Configuring Wireless Access Point behind the Comcast Modem Arris WBM760A

shah · Feb 14, 2015

Hi all,

I just signed up with Comcast and have bought my Comcast Modem Arris WBM760A which connects to Comcast just fine. It has one ethernet port and if I connect my laptop to it, it connects to the internet.

Now I have a 5-port switch lying around so I connected that switch behind the modem on the Uplink port and then connected my laptop to one of the 5 ports and I have internet.

Of course now I want the wireless access. For that I took my TP-LINK TL-WA801ND and configured it as Access Point and connected its ethernet port to one of the 5 ports on the switch. I enabled the DHCP on it.

Now from my laptop I see the wireless SSID and I can connect to it. I also get a nice IP address 192.168.0.100 from TL-WA801ND. But unfortunately I can't access the internet. I can even access the TL-WA801ND control panel over the wireless, but just can't access the internet.

Is there something wrong with my configuration? Isn't an access point supposed to provide me the wireless access to the wired network?

What am I doing wrong?

Any feedback will be appreciated.

Thanks.

kanewolf · Feb 14, 2015

You need a router. The Comcast device is a MODEM. It will only allow ONE IP address to be granted. You need a router to get a single public IP address and distribute it to ALL your devices.

shah · Feb 14, 2015

Thanks for the reply.

The TL-WA801ND is capable of creating a wireless LAN behind it. It assigns IP addresses in the range 192.168.0.xxx. Is that not enough? My laptop gets one of those addresses when connected to its wifi. Isn't that enough function of the router?

Here is the user guide of TL-WA801ND. It is a fairly complex device and can be configured as access point, bridge, etc. Here is its user guide for your reference:

http://www.tp-link.com/resources/document/TL-WA801ND_V2_User_Guide.pdf

kanewolf · Feb 14, 2015

The TL-WA801ND would work if that was the ONLY thing you connected to the the Comcast modem. But a switch between the Comcast modem and the TPLink with any other devices connected to the Comcast modem won't work. Only ONE device will get an IP address from the modem.

shah · Feb 14, 2015

Thanks kanewolf.

That's what I was thinking too. But I have tried hooking up the TL-WA801ND directly to the modem, but that didn't work either. I will give it another shot.

Thanks.

kanewolf · Feb 14, 2015

shah :

Put the switch in the middle, but nothing else. Power off the modem for a couple min. This is doing two things. First if the access point needs a crossover cable or something, a switch will take care of that. Second, powering off the modem will give it a chance to reset the connection back to Comcast. IF this is successful, then try it without the switch. If the LEDs on the ethernet ports don't light up, then you need a crossover cable.

shah · Feb 14, 2015

Yeah, that doesn't work either.

Upon reading the description for "access point" more carefully in its user guide, it says:

In Access Point mode, the product will act as a wireless central hub for your wireless LAN clients, giving a wireless extension for your "current wired network".

Since it says "current wired network", it appears like I have to have a separate router to have an existing wired network. This is crazy.

I guess I will have to buy a wireless router.

Thanks.

kanewolf · Feb 14, 2015

You are trying to do something it wasn't REALLY designed to do. It doesn't claim to be a router. With enough experimenting, you might get it to work. It is much easier to buy the hardware you need, a router. You could get a wired only router, but they are often more expensive than the wireless routers. If you don't wan't wireless access from your router you can disable it. I recommend you get nothing less than a dual band N600 router. If you get a wireless AC router, it meets my minimum requirements by default.

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