Is this network set-up possible?

Lonz · 27 Dec 2009 at 15:09

In another thread I've been having problems with my Powerline adapters getting very slow speeds. I've found an unused Netgear DG834G v3 router lying around my house that I was wondering whether I could use as a switch as shown in the diagram. It would save me from running a second ethernet cable from my room to the VM router in the hallway.

Does anyone know if this is possible with the given hardware? If so, would it just work plug-and-play or would I need to change some settings in the router itself?

Cheers

wij · 27 Dec 2009 at 15:21

Yes you should be able to use it just as a straight switch.

Give it an IP address on your existing network so you can still log into it for management purposes, turn off the DHCP server and that should be all you need to do.

Connect a cable from your existing router to one of the LAN ports on the DG834G and then your PC and PS3 to the remaining ones.

Lonz · 27 Dec 2009 at 15:32

Nice one. I'll give that a go then, cheers.

Lonz · 27 Dec 2009 at 21:16

I've had a pretty good stab at setting this up. I reset the factory settings on the router that is going to be used as a switch.

I connected my PC and PS3 to the switch, but didn't connect the switch to the router yet. I turn off DHCP and set the IP address to the same as that of the virgin media router (192.168.1.1), I assume I need to do this is to create some internet connectivity.

Windows and the PS3 recognised the new network over the switch easy enough and I could stream the HD movies between the two perfectly; no problems at all.

Now I connect the switch to the router with an ethernet cable. I initally thought that things were running fine; I got internet on the PC. But then I got a DNS error on the PS3, and couldn't sign-in or connect to the internet, eventhough there was an IP address assigned. Now internet conncctivity seems to be fluctuating between the PC and the PS3, and occasionally both at the same time.

It seems to be completely hit and miss which device I connect to when I type in http://192.168.1.1 as well, eventhough the default gateways of them are different (one ending in 0.1, the other in 1.1).

What could be going wrong?

wij · 27 Dec 2009 at 21:24

Start again, reset the Netgear and do this:

1 - Make sure your VM router isn't issuing 192.168.1.2 as part of its DHCP range.

2 - Plug the Netgear on its own into a PC and configure it as follows:

LAN IP: 192.168.1.2
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1 (shouldn't matter but just incase)
DHCP: OFF

3 - Connect one of the Netgears LAN ports to one of the VM routers

4 - Connect your PS3 etc. to the Netgear

So your network should look like this:

VM Router - 192.168.1.1
Netgear LAN IP - 192.168.1.2 (WAN just leave as DHCP or whatever, it's not being used)

Lonz · 27 Dec 2009 at 21:43

Hey, thanks for the input. Looks like the problem was having the switch IP the same as the router one. Looks like I'm in business now. Thanks for your help.