Surfnux’s Weblog

Something new to blog about. New category: Networking and Computing. To share some technical knowledge to you all. :p Hope it is helpful and feel free to comment if anything wrong with it.

First topic to start with is how to install a router as a wireless switch.

Problems:
1. I have a wired broadband router/modem and I wanted a wireless connection at home, thus I had purchased a wireless router.
2. I am connecting to a campus LAN through its wall-socket and I want to have wireless network in my room. I have a wireless router with me.

Solution:
- Best solution is to use a dedicated wireless Access Point and connect it to the wired router or the wall-socket.
- But if you already have a wireless router, that will do as well. First, you must go through the router’s user manual for the features and how to set it up.
- If the router has the function to disable the routing, that will be perfect. Go to the configuration page of the router, and disable the Routing. For example, there is a menu like: “Mode Selection” - Enable Routing - Disable Routing. Disable the routing, and reboot the router.
- Next is, set your PC’s IP manually to be on the same as the router’s subnet and access the router configuration page again to set the wireless SSID and details if you wish so. Else, skip this step.
- For problem number 1: Connect one end of network cable to the Broadband router’s LAN port, and the other end to the wireless router’s LAN port.
- For problem number 2: Connect one end of network cable to the wall-socket and the other end to the router’s LAN port. Notice here, we are using the LAN port. Reason? We are making the router to be acting as a wireless switch. This is much simpler way.
- After connected, try to connect using your wireless laptop / PC to the wireless router. If DHCP is enabled on the source: Broadband router or the campus network, by right you will be able to obtain IP address from the source. Verify by going to Command Prompt (Start — Run — type: CMD — click OK), type ipconfig/all and ENTER. Check what IP did you get on the Wireless Ethernet Adapter Connection. IF you are getting 169.254.xxx.xxx kind of IP without default gateway, you are not getting any IP address from the source (the broadband router or the campus LAN).
- If you are not able to obtained an IP, you will have to set it all manually then. To set IP manually, go to Control Panel - Network Connections - right click on the Wireless Network and select Properties. Select “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)” and click on Properties button. Instead of selecting “Automatically Obtained an IP address”, select “Use the following IP address” and type in the IP address, subnet mask, Gateway IP that your network is using. Also select: Use the following DNS IP address and enter the DNS IPs. After all done, click OK, close close and voila. You are now connected to the internet through wireless. Verify by opening a webpage.

Note: If you don’t know what is the IP address your network is using, try to connect directly to the broadband router or the campus LAN and find out what is the IP address and DNS server that you are getting by: Click Start - Run - type: cmd - OK. On command prompt, enter: ipconfig/all and ENTER. Note down the IP address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway and the DNS servers.

Another note: If you are behind a proxy, I am not sure how it goes. This has been tested without any proxy servers on the way.

If you have problem understanding the terms used, please refer to Wikipedia.

So, this is when we set the router as a wireless switch and that the router is having the function to disable routing. What if the router don’t have the feature to disable the routing? Stay tuned for the next one.

written by surfnux

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