# At my wits end with WiFi



## silkstone (Dec 28, 2010)

I just got a wifi router and i'd like to connect it to my existing network to add wi-fi connectivity for my laptop and oter devices, but i can't for the life of me figure out how to do this. I've tried following the manuals instructions by disabling DHCI and uPnP and assigning a relevant IP address to my wi-fi router, but it won't work. Also 5 minutes after assigning an ip address for my router i am unable to acces the configuration (using the new IP). Further more when i connect the wifi router to the wired router i don't get a solid green connection light, rather a green flash every second.

I am relatively n00b when it comes to networking so please bear with my ignorance.

Below are the details of what i am doing.

adsl/router connected to main PC = Zyxel P660H t1 v2 : Router IP 192.168.1.1

Connected to desktop PC (and internet) with ip 192.168.1.31

Wifi Router = D-Link Dir 600-B2 set to IP 192.168.1.36 

connected to zxyel router by cat5 cable on Port 4 (both routers)

Disabled DHCP, disables uPnP

The Zyxel router seems unable to detect the D-Link router.

I've been looking into installing the DD-WRT firmware for the D-link router, but i honestly have no clue how to do it and the step by step guides may as well be written in Greek as there are 3 .bin files i can flash, and i have no idea which to do.

2 of them are from the search page http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database
and the 3rd is the general dd-wrt firrmware.

If anyone can help me sort this out, i will forever be in your debt.


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## silkstone (Dec 28, 2010)

Update: I amanaged to flash the routr with DD-WRT, and i didn't brick it... yay! 

However, i followed the guide to connecting it to an existing network and it still doesn't work 

I'm about ready to throw the damn thing in the bin and just run a long ass cat 5 cable to wherever i want internet access


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## thebluebumblebee (Dec 28, 2010)

Have you tried plugging the Ethernet cable into the Internet port on the Dlink?

Edit: what I mean from that is the cable from the Zyxel needs to plug into the "INTERNET" port on the Dlink.


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## silkstone (Dec 28, 2010)

thebluebumblebee said:


> Have you tried plugging the Ethernet cable into the Internet port on the Dlink?
> 
> Edit: what I mean from that is the cable from the Zyxel needs to plug into the "INTERNET" port on the Dlink.



yea, tried that. still didn't work. I would set the Zyxel as the bridge, and i think that would work, however i don't remember my isp password to put into the D-link. and my location makes phoning/understanding the customer support here difficult.

I was thinking, as i don't get a solid green light between the two routers, it may mean i need to buy/make a crossover cable? or is a slowly blinking green light standard for a connection between two routers?


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## t_ski (Dec 28, 2010)

I just recently hooked up a similar setup.  I had a Lynksys N router and added another.  According to the guides I found online, it said to connect the WAN port of rounter #2 to one of the network jacks on router #1.  That would not work for me and was starting to get as frustrated as you sound.  I decided to try to connect router #2 through one of the network jacks (instead of the WAN jack) and now it's working fine.


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## silkstone (Dec 28, 2010)

t_ski said:


> I just recently hooked up a similar setup.  I had a Lynksys N router and added another.  According to the guides I found online, it said to connect the WAN port of rounter #2 to one of the network jacks on router #1.  That would not work for me and was starting to get as frustrated as you sound.  I decided to try to connect router #2 through one of the network jacks (instead of the WAN jack) and now it's working fine.



The guides all say not to connect thru the internet jack. but i tried both anyway. Do you get a solid green light on your routers indicating the ports that it is connected to?

This is killing me... i tired hooking the DD-WRT wifi router to my desktop, but i can't get a connection (default router settings) it connects to the DSL router no problems tho.


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## t_ski (Dec 28, 2010)

silkstone said:


> The guides all say not to connect thru the internet jack. but i tried both anyway. Do you get a solid green light on your routers indicating the ports that it is connected to?



Mine have blue lights for both devices, and they flash with connectivity.


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## canadien (Dec 28, 2010)

Doncha just love routers and wireless?!? 

Did you enable wireless in the router?   Are you using DHCP?   If you have other computers connected to the internet, you might consider setting up static IP.

Can you connect to your router (Gateway)?


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## t_ski (Dec 29, 2010)

Yes, with the method above that I was describing, I did disable DHCP on the second router.  I also assigned a static IP to both of the routers.


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

I did the sme, with the WAP, i disabled DHCP, and assigned a static IP (192.168.1.2), the adsl router already has a static ip set. i followed th guide here: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_Access_Point to a T, both with and without the reccommended/optional steps.

