Re: piggybacking a wireless router on a another router, and DHCP -- PCTECH

Dan wrote:

I always get an education from you guys!


That's what we're here for :)

That is correct.  My main concern with my limited time resources on
Saturday, which was just too gorgeous outside to spend more than 10 minutes
indoors, much less the time it would take me to set this up properly, was
simply to get to the internet from any device on either of the two routers.
I got that far.


Between being outside and working on networking, outside should win
hands down.

Of course, once you get the wifi working, you can sit outside sipping
your favorite 'lovely beverage' and surf the web (looking for local
outdoor festivals & events, of course).

Didn't try this; I don't do much networking "in-house".  Don't have a
bona-fide file server, and there have only been a few times that we have
ever had a "need" to access a file across the network.  My bigger need is to
share the printers, but that's another day.


In order to share resources, you need all your devices on the same subnet.

OK, I think I get this.  I thought the D-Link tech was recommending I
disable DHCP on the Gigafast (could be wrong on that).


Well, that would work ... but if you remove the dlink device, nothing
will get an IP.  Better to disable the dhcp server on the most removable
hardware.

So, just to be
clear, you are recommending disabling the DHCP server on the D-Link, which
is *not* the router directly connected to the cable modem?  (Or does it
matter which one?)  For clarification, here is my "schematic":


Correct, this is exactly what I am suggesting.  This makes the DLink
device a switch with a built-in access point.  The router functionality
is effectively disabled.

Per Tom's suggestion on getting wireless encryption running:  I set up
128-bit WEP, but it looks like I should be using WPA instead, according to a
few articles I just pulled up.  Advice on that?


WEP is better than nothing ... but WPA is better than WEP.  WEP is
crackable, but someone has to want to get in.  Of course without any
encryption, it's trivial to connect to a network and view resources.

david