Router IP does not appear on network

Question

I have the following configuration: Netgear FSV338 vpn filewall(NAT and DHCP) connected to the LAN port of NETGEAR WNDR3400 router.

When I connect to the network, I can only see the firewall's ip and not the router's ip. It is as if the router doesn't have an IP, which seems impossible. If I connect my computer directly to the router I still cannot access it. Why would the router not appear on the wireless networks it created?

Answer 1

Routers/firewalls mostly come with their own default static IP address (also depending on manufacturer and model). If the IP address of your router is not within the same range as your DHCP server, you will not be able to access it.

For example: your firewall has address 192.168.1.1 (subnet 255.255.255.0) and distributes 192.168.1.50 to 192.168.1.200, you will have (as first device asking for an address) the IP-address 192.168.1.50. If your router still has its static address which is not in the range (like 192.168.0.1), you will not be able to access it. Also beware of default IP-addresses being the same, some vendors have the same default IP address.

Best practice when creating a new network setup is defining which networks scheme you want to use and assigning static addresses to key devices (firewall, router, server, printers,...). When you install a device, just directly connect your computer to that device and connect to their default IP address. That way, you won't have to deal with double IP addresses.

Answer 2

The logic that Terry gives needs a correction, or it risks allowing the OP's problem to repeat itself.

The OP's confirmed problem (see comments on question) was that there was an IP address conflict, due to the fact that the firewall and router both had the same, default, statically-assigned IP address. The solution was to manually change the static IP of the router, resolving the conflict.

However, the logic Terry expresses to underpin his answer is misleading, when he said that, "If the IP address of your router is not within the same range as your DHCP server, you will not be able to access it." In fact, you want your static IPs to be placed outside the range which the DHCP Server uses to lease IPs, in order to prevent future conflicts when a new device is connected via DHCP. The important mechanic at work (as Terry's example correctly denotes) is that all hosts share the same network range per the subnet mask.

For example, if your subnet mask is 255.255.255.0, and the rest of your network's IPs have as their first three numbers 192.168.1.x, then you could have x=1 be the gateway (the firewall in this case), 2<=x<=50 be reserved to be statically (manually) assigned (x=2 would make a good router IP), and have the DHCP pull from the range 51<=x<=100. All 192.168.1.x hosts can communicate with each other being on the same network/subnet, regardless of static/dynamic origination. But the DHCP will never step on the toes of your static addresses.

(Reference [see section How IP Address Conflicts Happen, second bullet]: https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-ip-address-conflict-818381 )