Setting up Home Network with NAS

[Austria]

Hello All

I am trying to set up a Home Network with Windows 7 and have a few questions.

First, I will describe what I want to do.

I have a WLan Router without ethernet port and a NAS Server that requires ethernet connection. I have bought and installed a WiFi Repeater with ethernet port and connected my NAS to this. I can only access the NAS when my Laptop is connected to the internet via the Repeater, not the Router (or maybe this is a network setup problem). My TV is also on the network and I want to set up the network with the TV in my holiday appartment so that they can read the film files stored on the NAS.

First problem, the internet connection keeps dropping out when it is connected via the Repeater. Is this a channel problem? Both the Router and Repeater are using channel 6, sometimes 11 as well.

When the connection drops, the NAS stops working and I have to reset both the Repeater and the NAS. Should I set up the network so that the Router is the main internet connection? How do I make the Repeater and the NAS part of this network? When I view what other hardware is in the network, the NAS and TV are sometimes there but are not included in the visual network shown, they are always underneath and it says that they can't be included.

In the appartment, I want that they can read only the film files from the NAS, how do I set up the network so that they can't also access our Laptop.

I am having to do this in german, as the Laptop operating system is in german, so it's not so easy for me. Any help you can offer me will be grately appreciated.

 

[eibgrad]

Let's get some specifics here regarding which products/devices you’re using for your router, repeater, NAS, etc. Right now it's all too vague.

 

[Austria]

If it's all too vague for you, I don't have a chance!

The Router is a Huawei Model B183
The Repeater is an Anker Uspeed Wireless-N Repeater http://www.ianker.com/anker-wireless-access-point-router/product/66ANWNWR-WA
The NAS is a Medion MD 86805

Hope you can work with this!

 

[Austria]

I really need someone to come round and sort this out in person, I think!

 

[Austria]

Let's get some specifics here regarding which products/devices you’re using for your router, repeater, NAS, etc. Right now it's all too vague.

If it's all too vague for you, I don't have a chance!

The Router is a Huawei Model B183
The Repeater is an Anker Uspeed Wireless-N Repeater http://www.ianker.com/anker-wirele [...] 6ANWNWR-WA
The NAS is a Medion MD 86805

Hope you can work with this!

I really need someone to come round and sort this out in person, I think!

 

[eibgrad]

If you have the plane ticket, hotel reservations, and cab fare (AND you live in Hawaii), I've got the time!

 

[Austria]

If you have the plane ticket, hotel reservations, and cab fare (AND you live in Hawaii), I've got the time!

Austria! If you like snow...

 

[eibgrad]

Hopefully you have the Anker configured for "universal" wireless repeating.

As you've described it, it shouldn't matter which SSID you're connected to, you should be able to reach the NAS. So it's not obvious what the problem is.

Try an experiment. Set the Anker to client mode and see if you can now reach the NAS when connected to the only available SSID, that of your router.

 

[Austria]

Hopefully you have the Anker configured for "universal" wireless repeating.

As you've described it, it shouldn't matter which SSID you're connected to, you should be able to reach the NAS. So it's not obvious what the problem is.

Try an experiment. Set the Anker to client mode and see if you can now reach the NAS when connected to the only available SSID, that of your router.

The two options for the Repeater were:

Repeater Mode Wireless Setup (Boost the coverage of your existing wireless network's signal with repeater mode, recommended when cablng is impractical or when younrequire flexibility to move the repeater from one rom to another)

AP Mode Wired Setup (In AP mode, this device can serve as your primary wireless access point or as a secondary wireless access point that broadens your wireless network coverage) Can't set it up in this mode as it requires connecting the repeater to the router via ethernet cable and my router doesn't have an ethernet socket.

Think I might reset everything, delete my Home Network and try it all again. Do you think I should set up the Home Network first, with my router, or install the repeater and NAS first, then setup the Home Network (if it is possible to install the repeater and NAS without a Home Network). So confused...

 

[john-b691]

This appears to be the improper device to solve you problem. The link you have says it will run in client mode but the documentation does not indicate how to set it up.

You want a simple bridge device that to the router appears to be a wireless PC and to the NAS appears to be a switch.