Still no joy, and i still can't get my desktop to see the wifi router, wth default settings and a direct connection. My laptop views the wifi router fine, with default settings.

Ok i figured i missed a step when changing to the DD-WRT firmware. I didn;t upgrade to the latest version. i'm doing that now, and i'll try to set it up again.


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## travva (Dec 29, 2010)

you're saying that you cannot get to the routers web interface from your desktop using factory default settings and hardwired into the router? here's what i would do: go to back of secondary router and hard reset it. take a pen or paper clip, hold it in for 15 seconds or 30. and then from there plug the dlink into the zyxel using (example) port 1 in dlink to port 1 in zyxel. from there power cycle zyxel and then once it's up and good, turn dlink on/plug it in. finally, plug your laptop into the dlink hard wired and disable it's wifi access. if you have internet then you're all set. if not post back and we'll troubleshoot it.


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## Solaris17 (Dec 29, 2010)

modem>internet jack on Zyxel

Zyxel port 1 (not INTERNET) > INTERNET jack on D-link

hard reset both.

why you installed DD-WRT ontop the D-link before you even learned how to use it is beyond me BTW.


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## t_ski (Dec 29, 2010)

As far as resets go, I have found this sequense to be the best:

1. reset modem
2. reset router #1
3. reset router #2


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

Solaris17 said:


> modem>internet jack on Zyxel
> 
> Zyxel port 1 (not INTERNET) > INTERNET jack on D-link
> 
> ...



Reset the D-link to factory Settings, and did the above, i now get a solid communication light between the ZyXel and the internet port on the D-Link.

But i still can access the internet

The D-link is connected to my laptop via cable.

I want to re-iterate that i don't want to use the D-link as the primary router, just as a WAP.

I installed the DD-WRT on it as that's what all the advice said to do when i searched google for my problem. The D-link Firmware would not allow me to use this as a WAP by following the instructions in the manual.

So, what do i do now? I still have no network connection on the D-link, but it is communicating via the Internet port, and i can access the D-link from my laptop

Edit - scrap that, when they are connected, my laptop gets stuck on the login page, only when i disconect them can i access the D-Link configuration


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## Solaris17 (Dec 29, 2010)

silkstone said:


> Reset the D-link to factory Settings, and did the above, i now get a solid communication light between the ZyXel and the internet port on the D-Link.
> 
> But i still can access the internet
> 
> ...



now that you get solid connection do the following...Zyxel set a static IP of 01 100 or w/e
 then on the D-link set it as 02 200 basically 1 and 2.


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

Update!

I think i'm getting somewhere, i can now see 4 clients on my Zyxel router, strange as i only have the desktop, D-link and laptop connected.

My laptop can now access the internet when hard-wired to the D-link.

Going to test wi-fi now

Edit - Yes it all works and i can see the desktop and xfer files. I think where i went wrong was setting the wireless mode to Client, in the guide it said to set it to Bridged client. I just left this as "AP" and i set the internet port of the D-link to work as a standard LAN port. I'm also guessing that pluggining it into LAN slot 1 on the ZyXel was necessary.

Thanks so much guys, i think i would have been here all day without help


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## Solaris17 (Dec 29, 2010)

silkstone said:


> Update!
> 
> I think i'm getting somewhere, i can now see 4 clients on my Zyxel router, strange as i only have the desktop, D-link and laptop connected.
> 
> ...



lookin good.


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## Solaris17 (Dec 29, 2010)

well now that its working dont bother with static IP's just let it be on its merry way. congrats and thanks for letting us know how it panned out. now go play with it and DL like 30GB of pr0n


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

Solaris17 said:


> well now that its working dont bother with static IP's just let it be on its merry way. congrats and thanks for letting us know how it panned out. now go play with it and DL like 30GB of pr0n



Haha, my main computer has more than 30gb 

I made the D-Link's IP as static (192.168.1.2) but all the devices are on auto discovery.

A couple of strange issues tho, not problems, as everything is working well.

The client list on my Zyxel lists 3 additional clients after my Desktop.

One is un-named and a different IP from my D-link (but in the DHCP pool), would this be the D-link, even tho the IP i set in the D-Link is different?
Then it lists my laptop twice with 2 different mac addresses and 2 different IP's.

Is this because i used the wireless and wired connection, so it has 2 different devices?

The other strange thing, is i can't see the network map now.

Again these aren't problems, as everything is working sweetly, just a couple of things i noticed.


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## Solaris17 (Dec 29, 2010)

silkstone said:


> Haha, my main computer has more than 30gb
> 
> I made the D-Link's IP as static (192.168.1.2) but all the devices are on auto discovery.
> 
> ...



