Network Help!!

I know there are some network professionals here so I thought I would ask for for assistance.
OK..
I have 3 computers connected to my 4 port linksys router in 1 room and then the 4th available port which goes to another room I have my wireless router connected. Is it possible to be able to connect to printers on the wired part of the network from my wireless connection. Thanks for any help.

Hiya, I might be able to give you some advice but I would like a better idea on the following first please.

When you say 'wireless router', do you mean a second router or an access point? If the 'wireless router' is performing NAT then you might have trouble accessing the printers on the wired segment of the network.

If the device is just an AP, how are the printers connected to the network (directly, through a print server or via a computer)? What operating systems are running on the computers and do you have personal firewalls installed?

Thanks,

Andrew

Thanks for the reply cdosrun.

Yes. I have a wireless 4 port router connected to one port on the wired router and it is performing NAT. The printers are shared via another computer. I am running Win XP pro w/SP2.
BTW, I just upgraded the firmware on the wireless router and that is when I was no longer able to print to the shared printers.

Thanks for your assistance.

If it is was the firmware update that caused the problem then it is likely to have turned on some additional security protection. Just to clarify (because I am not sure why you are using two routers), your Internet connection comes in via the wired router, and you are using the wireless router just to provide wireless access to other computers on the LAN.

You will certainly need to check the settings on the wireless router to make sure that the firewall is turned off (unless you are using that router to connect to the Internet or need the firewall protection from the wireless) - is WPA or above enabled? If the wireless router provides an option of NAT from the wireless (to put the wireless onto a different subnet/VLAN) you may wish to turn it off so that the wireless devices have the same IP range as the wired ones); if that isn't acceptable you could put a DNAT rule in for the printing.

How was it setup before the update? Did the wireless devices have the same IP range as the wired ones and could they ping each other? Do they still have the same IP ranges?

Andrew

Thanks again for your help...

As you can tell, I am a newbe with networks.

My network : Cable Modem - Linksys 4 port Router- 3 computers connected directly to it and the last available port is wired upstairs where I have my wireless 4 port Linksys router.

I have WPA enabled and firewall is enabled.
As for IP range, they are both 192.168.xx.xx.
The way I would use resources from my wireless laptop to the wired resources I would select Run, type in the IP address of one of my systems that I have shared out. I would always connect.

Sorry if I not giving you enough details.

I probably could make this real simple by removing the wire router and just using the wireless router connected to the cable modem but then I need to buy 3 new wireless cards..

Ok, that is pretty much what I thought, you may need to turn NAT off on the upstairs router then, the upstairs device doesn't need to be a router at all, just an access point as routing functions are not required with your setup. I would check the upstairs router to ensure that all security functions other than WPA are turned off. With the IP addresses you don't need to worry about publishing them up here, the 192.168.0.0/16 subnet is private so nobody can glean anything important about your network from it.

What the firmware update might have done is turn the DHCP server on in the upstairs router, you will not need this because I presume the downstairs router is doing it for you. Therefore, the first three octets (numbers between the periods) will need to be the same for the upstairs laptop and the downstairs computers. i.e. 192.168.0.1-192.168.0.4 downstairs and 192.168.0.5-192.168.0.254 upstairs, the parts in bold should be the same for all computers assuming the subnet mask is 255.255.255.0

If this is the case, take a look at the address of a downstairs machine and try to ping it from the laptop: on the laptop go to Start>Run and type "cmd" (without the "") in the box, then click ok. A black command prompt will appear, type "ping 192.168.x.x" where 192.168.x.x=the address of the downstairs computer. If all is ok, a reponse in milliseconds will be displayed, otherwise it will show an error.

Please tell me if I am going into too much or too little detail.

Andrew

We have several excel in networking here on CPF. Linksysinfo is an outstanding resource as well.

Thanks for you help cdosrun...

I went to linksys website and found out that I didn't have the latest Firmware so I downloaded the very latest and after that, I can see my shared computers and printers now.

Thanks again..

What you should do to prevent possible issues in the future, is disable the DHCP server or your "wireless router", and make sure that your main wired router is connected to it via one of it's "LAN" ports and not the "WAN" port. This way it should act as a standard AP. If you have two DHCP servers running on the same network, it can cause many problems.

electromage said:

What you should do to prevent possible issues in the future, is disable the DHCP server or your "wireless router", and make sure that your main wired router is connected to it via one of it's "LAN" ports and not the "WAN" port.

Click to expand...

Do you mean to connect the wireless router to the wired router via the LAN port?