Cascading routers (LAN-to-LAN) no internet access from 2nd router

3

I'm trying to cascade my network to get better wireless reception in my room and more LAN ports for more devices.

The first/primary router (CH7486E Wireless Voice Gateway) is located in the apartment living room and was supplied by my ISP (Comhem AB) and it is connected into the wall with a special cable to get access to their network (they provide internet, telephone land line and television). This is a wireless router and provides internet access to mine and my room mate's devices. I also have a cable drawn from it to my workstation (without WiFi).

Now I want to connect that cable in to a second router (D-Link DIR-655) and then connect the workstation to that 2nd router, as well as my second computer and a NAS, and my Xbox, and I want to use it wirelessly to connect my laptop to it as well (the primary router is so far away that the WiFi signal is rather low).

The 1st router has IP 192.168.0.1 and UPnP enabled (not sure if it matters) This router also acts as a DHCP Server with Starting Local Address: 192.168.0.2 Operation Mode is set to Routing (NAT on)

There are also some WAN Settings in this router that I don't know how to change, and I don't know if they need to be entered in the second router or so. Not sure if it is a security risk to post them here, so I censor them somewhat.

IPv4 Address: 83.248.xx.xx
IPv4 Default Gateway: 83.248.x.x 
IPv4 DNS Servers: 83.255.xxx.xx and 193.150.xxx.xxx

If I type the Default Gateway into a browser it's not leading anywhere. Isn't the Default Gateway usually 255.255.255.0?

The 2nd router has IP 192.168.0.2 and both UPnP and DHCP Server is disabled. There is no connection type called "bridge" in this router so I just left it as is, and the DNS settings are left as is as well, set to dynamic. Should they be set to the same ones as noted from the 1st router above or something?

From my workstation I can get access to both routers via their IP adresses, so the routers seems to be communicating with each other, but I can't get access to the internet. In Windows (Windows 10) I have set it to get a dynamic IP.

I've tried PING and TRACERT to google via IP but without success.

tracert 173.194.222.113
Request timed out.
Transmit error: code 1231.

ping 173.194.222.113
PING: transmit failed. General failure.

The inner network seems to be working, I can share files between my devices regardless of witch router the device is connected to, but I don't get internet access from the second router, regardless whether I connect to it via cable or wireless.

My problem is I can't figure out where the problem is:

  1. Is it settings in Windows that's the problem?
  2. Is the 2nd router not "taking" internet access from the first router, or...
  3. Is the 1st router not "giving" internet access to the second router?

Kristoffer Helander

Posted 2016-07-03T15:51:47.480

Reputation: 133

Your not giving any real, useful information that is relavent... If the D-Link has DHCP disabled, a static IP on the LAN side and the feed from the first router is connected to a LAN port, your configuration is correct... What is the output of `ipconfig /all" connected to the second router's LAN port? – acejavelin – 2016-07-03T15:57:40.170

I'll rig it up again as soon as I can and run a 'ipconfig /all' to see what it says. – Kristoffer Helander – 2016-07-03T21:46:39.020

Kristoffer: How are the two routers connected? That is, is the 1st router connected to the 2nd's "LAN" port, or the "WAN" port? If there's no "bridge" option, it's not enough to just disable DHCP – you still have to bypass the whole "router" part by connecting everything to the "LAN" ports only. – user1686 – 2016-07-04T06:21:59.317

The two routers are connected via the LAN-ports, not WAN. So on the second router one LAN-port is connected to router 1 and the other LAN-port is to connect the second router to the computer. – Kristoffer Helander – 2016-07-04T19:05:31.290

It's downhill I'm afraid. Now I can't even connect to the router admin. So I tried resetting it to factory settings, then I connected to the admin page and did all the settings again, but the now the Default Gateway is blank when I do ipconfig in cmd. And after a minute or so, the connection to the router admin via IP is not working any more. To clarify, if I reset the router and do all the setting again the router admin works for a few minutes, but then it stops, and I can't connect to it, it just say that that page isn't available, and yes I do connect to the new IP (192.168.0.2). – Kristoffer Helander – 2016-07-12T01:00:35.627

Answers

1

(May be edited later based on more information)

  1. No, Windows should just be set to automatically acquire IP information (the default setting). The DHCP from router 1 should be everything the Computer needs.

2&3. The routers do not give or take Internet from either one... Router 1 is the router providing DHCP and other network services including the gateway to the Internet. The second router is essentially a switch, dumbed down to do nothing but act as a switch (and possibly an Access Point) only and perform no routing at all. Essentially it's a dumb "hub" only.

acejavelin

Posted 2016-07-03T15:51:47.480

Reputation: 5 341

But where do you suggest I start looking for the problem? Why can't the second router access the internet when the first one can, and the 2nd can access the 1st router itself. What more information can I give you to help you, help me? :) – Kristoffer Helander – 2016-07-03T21:39:57.287

It's downhill I'm afraid. Now I can't even connect to the router admin. So I tried resetting it to factory settings, then I connected to the admin page and did all the settings again, but the now the Default Gateway is blank when I do ipconfig in cmd. And after a minute or so, the connection to the router admin via IP is not working any more. To clarify, if I reset the router and do all the setting again the router admin works for a few minutes, but then it stops, and I can't connect to it, it just say that that page isn't available, and yes I do connect to the new IP (192.168.0.2). – Kristoffer Helander – 2016-07-12T01:00:43.173