DHCP list times have an experation time aka "lease" time that rougue one should dissapear...or someone is inside your wifi stealing your bandwidth. second yes wireless and wires will do that. 

network map i would need more info. but it could be a setting in either the first or second router like DMZ is disabled or soemthing. or upnp that might be disabled.


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

Solaris17 said:


> DHCP list times have an experation time aka "lease" time that rougue one should dissapear...or someone is inside your wifi stealing your bandwidth. second yes wireless and wires will do that.
> 
> network map i would need more info. but it could be a setting in either the first or second router like DMZ is disabled or soemthing. or upnp that might be disabled.



Ahh cool, that explains it. I doubt anyone is stealing bandwith as i set up a WPA 2 security password.

I also disabled uPnP on the Wi-Fi router (not the adsl) as it said to in one of the guides, i think i can live with that now it's all working


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## Solaris17 (Dec 29, 2010)

silkstone said:


> Ahh cool, that explains it. I doubt anyone is stealing bandwith as i set up a WPA 2 security password.
> 
> I also disabled uPnP on the Wi-Fi router (not the adsl) as it said to in one of the guides, i think i can live with that now it's all working



well now that you know the settings just play with upnp etc and DMZ and see if you can get it back worst that can happen is you turn them back or reboot the routers again no big loss its the setup that you needed to get down. and since thats in place play away.


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

Gah! It stopped working!

I turned off my wifi, when i turned it back on, i have to original problem?!?

No connection betweent the Zyxel and the D-link. Didn;t change any settings, all i did was unplug the router and then plug it back in.


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## Solaris17 (Dec 29, 2010)

silkstone said:


> Gah! It stopped working!
> 
> I turned off my wifi, when i turned it back on, i have to original problem?!?
> 
> No connection betweent the Zyxel and the D-link. Didn;t change any settings, all i did was unplug the router and then plug it back in.



why? did you do that? give it a sec to reconnect and reconfigure


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

it was after about 10 minutes... time to reset and try again.

I wanted to double check that no one was connected to the Wi-Fi so i disabled it.


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## t_ski (Dec 29, 2010)

Check the wifi settings again.  Once you get it working, make sure you back up the configuration so you can reload it later.

Also, as for the other mystery device - do you have a Wii, iPod Touch, wifi-capable phone, etc. in the house?  Might be trying to connect with the wireless.


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

This is crazy, i went through the exact same steps and now it fails to connect.

Why are networks so difficult to set-up?


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## Solaris17 (Dec 29, 2010)

silkstone said:


> This is crazy, i went through the exact same steps and now it fails to connect.
> 
> Why are networks so difficult to set-up?



because you didnt go through the exact same steps.


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

i tired both the steps here

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_Access_Point

and here

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Client_Bridged

I have no option saying Client Bridged, just client. So i assumed before that AP was the same as client Bridged and used that setting.


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## Solaris17 (Dec 29, 2010)

silkstone said:


> i tired both the steps here
> 
> http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_Access_Point
> 
> ...



why are you trying to follow those directions again when it was a diffirent methode (hard reset of both routers and surfboard) that made it work?


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

Solaris17 said:


> why are you trying to follow those directions again when it was a diffirent methode (hard reset of both routers and surfboard) that made it work?



no, a Hard reset of the D-link, followed by the instructions in the "Wireless Access point guide" but choosing AP rather than client. Then rebooting the Zyxel, connecting the D-link then turning on the D-link.


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## Solaris17 (Dec 29, 2010)

silkstone said:


> no, a Hard reset of the D-link, followed by the instructions in the "Wireless Access point guide" but choosing AP rather than client. Then rebooting the Zyxel, connecting the D-link then turning on the D-link.



just leave them connected how they are zyxel to surfboard port 1 to link sys. then hard reset all of them and let it figure itself out. i dont get how that isnt what you want. the zyxel is still the primary router as the linksys is simply providing internet which is gains access to from the the zyxel


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

Ok, i reset the D-Link, connected them together, and now it works. But i want to enable WPA and i can't access the D-link to set it up.

I unplugged the d-link from the ADSL and tried to access the page thru 192.168.1.1 on my laptop... still no go.

Reseting the D-Link now and trying again.


Ok, i will Re-set the D-link, only change the WPA setting, then connect it to the ADSL router.... Taht's should work now, right?


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## Solaris17 (Dec 29, 2010)

silkstone said:


> Ok, i reset the D-Link, connected them together, and now it works. But i want to enable WPA and i can't access the D-link to set it up.
> 
> I unplugged the d-link from the ADSL and tried to access the page thru 192.168.1.1 on my laptop... still no go.
> 
> Reseting the D-Link now and trying again.



yes like i said both will need to be hard reset not just the d-link.


