Routing the internet from one computer to two others via a router

4

I am trying to route the wireless internet from one computer, through a router, onto a local network which should be accessible by two other computers on the same network. Graphically, my problem can be explained with the following diagram:

Schematicenter image description here

Where the internet goes into the main router which then transmits wirelessly to the first computer. The router then allows this first computer to connect to either of the two machines that are also on the network. This already exists and is working.

The problem is that I have absolutely no idea on how to share the internet between the two other computers through the second router whilst keeping its status as a local network.

For references sake, both routers are BT Home Hub 3s, C1 is a Windows 7 machine kept on the local port 192.168.137.52, C2 and C3 are both Linux Mint 15 machines on the ports 192.168.137.2 and 192.168.137.4 respectively.

If there are other areas that remain vague, please comment and I'll try to flesh out the details as much as I can.

J4Numbers

Posted 2013-09-07T22:16:15.753

Reputation: 43

That's a nice picture. – Jon – 2013-09-07T22:34:43.717

Computers are meant to connect to the "Home Router"(or a switch). Routers/"Home Routers" connect to each other. It's like a hierarchy. But I really don't you should have a computer between two routers and i'm not sure that even makes sense. And if they are not proper routers and just "home routers", by that I mean, only being able to deal with one local network, then they can probably only do one network locally anyway and I don't know what they'd make of another router connected with a different network range. – barlop – 2013-09-07T22:40:33.390

when I say home router, I mean the kind of thing that can only handle one local network. you can only configure one network. and it just has a switch for the multiple ports.So, I mean a "one lan router". A proper router can handle many LAN networks. – barlop – 2013-09-07T22:42:16.930

@barlop First things first, they are "home routers" as you called them. The setup given above is simply the current one. If I have to switch things around then that's fair enough, but the problem with that is that the BT Home Hubs are a little techy about bridging a wireless connection. That is to say, I don't think they do. A cable connecting the two is out of the question because the routers are on completely different floors. So as far as you know, there is no way to mess the hierarchy around? – J4Numbers – 2013-09-07T22:49:09.753

ah, my head is a bit sore from some coding, and i'm not so good with wireless. You seem to write clearly, hopefully somebody can help. But if you want to cheat you could use an Ethernet Over Mains plug. that's an alternative to wireless(worth a google if you haven't heard of it) I have always managed to get a room upstairs connected to a room downstairs with them. Another thing you could do is to use routers with DDWRT or tomato (decent firmware), and then they'd bridge. – barlop – 2013-09-07T23:58:36.767

Answers

1

  1. On C1 (win7 PC) enable internet sharing on the Wireless interface

    • Click the wireless network connection in the "Network and Sharing Center" in the Windows control panel of the laptop. By clicking the wireless connection, a window will open that shows the network status.
    • Click the "Properties" button and select "Sharing" tab from the newly opened window.
    • Tick the "Allow other network users connect through..." box and select the wired connection from the dropdown menu.
    • After closing the setting windows from "OK", the network connection should be shared and working with the other PC (unless you have a firewall that blocks this traffic).

  2. Make sure the ethernet cables from C1, C2 and C3 are all connecting on LAN ethernet ports -yellow color ports ( this i assume is already the case in your setup)

  3. Make sure 'BT Home Hub 3' has DHCP server disabled in the configuration. ( This is to avoid DHCP server conflict with C1 which will also be running DHCP service now )
  4. Ensure C2 and C3 are configured to receive dynamic IP address using DHCP ( C1 will act as DHCP server and allocate IP's to C2,C3 )

Now C2 and C3 will be able to share internet connection via C1.

Rakesh Singh

Posted 2013-09-07T22:16:15.753

Reputation: 61

Hi, thanks for the answer. I have completed steps one through 3 but I'd like some clarification on the last step. When you said to configure the linux machines to receive dynamic IPs, did you mean that I should choose the 'Automatic configuration (DHCP)' option in the properties of Network Settings? If that's the case, I'm afraid there's still no such luck as far as sharing the connection goes. – J4Numbers – 2013-09-09T19:05:36.090

I see that you already have Static IP addresses assigned to C1 C2 and C3. If C1, C2 & C3 are able to ping each other AND C1 is also able to connect to internet -- Then make sure that for C2 & C3 configure SubnetMask:255.255.255.0 DefaultGateway:192.168.137.52. Once this is done C2 and C3 should be able to ping Internet-IP 8.8.8.8 . . . Aditionally you can configure the appropriate DNS-Server address to ensure Dynamic Name Resolution. – Rakesh Singh – 2013-09-10T14:50:20.810

Thank you for the information. I'd recommend you add the specific details into the answer though. – J4Numbers – 2013-09-10T18:35:03.003

Asked: 2013-09-07T22:16:15.753

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Active: 2017-04-06T11:59:23.167