Assigning Wireless Access Point only one IP address

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chewger

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Jun 15, 2008
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Hi all,

Somewhat odd issue. I have a wired router that takes my internet connection. I would like to set up a wireless router with the wired router.

The trick is that I want the wired router to route all traffic to/from (multiple devices connected to) the wireless router through one IP address. So setting up the wireless router in bridge mode is not an option.

Are there any solutions that achieve this?

Thanks!
 
Solution
RealBeast
If you let the wired router DHCP assign the wireless router an address, that address will be in the wired router network range and you will not have a subnet. You must use a different network range for the wireless router (as described in my earlier post) and set the WAN address used by the wireless router as the wired router address. If you want to use a specific DNS address rather than automatic, I would use 8.8.8.8 (the Google public DNS). You should not need to change anything on the wired router Internet connection settings.
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RealBeast

RealBeast

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Yes, you configure the second (wireless router) as a wireless AP. While the wireless AP will have an IP address, it will be invisible to the connecting devices, the wired router will run the DHCP service. The wireless router LAN ports will also work like a switch off the wired router.

The two should be connected LAN port to LAN port.

To set up the wireless router as an AP turn off its DHCP, assign the wireless router either a static address that is in the network range but outside the DHCP service assignment range OR a reserved dynamic address (if the wired router supports address reservation). That address has to be set in both the wired router and in the wireless.

If you use more than one wireless AP (or a wireless router and wireless AP) you would also need to use the same SSID, security stuff, but a different radio channel selecting from the non-overlapping channels (1, 6, and 11 for G or 2.4 GHz N wireless).
 
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chewger

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Thanks for your response! To clarify, though, I think I want to avoid the wired router doing DHCP for the devices connecting to the wireless router. The reason is that there is a node limit on the wired router, but a bug in the software that prevents it from cleaning out old nodes (so temporary users will take a spot that only goes away if I reboot the router). So naturally my objective is for the wired router to recognize the wireless AP as a single node only.

I'm looking for a situation analogous to how all devices connected to a router connected to a cable modem have one single IP address on the internet. So in my case, I'm looking for a way to get the wireless router to get an internet connection from the router, and then for the wireless router to do its own DHCP. I envision in this setup that the wireless router's WAN port is connected to the wired router, and then you set up the internet connection on the wireless router as a static IP (which you assign on the wired router). Does that make any sense at all? I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't..
 
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RealBeast

RealBeast

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Then you need to set up a subnet, as in THIS picture. You are using the wireless router WAN port to an LAN port on the wired router and the wireless router uses the IP address of the wired router as its gateway address. The subnet will have a different network address, so if the wired gateway is 192.168.0.1, the wireless is 192.168.x.1 where x is not 0.
 
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chewger

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After setting this up, the wired router is still assigning the individual devices their own IP (in addition to the IP that the wireless router is assigned). Is this because I also entered the IP of the wired router as the Primary DNS? If I shouldn't do that, then what should I enter? The IP of my cable modem?

Update: I tried entering the 192.168.x.x address of my cable modem as the DNS and Windows says connection to DNS server timed out. So the wired router works when entered as a DNS (but starts counting wireless devices as nodes which I don't want), cable modem doesn't.
 
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RealBeast

RealBeast

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Sep 13, 2010
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If you let the wired router DHCP assign the wireless router an address, that address will be in the wired router network range and you will not have a subnet. You must use a different network range for the wireless router (as described in my earlier post) and set the WAN address used by the wireless router as the wired router address. If you want to use a specific DNS address rather than automatic, I would use 8.8.8.8 (the Google public DNS). You should not need to change anything on the wired router Internet connection settings.
 
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