Re: Router install problem

PaulFXH wrote:
Hi Paul,

I only see one post from today and none from yesterday.

If you can't connect to the DI524 from your laptop, as I suggested,
there are only a limited number of possibilities:

1. The cable is bad. This probably is not the case, assuming that
you're using the same cable to connect the laptop to the DI524 that you
used to connect the laptop to the Encore NIC in the main computer. If
you have another cable, you might try that.

2. The NIC in the laptop is bad. This is not the case. You know the
laptop's NIC works because you can get to the Internet when it's
connected to the Encore NIC.

3. The laptop NIC is not configured to use DHCP or it is set to use a
static IP OTHER than 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.254. This also is not
likely to be the case because we know that the Encore NIC has an IP of
192.168.0.1 (coincidentally the same as the default IP address of the
DI524), and we know that the laptop communicates with the Encore NIC.

To test, set the laptop to have a static IP of 192.168.0.2 and subnet
mask 255.255.255.0. Before you do this, make sure you write down how
the laptop's NIC is configured so you can restore it when this test is
done. I suspect it is set to obtain an IP address automatically. You
can leave default gateway blank at this time. Disconnect everything
from the router except a cable from a LAN jack to the laptop. Enter
192.168.0.1 in a browser on the laptop. What happens?

4. The DI524 has been set to an IP address of something other than the
192.168.0.1 and is not resetting to 192.168.0.1 when the reset button is
depressed. I suppose it's possible that Brazilian versions of the DI524
have a different default IP, but I doubt it. What happens if you open a
command prompt on the laptop and type "ping 192.168.0.1" (without
quotes) and press Enter?

5. Some portion of the DI524 is broken.

At this point, I'm leaning toward #5.

As a last resort, try the following:

With your system configured as it used to be, i.e., the laptop connected
directly to the Encore card, and with Internet connectivity from the
laptop confirmed, run ipconfig /all on the laptop and record the
information. I suspect that the laptop's IP address will be
192.168.0.x, but I don't know if the default gateway will be 192.168.0.1
(which is what I think it ought to be) or 201.58.171.234 (or something
else).

Disconnect the laptop and set its NIC to a static IP of 192.168.0.2
(actually, you can use anything other than .1, .100, or .254). Set the
subnet mask to 255.255.255.0. Set the default gateway whatever it was
when you had Internet connectivity through the Encore NIC.

Connect the router as in your first setup above (the desktop Encore
10/100 Mbps card to the LAN #1 on the DI524 and went from LAN #2 port to
the laptop). You should not get the "conflicting IP address" error
message this time. If you don't get Internet connectivity, try setting
the default gateway to 201.58.171.234 if you had set it to 192.168.0.1.

Even if this works, however, if you are unable to access the DI524's
configuration pages, you will be unable to properly configure its
wireless settings. Although you may be able to connect wirelessly, your
network will be completely vulnerable to outside attack, because it will
be using the default SSID and no encryption.

Hi Lem
Still can't figure out what happened to my two posts from Wednesday.
Presumably, they got as far as some server in trouble which proceeded
to dump them. Oh well.
However, just when we thought things were starting to look a little
hopeless, a faint light is now starting to emerge at the end of this
long tunnel.
The test you suggested as a last resort above actually got me to the
login page for D-Link configurations.
I used the following parameters for the static IP address config:
IP 192.168.0.2
Subnet mask 255.255.255.0
Default gateway 192.168.0.1 although I got to the D-Link page also
when the default gateway was set to 201.58.171.234

Although this page was sitting there right in front of me inviting me
to change the routers configuration, I felt it better to wait to hear
from you before taking this bold step.

Before doing any of this on the laptop, I ran ipconfig/all at a DOS
prompt and got the following:

Configuração de IP do Windows

Nome do host . . . . . . . . . . . : PAUL2
Sufixo DNS primário. . . . . . . . :
Tipo de nó . . . . . . . . . . . . : misto
Roteamento de IP ativado . . . . . : não
Proxy WINS ativado . . . . . . . . : não
Lista de pesquisa de sufixo DNS. . : mshome.net

Adaptador Ethernet Conexão local:

Sufixo DNS específico de conexão . : mshome.net
Descrição . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/100 VE
Network Connec
tion
Endereço físico . . . . . . . . . . : 00-18-FE-27-B5-9C
DHCP ativado. . . . . . . . . . . . : Sim
Configuração automática ativada . . : Sim
Endereço IP . . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.132
Máscara de sub-rede . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Gateway padrão. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Servidor DHCP . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Servidores DNS. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Concessão obtida. . . . . . . . . . : sexta-feira, 6 de abril
de 2007 09
:23:48
Concessão expira. . . . . . . . . . : sexta-feira, 13 de abril
de 2007 0
9:23:48

I think the Portuguese here is readily translatable (possible
exception is Node Type = Mixed where it says "Tipo de
nó . . . . . . . . . . . . : misto".

