Two routers, two wireless LANs, one connection

[>Ezio<]

Hi everybody, been searching the forum but didn't find a solution for my situation, guess it's not very common...

Where I recently moved there's a shared connection. What I got is a wireless LAN and an ethernet cable, both coming from a router. I do not have access to this router.

What I need is to create another wireless network to connect all my stuff (2 smartphone, a tablet, a WDTV, 2 windows and 1 ubuntu laptops) without having to share the internal traffic with other people, but still going out to the internet via the only shared connection.

I already had a Netgear JNR3210 router, so what I did is connect the ethernet cable to it and create a new wireless network. The router changed its IP address to 10.0.0.1 to avoid clashes. DHCP is still active. I tried connetting stuff and everything works mighty fine. Everything except one windows laptop.

This one laptop (Windows 7 enterprise) sees everything in the network but can't reach the outside world. I tried disabling DHCP but that only worsened the things, because my android devices cuoldn't get an IP address anymore.

To make everything even worse, the non working laptop is the one I use for my job, so I will connect using a VPN. Everything works fine if I connect to the pre-exixtent wireless LAN, so I don't really want to change a lot of things...

Does anybody have any suggestions to make this laptop able to run free on the internet?
Thanks a lot in advance

 

[DelJo63]

Just to verify, you now have a layout like

ISP==router#1----Netgear JNR3210(10.0.0.1)- - -wired & wifi
		  |
		  +--- wired & wifi

* you have NO control over router#1 and it does NOT have an address of 10.0.0.1

Yes DHCP is necessary on BOTH routers.

? all systems connected to 10.0.0.1 have Internet access?
ie the 2 smartphone, a tablet, a WDTV, 2 windows and 1 ubuntu laptops

EXCEPT the Win/7 and the non working laptop is the one I use for my job, so I will connect using a VPN.

Sorry, VPN will never work. The VNP needs port forwarding from router#1 which you do not have control.

 

[>Ezio<]

Just to verify, you now have a layout like

ISP==router#1----Netgear JNR3210(10.0.0.1)- - -wired & wifi
		  |
		  +--- wired & wifi

Yes, correct.

* you have NO control over router#1 and it does NOT have an address of 10.0.0.1

Correct and correct

Yes DHCP is necessary on BOTH routers.

That's what I thought.

? all systems connected to 10.0.0.1 have Internet access?
ie the 2 smartphone, a tablet, a WDTV, 2 windows and 1 ubuntu laptops

Yes, and I don't know if I'm being more surprised by them having access or by the Win7 one not having it.

EXCEPT the Win/7 and the non working laptop is the one I use for my job, so I will connect using a VPN.
Sorry, VPN will never work. The VNP needs port forwarding from router#1 which you do not have control.

But if I connect DIRECTLY to router#1 it's working! With no need to do anything. So I was thinking that, as long as I get access to the internet on the Win7 laptop, maybe it's going to just work...

Thanks again

 

[DelJo63]

But if I connect DIRECTLY to router#1 it's working! With no need to do anything. So I was thinking that, as long as I get access to the internet on the Win7 laptop, maybe it's going to just work...

separate issues; Win/7 access via 2'nd router and Win/7 VPN usage via 2'nd router.

If all else fails, Win/7 VPN for business use is a shoe-in via 1'st router so that becomes PLAN-B.

SO, with Win/7 connected to 2'nd router, what do you get attempting
Start->search: enter CMD, launch it and
enter PING 8.8.8.8? Do you get timing data?
now try PING google.com; still get timeing data?

 

[>Ezio<]

Working with IP address, not working with domain name.
In fact, when I'm connected to Netgear router, it gets 10.0.0.1 as DNS server, which is probably wrong...

 

[DelJo63]

Working with IP address, not working with domain name.
In fact, when I'm connected to Netgear router, it gets 10.0.0.1 as DNS server, which is probably wrong...

no, with a 2'nd router the DNS & DHCP addresses typically show-up as the router address and router#2 should forward out to rotuer#1 where the real requests get resolved.

Whereas Win/7 accessing Router#1 directly works fine, it would appear that router#2 has an issue.

google for a new firmware for router#2

 

[>Ezio<]

But then why it's working with all the other devices? If the router has an issue, then it should be affecting every device connected to it.

 

[DelJo63]

The spec sheet for r#2 is here.

tad concerned you did NOT use the WPS button to create the WPA encryption

AND that

• the parental controls are still off
• NAT & SPI is on
• Firewall is OFF (you'll use the Win/7 FW instead).

 

[DelJo63]

But then why it's working with all the other devices? If the router has an issue, then it should be affecting every device connected to it.

You will not harm existing connections and you almost always want the latest firmware regardless.

 

[>Ezio<]

• I already have the latest firmware available.
• I did NOT use the WPS button. I connected everything manually.
• Parental controls are off
• NAT is ON, but I can't seem to find anything about SPI or firewall in the router control panel

Sorry, but I still don't get why the forwarding issue is happening only for the Win7 laptop.
Oh, and thanks again for the help, much appreciated.

 

[DelJo63]

For normal Internet access, there is no forwarding issue - - your problem is the DNS is not resolving a name ( like google.com) into its proper ip address.

Forwarding "will be needed" when you attempt to use the VPN access to work.

Solve one problem at a time.

Let's look at the current tcp settings when Win/7 is connected to router#2

start->search enter CMD and in that window type
ipconfig /all >myTCP.txt

then open that file and copy the entire contents and paste as your next follow-up here.

 

[>Ezio<]

Hi again.
I tried the simplest solution and forced a public DNS server instead of getting one automatically, and it worked. I also could use the VPN without having to force anything else.

I guess my problem is solved now.
Thank you very much for your help!!