Home network help

[CORE2000]

I have a problem connecting to one of the computers on my home network.

I have 3 computers, 2 desktops & one laptop connecting to a single router (B) which in turn is connected to a broadband router (A) connected to the internet.

When all three are connected to the router B via ethernet cables, no problem, I can access both.

My problem is, Router A is also a wireless router & when the laptop is connected to router A & the other ones to router B, they cannot see each other.

I am sure I am just being an idiot for not figuring this out, but it is driving me nuts.

Here is a quick idea of what my network looks like.

PC1 (192.168.11.3) Manual
PC2 (192.168.11.5) Manual
Laptop1 (192.168.11.2) DHCP

all three connected to router B (Private IP 192.168.11.1 | PublicIP 192.168.0.2) which is again connected to router A (192.168.0.1 | PublicIP connects to internet) No problem

PC1 (192.168.11.3) Manual
PC2 (192.168.11.5) Manual

both connected to router B (192.168.11.1) which is again connected to router A (192.168.0.1)

Laptop2 (Wireless) (192.168.0.3) DHCP connected to Router A (192.168.0.1)

I can get onto the internet without any problems, but seeing the laptop from the desktops while connected via wireless is not happening.

I am not sure if it is because of different subnet masks or what. I run ZoneAlarm firewalls on all systems but not sure that is the problem as I can connect via ethernet cables.

Please advise

[johnwill]

It's the router's NAT layer and different subnets, either would block the access. Why do you have two routers instead of a simple Ethernet switch? If you have some real reason for using the router, here's how to configure it.

Connecting two SOHO broadband routers together.

Configure the IP address of the secondary router to be in the same subnet as the primary router, but out of the range of the DHCP server in the primary router. For instance DHCP server addresses 192.168.0.2 through 192.168.0.100, I'd assign the secondary router 192.168.0.254 as it's IP address.

Disable the DHCP server in the secondary router.

Setup the wireless section just the way you would if it was the primary router.

Connect from the primary router's LAN port to one of the LAN ports on the secondary router. If there is no uplink port and neither of the routers have auto-sensing ports, use a cross-over cable. Leave the WAN port unconnected!

[CORE2000]

Thanks a million. I received a router/modem from the internet company & had a spare router lying around. Just thought it might be the cheapest option.

I did what you said about linking the routers & it worked, but I lost one lan port which I needed, so I went out and bought an 8 port switch.

Everything works great now. Had a bit of a problem with Zone Alarm blocking communication between the different computers, but after I added all the ip range to the trusted zone, no problems.

Thanks a lot for your help.

[johnwill]

Glad we could assist.