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

Solaris17 said:


> yes like i said both will need to be hard reset not just the linksys.



The problem is, if i hard re-set the Zyxel, i lose my password (Which i don't know) and the guy charges $10 to come over and put in the password for me.. I live in a stupid location


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## Solaris17 (Dec 29, 2010)

silkstone said:


> The problem is, if i hard re-set the Zyxel, i lose my password (Which i don't know) and the guy charges $10 to come over and put in the password for me.. I live in a stupid location



why do you have a password? just set a new one?


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

The isp passowrd


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

oh, this is so stupid... Before, i just Hard-reset the D-link and connected it to the Zyxel and i got a connection... after accessing the D-link to add WPA it wouldn;t connect.

So i rinsed and repeated, reset the D-link, connected it to the Zyxel...and dun dun... no connection


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## Solaris17 (Dec 29, 2010)

silkstone said:


> oh, this is so stupid... Before, i just Hard-reset the D-link and connected it to the Zyxel and i got a connection... after accessing the D-link to add WPA it wouldn;t connect.
> 
> So i rinsed and repeated, reset the D-link, connected it to the Zyxel...and dun dun... no connection



are you just unplugging it?


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

Solaris17 said:


> are you just unplugging it?



The Zyxel (ADSL) i just unplug as i can't afford to lose the isp password. but the D-link i do a hard reset.

Between port 1 and the internet port of the D-link i get a slowly flashing orange light. but it doesn;t establish a connection. This is with default D-Link settings.


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## Solaris17 (Dec 29, 2010)

silkstone said:


> The Zyxel (ADSL) i just unplug as i can't afford to lose the isp password. but the D-link i do a hard reset.
> 
> Between port 1 and the internet port of the D-link i get a slowly flashing orange light. but it doesn;t establish a connection. This is with default D-Link settings.



what exactly are you doing for a hard reset? push the small reset button for 30seconds with and without the router plugged in.


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

Yes, i push it for 15 seconds, the lights on the D-link go off, then it power cycles back up. after it's done that. i unplug it and plug it back in


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## Solaris17 (Dec 29, 2010)

silkstone said:


> Yes, i push it for 15 seconds, the lights on the D-link go off, then it power cycles back up. after it's done that. i unplug it and plug it back in



no need to power cycle after a hard reset. simply let it boot back up.


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

yea, i do that. it boots back up, and when i access it with my laptop. everything is default, including the admin password


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

interesting thing is, whenever i cange any of the setting on the Wireless, the powerlight turns orae, even after unplugging it and powering it back up


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## Solaris17 (Dec 29, 2010)

silkstone said:


> yea, i do that. it boots back up, and when i access it with my laptop. everything is default, including the admin password



um pretty sure you said you unplug it after?







just try that.


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

ok, after re-setting and powercycling for the 100th time, they are both now connected. However the Power light and internet light on the D-link are both orange and not Green.

The ZyXel also sees a second (un-named) device on the network.


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

Solaris17 said:


> um pretty sure you said you unplug it after?
> 
> http://www.solarisutilitydvd.com/pubimg/pubimg/1334702421.png
> 
> just try that.



yes, reset, unplug, connect laptop. the settings are then default.


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## Solaris17 (Dec 29, 2010)

silkstone said:


> yes, reset, unplug, connect laptop. The settings are then default.



no unpluging


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

if i don't unplug, it doesn't power back up.... let me try again


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

Ok, i got it to work again, i had to fiddle with some random settings.

I set the wireless router to a different IP, Disable DHCP and set the internet port to work as a LAN port. I also changed the SSID to the same name i set on my Zyxel. The firewall is still turned on in the D-link, but i'm wary of turning this off incase it messes it up.

I saved the configuration file this time, so, hopefully, fingers crossed, if it messes up again i can just reload them


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## silkstone (Dec 29, 2010)

Wow! got home, both routers had been turned off as when the house is empty we generally turn everything off. turned them both on... what do you guess... no wi-fi connection..... no communication between the 2 routers. they had been working really well for hours before we left the house, but it seems that a power on/off really **** up the whole connection.

I guess if i ever want to turn off either, or if i get a power cut (Sometimes every week) i have to spend 24hrs re-setting them up.

Edit - i arrived home fairly drunk so i'm not going to troubleshoot again tonight, but wifi seems like a complete waste of time. networks have existed for 30+ years and it still takes an MSc and ++years of experience to set one up! Ridiculous!!!


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