I do hope this means that perhaps we're now entering the home
straight.

Thanks
Paul
--
Lem MS MVP -- Networking

To the moon and back with 64 Kbits of RAM and 512 Kbits of ROM.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer


Paul,

I think we *are* nearing the finish line.

At the risk of making this long thread even longer, and of giving you information that you already may know, let me try to explain a little of what is going on.

There are 3 blocks of IP addresses reserved for use as private networks (local networks). The block typically used by SOHO LANs is 192.168.0.0 through 192.168.255.255. Such networks can be further subdivided into "subnets." This is where the "subnet mask" comes in. In order to communicate directly (without a router), computers must be on the same subnet. With a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, and on a LAN using the 192.168.x.y block of addresses, the subnet can be thought of as the third octet in the address, i.e., "x" in the example. Thus, in order to communicate directly, devices on such a LAN must have IP addresses in which the first 3 octets are identical. That is, in your case, all IP addresses on your LAN must be 192.168.0.y.

Each IP on the LAN must be unique. So, when you got the "conflicting address" error, you had two devices with the same IP, probably 192.168.0.1.

IP addresses can either be set statically or automatically, using Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).

Because of the way your Internet access is configured (which I don't fully understand), your LAN consists of (1) the Encore NIC on the main computer, (2) the DI-524, and (3) the NIC on the laptop. You have at least two devices on this LAN that are capable of performing the DHCP function: Windows ICS running on the Encore and the DHCP server built into the DI-524.

You don't want two active DHCP servers on the same LAN because of the danger that they will assign the same IP address to different devices. Because the DHCP function of ICS can't be turned off or configured, you must turn off the DHCP server in the DI-524 (as a practical matter, of course, if all the computers connected through the DI-524 are set with static IP addresses, it wouldn't matter if you left the DI-524 DHCP server turned on).

As an aside, if you really were unable to see the DI-524 configuration login screen when you connected the laptop with the laptop's NIC set to obtain an IP address automatically, but could see it when you set a static IP on the laptop, it suggests that the DI-524's DHCP server is either already turned off or broken.

Another aspect of Windows ICS that cannot be configured is the IP address that is set on the shared NIC, i.e., on the Encore. ICS forces the Encore to a static IP address of 192.168.0.1. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306126/ and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310563/en-us for more information.

Because the Encore has an IP address of 192.168.0.1 and the default IP address of the DI-524 is also 192.168.0.1, if you connect the Encore to one of the LAN jacks of the DI-524, you will get an error message warning that there are conflicting devices on the network. Thus, you need to change the IP address of the DI-524. In order to be able to communicate with this device, its IP address must be in the same 192.168.0.x subnet. If you set the DI-524 to 192.168.0.2, you will be able to communicate with it both from the main computer (because the Encore's IP is 192.168.0.1) and the laptop (which you will either set to a static IP of 192.168.0.x where x is greater than 2, or to obtain an IP automatically).

If you set the laptop to obtain an IP automatically, the ICS DHCP allocater will set it appropriately. This software is smart enough to see the IP address of the DI-524 and to make the laptop's IP address different. ICS also should set the laptop's default gateway and DNS server to 192.168.0.1 (the address of the Encore).

So, with all of that in mind, access the DI-524 configuration system and change its IP address to 192.168.0.x, where x is less than 254 and neither 0, nor 1, nor whatever you might have set as a static address on the laptop). Leaving the laptop connected to one of the DI-524 LAN ports, connect a cable between another DI-524 LAN port and the Encore, and things should finally work. Remember -- you can always reset the DI-524 to its factory default if things spiral out of control.

Assuming that you can now reach the Internet through the DI-524, have yourself a caipirinha or three and relax. You can then turn to setting up security on your new wireless network.

You want to do at least 3 things:

- change the default SSID (the wireless network name) to something unique (but not your name or address)
- enable the strongest encryption that is compatible with the DI-524 and the wireless adapter on the laptop
- change the password for accessing the DI-524 configuration.

The major downside to configuring your network in the above manner is that your main computer -- which controls your connection to the Internet -- must be on whenever you want to connect to the Internet from the laptop. That's why my first suggestion was to connect the DI-524 directly to the SS5200. The DI-524 has built-in computational capability that can connect to most broadband modems. That is the function of the WAN port. Unfortunately, I don't understand how your computer is communicating with the SS5200, so I can't tell you how to configure the DI-524 to do the same. If you could figure this out, the only hardware that would need to be powered on would be the SS5200 and the DI-524 and whichever computer you wanted to use to get to the Internet.

Good luck.

P.S. The node type of "mixed" will work, although it's not ideal. See http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/address-resolution-on-lan.html

--
Lem MS MVP -- Networking

To the moon and back with 64 Kbits of RAM and 512 Kbits of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer
.

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