 2003
Messages
363
Basically I'm trying to share wireless Internet to my desktop PC through a wireless laptop. The wireless router is 2 floors above me, so it's impossible to just connect straight to the wireless router.

Basically it looks like this...

Cable Modem
V
[sisters PC] --- ~Wireless router~

//
V

~[Wireless Laptop]~
V
Onboard NIC
V
Wired router
V
My desktop PC


Hopefully my terrible network topography made sense. I think the biggest problem i'm running into is that the default IP for the wireless router and my wired router are conflicting. I had to change my wired router to 192.168.1.10 (so i can access both her and my router seperately) and I even set my router to start at 192.168.1.50 so there would be no conflicts in IP between the two.

If I try to use the uplink port in the wired router from the onboard NIC, nothing work.. If I use the port on the router, it drops the internet, but keeps the LAN connection. If I try to bridge the wireless in the laptop to the onboard NIC, nothing works either.

I've got it to the point where I can have Internet on the laptop, or LAN between the two computers, but never both. Can anyone please tell me what i'm overlooking? I'd be greatly appreciative.
 
Set up internet connection sharing on the wireless laptop. Then just use the wired router as a switch. Plug the laptop nic into one port and the destop into another port. Do not use the uplink port. No need to configure the wired router at all.

Set the laptop and your desktop to have static IP addresses as well as all 3 computers in the same workgroup.
 
Thank you so much for the reply.

Few questions. Which connection should i setup internet connection sharing with? the wireless adapter, or the onboard NIC?

Also, what exactly do i have to do to get my router to act as a switch? disable DHCP? Any other steps?

Im in the process of trying what you suggested. Ill keep you posted.
 
Ok, here is what I did.

Set my wired router IP to 192.168.1.254 so it does not conflict with the default 192.168.1.1 of the wireless router.

Set the wireless connection on the laptop to be shared by ICS.

Set the IP on the laptop to 192.168.1.50, 255 subnet and the gateway to 192.168.1.254 (wired router address)

I then set the IP on the desktop to 192.168.1.51 and the subnet and gateway the same (vista gave me a warning about setting different gateway address when I did this.. i can post the exact error if needed.)

I setup the wiring exactly as you said, into router 1 and 2 ports and into both computers.

I can see all the computer and both routers, as well as the "internet gateway device" for the ICS. But still no Internet on the desktop. Im getting close, but still missing something. Im thinking there is something funny with the gateway address.. any suggestions?
 
Can you put the cable modem upstairs and then a wireless card in your sister's PC, and run cables to everything else? I say this because even when you do get this working, you will likely find that using wireless as a bridge is not stable.

The way I would do it is as follows:

1 - Plug your cable modem into the internet port on your wireless router.
2 - Set your wireless router IP address to 192.168.1.1/24
3 - Your wireless laptop and sister's PC can have any IP address between 192.168.1.2 through 192.168.1.254
4 - Setup ICS on your laptop so that your wireless interface is sharing it's connection to the ethernet interface, and the ethernet interface is running DHCP. The ethernet's interface should not be in the 192.168.1 address space, so set it to 192.168.2.1
5 - Plug your laptop's ethernet port into a regular port on the wired router (not the internet port on the wired router). Turn off DHCP on the wired router and all other routing features, and just use it as a switch. If you have a switch, then use that instead of the wired router.
6 - Plug your desktop PC into the switch or wired router.

Cable Modem > Wireless router > Wireless Laptop > Onboard NIC > Wired router > My desktop PC

Your desktop PC's gateway would then be the IP if the laptop's ethernet port. It should also be able to ping 192.168.1.1 (the wireless router) and the Internet.

Your sister's PC would not be able to access 192.168.2.0/24 unless you setup your laptop to allow such connections (if it even supports that capability).

To be honest, depending on the OS of your wireless laptop, the make/model of your laptop's ethernet and wireless cards, and their driver versions, this might not even be possible.

If you plan to have this setup for a long time, I highly suggest finding a way to run a cat5 cable upstairs, run the cable modem upstairs, or if you absolutely must use wireless, buy a wireless bridge for upstairs.
 
Ok, ive followed all of your steps and still nothing.

I'm unable to ping 192.168.1.1 (wireless router) from the desktop at all.

When you say "and the ethernet interface is running DHCP" which DHCP address should i use there? the 24. number from the wireless router? Also, what gateway address should I be using for the laptop's ethernet? it's blank at the moment.

By the way.. the wireless laptop is running vista, and the desktop PC is running XP.

I'm hopelessly confused on a lot of this, but im certain I have your previous instructions followed correctly. I'm grateful for you taking the time to teach me, because I'm more then willing to learn it for the future.
 
