Cable Modem to Computer, Computer to Router... how, please :)

[Chibi]

Hello,

I absolutely hate routers. But I just got a laptop and so I got a router as well so I can give it wireless Internet. But for the life of me, I do not want my desktop to be behind a router. I want the desktop to give internet to the router, which inturn gives Internet to the Laptop wirelessly as well as filesharing via workgroups. I am relatively competent with computers, but I admit I don't completely know what I am doing when the router isnt setup between modem to desktop.

I am using Windoze XP Pro SP2 and the router is a Dlink DGL-4300. Might be noteworthy that I am using a crossover cable to connect the computer to the router. If this is wrong I can use standard Ethernet..

So recap on my desired setup:

--INTERNET---MODEM---DESKTOP---ROUTER----wi-re-le-ss----LAPTOP

As far as I know this is possible. I had a friend who had Internet > Modem > Computer > Router > Router > Computers (both routers went to different computers) .. but I am no longer in touch with him.

I dont think I need to setup dhcp software on Windoze or anything like that, but I may be wrong as well. Basically if someone would please be so kind as to tell me how to accomplish this setup I would be very grateful.

I suspect I am not supposed to plug the Desktop into the WAN port on the Router but one of the LAN ones as when I plug it into the WAN I can't even access the Router's Control Panel. If I plug it into the LAN, I can access the Router's CP, but then my Internet Disconnects/Reconnects forever.

It would seem the router assigns the Local Area Connection going to the router a regular network IP of 192.168.0.xxx, with its gateway as 192.168.0.1 . Also it seems an "Internet Connection" icon appears in Network Connections -- which wasnt there before. Denno if this information is useful.

Again, I really appreciate your assistance for this Thank you!

-Ji

 

[Nodsu]

Now, first, why don't you want your desktop to be behind a router? Too safe for you?
Or do you feel that port forwarding is something too difficult to do?

Anyways, to achieve this really silly setup you want:

Set up Windows Internet Connection Sharing on the desktop. Connect the desktop to a LAN port on the router. Disable DHCP on the router and tell it to use a static internet configuration (put in bogus values). You have to make sure the Desktop computer and the router have the same idea about their common LAN (the network addreses have to match).

Set up wireless so that the laptop can connect to the router.

 

[Chibi]

I was afraid of a response like that Everyone always wants to know why I hate routers. I very much so understand port forwarding and have used it before. But I am just picky to be completely honest. And lazy.

If I am feeling spontaneous and suddenly my friend out of the blue wants me to fire up Zsnes (or something I dont use regularly) and play something with him, I want it to work right away I simply dread the thought of having to login to the router I can think of a couple apps I might run where the ports are random...

Also I find that routers like to suddenly just stop working sometimes, and I have to go in and restart or refresh or whatever and that just cant happen I mean I will go crazy if my net stops working, its like your life stops. All in all if my desktop is connected directly to the modem then its a sure thing and then I feel all warm inside. Cept when Im running windoze.. its like death is around the corner.. oh and I feel that routers slow down your connection, but that might just be a myth

But thank you for the reply I am glad that I don't have to download some kinda dhcp software or something crazy

 

[Chibi]

Okay I did what you said and it appears to be working. Cept its not 100% setup like you said.. (by the time I finished writing this, the laptop get's disconnected now..)

When I setup ICS, it wanted to make my LAN adapter have the ip of 192.168.0.1 so I let it do that. Then in my router settings, I did turn off the dhcp server and so my net stopped disconnecting.

In the LAN settings, I changed the Router's IP address from 192.168.0.1 to 192.168.0.2, leaving the subnet mask still as 255.255.255.0.

Next I went to WAN and changed it from dhcp to Static.. but I can't seem to enter values that it is content with. I am not too sure what to put as the IP and gateway to be honest. Should they both be 192.168.0.1? It would tell me that it cant be on the same subnet as the LAN. So right now its sitting on dhcp and my laptop can connect to it for a little bit (see edit below) The laptop gets assigned 192.168.0.xxx with a subnet of 255.255.255.0 and gateway and dhcp servers all as 192.168.0.1.

I suspect its more appropriate to enter static values, but can you give me a little hint please?

EDIT: Oh and I don't use encryption, I use MAC Filtering.. and a weird thing that happens is, once I turn MAC filtering on and add my laptop to it, the laptop's internet will stop working. However I can still connect to it as a workgroup just fine. Kinda weird..

But in the mac filtering menu, normally the connected computers would be listed there for quick-adding, but the laptop was not. And if I go to the status menu, the router can see that the laptop is connected and shows its correct mac address, but it doesnt see the laptops name or the ip it was given?

 

[Nodsu]

The bogus WAN port configuration is there to stop the router from connecting to DSL or whatever. Setting the WAN to DHCP (automatic) should work too, although your router logs may get clogged up by complaints about no DHCP being around..

The Linksys doesn't show the laptop's IP because the router is no longer responsible for giving out IP addresses. The lappy gets all its info from the desktop machine now.

Your setup should work just fine.. Maybe it would help if you pasted the "ipconfig /all" output of both the laptop and the desktop here..

BTW, MAC filtering only is not a good idea - all your wireless traffic is transmitted unencrypted, meaning that anyone with a bit of know-how can sniff your passwords, e-mail and suchlike. And hog your connection once they figure out what MAC address your laptop has (it's easy to fake).

 

[Chibi]

It actually seems to be working fine now. I think that disconnection cause of MAC Filtering was just a fluke. Router needed to be restarted again or something like that. I was sort of fiddling with the settings.

I was aware of the risk of no encryption, I never really minded, especially since I feel that encryption slows down my precious bandwidth (jeez im such a whiner eh?). But since the router isnt connected after my modem before the desktop and its just giving internet to my lappy (which doesnt require super-responsive-internet... just responsive internet ) then I guess encryption may be a good idea. Although I am sure my roomate will complain (he has a router too and swears by mac filtering only, and i intend to let him connect to my wlan so we can share files [but ill be sure to set it up so he cant leech my net xD] so I am pretty sure I am going to get some whine about the encryption.) Almost makes me wonder if I can set up encryption for specific mac addresses. ehhh thats probly very unlikely.

Thanks again for your help. I really do appreciate it. I just, hate routers. And troubleshooting them while my internet goes off and on makes me cry inside.