LAN to wireless?

[thirtytwentyten]

Hello,
I am currently at uni halls and have a lan socket in my room which I just plug a networking cable into and straight into my laptop and the internet works straight away. No passwords, no setting-up, no configuration. What I want to do is to try and connect to the internet wirelessly via my netgear dg834g wireless router. However, I've got a RJ45 to RJ11 cable and plugged it from the socket into the router and it does not seem to be picking up the internet connection for some reason. Is there any way I am able to do this or any particular settings I need to choose on the router? Thanks in advance!

 

[roy124]

When you plug in you router it should show if it is connected to the network. is the network light lit?

Assuming it is lit but your laptop is not seeing it try running NETSTUMBLER to see if it can see the Router.

If the router is not showing connect try another cable.

 

[eibgrad]

What complicates matters is that your router is actually a combo dsl modem + router, thus doesn't expose a WAN port. If it did, you'd just plug the WAN port to wall outlet and be done. One of the disadvantages of using integrated components.

You need to disable the router's DHCP server, then connect any LAN port on the router to the wall outlet. You should be able to use any other wired port or wireless on the router and establish a connection.

NOTE: Whether you'll be able to support multiple devices depends on university policy. You’re only connected to the university via a switch/WAP. So if they limit that outlet to one IP address (similar to the way your cable/dsl provider limits you to one public IP), that’s it. Had you used a standalone wireless router that exposed a WAN port, you wouldn’t have this problem. You would have connected the WAN port to the wall outlet and established your own local network. IOW, bound the one IP address the university is allowing (assuming that’s the case) to the WAN port and shared it among many other devices.

 

[thirtytwentyten]

Thanks! Managed to get it working!! One thing though - since disabling the routers DHCP server I am now unable to access the router settings/configuration page by typing 192.168.0.1 Is there an alternative way to reach this screen?

 

[eibgrad]

When you had DHCP enabled, your router placed you on its network (192.168.0.x, perhaps as 192.168.0.100), so now you could reach its administrative interface, but that kept you OFF the university's network.

When you had DHCP disabled, that allowed you to use the university’s DHPC server and placed you on its network. Let’s say (since I don’t know what they’re using for sure) that’s 192.168.1.x, and perhaps your PC is now 192.168.1.100. Great, except now you’re no longer on your router’s network!

That’s just the way it works. You’re either on your network and have access to the router, or you’re on the university’s network and don’t have access to the router.

What you can do is temporarily manually reconfigure your PC to use 192.168.0.100 when you need to access your router, then return it to DHCP when you’re done and want to get back on the university’s network.

netsh in ip set address "Local Area Connection" static 192.168.0.100 255.255.255.0

netsh in ip set address "Local Area Connection" dhcp

The above are a couple of commands to make this easier. Change the name "Local Area Connection" if necessary to match the name of your connection. Place each in a separate batch file. Use the top one to connect to your router. Use the bottom one to connect to the university.

 

[thirtytwentyten]

thanks you've been a great help!

 

[thirtytwentyten]

Best answer selected by thirtytwentyten.