All I can say is get router1 working... then config router2 before you connect it, give it a static IP on the LAN side that is not in router1's DHCP range and not used elsewhere and then disable it's DHCP. Connect a LAN port from router1 to a LAN port of router2. That is it, nothing more to it, I've done it dozens of times. – acejavelin – 2016-07-12T01:06:01.953

1Unfortunately, that is exactly what I do, and it still doesn't work. And I have no idea of where I should start looking for the error. From all sources from the internet it sounds like it should be straight forward, but not for me apparently. – Kristoffer Helander – 2016-07-12T01:15:02.550

Perhaps it's my router that is not working properly. I have a D-Link DIR-655. But according to this forum thread it is supposed to work, but I've tried everything that is suggested here. http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=8046.0 What's your favourite router that you would recommend?

– Kristoffer Helander – 2016-07-12T01:58:27.523

@KristofferHelander I use mostly Asus routers now, the RT-N66U is a good router for the price. – acejavelin – 2016-07-12T02:20:01.870

What should the Internet Connection Type be on the 2nd router? A lot of sites suggest Bridge Mode, but that's not an option in my DIR-655. I have it on Dynamic IP (DHCP) with Primary and Secondary DNS servers set to 0.0.0.0. Is this correct or do I need something else? I've tried setting it to Static IP and entering the values of the 1st router, but I got an error that said that the WAN and LAN IP must be on separate subnets. – Kristoffer Helander – 2016-07-12T13:09:51.767

@KristofferHelander It isn't relevant since the Internet (or WAN) connection is not used, router2 isn't really a router anymore, just a switch. I always leave it as dynamic and do NOT connect anything to the WAN/Internet port of router2. In the DIR-655 leave Internet settings default, and in Setup-Network Settings-Router settings set the IP address to 192.168.0.2 and turn off all other features on this page. – acejavelin – 2016-07-12T13:19:45.203

It looks like it's working on my laptop now, that connects to the 2nd router via the WiFi. But my workstation that uses the cable cant connect to the internet. So I suppose the error is in that computer somewhere, not the router setup. It works if I connect the cable from the 1st router into the workstation though. It's running Windows 10. – Kristoffer Helander – 2016-07-12T13:49:56.800

I've updated the drives for my network card, and now I can access both routers from my workstation, but still no internet access. Accessing the 2nd router via Wifi is no problem though. Ipconfig returns a default gateway of 192.168.0.1 which is the same as the IP for the 1st router, is that the way it should be? – Kristoffer Helander – 2016-07-12T14:40:26.893

@KristofferHelander Standard network troubleshooting applies. Is 192.168.0.1 the gateway router (router1) IP address? If so, we know another PC works, so it is in a configuratioissues, not a router issue. Look at the output of ipconfig /all for the e that doesn't work and compare it to the one that does. Try ping 8.8.8.8 does that work? If so it's a DNS issue, if not, it's more basic. What IP address is it getting? You did change the DHCP range of router1 to exclude the IP you used for router2, correct? so the range is like 192.168.0.100 to 192.168.0.199 and doesn't include the .2 address? – acejavelin – 2016-07-12T14:46:35.140

I suddenly did get online from my workstation for a few seconds, and then I lost connection again, but I still have access to the routers. – Kristoffer Helander – 2016-07-12T15:09:44.903

1st router IP = 192.168.0.1, 2nd router IP = 192.168.0.2. DHCP range start from 192.168.0.3. I can't ping 8.8.8.8 from my workstation (works via WiFi from my laptop) – Kristoffer Helander – 2016-07-12T15:11:33.763

@KristofferHelander And if you manually assign it something like 192.168.0.200/255.255.255.0/192.168.0.1 and DNS of 8.8.8.8/208.67.222.222 is the result different? If it works, it's a DHCP stack issue, if it doesn't then there is a driver/Winsock/hardware/patch cord issue. But it sounds like your initial question is solved. – acejavelin – 2016-07-12T16:04:56.530

I just bought a new stationary computer and plug the ethernet cable from the 2nd router into that, and I get the same problem! WiFi still works to access the internet but the cable doesn't. I'm beginning to suspect that it's the router that is the problem. Since both desktop computer's are having the same issue... – Kristoffer Helander – 2016-07-13T06:41:10.800

@KristofferHelander does your laptop have an ethernet port? You could verify with that as well but your suspicion seems correct – acejavelin – 2016-07-13T10:48:33.903

1I dug out an old laptop and tried, same problem. So screw it! I gave in and bought a new router, fiddle a little with it and now it is up and perfectly :) The new router has got 2400 Mbps rather then 300, so I probably needed to upgrade any way in order to stream video over WiFi. I also found a lot of other forum post about the DIR-655 having problem accessing the internet and none of their solutions worked for me. Thank you very, VERY much for your patience and support - it has been invaluable! You'll the hero of day! ;) Cheers! – Kristoffer Helander – 2016-07-13T15:36:56.067

Asked: 2016-07-03T15:51:47.480

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Active: 2017-03-29T06:15:10.353