There are many of these devices on the market....used to be called gaming adapters since most consoles did not have wireless in the early days... Key word is "Client" or "bridge" mode.

Many routers have this feature but if you are going to buy a router you might think to replace huawei device with a better version that has ethernet ports to allow you to plug the NAS directly in. You really want to avoid running NAS over wireless

 

[eibgrad]

The two options for the Repeater were:

Repeater Mode Wireless Setup (Boost the coverage of your existing wireless network's signal with repeater mode, recommended when cablng is impractical or when younrequire flexibility to move the repeater from one rom to another)

AP Mode Wired Setup (In AP mode, this device can serve as your primary wireless access point or as a secondary wireless access point that broadens your wireless network coverage) Can't set it up in this mode as it requires connecting the repeater to the router via ethernet cable and my router doesn't have an ethernet socket.

Think I might reset everything, delete my Home Network and try it all again. Do you think I should set up the Home Network first, with my router, or install the repeater and NAS first, then setup the Home Network (if it is possible to install the repeater and NAS without a Home Network). So confused...

I understand there are two repeater options. But I want you to configure it as a "client" instead.

When configured as a client, you'll only be able to connect a wired device (in this case, your NAS) over wire to the adapter, which will then connect over wireless to the wireless router. You will NOT establish a second SSID (the wireless repeater) as a result.

What I want to see is what happens if you eliminate the wireless repeating and simply make it possible for the NAS to join the wireless network of the wireless router. When the Anker is configured as a wireless repeater, you indicated you could NOT reach the NAS when connected to the wireless router. So let's see if that holds true when configured in client mode.

Just to explain the bigger picture, a wireless repeater is just a client adapter to which has been added its own wireless AP (the second SSID). IOW, any wireless repeater must first be able to establish itself as a client adapter before it can repeat anything. And that's what we're testing here. We're checking that as a client, the Anker is working properly. Then we're going to change it back to a repeater and see if you still can't connect to the NAS via the wireless router's SSID. If that's still true, then something is flaky about the device.

 

[eibgrad]

This appears to be the improper device to solve you problem. The link you have says it will run in client mode but the documentation does not indicate how to set it up.

You want a simple bridge device that to the router appears to be a wireless PC and to the NAS appears to be a switch.

There are many of these devices on the market....used to be called gaming adapters since most consoles did not have wireless in the early days... Key word is "Client" or "bridge" mode.

Many routers have this feature but if you are going to buy a router you might think to replace huawei device with a better version that has ethernet ports to allow you to plug the NAS directly in. You really want to avoid running NAS over wireless

Client mode is described in Guide 2 of the documentation.

http://www.ianker.com/download.php?file=download/66ANWNWR-WA/66ANWNWR-WA_guide.zip

 

[eibgrad]

Here's something else to check.

When you have the adapter configured as universal repeater, and you're connected to the wireless router's SSID, it gives you an IP address in some network (e.g., 192.168.1.x). But when you connect to the SSID of the repeater instead, do you remain in the same network, or does it change (e.g., 192.168.2.x, 10.0.0.x)?

To check your IP configuration from Windows,

Hit Windows key + R, copy/paste the following into the box, and hit enter.

cmd /c "ipconfig /all > %tmp%\tmp.txt && start notepad %tmp%\tmp.txt"

 

[Austria]

Here's something else to check.

When you have the adapter configured as universal repeater, and you're connected to the wireless router's SSID, it gives you an IP address in some network (e.g., 192.168.1.x). But when you connect to the SSID of the repeater instead, do you remain in the same network, or does it change (e.g., 192.168.2.x, 10.0.0.x)?

To check your IP configuration from Windows,

Hit Windows key + R, copy/paste the following into the box, and hit enter.

cmd /c "ipconfig /all > %tmp%\tmp.txt && start notepad %tmp%\tmp.txt"

The IP address stays the same.

I don't have that Repeater, with the 3 settings.

 

[eibgrad]

The IP address stays the same.

I don't have that Repeater, with the 3 settings.

Then why did you provide a link to a different model??

Kind of tough to diagnose a problem when you're not even referring to the right device.