The 24 number from the wireless router is a subnet mask. It's a shorter way to write 255.255.255.0.

Can you ping 192.168.1.1 from your laptop?

Is your desktop PC getting a gateway address from your laptop? The desktop should be getting a gateway of 192.168.2.1.

I don't think you need a gateway for the ethernet adapter because the wireless adapter should have one. But you can try putting in either 192.168.1.1, or the IP address of the wireless adapter on your laptop. Honestly I'm not sure how exactly windows handles NAT and routing with ICS.

On your laptop, can you type 'route print' from the command line and post the results?
 
Code: 
C:\>route print
===========================================================================
Interface List
  9 ...00 19 7d 09 cd 2d ...... Broadcom 802.11g Network Adapter
  8 ...00 0f b0 d2 0a a5 ...... Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC
  1 ........................... Software Loopback Interface 1
 13 ...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0  isatap.satx.rr.com
 10 ...02 00 54 55 4e 01 ...... Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
 14 ...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0  isatap.{39F6AC49-E5B4-439D-966C-7F84643E4620}
 15 ...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0  6TO4 Adapter
===========================================================================

IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0      192.168.1.1      192.168.1.2     30
        127.0.0.0        255.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
        127.0.0.1  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
  127.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
      192.168.1.0    255.255.255.0         On-link       192.168.1.2    286
      192.168.1.2  255.255.255.255         On-link       192.168.1.2    286
    192.168.1.255  255.255.255.255         On-link       192.168.1.2    286
      192.168.2.0    255.255.255.0         On-link       192.168.2.1    276
      192.168.2.1  255.255.255.255         On-link       192.168.2.1    276
    192.168.2.255  255.255.255.255         On-link       192.168.2.1    276
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link       192.168.2.1    276
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link       192.168.1.2    286
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link       192.168.2.1    276
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link       192.168.1.2    286
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
  None

IPv6 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
 If Metric Network Destination      Gateway
  1    306 ::1/128                  On-link
  8    276 fe80::/64                On-link
  9    286 fe80::/64                On-link
  9    286 fe80::4dad:f2fc:2228:8c16/128
                                    On-link
  8    276 fe80::a4f5:ba7:5562:fa6f/128
                                    On-link
  1    306 ff00::/8                 On-link
  8    276 ff00::/8                 On-link
  9    286 ff00::/8                 On-link
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
  None

the 24.xx.xx.xx number i was talking about for the NIC DNS on the laptop that you said to enable (but not with what value) was the primary DNS the wireless router was getting from the cablemodem. I tried it with and without that address, and the same results.

I can ping 192.168.1.1 fine from the laptop. But not the desktop. I also seem to be having an issue connecting to the desktop thru LAN now that i wasnt yesterday that im working on clearing up.

Here are all the settings i'm using.

Laptop:

Wireless Internet Connection

All default settings (obtain automatically). Only change is enabling ICS. Connected to wireless Internet.

Onboard NIC

NICstatus.jpg


onboardNIC.jpg


desktop.jpg
 
I already had the same problem, as suggested already, use your router as a SWITCH, or don't use it at all. Your laptop is the gateway.

1. Leave the wireless router to 192.168.1.1
2. Let your wireless settings to DHCP if that's what you were using before.
3. Leave the subnets alone.
4. On your laptop's NIC, set the IP to 192.168.2.1, default subnet, NO gateway. Set the DNS servers manually or put the wireless router's IP.
5. Connect PC to laptop. Make sure they work together, some NICs support both crossover and straight-through cables for this task, some don't. At least one of them needs to work with it.
6. Set PC to 192.168.2.2, default subnet, 192.168.2.1 gateway.
7. Enable Internet Connection Sharing on the wireless card, or select the wireless and wired connections, and make a network bridge. That's the part I don't remember. I think I was able to access both the 192.168.1.x and 192.168.2.x networks without problems, if I remember correctly, I don't think I had to change the subnets. What you can't do is using the wireless router as the gateway for the PC and NIC.
 
I got it to work!!

Apparently the issue was forgetting to fill in the DNS with the wireless router IP, and setting the PC NIC to 192.168.2.2

THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I could have never figured this out normally! I also learned a great deal! Hopefully this can be used as a reference for someone in the future.
 
Good work, glad it's working for you :) Hope that the wireless connection is stable.
 
I learn things too, I had never tried with a second router, I've only done direct Firewire or Ethernet bridges with my laptop previously. (When moving a computer and until I install some network cable.)

Apparently the issue was forgetting to fill in the DNS with the wireless router IP
Click to expand...
Only Windows Server has a DNS relaying feature, that explains certain things.
 
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